refentry

Description

A refentry is a reference page. In UNIX parlance this has historically been called a “man page” (short for manual page).

A refentry is an appropriate wrapper for any small unit of reference documentation describing a single topic. Canonical examples are programming language functions and user commands (one refentry per function or command).^[5]

On some projects, the structure of reference pages may be rigorously defined right down to the number, order, and title of individual sections (some or all of which may be required).

Examples

<article xmlns='http://docbook.org/ns/docbook'>
<title>Example refentry</title>

<refentry xml:id="ls">

<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>ls</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</refmeta>

<refnamediv>
<refname>ls</refname>
<refpurpose>list contents of a directory</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>

<refsynopsisdiv>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command>/usr/bin/ls</command>
<arg choice="opt">
  <option>aAbcCdfFgilLmnopqrRstux1</option>
</arg>
<arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">file</arg>
</cmdsynopsis>
</refsynopsisdiv>

<refsect1><title>Description</title>
<para>For each file that is a directory, <command>ls</command> lists the contents of
the directory; for each file that is an ordinary file, <command>ls</command>
repeats its name and any other information requested.
</para>
<para>…</para>
</refsect1>
</refentry>

</article>

<article xmlns='http://docbook.org/ns/docbook'>
<title>Example refentry</title>

<refentry xml:id="printf">

<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>printf</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>3S</manvolnum>
</refmeta>

<refnamediv>
<refname>printf</refname>
<refname>fprintf</refname>
<refname>sprintf</refname>
<refpurpose>print formatted output</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>

<refsynopsisdiv>

<funcsynopsis>
<funcsynopsisinfo>
#include &lt;stdio.h&gt;
</funcsynopsisinfo>
<funcprototype>
  <funcdef>int <function>printf</function></funcdef>
  <paramdef>const char *<parameter>format</parameter></paramdef>
  <paramdef>...</paramdef>
</funcprototype>

<funcprototype>
  <funcdef>int <function>fprintf</function></funcdef>
  <paramdef>FILE *<parameter>strm</parameter></paramdef>
  <paramdef>const char *<parameter>format</parameter></paramdef>
  <paramdef>...</paramdef>
</funcprototype>

<funcprototype>
  <funcdef>int <function>sprintf</function></funcdef>
  <paramdef>char *<parameter>s</parameter></paramdef>
  <paramdef>const char *<parameter>format</parameter></paramdef>
  <paramdef>...</paramdef>
</funcprototype>
</funcsynopsis>

</refsynopsisdiv>

<refsect1><title>Description</title>
<para><function>printf</function> places output on the standard
output stream stdout.
</para>
<para>…</para>
</refsect1>
</refentry>

</article>

<article xmlns='http://docbook.org/ns/docbook'>
<title>Example refentry</title>

<refentry xml:id="iovec">

<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>iovec</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>9S</manvolnum>
</refmeta>

<refnamediv>
<refname>iovec</refname>
<refpurpose>data storage structure for I/O using uio</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>

<refsynopsisdiv>
<synopsis>
#include &lt;sys/uio.h&gt;
</synopsis>
</refsynopsisdiv>

<refsect1><title>Interface Level</title>
<para>Architecture independent level 1 (DDI/DKI).
</para>
</refsect1>

<refsect1><title>Description</title>

<para>An <code>iovec</code> structure describes a data
storage area for transfer in a
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>uio</refentrytitle>
  <manvolnum>9S</manvolnum>
</citerefentry>
structure. Conceptually,
it may be thought of as a base address and length specification.
</para>

</refsect1>
<refsect1><title>Structure Members</title>

<programlisting>
     caddr_t  iov_base;  /* base address of the data storage area */
                         /* represented by the iovec structure */
     int      iov_len;   /* size of the data storage area in bytes */
</programlisting>

<para>…</para>
</refsect1>
</refentry>

</article>

ChangeLog

This alpha reference page is $Revision: 7120 $ published Sun, 22 Jul 2007.