Provided by: groff_1.22.3-7_amd64 bug

NAME

       groff_man - groff man macros to support generation of man pages

SYNOPSIS

       groff -man [options ...] [files ...]
       groff -m man [options ...] [files ...]

DESCRIPTION

       The  man  macros  used to generate man pages with groff were written by James Clark.  This
       document provides a brief summary of the use of each macro in that package.

OPTIONS

       The man macros understand  the  following  command  line  options  (which  define  various
       registers).

       -rcR=1 This option (the default if in nroff mode) creates a single, very long page instead
              of multiple pages.  Say -rcR=0 to disable it.

       -rC1   If more than one manual page is  given  on  the  command  line,  number  the  pages
              continuously, rather than starting each at 1.

       -rD1   Double-sided printing.  Footers for even and odd pages are formatted differently.

       -rFT=dist
              Set  distance  of  the  footer  relative  to  the bottom of the page if negative or
              relative to the top if positive.  The default is -0.5i.

       -rHY=flags
              Set hyphenation flags.  Possible values are 1 to  hyphenate  without  restrictions,
              2  to  not  hyphenate  the  last  word  on  a page, 4 to not hyphenate the last two
              characters of a word, and 8 to not hyphenate the first two characters  of  a  word.
              These values are additive; the default is 14.

       -rIN=width
              Set  body  text indentation to width.  The default is 7n for nroff, 7.2n for troff.
              For nroff, this value should always be an integer  multiple  of  unit  ‘n’  to  get
              consistent indentation.

       -rLL=line-length
              Set  line  length.   If this option is not given, the line length is set to respect
              any value set by a prior ‘.ll’ request (which must be  in  effect  when  the  ‘.TH’
              macro  is  invoked),  if  this differs from the built-in default for the formatter;
              otherwise it defaults to 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.

              Note that the use of a ‘.ll’ request to initialize the line length is supported for
              backward compatibility with some versions of the man program; direct initialization
              of the ‘LL’ register should always be preferred to the use of such a  request.   In
              particular,  note  that  a  ‘.ll 65n’  request  does  not preserve the normal nroff
              default line length, (the man default initialization to 78n prevails), whereas, the
              ‘-rLL=65n’  option,  or an equivalent ‘.nr LL 65n’ request preceding the use of the
              ‘TH’ macro, does set a line length of 65n.

       -rLT=title-length
              Set title length.  If this option is not given, the title length  defaults  to  the
              line length.

       -rPnnn Enumeration of pages start with nnn rather than with 1.

       -rSxx  Base  document  font  size  is  xx  points  (xx  can  be 10, 11, or 12) rather than
              10 points.

       -rSN=width
              Set sub-subheading indentation to width.  The default is 3n.

       -rXnnn After page nnn, number pages as nnna, nnnb, nnnc, etc.   For  example,  the  option
              ‘-rX2’ produces the following page numbers: 1, 2, 2a, 2b, 2c, etc.

USAGE

       This  section describes the available macros for manual pages.  For further customization,
       put additional macros and requests into the file man.local, which  is  loaded  immediately
       after the man package.

       .EX
       .EE    Example/End  Example.   After  .EX,  filling  is  disabled  and  the font is set to
              constant-width.  This is useful for formatting code,  command,  and  configuration-
              file examples.  The EE macro restores filling and restores the previous font.

              These  macros are defined on many (but not all) legacy Unix systems running classic
              troff.  To be certain your page will be  portable  to  those  systems,  copy  their
              definitions from the an-ext.tmac file of a groff installation.

       .HP [nnn]
              Set up a paragraph with hanging left indentation.  The indentation is set to nnn if
              that argument is supplied (the default unit is ‘n’ if omitted), otherwise it is set
              to  the  previous  indentation  value  specified  with  .TP, .IP, or .HP (or to the
              default value if none of them have been used yet).  Font size and face are reset to
              its  default  values.  The following paragraph illustrates the effect of this macro
              with hanging indentation set to 4 (enclosed by .RS and .RE to set the  left  margin
              temporarily to the current indentation):

              This  is  a  paragraph following an invocation of the HP macro.  As you can see, it
                  produces a paragraph where all lines but the first are indented.

