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1 .\" $Vendor-Id: tbl.7,v 1.4 2011/01/07 14:59:52 kristaps Exp $
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3 .\" Copyright (c) 2010 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv>
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17 .Dd January 7, 2011
18 .Dt TBL 7
19 .Os
20 .Sh NAME
21 .Nm tbl
22 .Nd tbl language reference for mandoc
23 .Sh DESCRIPTION
24 The
25 .Nm tbl
26 language is a table-formatting language.
27 It is used within
28 .Xr mdoc 7
29 and
30 .Xr man 7
31 .Ux
32 manual pages.
33 This manual describes the subset of the
34 .Nm
35 language accepted by the
36 .Xr mandoc 1
37 utility.
38 .Pp
39 Tables within
40 .Xr mdoc 7
41 or
42 .Xr man 7
43 are enclosed by the
44 .Sq TS
45 and
46 .Sq TE
47 macro tags, whose precise syntax is documented in
48 .Xr roff 7 .
49 Tables consist of a series of options on a single line, followed by the
50 table layout, followed by data.
51 .Pp
52 For example, the following creates a boxed table with digits centered in
53 the cells.
54 .Bd -literal -offset indent
55 \&.TS
56 tab(:) box;
57 c5 c5 c5.
58 1:2:3
59 4:5:6
60 \&.TE
61 .Ed
62 .Pp
63 When formatted, the following output is produced:
64 .Bd -filled -offset indent -compact
65 .TS
66 tab(:) box;
67 c5 c5 c5.
68 1:2:3
69 4:5:6
70 .TE
71 .Ed
72 .Sh TABLE STRUCTURE
73 Tables are enclosed by the
74 .Sq TS
75 and
76 .Sq TE
77 .Xr roff 7
78 macros.
79 A table consists of an optional single line of table
80 .Sx Options
81 terminated by a semicolon, followed by one or more lines of
82 .Sx Layout
83 specifications terminated by a period, then
84 .Sx Data .
85 All input must be 7-bit ASCII.
86 Example:
87 .Bd -literal -offset indent
88 \&.TS
89 box tab(:);
90 c | c
91 | c | c.
92 1:2
93 3:4
94 \&.TE
95 .Ed
96 .Pp
97 Table data is
98 .Em pre-processed ,
99 that is, data rows are parsed then inserted into the underlying stream
100 of input data.
101 This allows data rows to be interspersed by arbitrary
102 .Xr roff 7 ,
103 .Xr mdoc 7 ,
104 and
105 .Xr man 7
106 macros such as
107 .Bd -literal -offset indent
108 \&.TS
109 tab(:);
110 c c c.
111 1:2:3
112 \&.Ao
113 3:2:1
114 \&.Ac
115 \&.TE
116 .Ed
117 .Pp
118 in the case of
119 .Xr mdoc 7
120 or
121 .Bd -literal -offset indent
122 \&.TS
123 tab(:);
124 c c c.
125 \&.ds ab 2
126 1:\e*(ab:3
127 \&.I
128 3:2:1
129 \&.TE
130 .Ed
131 .Pp
132 in the case of
133 .Xr man 7 .
134 .Ss Options
135 The first line of a table consists of space-separated option keys and
136 modifiers terminated by a semicolon.
137 If the first line does not have a terminating semicolon, it is assumed
138 that no options are specified and instead a
139 .Sx Layout
140 is processed.
141 Some options accept arguments enclosed by parenthesis.
142 The following case-insensitive options are available:
143 .Bl -tag -width Ds
144 .It Cm center
145 This option is not supported by
146 .Xr mandoc 1 .
147 This may also be invoked with
148 .Cm centre .
149 .It Cm delim
150 Accepts a two-character argument.
151 This option is not supported by
152 .Xr mandoc 1 .
153 .It Cm expand
154 This option is not supported by
155 .Xr mandoc 1 .
156 .It Cm box
157 Draw a single-line box around the table.
158 This may also be invoked with
159 .Cm frame .
160 .It Cm doublebox
161 Draw a double-line box around the table.
162 This may also be invoked with
163 .Cm doubleframe .
164 .It Cm allbox
165 This option is not supported by
166 .Xr mandoc 1 .
167 .It Cm tab
168 Accepts a single-character argument.
169 This character is used as a delimiter between data cells, which otherwise
170 defaults to the tab character.
171 .It Cm linesize
172 Accepts a natural number (all digits).
173 This option is not supported by
174 .Xr mandoc 1 .
175 .It Cm nokeep
176 This option is not supported by
177 .Xr mandoc 1 .
