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MANDOC_CHAR(7)	     BSD Miscellaneous Information Manual	MANDOC_CHAR(7)

NAME
     mandoc_char — mandoc special characters

DESCRIPTION
     This page documents the roff(7) escape sequences accepted by mandoc(1) to
     represent special characters in mdoc(7) and man(7) documents.

     The rendering depends on the mandoc(1) output mode; in ASCII output, most
     characters are completely unintelligible.	For that reason, using any of
     the special characters documented here, except those discussed in the
     DESCRIPTION, is strongly discouraged; they are supported merely for back‐
     wards compatibility with existing documents.

     In particular, in English manual pages, do not use special-character
     escape sequences to represent national language characters in author
     names; instead, provide ASCII transcriptions of the names.

   Dashes and Hyphens
     In typography there are different types of dashes of various width: the
     hyphen (-), the minus sign (-), the en-dash (–), and the em-dash (—).

     Hyphens are used for adjectives; to separate the two parts of a compound
     word; or to separate a word across two successive lines of text.  The
     hyphen does not need to be escaped:

	   blue-eyed
	   lorry-driver

     The mathematical minus sign is used for negative numbers or subtraction.
     It should be written as ‘\-’:

	   a = 3 \- 1;
	   b = \-2;

     The en-dash is used to separate the two elements of a range, or can be
     used the same way as an em-dash.  It should be written as ‘\(en’:

	   pp. 95\(en97.
	   Go away \(en or else!

     The em-dash can be used to show an interruption or can be used the same
     way as colons, semi-colons, or parentheses.  It should be written as
     ‘\(em’:

	   Three things \(em apples, oranges, and bananas.
	   This is not that \(em rather, this is that.

     Note: hyphens, minus signs, and en-dashes look identical under normal
     ASCII output.  Other formats, such as PostScript, render them correctly,
     with differing widths.

   Spaces
     To separate words in normal text, for indenting and alignment in literal
     context, and when none of the following special cases apply, just use the
     normal space character (‘ ’).

     When filling text, lines may be broken between words, i.e. at space char‐
     acters.  To prevent a line break between two particular words, use the
     non-breaking space escape sequence (‘\~’) instead of the normal space
     character.	 For example, the input string “number\~1” will be kept
     together as “number 1” on the same output line.

     On request and macro lines, the normal space character serves as an argu‐
     ment delimiter.  To include whitespace into arguments, quoting is usually
     the best choice.  In some cases, using either the non-breaking (‘\~’) or
     the breaking (‘\ ’) space escape sequence may be preferable.  To escape
     macro names and to protect whitespace at the end of input lines, the
     zero-width space (‘\&’) is often useful.  For example, in mdoc(7), a nor‐
     mal space character can be displayed in single quotes in either of the
     following ways:

	   .Sq " "
	   .Sq \ \&

   Quotes
     On request and macro lines, the double-quote character (‘"’) is handled
     specially to allow quoting.  One way to prevent this special handling is
     by using the ‘\(dq’ escape sequence.

     Note that on text lines, literal double-quote characters can be used ver‐
     batim.  All other quote-like characters can be used verbatim as well,
     even on request and macro lines.

   Periods
     The period (‘.’) is handled specially at the beginning of an input line,
     where it introduces a roff(7) request or a macro, and when appearing
     alone as a macro argument in mdoc(7).  In such situations, prepend a
     zero-width space (‘\&.’) to make it behave like normal text.

     Do not use the ‘\.’ escape sequence.  It does not prevent special han‐
     dling of the period.

   Backslashes
     To include a literal backslash (‘\’) into the output, use the (‘\e’)
     escape sequence.

     Note that doubling it (‘\\’) is not the right way to output a backslash.
     Because mandoc(1) does not implement full roff(7) functionality, it may
     work with mandoc(1), but it may have weird effects on complete roff(7)
     implementations.

SPECIAL CHARACTERS
     Special characters are encoded as ‘\X’ (for a one-character escape),
     ‘\(XX’ (two-character), and ‘\[N]’ (N-character).	For details, see the
     Special Characters subsection of the roff(7) manual.

