NAME
man-pages - conventions for writing Linux man pages
SYNOPSIS
man [section] title
DESCRIPTION
This page describes the conventions that should be employed when
writing man pages for the Linux man-pages project, which comprises
Sections 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 of the Linux manual pages. The conventions
described on this page may also be useful for authors writing man pages
for other projects.
Sections of the Manual Pages
The manual Sections are traditionally defined as follows:
1 Commands (Programs)
Those commands that can be executed by the user from within a
shell.
2 System calls
Those functions which must be performed by the kernel.
3 Library calls
Most of the libc functions.
4 Special files (devices)
Files found in /dev.
5 File formats and conventions
The format for /etc/passwd and other human-readable files.
6 Games
7 Conventions and miscellaneous
Overviews of various topics, conventions and protocols,
character set standards, and miscellaneous other things.
8 System management commands
Commands like mount(8), many of which only root can execute.
Macro package
New manual pages should be marked up using the groff an.tmac package
described in man(7). This choice is mainly for consistency: the vast
majority of existing Linux manual pages are marked up using these
macros.
Conventions for source file layout
Please limit source code line length to no more than about 75
characters wherever possible. This helps avoid line-wrapping in some
mail clients when patches are submitted inline.
New sentences should be started on new lines. This makes it easier to
see the effect of patches, which often operate at the level of
individual sentences.
Title line
The first command in a man page should be a TH command:
.TH title section date source manual
where:
title The title of the man page, written in all caps (e.g.,
MAN-PAGES).
section The section number in which the man page should be
placed (e.g., 7).
date The date of the last revision — remember to change
this every time a change is made to the man page,
since this is the most general way of doing version
control. Dates should be written in the form YYYY-MM-
DD.
source The source of the command, function, or system call.
For those few man-pages pages in Sections 1 and 8,
probably you just want to write GNU.
For system calls, just write Linux. (An earlier
practice was to write the version number of the kernel
from which the manual page was being written/checked.
However, this was never done consistently, and so was
probably worse than including no version number.
Henceforth, avoid including a version number.)
For library calls that are part of glibc or one of the
other common GNU libraries, just use GNU C Library,
GNU, or an empty string.
For Section 4 pages, use Linux.
In cases of doubt, just write Linux, or GNU.
manual The title of the manual (e.g., for Section 2 and 3
pages in the man-pages package, use Linux Programmers
Manual).
Sections within a manual page
The list below shows conventional or suggested sections. Most manual
pages should include at least the highlighted sections. Arrange a new
manual page so that sections are placed in the order shown in the list.
NAME
SYNOPSIS
CONFIGURATION [Normally only in Section 4]
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS [Normally only in Sections 1, 8]
EXIT STATUS [Normally only in Sections 1, 8]
RETURN VALUE [Normally only in Sections 2, 3]
ERRORS [Typically only in Sections 2, 3]
ENVIRONMENT
FILES
VERSIONS [Normally only in Sections 2, 3]
CONFORMING TO
NOTES
BUGS
EXAMPLE
SEE ALSO
Where a traditional heading would apply, please use it; this kind of
consistency can make the information easier to understand. If you
must, you can create your own headings if they make things easier to
understand (this can be especially useful for pages in Sections 4 and
5). However, before doing this, consider whether you could use the
traditional headings, with some subsections (.SS) within those
sections.
The following list elaborates on the contents of each of the above
sections.
NAME The name of this manual page. See man(7) for important
details of the line(s) that should follow the .SH NAME
command.
SYNOPSIS briefly describes the command or function’s interface.
For commands, this shows the syntax of the command and
its arguments (including options); boldface is used for
as-is text and italics are used to indicate replaceable
arguments. Brackets ([]) surround optional arguments,
vertical bars (|) separate choices, and ellipses (...)
can be repeated. For functions, it shows any required
data declarations or #include directives, followed by the
function declaration.
Where a feature test macro must be defined in order to
obtain the declaration of a function (or a variable) from
a header file, then the SYNOPSIS should indicate this, as
described in feature_test_macros(7).
CONFIGURATION Configuration details for a device. This section
normally only appears in Section 4 pages.
DESCRIPTION gives an explanation of what the program, function, or
format does. Discuss how it interacts with files and
standard input, and what it produces on standard output
or standard error. Omit internals and implementation
details unless they’re critical for understanding the
interface. Describe the usual case; for information on
command-line options of a program use the OPTIONS
section.
OPTIONS describes the command-line options accepted by a program
and how they change its behavior. This section should
only appear for Section 1 and 8 manual pages.
EXIT STATUS lists the possible exit status values of a program and
the conditions that cause these values to be returned.
This section should only appear for Section 1 and 8
manual pages.
RETURN VALUE For Section 2 and 3 pages, this section gives a list of
the values the library routine will return to the caller
and the conditions that cause these values to be
returned.
ERRORS For Section 2 and 3 manual pages, this is a list of the
values that may be placed in errno in the event of an
error, along with information about the cause of the
errors. The error list should be in alphabetical order.
ENVIRONMENT lists all environment variables that affect the program
or function and how they affect it.
FILES lists the files the program or function uses, such as
configuration files, startup files, and files the program
directly operates on. Give the full pathname of these
files, and use the installation process to modify the
directory part to match user preferences. For many
programs, the default installation location is in
/usr/local, so your base manual page should use
/usr/local as the base.