              Use of this presentation-level  macro  is  deprecated.   While  it  is  universally
              portable  to  legacy  Unix  systems,  a  hanging  indentation  cannot  be expressed
              naturally under HTML, and many HTML-based manual viewers simply interpret it  as  a
              starter  for a normal paragraph.  Thus, any information or distinction you tried to
              express with the indentation may be lost.

       .IP [designator] [nnn]
              Set up an indented paragraph, using designator as a tag to mark its beginning.  The
              indentation  is set to nnn if that argument is supplied (the default unit is ‘n’ if
              omitted), otherwise it is set to the previous indentation value specified with .TP,
              .IP,  or  .HP  (or  to the default value if none of them have been used yet).  Font
              size and face of the paragraph (but not the designator) are reset  to  its  default
              values.

              To  start  an  indented  paragraph  with  a  particular  indentation  but without a
              designator, use ‘""’ (two doublequotes) as the second argument.

              For example, the  following  paragraphs  were  all  set  up  with  bullets  as  the
              designator, using ‘.IP \(bu 4’.  The whole block has been enclosed with .RS and .RE
              to set the left margin temporarily to the current indentation value.

              •   IP is one of the three macros used in the man package to format lists.

              •   HP  is  another.   This  macro  produces  a  paragraph  with  a  left   hanging
                  indentation.

              •   TP is another.  This macro produces an unindented label followed by an indented
                  paragraph.

       .LP
       .PP
       .P     These macros are mutual aliases.  Any of them causes a line break  at  the  current
              position,  followed by a vertical space downwards by the amount specified by the PD
              macro.  The font size and shape are reset  to  the  default  value  (normally  10pt
              Roman).   Finally,  the  current  left  margin  and the indentation is reset to the
              default values.

       .RE [nnn]
              This macro moves the left margin back to level nnn,  restoring  the  previous  left
              margin.   If no argument is given, it moves one level back.  The first level (i.e.,
              no call to .RS yet) has number 1, and each call to .RS increases the level by 1.

       .RS [nnn]
              This macro moves the left margin to  the  right  by  the  value  nnn  if  specified
              (default  unit  is  ‘n’);  otherwise  it  is  set to the previous indentation value
              specified with .TP, .IP, or .HP (or to the default value if none of them have  been
              used yet).  The indentation value is then set to the default.

              Calls to the RS macro can be nested.

       .SH [text for a heading]
              Set  up an unnumbered section heading sticking out to the left.  Prints out all the
              text following .SH up to the end of the line (or the text in the next input line if
              there is no argument to .SH) in bold face (or the font specified by the string HF),
              one size larger than the base document size.  Additionally, the left margin and the
              indentation for the following text is reset to the default values.

       .SS [text for a heading]
              Set  up a secondary, unnumbered section heading.  Prints out all the text following
              .SS up to the end of the line (or the text in the next input line if  there  is  no
              argument to .SS) in bold face (or the font specified by the string HF), at the same
              size as the base document size.  Additionally, the left margin and the  indentation
              for the following text is reset to the default values.

       .TH title section [extra1] [extra2] [extra3]
              Set  the title of the man page to title and the section to section, which must take
              on a value between 1 and 8.  The value section may also  have  a  string  appended,
              e.g.  ‘.pm’,  to  indicate  a specific subsection of the man pages.  Both title and
              section are positioned at the left and right in the header line  (with  section  in
              parentheses  immediately  appended to title.  extra1 is positioned in the middle of
              the footer line.  extra2 is positioned at the left in the footer line  (or  at  the
              left  on  even  pages  and  at  the  right on odd pages if double-sided printing is
              active).  extra3 is centered in the header line.

              For HTML output, headers and footers are completely suppressed.

              Additionally, this macro starts a new page; the new line number is 1 again  (except
              if the ‘-rC1’ option is given on the command line) -- this feature is intended only
              for formatting multiple man pages; a single man page should contain exactly one  TH
              macro at the beginning of the file.