     Spacing:
	   Input    Description
	   \~	    non-breaking, non-collapsing space
	   \	    breaking, non-collapsing n-width space
	   \^	    zero-width space
	   \%	    zero-width space
	   \&	    zero-width space
	   \|	    zero-width space
	   \0	    breaking, non-collapsing digit-width space
	   \c	    removes any trailing space (if applicable)

     Lines:
	   Input    Rendered	Description
	   \(ba	    |		bar
	   \(br	    │		box rule
	   \(ul	    _		underscore
	   \(rl			overline
	   \(bb	    ¦		broken bar
	   \(sl	    /		forward slash
	   \(rs	    \		backward slash

     Text markers:
	   Input    Rendered	Description
	   \(ci	    ○		circle
	   \(bu	    ·		bullet
	   \(dd	    ‡		double dagger
	   \(dg	    †		dagger
	   \(lz	    ◊		lozenge
	   \(sq	    □		white square
	   \(ps	    ¶		paragraph
	   \(sc	    §		section
	   \(lh	    ☜		left hand
	   \(rh	    ☞		right hand
	   \(at	    @		at
	   \(sh	    #		hash (pound)
	   \(CR	    ↵		carriage return
	   \(OK	    ✓		check mark

     Legal symbols:
	   Input    Rendered	Description
	   \(co	    ©		copyright
	   \(rg	    ®		registered
	   \(tm	    ™		trademarked

     Punctuation:
	   Input    Rendered	Description
	   \(em	    —		em-dash
	   \(en	    –		en-dash
	   \(hy	    ‐		hyphen
	   \e	    \		back-slash
	   \.	    .		period
	   \(r!	    ¡		upside-down exclamation
	   \(r?	    ¿		upside-down question

     Quotes:
	   Input    Rendered	Description
	   \(Bq	    „		right low double-quote
	   \(bq	    ‚		right low single-quote
	   \(lq	    “		left double-quote
	   \(rq	    ”		right double-quote
	   \(oq	    ‘		left single-quote
	   \(cq	    ’		right single-quote
	   \(aq	    '		apostrophe quote (text)
	   \(dq	    "		double quote (text)
	   \(Fo	    «		left guillemet
	   \(Fc	    »		right guillemet
	   \(fo	    ‹		left single guillemet
	   \(fc	    ›		right single guillemet

     Brackets:
	   Input		Rendered    Description
	   \(lB			[	    left bracket
	   \(rB			]	    right bracket
	   \(lC			{	    left brace
	   \(rC			}	    right brace
	   \(la			⟨	    left angle
	   \(ra			⟩	    right angle
	   \(bv			⎪	    brace extension
	   \[braceex]		⎪	    brace extension
	   \[bracketlefttp]	⎡	    top-left hooked bracket
	   \[bracketleftbp]		    bottom-left hooked bracket
	   \[bracketleftex]	⎢	    left hooked bracket extension
	   \[bracketrighttp]	⎤	    top-right hooked bracket
	   \[bracketrightbp]		    bottom-right hooked bracket
	   \[bracketrightex]	⎥	    right hooked bracket extension
	   \(lt			╭	    top-left hooked brace
	   \[bracelefttp]	⎧	    top-left hooked brace
	   \(lk			┥	    mid-left hooked brace
	   \[braceleftmid]	⎨	    mid-left hooked brace
	   \(lb			╰	    bottom-left hooked brace
	   \[braceleftbp]		    bottom-left hooked brace
	   \[braceleftex]	⎪	    left hooked brace extension
	   \(rt			╮	    top-left hooked brace
	   \[bracerighttp]	⎫	    top-right hooked brace
	   \(rk			┝	    mid-right hooked brace
	   \[bracerightmid]	⎬	    mid-right hooked brace
	   \(rb			╯	    bottom-right hooked brace
	   \[bracerightbp]		    bottom-right hooked brace
	   \[bracerightex]	⎪	    right hooked brace extension
	   \[parenlefttp]	⎛	    top-left hooked parenthesis
	   \[parenleftbp]		    bottom-left hooked parenthesis
	   \[parenleftex]	⎜	    left hooked parenthesis extension
	   \[parenrighttp]	⎞	    top-right hooked parenthesis
	   \[parenrightbp]		    bottom-right hooked parenthesis
	   \[parenrightex]	⎟	    right hooked parenthesis extension

     Arrows:
	   Input    Rendered	Description
	   \(<-	    ←		left arrow
	   \(->	    →		right arrow
	   \(<>	    ↔		left-right arrow
	   \(da	    ↓		down arrow
	   \(ua	    ↑		up arrow
	   \(va	    ↕		up-down arrow
	   \(lA	    ⇐		left double-arrow
	   \(rA	    ⇒		right double-arrow
	   \(hA	    ⇔		left-right double-arrow
	   \(uA	    ⇑		up double-arrow
	   \(dA	    ⇓		down double-arrow
	   \(vA	    ⇕		up-down double-arrow

