Nested lists in man page

Question

I have a command line parameter that takes a number of flags afterwards, which I would like to have as a list inside the parameter list in the man page.

Currently I am simply making lines of Flag - Description (man page), but this is not ideal for the following reasons:

• Doesn't indent wrapped lines. I can manually indent them but then I have to assume a set console width, which I don't want to do
• Have to rely on double newlines to go to the next line, I'd rather have something like .TP.

Answer 1

• Start the list with .RS, end with .RE.
• Start list items with .IP followed by term. Enclose the term in double quotes if contains multiple words.
• Put the description text in the next line after the list item start.
• Is nestable, so the description may contain further lists.
• Use \fB..\fP for bolding the term instead of .B. (Same for underline – use \fI..\fP instead of .I.)

.RS
.IP \fBA\fP
\- Flag 1
.IP \fBB\fP
\- Flag 2
.IP \fBC\fP
\- A slightly longer flag description that could take up more than the width
of the average console. In fact you'd need a very wide console to read all
this.
.RE

To increase your productivity I suggest to write your man pages in a friendlier format then convert them. Some suitable tools are enumerated in Can I create a man page for a script?.