       .TP [nnn]
              Set  up  an  indented  paragraph with label.  The indentation is set to nnn if that
              argument is supplied (the default unit is ‘n’ if omitted), otherwise it is  set  to
              the  previous  indentation value specified with .TP, .IP, or .HP (or to the default
              value if none of them have been used yet).

              The first input line of text following this macro is interpreted as a string to  be
              printed  flush-left,  as  it  is appropriate for a label.  It is not interpreted as
              part of a paragraph, so there is no attempt to fill the first line with  text  from
              the  following  input  lines.   Nevertheless,  if  the  label is not as wide as the
              indentation the paragraph starts at the same line (but indented), continuing on the
              following  lines.   If the label is wider than the indentation the descriptive part
              of the paragraph begins on the line following the label, entirely  indented.   Note
              that  neither  font  shape nor font size of the label is set to a default value; on
              the other hand, the rest of the text has default font settings.

              The TP macro is the macro used for the explanations you are just reading.

       .TQ    The TQ macro sets up header continuation for a TP macro.  With it, you can stack up
              any  number of labels (such as in a glossary, or list of commands) before beginning
              the indented paragraph.  For an example, look up the documentation of the  LP,  PP,
              and P macros.

              This  macro  is  not  defined  on legacy Unix systems running classic troff.  To be
              certain your page will be portable to those systems, copy its definition  from  the
              an-ext.tmac file of a groff installation.

       To summarize, the following macros cause a line break with the insertion of vertical space
       (which amount can be changed with the PD macro): SH, SS, TP, TQ, LP (PP, P), IP,  and  HP.
       The macros RS, RE, EX, and EE also cause a break but no insertion of vertical space.

MACROS TO SET FONTS

       The standard font is Roman; the default text size is 10 point.

       .B [text]
              Causes  text  to  appear in bold face.  If no text is present on the line where the
              macro is called the text of the next input line appears in bold face.

       .BI text
              Causes text on the same line to appear alternately in bold face  and  italic.   The
              text must be on the same line as the macro call.  Thus

                     .BI this "word and" that

              would  cause  ‘this’ and ‘that’ to appear in bold face, while ‘word and’ appears in
              italics.

       .BR text
              Causes text on the same line to appear alternately in bold  face  and  roman.   The
              text must be on the same line as the macro call.

       .I [text]
              Causes text to appear in italic.  If no text is present on the line where the macro
              is called the text of the next input line appears in italic.

       .IB text
              Causes text to appear alternately in italic and bold face.  The text must be on the
              same line as the macro call.

       .IR text
              Causes  text  on the same line to appear alternately in italic and roman.  The text
              must be on the same line as the macro call.

       .RB text
              Causes text on the same line to appear alternately in roman  and  bold  face.   The
              text must be on the same line as the macro call.

       .RI text
              Causes  text  on the same line to appear alternately in roman and italic.  The text
              must be on the same line as the macro call.

       .SB [text]
              Causes the text on the same line or the text on the next input line  to  appear  in
              boldface font, one point size smaller than the default font.

       .SM [text]
              Causes  the text on the same line or the text on the next input line to appear in a
              font that is one point size smaller than the default font.

MACROS TO DESCRIBE HYPERLINKS AND EMAIL ADDRESSES

       The following macros are not defined on legacy Unix systems running classic troff.  To  be
       certain  your  page  will  be  portable  to those systems, copy their definitions from the
       an-ext.tmac file of a groff installation.

       Using these macros helps ensure that you get hyperlinks when your manual page is  rendered
       in a browser or other program that is Web-enabled.

       .MT address
       .ME [punctuation]
              Wrap  an  email address.  The argument of .MT is the address; text following, until
              .ME, is a name to be associated with the address.  Any argument to the ME macro  is
              pasted to the end of the link text.  On a device that is not a browser,

                     contact
                     .MT fred.foonly@\:fubar.net
                     Fred Foonly
                     .ME
                     for more information

              usually  displays  like this: “contact Fred Foonly <fred.foonly@fubar.net> for more
              information”.

