I am writing a man page. I am displaying only with man -l filename.man
.
I am running into an issue where my text is displaying as:
file/path/[ option ]
Where I would like it to display as:
file/path/[option]
.
The offending lines of text (code?) look like:
.\" filename.man
The filepath is /file/path/[
.I option
], and it contains files.
I am extremely new to formatting with [gnt]roff, and appreciate any pointers or recommended readings.
A definite guide to groff is gnu.org. I recommend the pdf for easy searching. It includes chapter 5.17.1 Changing Fonts that explains \f
. Note there are at least 2 alternatives. The first uses \c
to stop further output at the end of a line:
The filepath is /file/path/[\c
.I option\c
], and it contains files.
but the following is the preferred method, using a macro RI
(roman-italic) provided specially for the purpose of joining "words" in an alternating roman then italic font:
The filepath is
.RI /file/path/[ option ],
and it contains files.
See the pdf chapter 4.1.3 Macros to set fonts, or the man page for groff_man
(the man macros, also at gnu.org)