VERSIONS A brief summary of the Linux kernel or glibc versions
where a system call or library function appeared, or
changed significantly in its operation. As a general
rule, every new interface should include a VERSIONS
section in its manual page. Unfortunately, many existing
manual pages don’t include this information (since there
was no policy to do so when they were written). Patches
to remedy this are welcome, but, from the perspective of
programmers writing new code, this information probably
only matters in the case of kernel interfaces that have
been added in Linux 2.4 or later (i.e., changes since
kernel 2.2), and library functions that have been added
to glibc since version 2.1 (i.e., changes since glibc
2.0).
The syscalls(2) manual page also provides information
about kernel versions in which various system calls first
appeared.
CONFORMING TO describes any standards or conventions that relate to the
function or command described by the manual page. For a
page in Section 2 or 3, this section should note the
POSIX.1 version(s) that the call conforms to, and also
whether the call is specified in C99. (Don’t worry too
much about other standards like SUS, SUSv2, and XPG, or
the SVr4 and 4.xBSD implementation standards, unless the
call was specified in those standards, but isn’t in the
current version of POSIX.1.) (See standards(7).)
If the call is not governed by any standards but commonly
exists on other systems, note them. If the call is
Linux-specific, note this.
If this section consists of just a list of standards
(which it commonly does), terminate the list with a
period ('.').
NOTES provides miscellaneous notes. For Section 2 and 3 man
pages you may find it useful to include subsections (SS)
named Linux Notes and Glibc Notes.
BUGS lists limitations, known defects or inconveniences, and
other questionable activities.
EXAMPLE provides one or more examples describing how this
function, file or command is used. For details on
writing example programs, see Example Programs below.
AUTHORS lists authors of the documentation or program. Use of an
AUTHORS section is strongly discouraged. Generally, it
is better not to clutter every page with a list of (over
time potentially numerous) authors; if you write or
significantly amend a page, add a copyright notice as a
comment in the source file. If you are the author of a
device driver and want to include an address for
reporting bugs, place this under the BUGS section.
SEE ALSO provides a comma-separated list of related man pages,
ordered by section number and then alphabetically by
name, possibly followed by other related pages or
documents. Do not terminate this with a period.
Font conventions
For functions, the arguments are always specified using italics, even
in the SYNOPSIS section, where the rest of the function is specified in
bold:
int myfunction(int argc, char **argv);
Variable names should, like argument names, be specified in italics.
Filenames (whether pathnames, or references to files in the
/usr/include directory) are always in italics (e.g., <stdio.h>), except
in the SYNOPSIS section, where included files are in bold (e.g.,
#include <stdio.h>). When referring to a standard include file under
/usr/include, specify the header file surrounded by angle brackets, in
the usual C way (e.g., <stdio.h>).
Special macros, which are usually in upper case, are in bold (e.g.,
MAXINT). Exception: don’t boldface NULL.
When enumerating a list of error codes, the codes are in bold (this
list usually uses the .TP macro).
Complete commands should, if long, be written as in an indented line on
their own, for example
man 7 man-pages
If the command is short, then it can be included inline in the text, in
italic format, for example, man 7 man-pages. In this case, it may be
worth using nonbreaking spaces ("\ ") at suitable places in the
command. Command options should be written in italics, e.g., -l.
Expressions, if not written on a separate indented line, should be
specified in italics. Again, the use of nonbreaking spaces may be
appropriate if the expression is inlined with normal text.
Any reference to the subject of the current manual page should be
written with the name in bold. If the subject is a function (i.e.,
this is a Section 2 or 3 page), then the name should be followed by a
pair of parentheses in Roman (normal) font. For example, in the
fcntl(2) man page, references to the subject of the page would be
written as: fcntl(). The preferred way to write this in the source
file is:
.BR fcntl ()
(Using this format, rather than the use of "\fB...\fP()" makes it
easier to write tools that parse man page source files.)
Any reference to another man page should be written with the name in
bold, always followed by the section number, formatted in Roman
(normal) font, without any separating spaces (e.g., intro(2)). The
preferred way to write this in the source file is:
.BR intro (2)
(Including the section number in cross references lets tools like
man2html(1) create properly hyperlinked pages.)
Spelling
Starting with release 2.59, man-pages follows American spelling
conventions; please write all new pages and patches according to these
conventions.
Example Programs and Shell Sessions
Manual pages can include example programs demonstrating how to use a
system call or library function. However, note the following:
* Example programs should be written in C.
* An example program is only necessary and useful if it demonstrates
something beyond what can easily be provided in a textual
description of the interface. An example program that does nothing
other than call an interface usually serves little purpose.
* Example programs should be fairly short (preferably less than 100
lines; ideally less than 50 lines).
* Example programs should do error checking after system calls and
library function calls.
* Example programs should be complete, and compile without warnings
when compiled with cc -Wall.
* Where possible and appropriate, example programs should allow
experimentation, by varying their behavior based on inputs (ideally
from command-line arguments, or alternatively, via input read by the
program).
* Example programs should be laid out according to Kernighan and
Ritchie style, with 4-space indents. (Avoid the use of TAB
characters in source code!)
For some examples of what example programs should look like, see
wait(2) and pipe(2).
If you include a shell session demonstrating the use of a program or
other system feature, boldface the user input text, to distinguish it
from output produced by the system.
Indentation of structure definitions, shell session logs, etc.
When structure definitions, shell session logs, etc. are included in
running text, indent them by 4 spaces (i.e., a block enclosed by
.in +4n and .in).
EXAMPLE
For canonical examples of how man pages in the man-pages package should
look, see pipe(2) and fcntl(2).
SEE ALSO
man(1), man2html(1), groff(7), groff_man(7), man(7), mdoc(7)
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.24 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.