man pages: improve consistency

cal.1

@@ -36,23 +36,23 @@ starting the next day on Sep 14, 1752.
 Output current month. This is the default.
 .It Fl 3
 Output previous, current and next month.
-.It Fl n Ar nmonths
-Output in total
-.Ar nmonths
-starting from the current month.
-.It Fl y Ar year
-Output an entire
-.Ar year .
-.It Fl s
-Output Sunday as first day of week.
-.It Fl m
-Output Monday as first day of week.
+.It Fl c Ar columns
+Set number of calendars in a row. The default is 3.
 .It Fl f Ar firstday
 Output
 .Ar firstday
 (0 is Sunday, 6 is Saturday) as first day of week.
-.It Fl c Ar columns
-Set number of calendars in a row. The default is 3.
+.It Fl m
+Output Monday as first day of week.
+.It Fl n Ar nmonths
+Output in total
+.Ar nmonths
+starting from the current month.
+.It Fl s
+Output Sunday as first day of week.
+.It Fl y Ar year
+Output an entire
+.Ar year .
 .El
 .Sh SEE ALSO
 .Xr localtime 3

cat.1

@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ reads from stdin.
 .Sh OPTIONS
 .Bl -tag -width Ds
 .It Fl u
-Unbuffered output
+Unbuffered output.
 .El
 .Sh STANDARDS
 The

chmod.1

@@ -11,7 +11,8 @@
 .Op Ar file ...
 .Sh DESCRIPTION
 .Nm
-changes the file mode of the given files.
+changes the file mode of the given
+.Ar files .
 .Pp
 If
 .Ar mode

chown.1

@@ -11,13 +11,14 @@
 .Op Ar file ...
 .Sh DESCRIPTION
 .Nm
-changes the user or group ownership for the given files.
+changes the user or group ownership for the given
+.Ar files .
 .Sh OPTIONS
 .Bl -tag -width Ds
 .It Fl R
-equivalent to \-r.
+Equivalent to \-r.
 .It Fl r
-change directory ownership recursively.
+Change directory ownership recursively.
 .El
 .Sh SEE ALSO
 .Xr chown 2

cols.1

@@ -26,12 +26,16 @@ reads from stdin.
 Set the maximum number of character columns to use
 (unless the input contains lines longer than
 .Ar num
-characters). By default cols tries to figure out the width of the output
+characters). By default
+.Nm cols
+tries to figure out the width of the output
 device. If that fails, it defaults to 65 chars.
 .El
 .Sh HISTORY
 .Nm
-is similar to mc(1) in Plan 9. It was renamed to
+is similar to
+.Xr mc 1
+in Plan 9. It was renamed to
 .Nm
 to avoid the name collision with the popular file manager
 Midnight Commander.

cp.1

@@ -15,29 +15,36 @@
 .Op Ar directory
 .Sh DESCRIPTION
 .Nm
-copies a given file, naming it the given name. If multiple files are listed
-they will be copied into the given directory.
+copies a given
+.Ar file ,
+naming it the given
+.Ar name .
+If multiple
+.Ar files
+are listed
+they will be copied into the given
+.Ar directory .
 .Sh OPTIONS
 .Bl -tag -width Ds
 .It Fl a
-preserve mode, timestamp, links and permissions. Implies
+Preserve mode, timestamp, links and permissions. Implies
 .Fl d ,
 .Fl p
 and
 .Fl r .
-.It Fl P
-don't dereference symbolic links.
-.It Fl p
-preserve mode, timestamp and permissions.
 .It Fl f
-if an existing destination file cannot be opened, remove it and try again.
+If an existing destination file cannot be opened, remove it and try again.
+.It Fl P
+Don't dereference symbolic links.
+.It Fl p
+Preserve mode, timestamp and permissions.
 .It Fl R
-equivalent to -r.
+Equivalent to -r.
 .It Fl r
-copies directories recursively. If this flag is not specified, directories
+Copies directories recursively. If this flag is not specified, directories
 are not copied.
 .It Fl v
-print names of source and destination per file to stdout. In the format:
+Print names of source and destination per file to stdout. In the format:
 "source \-> destination".
 .El
 .Sh SEE ALSO

