# Common Processing Instruction Reference

$Id: pi.xsl 8782 2010-07-27 21:15:17Z mzjn $

## Introduction

This is generated reference documentation for all user-specifiable processing instructions (PIs) in the “common” part of the DocBook XSL stylesheets.

You add these PIs at particular points in a document to cause specific “exceptions” to formatting/output behavior. To make global changes in formatting/output behavior across an entire document, it’s better to do it by setting an appropriate stylesheet parameter (if there is one).

dbchoice_choice Generates a localized choice separator

    dbchoice choice="and"|"or"|string"

### Description

Use the dbchoice choice PI to generate an appropriate localized “choice” separator (for example, `and` or `or`) before the final item in an inline simplelist

This PI is a less-than-ideal hack; support for it may disappear in the future (particularly if and when a more appropriate means for marking up "choice" lists becomes available in DocBook).

### Parameters

choice="and"

  generates a localized `and` separator

choice="or"

  generates a localized `or` separator

choice="string"

  generates a literal string separator

dbtimestamp Inserts a date timestamp

    dbtimestamp format="formatstring" [padding="0"|"1"]

### Description

Use the dbtimestamp PI at any point in a source document to cause a date timestamp (a formatted string representing the current date and time) to be inserted in output of the document.

### Parameters

format="formatstring"

  Specifies format in which the date and time are output

  For details of the content of the format string, see Date and time.

padding="0"|"1"

  Specifies padding behavior; if non-zero, padding is is added

dbtex_delims Generates delimiters around embedded TeX equations in output

    dbtex delims="no"|"yes"

### Description

Use the dbtex delims PI as a child of a textobject containing embedded TeX markup, to cause that markup to be surrounded by `$` delimiter characters in output.

This feature is useful for print/PDF output only if you use the obsolete and now unsupported PassiveTeX XSL-FO engine.

### Parameters

dbtex delims="no"|"yes"

  Specifies whether delimiters are output

### Related Global Parameters

tex.math.delims