     Logical:
	   Input    Rendered	Description
	   \(AN	    ∧		logical and
	   \(OR	    ∨		logical or
	   \(no	    ¬		logical not
	   \[tno]   ¬		logical not (text)
	   \(te	    ∃		existential quantifier
	   \(fa	    ∀		universal quantifier
	   \(st	    ∋		such that
	   \(tf	    ∴		therefore
	   \(3d	    ∴		therefore
	   \(or	    |		bitwise or

     Mathematical:
	   Input	    Rendered	Description
	   \(pl		    +		plus
	   \(mi		    −		minus
	   \-		    -		minus (text)
	   \(-+		    ∓		minus-plus
	   \(+-		    ±		plus-minus
	   \[t+-]	    ±		plus-minus (text)
	   \(pc		    ·		centre-dot
	   \(mu		    ×		multiply
	   \[tmu]	    ×		multiply (text)
	   \(c*		    ⊗		circle-multiply
	   \(c+		    ⊕		circle-plus
	   \(di		    ÷		divide
	   \[tdi]	    ÷		divide (text)
	   \(f/		    ⁄		fraction
	   \(**		    ∗		asterisk
	   \(<=		    ≤		less-than-equal
	   \(>=		    ≥		greater-than-equal
	   \(<<		    ≪		much less
	   \(>>		    ≫		much greater
	   \(eq		    =		equal
	   \(!=		    ≠		not equal
	   \(==		    ≡		equivalent
	   \(ne		    ≢		not equivalent
	   \(=~		    ≅		congruent
	   \(-~				asymptotically congruent
	   \(ap		    ∼		asymptotically similar
	   \(~~		    ≈		approximately similar
	   \(~=		    ≈		approximately equal
	   \(pt		    ∝		proportionate
	   \(es		    ∅		empty set
	   \(mo		    ∈		element
	   \(nm		    ∉		not element
	   \(sb		    ⊂		proper subset
	   \(nb		    ⊄		not subset
	   \(sp		    ⊃		proper superset
	   \(nc		    ⊅		not superset
	   \(ib		    ⊆		reflexive subset
	   \(ip		    ⊇		reflexive superset
	   \(ca		    ∩		intersection
	   \(cu		    ∪		union
	   \(/_		    ∠		angle
	   \(pp		    ⊥		perpendicular
	   \(is		    ∫		integral
	   \[integral]	    ∫		integral
	   \[sum]	    ∑		summation
	   \[product]	    ∏		product
	   \[coproduct]	    ∐		coproduct
	   \(gr		    ∇		gradient
	   \(sr		    √		square root
	   \[sqrt]	    √		square root
	   \(lc		    ⌈		left-ceiling
	   \(rc		    ⌉		right-ceiling
	   \(lf		    ⌊		left-floor
	   \(rf		    ⌋		right-floor
	   \(if		    ∞		infinity
	   \(Ah		    ℵ		aleph
	   \(Im		    ℑ		imaginary
	   \(Re		    ℜ		real
	   \(pd		    ∂		partial differential
	   \(-h		    ℏ		Planck constant over 2π
	   \[12]	    ½		one-half
	   \[14]	    ¼		one-fourth
	   \[34]	    ¾		three-fourths

     Ligatures:
	   Input    Rendered	Description
	   \(ff	    ff		ff ligature
	   \(fi	    fi		fi ligature
	   \(fl	    fl		fl ligature
	   \(Fi	    ffi		ffi ligature
	   \(Fl	    ffl		ffl ligature
	   \(AE	    Æ		AE
	   \(ae	    æ		ae
	   \(OE	    Œ		OE
	   \(oe	    œ		oe
	   \(ss	    ß		German eszett
	   \(IJ	    IJ		IJ ligature
	   \(ij	    ij		ij ligature

     Accents:
	   Input    Rendered	Description
	   \(a"	    ˝		Hungarian umlaut
	   \(a-	    ¯		macron
	   \(a.	    ˙		dotted
	   \(a^	    ^		circumflex
	   \(aa	    ´		acute
	   \'	    ´		acute
	   \(ga	    `		grave
	   \`	    `		grave
	   \(ab	    ˘		breve
	   \(ac	    ¸		cedilla
	   \(ad	    ¨		dieresis
	   \(ah	    ˇ		caron
	   \(ao	    ˚		ring
	   \(a~	    ~		tilde
	   \(ho	    ˛		ogonek
	   \(ha	    ^		hat (text)
	   \(ti	    ~		tilde (text)

