xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"

          xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"

          xmlns:src="http://nwalsh.com/xmlns/litprog/fragment"

          xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"

          version="5.0" xml:id="man.th.title.max.length">

<refmeta>

<refentrytitle>man.th.title.max.length</refentrytitle>

<refmiscinfo class="other" otherclass="datatype">integer</refmiscinfo>

</refmeta>

<refnamediv>

<refname>man.th.title.max.length</refname>

<refpurpose>Maximum length of title in header/footer</refpurpose>

</refnamediv>

<refsynopsisdiv>

<src:fragment xml:id="man.th.title.max.length.frag">

<xsl:param name="man.th.title.max.length">20</xsl:param>

</src:fragment>

</refsynopsisdiv>

<refsection><info><title>Description</title></info>

<para>Specifies the maximum permitted length of the title part of the

man-page <literal>.TH</literal> title line header/footer. If the title

exceeds the maxiumum specified, it is truncated down to the maximum

permitted length.</para>

<refsection><info><title>Details</title></info>

<para>Every man page generated using the DocBook stylesheets has a

title line, specified using the <literal>TH</literal> roff

macro. Within that title line, there is always, at a minimum, a title,

followed by a section value (representing a man "section" -- usually

just a number).</para>

<para>The title and section are displayed, together, in the visible

header of each page. Where in the header they are displayed depends on

OS the man page is viewed on, and on what version of nroff/groff/man

is used for viewing the page. But, at a minimum and across all

systems, the title and section are displayed on the right-hand column

of the header. On many systems -- those with a modern groff, including

Linux systems -- they are displayed twice: both in the left and right

columns of the header.</para>

<para>So if the length of the title exceeds a certain percentage of

the column width in which the page is viewed, the left and right

titles can end up overlapping, making them unreadable, or breaking to

another line, which doesn't look particularly good.</para>

<para>So the stylesheets provide the

<parameter>man.th.title.max.length</parameter> parameter as a means

for truncating titles that exceed the maximum length that can be

viewing properly in a page header.</para>

<para>The default value is reasonable but somewhat arbitrary. If you

have pages with long titles, you may want to experiment with changing

the value in order to achieve the correct aesthetic results.</para>

</refsection>

</refsection>

</refentry>