178 .It Cm decimalpoint
179 Accepts a single-character argument.
180 This character will be used as the decimal point with the
181 .Cm n
182 layout key.
183 This option is not supported by
184 .Xr mandoc 1 .
185 .It Cm nospaces
186 This option is not supported by
187 .Xr mandoc 1 .
188 .El
189 .Ss Layout
190 The table layout follows
191 .Sx Options
192 or a
193 .Sq \&T&
194 macro invocation.
195 Layout specifies how data rows are displayed on output.
196 Each layout line corresponds to a line of data; the last layout line
197 applies to all remaining data lines.
198 Layout lines may also be separated by a comma.
199 Each layout cell consists of one of the following case-insensitive keys:
200 .Bl -tag -width Ds
201 .It Cm c
202 Centre a literal string within its column.
203 .It Cm r
204 Right-justify a literal string within its column.
205 .It Cm l
206 Left-justify a literal string within its column.
207 .It Cm n
208 Justify a number around its decimal point.
209 If the decimal point is not found on the number, it's assumed to trail
210 the number.
211 .It Cm s
212 This option is not supported by
213 .Xr mandoc 1 .
214 .It Cm a
215 This option is not supported by
216 .Xr mandoc 1 .
217 .It Cm ^
218 This option is not supported by
219 .Xr mandoc 1 .
220 .It Cm \-
221 Replace the data cell (its contents will be lost) with a single
222 horizontal line.
223 This may also be invoked with
224 .Cm _ .
225 .It Cm =
226 Replace the data cell (its contents will be lost) with a double
227 horizontal line.
228 .It Cm \(ba
229 Emit a vertical bar instead of data.
230 .It Cm \(ba\(ba
231 Emit a double-vertical bar instead of data.
232 .El
233 .Pp
234 For example, the following layout specifies a centre-justified column of
235 minimum width 10, followed by vertical bar, followed by a left-justified
236 column of minimum width 10, another vertical bar, then a column
237 justified about the decimal point in numbers:
238 .Pp
239 .Dl c10 | l10 | n
240 .Pp
241 Keys may be followed by a set of modifiers.
242 A modifier is either a modifier key or a natural number for specifying
243 spacing.
244 The following case-insensitive modifier keys are available:
245 .Cm z ,
246 .Cm u ,
247 .Cm e ,
248 .Cm t ,
249 .Cm d ,
250 .Cm f ,
251 .Cm b ,
252 .Cm i ,
253 .Cm b ,
254 and
255 .Cm i .
256 All of these are ignored by
257 .Xr mandoc 1 .
258 .Ss Data
259 The data section follows the last layout row.
260 By default, cells in a data section are delimited by a tab.
261 This behaviour may be changed with the
262 .Cm tab
263 option.
264 If
265 .Cm _
266 or
267 .Cm =
268 is specified, a single or double line, respectively, is drawn across the
269 data field.
270 If
271 .Cm \e-
272 or
273 .Cm \e=
274 is specified, a line is drawn within the data field (i.e. terminating
275 within the cell and not draw to the border).
276 If the last cell of a line is
277 .Cm T{ ,
278 all subsequent lines are included as part of the cell until
279 .Cm T}
280 is specified as its own data cell.
281 It may then be followed by a tab
282 .Pq or as designated by Cm tab
283 or an end-of-line to terminate the row.
284 .Sh COMPATIBILITY
285 This section documents compatibility between mandoc and other
286 .Nm
287 implementations, at this time limited to GNU tbl.
288 .Pp
289 .Bl -dash -compact
290 .It
291 In GNU tbl, comments and macros are disallowed prior to the data block
292 of a table.
293 The
294 .Xr mandoc 1
295 implementation allows them.
296 .El
297 .Sh SEE ALSO
298 .Xr mandoc 1 ,
299 .Xr man 7 ,
300 .Xr mandoc_char 7 ,
301 .Xr mdoc 7 ,
302 .Xr roff 7
303 .Rs
304 .%A M. E. Lesk
305 .%T Tbl\(emA Program to Format Tables
306 .%D June 11, 1976
307 .Re
308 .Sh HISTORY
309 The tbl utility, a preprocessor for troff, was originally written by M.
310 E. Lesk at Bell Labs in 1975.
311 The GNU reimplementation of tbl, part of the groff package, was released
312 in 1990 by James Clark.
313 A standalone tbl implementation was written by Kristaps Dzonsons in
314 2010.
315 This formed the basis of the implementation that is part of the
316 .Xr mandoc 1
317 utility.
318 .Sh AUTHORS
319 This partial
320 .Nm
321 reference was written by
322 .An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq kristaps@bsd.lv .