| DocBook: The Definitive Guide 2.0.17 (Alpha)

# procedure

$Revision: 3588 $

$Date: 2004-05-19 11:56:44 -0400 (Wed, 19 May 2004) $

procedure — A list of operations to be performed in a well-defined sequence

## Synopsis

### Content Model

    procedure ::=
    (blockinfo?,
     (title,titleabbrev?)?,
     (calloutlist|glosslist|bibliolist|itemizedlist|orderedlist|
      segmentedlist|simplelist|variablelist|caution|important|note|
      tip|warning|literallayout|programlisting|programlistingco|
      screen|screenco|screenshot|synopsis|cmdsynopsis|funcsynopsis|
      classsynopsis|fieldsynopsis|constructorsynopsis|
      destructorsynopsis|methodsynopsis|formalpara|para|simpara|
      address|blockquote|graphic|graphicco|mediaobject|mediaobjectco|
      informalequation|informalexample|informalfigure|informaltable|
      equation|example|figure|table|msgset|procedure|sidebar|qandaset|
      task|productionset|constraintdef|anchor|bridgehead|remark|
      highlights|abstract|authorblurb|epigraph|indexterm|beginpage)*,
     step+)

### Attributes

Common attributes

## Description

A `Procedure` encapsulates a task composed of `Step`s (and possibly, `SubSteps`). Procedures are usually performed sequentially, unless individual `Step`s direct the reader explicitly.

Often it is important to assure that certain conditions exist before a procedure is performed, and that the outcome of the procedure matches the expected results. DocBook does not provide explicit semantic markup for these pre- and post-conditions. Instead, they must be described as steps (check the pre-conditions in the first step and the results in the last step), or described outside the body of the procedure.

The `task` element, added to DocBook in V4.3, provides some of this infrastructure.

### Processing expectations

Formatted as a displayed block.

### Parents

These elements contain procedure: `answer`, `appendix`, `article`, `bibliodiv`, `bibliography`, `blockquote`, `callout`, `caution`, `chapter`, `constraintdef`, `example`, `glossary`, `glossdiv`, `important`, `index`, `informalexample`, `listitem`, `msgexplan`, `msgtext`, `note`, `partintro`, `preface`, `procedure`, `qandadiv`, `qandaset`, `question`, `refsect1`, `refsect2`, `refsect3`, `refsection`, `refsynopsisdiv`, `revdescription`, `sect1`, `sect2`, `sect3`, `sect4`, `sect5`, `section`, `setindex`, `sidebar`, `simplesect`, `step`, `task`, `taskprerequisites`, `taskrelated`, `tasksummary`, `tip`, `warning`.

### Children

The following elements occur in procedure: `abstract`, `address`, `anchor`, `authorblurb`, `beginpage`, `bibliolist`, `blockinfo`, `blockquote`, `bridgehead`, `calloutlist`, `caution`, `classsynopsis`, `cmdsynopsis`, `constraintdef`, `constructorsynopsis`, `destructorsynopsis`, `epigraph`, `equation`, `example`, `fieldsynopsis`, `figure`, `formalpara`, `funcsynopsis`, `glosslist`, `graphic`, `graphicco`, `highlights`, `important`, `indexterm`, `informalequation`, `informalexample`, `informalfigure`, `informaltable`, `itemizedlist`, `literallayout`, `mediaobject`, `mediaobjectco`, `methodsynopsis`, `msgset`, `note`, `orderedlist`, `para`, `procedure`, `productionset`, `programlisting`, `programlistingco`, `qandaset`, `remark`, `screen`, `screenco`, `screenshot`, `segmentedlist`, `sidebar`, `simpara`, `simplelist`, `step`, `synopsis`, `table`, `task`, `tip`, `title`, `titleabbrev`, `variablelist`, `warning`.

## Examples

    <!DOCTYPE procedure PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
              "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd">
    <procedure><title>An Example Procedure</title>
    <step>
      <para>
        A Step
      </para>
    </step>
    <step>
      <para>
        Another Step
      </para>
      <substeps>
        <step>
          <para>
            Substeps can be nested indefinitely deep.
          </para>
        </step>
      </substeps>
    </step>
    <step>
      <para>
        A Final Step
      </para>
    </step>
    </procedure>

Procedure 1. An Example Procedure

1. A Step

2. Another Step

   1. Substeps can be nested indefinitely deep.

3. A Final Step

printhistory |  | production

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