cut.1

@@ -44,19 +44,19 @@ and is written exactly once.
 .It Fl b Ar list | Fl c Ar list
 .Ar list
 specifies byte | character positions.
-.It Fl n
-Do not split multibyte characters. A character is written when its
-last byte is selected.
+.It Fl d Ar delim
+Use
+.Ar delim
+as field delimiter, which can be an arbitrary string. Default is '\\t'.
 .It Fl f Ar list
 .Ar list
 specifies field numbers. Lines not containing field
 delimiters are passed through, unless
 .Fl s
 is specified.
-.It Fl d Ar delim
-Use
-.Ar delim
-as field delimiter, which can be an arbitrary string. Default is '\et'.
+.It Fl n
+Do not split multibyte characters. A character is written when its
+last byte is selected.
 .It Fl s
 Suppress lines not containing field delimiters.
 .El

dirname.c

@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 static void
 usage(void)
 {
-	eprintf("usage: %s pathname\n", argv0);
+	eprintf("usage: %s path\n", argv0);
 }
 
 int

du.1

@@ -24,15 +24,15 @@ is displayed.
 .Bl -tag -width Ds
 .It Fl a
 Display an entry for each file in the file hierarchy.
-.It Fl s
-Display only the grand total for the specified files.
 .It Fl d Ar depth
 Maximum directory depth to print files and directories.
+.It Fl h
+Enable human-readable output.
 .It Fl k
 By default all sizes are reported in 512-byte block counts.
 The
 .Fl k
 option causes the numbers to be reported in kilobyte counts.
-.It Fl h
-Enable human readable output.
+.It Fl s
+Display only the grand total for the specified files.
 .El

grep.1

@@ -17,7 +17,9 @@ searches the input files for lines that match the
 .Ar pattern ,
 a regular expression as defined in
 .Xr regex 7 .
-By default each matching line is printed to stdout. If no file is given
+By default each matching line is printed to stdout. If no
+.Ar file
+is given
 .Nm
 reads from stdin.
 .Sh OPTIONS
@@ -36,7 +38,7 @@ Print only a count of matching lines.
 Specify a pattern used during the search of the input: an input
 line is selected if it matches any of the specified patterns.
 This option is most useful when multiple -e options are used to
-specify multiple patterns, or when a pattern begins with a dash
+specify multiple patterns, or when a pattern begins with a dash.
 .It Fl f Ar file
 Read one or more patterns from the file named by the pathname file.
 Patterns in file shall be terminated by a <newline>. A null pattern can be

head.1

@@ -18,7 +18,9 @@ writes
 lines of each
 .Ar file
 to stdout.
-If no file is given
+If no
+.Ar file
+is given
 .Nm
 reads from stdin.
 .Sh OPTIONS

hostname.1

@@ -13,6 +13,6 @@ sets the current host name to
 .Ar name .
 If no
 .Ar name
-is given, the current host name is written to stdout.
+is given, the current hostname is written to stdout.
 .Sh SEE ALSO
 .Xr hostname 7

kill.1

@@ -21,13 +21,13 @@
 by default sends a TERM signal to the given processes.
 .Sh OPTIONS
 .Bl -tag -width Ds
-.It Fl s Ar signal_name
-A symbolic signal name specifying the signal to be sent instead of the
-default SIGTERM. Sends the named signal.
 .It Fl l Op Ar exit_status
 Lists available signals. If an
 .Ar exit_status
 is given, only the corresponding signal name will be printed.
+.It Fl s Ar signal_name
+A symbolic signal name specifying the signal to be sent instead of the
+default SIGTERM. Sends the named signal.
 .It Fl signal_name
 A symbolic signal name specifying the signal to be sent instead
 of the default SIGTERM.

nl.1

@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ Only non-empty lines (default).
 Only lines which match
 .Ar expr ,
 a regular expression as defined in
-.Xr regex 7
+.Xr regex 7 .
 .El
 .It Fl i Ar incr
 Defines the increment between numbered lines.

seq.1

@@ -15,20 +15,22 @@
 .Nm
 will print a sequence of numbers from
 .Ar start
-(default 1) to
+(default: 1) to
 .Ar end ,
 in
 .Ar step
-intervals (default 1).
+intervals (default: 1).
 .Sh OPTIONS
 .Bl -tag -width Ds
 .It Fl f Ar format
-specifies the format used for output lines, as per
+Specifies the format used for output lines, as per
 .Xr printf 3 .
 .It Fl s Ar separator
-specifies the separator to print between output lines
+Specifies the separator to print between output lines.
 .It Fl w
-tells seq to print out lines in equal width
+Tells
+.Nm
+to print out lines in equal width.
 .El
 .Sh SEE ALSO
 .Xr printf 3