              The use of \: to insert hyphenless breakpoints is a  groff  extension  and  can  be
              omitted.

       .UR URL
       .UE [punctuation]
              Wrap a World Wide Web hyperlink.  The argument to .UR is the URL; thereafter, lines
              until .UE are collected and used as the link text.  Any argument to the UE macro is
              pasted to the end of the text.  On a device that is not a browser,

                     this is a link to
                     .UR http://\:randomsite.org/\:fubar
                     some random site
                     .UE ,
                     given as an example

              usually  displays  like  this:  “this  is  a  link  to  some  random  site <http://
              randomsite.org/fubar>, given as an example”.

              The use of \: to insert hyphenless breakpoints is a  groff  extension  and  can  be
              omitted.

MACROS TO DESCRIBE COMMAND SYNOPSES

       The  following macros are not defined on legacy Unix systems running classic troff.  To be
       certain your page will be portable to those  systems,  copy  their  definitions  from  the
       an-ext.tmac file of a groff installation.

       These  macros are a convenience for authors.  They also assist automated translation tools
       and help browsers in recognizing command  synopses  and  treating  them  differently  from
       running text.

       .OP key value
              Describe  an  optional  command  argument.   The  arguments  of  this macro are set
              surrounded by option braces in the  default  Roman  font;  the  first  argument  is
              printed with a bold face, while the second argument is typeset as italic.

       .SY command
              Begin  synopsis.   Takes a single argument, the name of a command.  Text following,
              until closed by .YS, is set with a hanging indentation with the  width  of  command
              plus a space.  This produces the traditional look of a Unix command synopsis.

       .YS    This macro restores normal indentation at the end of a command synopsis.

       Here is a real example:

              .SY groff
              .OP \-abcegiklpstzCEGNRSUVXZ
              .OP \-d cs
              .OP \-f fam
              .OP \-F dir
              .OP \-I dir
              .OP \-K arg
              .OP \-L arg
              .OP \-m name
              .OP \-M dir
              .OP \-n num
              .OP \-o list
              .OP \-P arg
              .OP \-r cn
              .OP \-T dev
              .OP \-w name
              .OP \-W name
              .RI [ file
              .IR .\|.\|. ]
              .YS

       produces the following output:

              groff [-abcegiklpstzCEGNRSUVXZ] [-d cs] [-f fam] [-F dir] [-I dir] [-K arg]
                    [-L arg] [-m name] [-M dir] [-n num] [-o list] [-P arg] [-r cn] [-T dev]
                    [-w name] [-W name] [file ...]

       If  necessary,  you  might use br requests to control line breaking.  You can insert plain
       text as well; this looks like the traditional (unornamented) syntax for a required command
       argument or filename.

MISCELLANEOUS

       The  default  indentation  is  7.2n in troff mode and 7n in nroff mode except for grohtml,
       which ignores indentation.

       .AT [system [release]]
              Alter the footer for use with  AT&T  man  pages.   This  command  exists  only  for
              compatibility; don't use it.  See the groff info manual for more.

       .BT    Print the footer string.  Redefine this macro to get control of the footer.

       .DT    Set tabs every 0.5 inches.  Since this macro is always called during a TH macro, it
              makes sense to call it only if the tab positions have been changed.

              Use of this presentation-level macro is deprecated.  It translates poorly to  HTML,
              under  which exact whitespace control and tabbing are not readily available.  Thus,
              information or distinctions that you use .DT to express are likely to be lost.   If
              you  feel  tempted to use it, you should probably be composing a table using tbl(1)
              markup instead.

       .PD [nnn]
              Adjust the empty space before a new paragraph or section.   The  optional  argument
              gives  the  amount  of space (default unit is ‘v’); without parameter, the value is
              reset to its default value (1 line in nroff mode, 0.4v  otherwise).   This  affects
              the macros SH, SS, TP, LP (resp. PP and P), IP, and HP.

