gbranden pushed a commit to branch master
in repository groff.
commit af1f98d5ddf6d9e25d4b3b81366f60f7efb9bf44
Author: G. Branden Robinson <[email protected]>
AuthorDate: Mon Jan 5 08:44:00 2026 -0600
groff_mdoc(7): Revise special characters intro.
Cover the topic more generally, per suggestion from Ingo Schwarze.
See <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?67881>.
---
tmac/groff_mdoc.7.man | 35 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------
1 file changed, 28 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
diff --git a/tmac/groff_mdoc.7.man b/tmac/groff_mdoc.7.man
index 5be3c2f71..f669c65cf 100644
--- a/tmac/groff_mdoc.7.man
+++ b/tmac/groff_mdoc.7.man
@@ -497,7 +497,7 @@ Should the need arise to put a formattable space at the end
of a line,
do so with the unadjustable or unbreakable space escape sequences.
.
.
-.Ss "Formatting the backslash glyph"
+.Ss "Formatting the backslash and other glyphs"
.
When you need the
.Xr roff
@@ -510,7 +510,7 @@ or
.Ql \[rs][rs]
instead.
.
-Technically,
+Strictly,
.Ql \[rs]e
formats the current escape character;
it works reliably as long as no
@@ -521,10 +521,35 @@ which should never happen in man pages.
.Ql \[rs][rs]
is a
.Xr groff
-special character escape sequence that explicitly formats the
+.Em "special character"
+escape sequence that explicitly formats the
.Dq "reverse solidus"
(backslash) glyph.
.
+In general,
+use special character escape sequences to format characters
+outside the ISO\~646
+.Pf ( Dq Tn ASCII )
+or Unicode Basic Latin range,
+and to format correct glyphs for the characters
+.Sq \[dq] ,
+.Dq \[aq] ,
+.Sq \- ,
+.Sq \[ha] ,
+.Sq \[ga] ,
+and
+.Sq \[ti] .
+.
+.Xr groff_char @MAN7EXT@
+presents the formatter's special character identifers,
+annotating those that are portable to legacy systems.
+.
+Section
+.Sx "Predefined strings"
+below lists characters commonly used by
+.Xr mdoc
+documents.
+.
.
.Ss "Other possible pitfalls"
.
@@ -584,10 +609,6 @@ or
.Xr mandoc
requires the latter form.
.
-.Xr groff_char @MAN7EXT@
-annotates special character identifers that are portable
-to legacy systems.
-.
.
.Pp
As a typesetting system,
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