refdescriptor

refdescriptor — A description of the topic of a reference page.

Synopsis

refdescriptor ::=

Attributes

Common attributes and common linking attributes.

No additional attributes.

Description

Reference pages (refentrys) are usually identified by a short, succinct topic name, such as the name of a function or command. The refname (or one of the refnames, in the case of a reference page that has several) is generally used as the topic name. When none of the refnames is appropriate, refdescriptor is used to specify the topic name.

A refdescriptor is unnecessary when an appropriate refname can be selected automatically. At least one refname is required, so refdescriptor cannot be used in place of a name, only in addition to it.

Processing expectations

May be formatted inline or as a displayed block, depending on context.

Formatting reference pages may require a fairly sophisticated processing system. Much of the meta-information about a reference page (its name, type, purpose, title, and classification) is stored in wrappers near the beginning of the refentry.

Common presentational features, such as titles and running heads, may require data from several of these wrappers plus some generated text. Other formatting often requires that these elements be reordered.

If a refdescriptor is present, it should be used for the short topic name. This name usually appears in the running header along with the manvolnum in print media. It may also appear in tables of contents and the index.

Attributes

Common attributes and common linking attributes.

any attribute

Any attribute in any other explicit namespace

Parents

These elements contain refdescriptor: refnamediv.

Children

The following elements occur in refdescriptor: text, abbrev, accel, acronym, alt, anchor, annotation, application, author, biblioref, buildtarget, citation, citebiblioid, citerefentry, citetitle, classname, code, command, computeroutput, constant, coref, database, date, editor, email, emphasis (db._emphasis), emphasis (db.emphasis), enumidentifier, enumname, enumvalue, envar, errorcode, errorname, errortext, errortype, exceptionname, filename, firstterm (db._firstterm), firstterm (db.firstterm), footnote, footnoteref, foreignphrase (db._foreignphrase), foreignphrase (db.foreignphrase), function, glossterm (db._glossterm), glossterm (db.glossterm), guibutton, guiicon, guilabel, guimenu, guimenuitem, guisubmenu, hardware, indexterm (db.indexterm.endofrange), indexterm (db.indexterm.singular), indexterm (db.indexterm.startofrange), initializer, inlineequation, inlinemediaobject, interfacename, jobtitle, keycap, keycode, keycombo, keysym, link, literal, macroname, markup, menuchoice, methodname, modifier, mousebutton, nonterminal, olink, ooclass, ooexception, oointerface, option, optional, org, orgname, package, parameter, person, personname, phrase (db._phrase), phrase (db.phrase), productname, productnumber, prompt, property, quote (db._quote), quote (db.quote), remark, replaceable, returnvalue, revnumber, shortcut, subscript, superscript, symbol, systemitem, tag, templatename, termdef, token, trademark, type, typedefname, unionname, uri, userinput, varname, wordasword, xref.

See Also

Related elements: refentrytitle, refname.

Examples

See reference for an example using this element.