sha1sum.1

@@ -13,5 +13,5 @@ Print SHA-1 (160-bit) checksums. With no file, read standard input.
 .Sh OPTIONS
 .Bl -tag -width Ds
 .It Fl c
-read list of SHA1 checksums from file and check them
+Read list of SHA1 checksums from file and check them.
 .El

sha256sum.1

@@ -13,5 +13,5 @@ Print SHA256 (256-bit) checksums. With no file, read standard input.
 .Sh OPTIONS
 .Bl -tag -width Ds
 .It Fl c
-read list of SHA256 checksums from file and check them
+Read list of SHA256 checksums from file and check them.
 .El

sha512sum.1

@@ -13,5 +13,5 @@ Print SHA512 (512-bit) checksums. With no file, read standard input.
 .Sh OPTIONS
 .Bl -tag -width Ds
 .It Fl c
-read list of SHA512 checksums from file and check them
+Read list of SHA512 checksums from file and check them.
 .El

sort.1

@@ -12,23 +12,29 @@
 .Op Ar file ...
 .Sh DESCRIPTION
 .Nm
-writes the sorted concatenation of the given files to stdout. If no file is
-given, sort reads from stdin.
+writes the sorted concatenation of the given
+.Ar files
+to stdout. If no
+.Ar file
+is given,
+.Nm
+reads from stdin.
 .Sh OPTIONS
 .Bl -tag -width Ds
 .It Fl C
-check that the concatenation of the given files is sorted rather than sorting
-them. In this mode, no output is printed to stdout, and the exit status
-indicates the result of the check.
+Check that the concatenation of the given
+.Ar files
+is sorted rather than sorting them. In this mode, no output is printed to
+stdout, and the exit status indicates the result of the check.
 .It Fl b
-skip leading whitespace of columns when sorting.
+Skip leading whitespace of columns when sorting.
 .It Fl c
-the same as
+The same as
 .Fl C
 except that when disorder is detected, a message is printed to stderr
 indicating the location of the disorder.
 .It Fl k Ar key
-specifies a key definition of the form
+Specifies a key definition of the form
 .Sm off
 .Sy S
 .No [.
@@ -74,11 +80,11 @@ that only apply to this key definition.
 .Sy b
 is special in that it only applies to the column that it was specified after.
 .It Fl n
-perform a numeric sort.
+Perform a numeric sort.
 .It Fl r
-reverses the sort.
+Reverses the sort.
 .It Fl t Ar delim
-specifies the field delimiter.
+Specifies the field delimiter.
 .It Fl u
-prints equal lines only once.
+Prints equal lines only once.
 .El

split.1

@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ Set the suffix length to
 .Ar len
 characters long.
 .It Fl b Ar bytes[k|m|g]
-start a new file every
+Start a new file every
 .Ar bytes
 bytes. The units k, m, and g are case insensitive, and powers of 2, not 10.
 .It Fl d

sponge.1

@@ -14,5 +14,7 @@ reads stdin completely, then writes the saved contents to
 This makes it possible to easily create pipes which read from and write to
 the same file.
 .Pp
-If the given file is a symbolic link, it writes to the links destination
+If the given
+.Ar file
+is a symbolic link, it writes to the links destination
 instead.

tail.1

@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ reads from stdin.
 .Sh OPTIONS
 .Bl -tag -width Ds
 .It Fl n Ar lines
-outputs the given number of lines. If
+Outputs the given number of lines. If
 .Ar lines
 begins with '+' it is used as an offset from the beginning of the file.
 .El

true.1

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 .Nm
 .Sh DESCRIPTION
 .Nm
-returns a status code indicating success
+returns a status code indicating success.
 .Sh STANDARDS
 The
 .Nm

uname.1

@@ -9,24 +9,26 @@
 .Op Fl amnrsv
 .Sh DESCRIPTION
 .Nm
-prints system information. If no flags are given, uname will print only the
+prints system information. If no flags are given,
+.Nm
+will print only the
 name of the operating system as
 .Fl s
 would.
 .Sh OPTIONS
 .Bl -tag -width Ds
 .It Fl a
-print all the information below.
+Print all the information below.
 .It Fl m
-print the machine's architecture.
+Print the machine's architecture.
 .It Fl n
-print the system's network name.
+Print the system's network name.
 .It Fl r
-print the operating system's release name.
+Print the operating system's release name.
 .It Fl s
-print the name of the operating system.
+Print the name of the operating system.
 .It Fl v
-print the operating system's version name.
+Print the operating system's version name.
 .El
 .Sh SEE ALSO
 .Xr uname 2