              Use  of this presentation-level macro is deprecated.  It translates poorly to HTML,
              under which exact control of inter-paragraph  spacing  is  not  readily  available.
              Thus,  information  or  distinctions  that  you use .PD to express are likely to be
              lost.

       .PT    Print the header string.  Redefine this macro to get control of the header.

       .UC [version]
              Alter the footer for use  with  BSD  man  pages.   This  command  exists  only  for
              compatibility; don't use it.  See the groff info manual for more.

       The following strings are defined:

       \*R    The ‘registered’ sign.

       \*S    Switch back to the default font size.

       \*(lq
       \*(rq  Left and right quote.  This is equal to ‘\(lq’ and ‘\(rq\[cq], respectively.

       \*(HF  The typeface used to print headings and subheadings.  The default is ‘B’.

       \*(Tm  The ‘trademark’ sign.

       If  a  preprocessor like tbl or eqn is needed, it has become common to make the first line
       of the man page look like this:

              '\" word

       Note the single space character after the double quote.  word consists of letters for  the
       needed preprocessors: ‘e’ for eqn, ‘r’ for refer, and ‘t’ for tbl.  Modern implementations
       of the man program read this first line and automatically call the right preprocessor(s).

PORTABILITY AND TROFF REQUESTS

       Since the man macros  consist  of  groups  of  groff  requests,  one  can,  in  principle,
       supplement  the  functionality  of  the  man  macros  with individual groff requests where
       necessary.  See the groff info pages for a complete reference of all requests.

       Note, however, that using raw troff requests is likely to make your page render poorly  on
       the  (increasingly  common)  class of viewers that render it to HTML.  Troff requests make
       implicit assumptions about things like character and page sizes that may break in an  HTML
       environment;  also,  many  of  these  viewers don't interpret the full troff vocabulary, a
       problem that can lead to portions of your text being silently dropped.

       For portability to modern viewers, it is best to write your page entirely in the  requests
       described  on  this page.  Further, it is best to completely avoid those we have described
       as ‘presentation-level’ (.HP, .PD, and .DT).

       The macros we have described as extensions (.EX/.EE, .SY/.OP/.YS,  .UR/.UE,  and  .MT/.ME)
       should  be  used  with  caution,  as  they  may not yet be built in to some viewer that is
       important to your audience.  If in doubt, copy the implementation onto your page.

FILES

       man.tmac
       an.tmac
              These are wrapper files to call andoc.tmac.

       andoc.tmac
              Use this file in case you don't know whether the man macros  or  the  mdoc  package
              should be used.  Multiple man pages (in either format) can be handled.

       an-old.tmac
              Most man macros are contained in this file.

       an-ext.tmac
              The  extension  macro  definitions  for  .SY,  .OP, .YS, .TQ, .EX/.EE, .UR/.UE, and
              .MT/.ME are contained in this file.  It is written in classic troff,  and  released
              for   free  re-use,  and  not  copylefted;  manual  page  authors  concerned  about
              portability to legacy Unix systems are encouraged to copy  these  definitions  into
              their  pages,  and  maintainers of troff or its workalikes are encouraged to re-use
              them.

              Note that the definitions for these macros are read after the call of TH,  so  they
              will  replace macros of the same names given at the beginning of your file.  If you
              must use your own definitions for these macros, they must be  given  after  calling
              TH.

       man.local
              Local changes and customizations should be put into this file.

SEE ALSO

       tbl(1), eqn(1), refer(1), man(1), man(7), groff_mdoc(7)

COPYING

       Copyright © 1999-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

       Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the
       copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

       Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the
       conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is
       distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.

       Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another
       language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission
       notice may be included in translations approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of
       in the original English.

AUTHORS

       This manual page was originally written for the Debian GNU/Linux system by Susan G.
       Kleinmann ⟨sgk@debian.org⟩.

       It was corrected and updated by Werner Lemberg ⟨wl@gnu.org⟩.

       The extension macros were documented (and partly designed) by Eric S. Raymond
       ⟨esr@thyrsus.com⟩; he also wrote the portability advice.