     Accented letters:
	   Input    Rendered	Description
	   \('A	    Á		acute A
	   \('E	    É		acute E
	   \('I	    Í		acute I
	   \('O	    Ó		acute O
	   \('U	    Ú		acute U
	   \('a	    á		acute a
	   \('e	    é		acute e
	   \('i	    í		acute i
	   \('o	    ó		acute o
	   \('u	    ú		acute u
	   \(`A	    À		grave A
	   \(`E	    È		grave E
	   \(`I	    Ì		grave I
	   \(`O	    Ò		grave O
	   \(`U	    Ù		grave U
	   \(`a	    à		grave a
	   \(`e	    è		grave e
	   \(`i	    ì		grave i
	   \(`o	    ì		grave o
	   \(`u	    ù		grave u
	   \(~A	    Ã		tilde A
	   \(~N	    Ñ		tilde N
	   \(~O	    Õ		tilde O
	   \(~a	    ã		tilde a
	   \(~n	    ñ		tilde n
	   \(~o	    õ		tilde o
	   \(:A	    Ä		dieresis A
	   \(:E	    Ë		dieresis E
	   \(:I	    Ï		dieresis I
	   \(:O	    Ö		dieresis O
	   \(:U	    Ü		dieresis U
	   \(:a	    ä		dieresis a
	   \(:e	    ë		dieresis e
	   \(:i	    ï		dieresis i
	   \(:o	    ö		dieresis o
	   \(:u	    ü		dieresis u
	   \(:y	    ÿ		dieresis y
	   \(^A	    Â		circumflex A
	   \(^E	    Ê		circumflex E
	   \(^I	    Î		circumflex I
	   \(^O	    Ô		circumflex O
	   \(^U	    Û		circumflex U
	   \(^a	    â		circumflex a
	   \(^e	    ê		circumflex e
	   \(^i	    î		circumflex i
	   \(^o	    ô		circumflex o
	   \(^u	    û		circumflex u
	   \(,C	    Ç		cedilla C
	   \(,c	    ç		cedilla c
	   \(/L	    Ł		stroke L
	   \(/l	    ł		stroke l
	   \(/O	    Ø		stroke O
	   \(/o	    ø		stroke o
	   \(oA	    Å		ring A
	   \(oa	    å		ring a

     Special letters:
	   Input    Rendered	Description
	   \(-D	    Ð		Eth
	   \(Sd	    ð		eth
	   \(TP	    Þ		Thorn
	   \(Tp	    þ		thorn
	   \(.i	    ı		dotless i
	   \(.j			dotless j

     Currency:
	   Input    Rendered	Description
	   \(Do	    $		dollar
	   \(ct	    ¢		cent
	   \(Eu	    €		Euro symbol
	   \(eu	    €		Euro symbol
	   \(Ye	    ¥		yen
	   \(Po	    £		pound
	   \(Cs	    ¤		Scandinavian
	   \(Fn	    ƒ		florin

     Units:
	   Input    Rendered	Description
	   \(de	    °		degree
	   \(%0	    ‰		per-thousand
	   \(fm	    ′		minute
	   \(sd	    ″		second
	   \(mc	    µ		micro

     Greek letters:
	   Input    Rendered	Description
	   \(*A	    Α		Alpha
	   \(*B	    Β		Beta
	   \(*G	    Γ		Gamma
	   \(*D	    Δ		Delta
	   \(*E	    Ε		Epsilon
	   \(*Z	    Ζ		Zeta
	   \(*Y	    Η		Eta
	   \(*H	    Θ		Theta
	   \(*I	    Ι		Iota
	   \(*K	    Κ		Kappa
	   \(*L	    Λ		Lambda
	   \(*M	    Μ		Mu
	   \(*N	    Ν		Nu
	   \(*C	    Ξ		Xi
	   \(*O	    Ο		Omicron
	   \(*P	    Π		Pi
	   \(*R	    Ρ		Rho
	   \(*S	    Σ		Sigma
	   \(*T	    Τ		Tau
	   \(*U	    Υ		Upsilon
	   \(*F	    Φ		Phi
	   \(*X	    Χ		Chi
	   \(*Q	    Ψ		Psi
	   \(*W	    Ω		Omega
	   \(*a	    α		alpha
	   \(*b	    β		beta
	   \(*g	    γ		gamma
	   \(*d	    δ		delta
	   \(*e	    ε		epsilon
	   \(*z	    ζ		zeta
	   \(*y	    η		eta
	   \(*h	    θ		theta
	   \(*i	    ι		iota
	   \(*k	    κ		kappa
	   \(*l	    λ		lambda
	   \(*m	    μ		mu
	   \(*n	    ν		nu
	   \(*c	    ξ		xi
	   \(*o	    ο		omicron
	   \(*p	    π		pi
	   \(*r	    ρ		rho
	   \(*s	    σ		sigma
	   \(*t	    τ		tau
	   \(*u	    υ		upsilon
	   \(*f	    ϕ		phi
	   \(*x	    χ		chi
	   \(*q	    ψ		psi
	   \(*w	    ω		omega
	   \(+h	    ϑ		theta variant
	   \(+f	    φ		phi variant
	   \(+p	    ϖ		pi variant
	   \(+e	    ϵ		epsilon variant
	   \(ts	    ς		sigma terminal