unexpand.1

@@ -11,18 +11,20 @@
 .Op Ar file ...
 .Sh DESCRIPTION
 .Nm
-processes the named files or the standard input, writing the
+processes the named
+.Ar files
+or the standard input, writing the
 standard output with consecutive blanks (spaces and tabs) converted
 into tabs. Backspace characters are preserved into the output and
 decrement the column count for tab calculations.
 .Sh OPTIONS
 .Bl -tag -width Ds
 .It Fl a
-convert blanks to tabs everywhere, not just at the start of lines
+Convert blanks to tabs everywhere, not just at the start of lines.
 .It Fl t Ar n
-set tab size to
+Set tab size to
 .Ar n
-spaces (default: 8)
+spaces (default: 8).
 .El
 .Sh SEE ALSO
 .Xr expand 1

uniq.1

@@ -10,16 +10,22 @@
 .Op Ar file
 .Sh DESCRIPTION
 .Nm
-reads file and writes one copy of a line from each group of consecutive
-duplicate lines to stdout. If no file is given, uniq reads from stdin.
+reads
+.Ar file
+and writes one copy of a line from each group of consecutive
+duplicate lines to stdout. If no
+.Ar file
+is given,
+.Nm
+reads from stdin.
 .Sh OPTIONS
 .Bl -tag -width Ds
 .It Fl c
-prefixes each line with a count of its consecutive occurrences in the input.
+Prefixes each line with a count of its consecutive occurrences in the input.
 .It Fl d
-suppresses non-duplicate lines (thus 'uniq -d' prints only duplicates).
+Suppresses non-duplicate lines (thus 'uniq -d' prints only duplicates).
 .It Fl u
-suppresses non-unique lines (thus 'uniq -u' prints only uniques).
+Suppresses non-unique lines (thus 'uniq -u' prints only uniques).
 .El
 .Sh BUGS
 The original sbase implementation of

unlink.1

@@ -12,6 +12,6 @@
 calls the
 .Xr unlink 2
 function on
-.Ar file.
+.Ar file .
 .Sh SEE ALSO
 .Xr unlink 2

uudecode.1

@@ -9,7 +9,9 @@
 .Op Ar file
 .Sh DESCRIPTION
 .Nm
-reads file (or by default, the standard input) and writes a decoded
+reads
+.Ar file
+(or by default, the standard input) and writes a decoded
 version to the file specified in the uuencoded header. In case that
 the file already exists, it is truncated. Otherwise a new file is
 created. After the operation the permissions of the created/accessed

uuencode.1

@@ -10,9 +10,13 @@
 .Ar name
 .Sh DESCRIPTION
 .Nm
-reads file (or by default, the standard input) and writes an encoded version
+reads
+.Ar file
+(or by default, the standard input) and writes an encoded version
 to the standard output. The encoding uses only printing ASCII characters and
-includes the mode of the file and the operand name for use by uudecode.
+includes the mode of the file and the operand
+.Ar name
+for use by uudecode.
 .Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
 This version of uuencode does not currently support the base64
 encoding algorithm.

xargs.1

@@ -11,12 +11,16 @@
 .Op Fl E Ar eofstr
 .Op Ar cmd Op Ar arg...
 .Sh DESCRIPTION
-xargs reads space, tab, newline and EOF delimited strings from stdin
-and executes the specified cmd with the strings as arguments.
+.Nm
+reads space, tab, newline and EOF delimited strings from stdin
+and executes the specified
+.Ar cmd
+with the strings as
+.Ar arguments .
 .Pp
 Any arguments specified on the command line are given to the command upon
 each invocation, followed by some number of the arguments read from
-stdin.  The command is repeatedly executed one or more times until stdin
+stdin. The command is repeatedly executed one or more times until stdin
 is exhausted.
 .Pp
 Spaces, tabs and newlines may be embedded in arguments using single (`'')
@@ -28,12 +32,16 @@ newlines, may be escaped by a backslash.
 .Sh OPTIONS
 .Bl -tag -width Ds
 .It Fl n Ar maxargs
-Use at most maxargs arguments per command line.
+Use at most
+.Ar maxargs
+arguments per command line.
 .It Fl r
 Do not run the command if there are no arguments.  Normally the command is
 executed at least once even if there are no arguments.
 .It Fl E Ar eofstr
-Use eofstr as a logical EOF marker.
+Use
+.Ar eofstr
+as a logical EOF marker.
 .El
 .Sh EXIT STATUS
 xargs exits with one of the following values: