TBL(7) BSD Miscellaneous Information Manual TBL(7)NAME
tbl — tbl language reference for mandoc
DESCRIPTION
The tbl language is a table-formatting language. It is used within
mdoc(7) and man(7) UNIX manual pages. This manual describes the subset
of the tbl language accepted by the mandoc(1) utility.
Tables within mdoc(7) or man(7) are enclosed by the ‘TS’ and ‘TE’ macro
tags, whose precise syntax is documented in roff(7). Tables consist of a
series of options on a single line, followed by the table layout, fol‐
lowed by data.
For example, the following creates a boxed table with digits centered in
the cells.
.TS
tab(:) box;
c5 c5 c5.
1:2:3
4:5:6
.TE
When formatted, the following output is produced:
┌──────────────┐
│1 2 3 │
│4 5 6 │
└──────────────┘
TABLE STRUCTURE
Tables are enclosed by the ‘TS’ and ‘TE’ roff(7) macros. A table con‐
sists of an optional single line of table Options terminated by a semi‐
colon, followed by one or more lines of Layout specifications terminated
by a period, then Data. All input must be 7-bit ASCII. Example:
.TS
box tab(:);
c | c
| c | c.
1:2
3:4
.TE
Table data is pre-processed, that is, data rows are parsed then inserted
into the underlying stream of input data. This allows data rows to be
interspersed by arbitrary roff(7), mdoc(7), and man(7) macros such as
.TS
tab(:);
c c c.
1:2:3
.Ao
3:2:1
.Ac
.TE
in the case of mdoc(7) or
.TS
tab(:);
c c c.
.ds ab 2
1:\*(ab:3
.I
3:2:1
.TE
in the case of man(7).
Options
The first line of a table consists of space-separated option keys and
modifiers terminated by a semicolon. If the first line does not have a
terminating semicolon, it is assumed that no options are specified and
instead a Layout is processed. Some options accept arguments enclosed by
parenthesis. The following case-insensitive options are available:
center This option is not supported by mandoc(1). This may also be
invoked with centre.
delim Accepts a two-character argument. This option is not supported
by mandoc(1).
expand This option is not supported by mandoc(1).
box Draw a single-line box around the table. This may also be
invoked with frame.
doublebox
Draw a double-line box around the table. This may also be
invoked with doubleframe.
allbox This option is not supported by mandoc(1).
tab Accepts a single-character argument. This character is used as a
delimiter between data cells, which otherwise defaults to the tab
character.
linesize
Accepts a natural number (all digits). This option is not sup‐
ported by mandoc(1).
nokeep This option is not supported by mandoc(1).
decimalpoint
Accepts a single-character argument. This character will be used
as the decimal point with the n layout key. This option is not
supported by mandoc(1).
nospaces
This option is not supported by mandoc(1).
Layout
The table layout follows Options or a ‘T&’ macro invocation. Layout
specifies how data rows are displayed on output. Each layout line corre‐
sponds to a line of data; the last layout line applies to all remaining
data lines. Layout lines may also be separated by a comma. Each layout
cell consists of one of the following case-insensitive keys:
c Centre a literal string within its column.
r Right-justify a literal string within its column.
l Left-justify a literal string within its column.
n Justify a number around its decimal point. If the decimal point
is not found on the number, it's assumed to trail the number.
s This option is not supported by mandoc(1).
a This option is not supported by mandoc(1).
^ This option is not supported by mandoc(1).
- Replace the data cell (its contents will be lost) with a single
horizontal line. This may also be invoked with _.
= Replace the data cell (its contents will be lost) with a double
horizontal line.
| Emit a vertical bar instead of data.
|| Emit a double-vertical bar instead of data.
For example, the following layout specifies a centre-justified column of
minimum width 10, followed by vertical bar, followed by a left-justified
column of minimum width 10, another vertical bar, then a column justified
about the decimal point in numbers:
c10 | l10 | n
Keys may be followed by a set of modifiers. A modifier is either a modi‐
fier key or a natural number for specifying spacing. The following case-
insensitive modifier keys are available: z, u, e, t, d, f, b, i, b, and
i. All of these are ignored by mandoc(1).
Data
The data section follows the last layout row. By default, cells in a
data section are delimited by a tab. This behaviour may be changed with
the tab option. If _ or = is specified, a single or double line, respec‐
tively, is drawn across the data field. If \- or \= is specified, a line
is drawn within the data field (i.e. terminating within the cell and not
draw to the border). If the last cell of a line is T{, all subsequent
lines are included as part of the cell until T} is specified as its own
data cell. It may then be followed by a tab (or as designated by tab) or
an end-of-line to terminate the row.
COMPATIBILITY
This section documents compatibility between mandoc and other tbl imple‐
mentations, at this time limited to GNU tbl.
- In GNU tbl, comments and macros are disallowed prior to the data
block of a table. The mandoc(1) implementation allows them.
SEE ALSOmandoc(1), man(7), mandoc_char(7), mdoc(7), roff(7)
M. E. Lesk, Tbl—A Program to Format Tables, June 11, 1976.
HISTORY
The tbl utility, a preprocessor for troff, was originally written by M.
E. Lesk at Bell Labs in 1975. The GNU reimplementation of tbl, part of
the groff package, was released in 1990 by James Clark. A standalone tbl
implementation was written by Kristaps Dzonsons in 2010. This formed the
basis of the implementation that is part of the mandoc(1) utility.
AUTHORS
This partial tbl reference was written by Kristaps Dzonsons
⟨kristaps@bsd.lv⟩.
BSD January 7, 2011 BSD
