Provided by: groff_1.22.3-10_amd64 
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.