PREDEFINED STRINGS
     Predefined strings are inherited from the macro packages of historical
     troff implementations.  They are not recommended for use, as they differ
     across implementations.  Manuals using these predefined strings are
     almost certainly not portable.

     Their syntax is similar to special characters, using ‘\*X’ (for a
     one-character escape), ‘\*(XX’ (two-character), and ‘\*[N]’
     (N-character).  For details, see the Predefined Strings subsection of the
     roff(7) manual.

	   Input    Rendered	Description
	   \*(Ba    |		vertical bar
	   \*(Ne    ≠		not equal
	   \*(Ge    ≥		greater-than-equal
	   \*(Le    ≤		less-than-equal
	   \*(Gt    >		greater-than
	   \*(Lt    <		less-than
	   \*(Pm    ±		plus-minus
	   \*(If    ∞		infinity
	   \*(Pi    π		pi
	   \*(Na    NaN		NaN
	   \*(Am    &		ampersand
	   \*R			restricted mark
	   \*(Tm		trade mark
	   \*q	    "		double-quote
	   \*(Rq    ”		right-double-quote
	   \*(Lq    “		left-double-quote
	   \*(lp    (		right-parenthesis
	   \*(rp    )		left-parenthesis
	   \*(lq		left double-quote
	   \*(rq		right double-quote
	   \*(ua    ↑		up arrow
	   \*(va		up-down arrow
	   \*(<=    ≤		less-than-equal
	   \*(>=    ≥		greater-than-equal
	   \*(aa    ´		acute
	   \*(ga    `		grave
	   \*(Px    POSIX	POSIX standard name
	   \*(Ai    ANSI	ANSI standard name

UNICODE CHARACTERS
     The escape sequence

	   \[uXXXX]

     is interpreted as a Unicode codepoint.  The codepoint must be in the
     range above U+0080 and less than U+10FFFF.	 For compatibility, points
     must be zero-padded to four characters; if greater than four characters,
     no zero padding is allowed.  Unicode surrogates are not allowed.

NUMBERED CHARACTERS
     For backward compatibility with existing manuals, mandoc(1) also supports
     the

	   \N'number'

     escape sequence, inserting the character number from the current charac‐
     ter set into the output.  Of course, this is inherently non-portable and
     is already marked as deprecated in the Heirloom roff manual.  For exam‐
     ple, do not use \N'34', use \(dq, or even the plain ‘"’ character where
     possible.

COMPATIBILITY
     This section documents compatibility between mandoc and other other troff
     implementations, at this time limited to GNU troff ("groff").

     -	 The \N'' escape sequence is limited to printable characters; in
	 groff, it accepts arbitrary character numbers.
     -	 In -Tascii, the \(ss, \(nm, \(nb, \(nc, \(ib, \(ip, \(pp, \[sum],
	 \[product], \[coproduct], \(gr, \(-h, and \(a. special characters
	 render differently between mandoc and groff.
     -	 In -Thtml and -Txhtml, the \(~=, \(nb, and \(nc special characters
	 render differently between mandoc and groff.
     -	 The -Tps and -Tpdf modes format like -Tascii instead of rendering
	 glyphs as in groff.
     -	 The \[radicalex], \[sqrtex], and \(ru special characters have been
	 omitted from mandoc either because they are poorly documented or they
	 have no known representation.

SEE ALSO
     mandoc(1), man(7), mdoc(7), roff(7)

AUTHORS
     The mandoc_char manual page was written by Kristaps Dzonsons,
     kristaps@bsd.lv.

CAVEATS
     The ‘\*(Ba’ escape mimics the behaviour of the ‘|’ character in mdoc(7);
     thus, if you wish to render a vertical bar with no side effects, use the
     ‘\(ba’ escape.

BSD			       November 23, 2011			   BSD
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