Provided by: groff_1.22.3-10_amd64 bug

NAME

       groff_ms - groff ms macros

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

       This manual page describes the GNU version of the ms macros, part of the groff typesetting
       system.  The ms macros are mostly compatible with the documented behavior of the  4.3  BSD
       Unix  ms  macros  (see  Differences  from  troff ms below for details).  The ms macros are
       suitable for reports, letters, books, and technical documentation.

USAGE

       The ms macro package expects files to have a certain amount of  structure.   The  simplest
       documents  can  begin  with  a  paragraph macro and consist of text separated by paragraph
       macros or even blank lines.  Longer documents have a structure as follows:

       Document type
              If you use the RP (report) macro at the beginning of the document, groff prints the
              cover  page information on its own page; otherwise it prints the information on the
              first page with your document text immediately following.  Other  document  formats
              found  in  AT&T  troff  are  specific to AT&T or Berkeley, and are not supported in
              groff ms.

       Format and layout
              By setting number registers, you can change your document's type (font  and  size),
              margins,  spacing,  headers  and  footers,  and  footnotes.   See  Document control
              registers below for more details.

       Cover page
              A cover page consists of a title, and optionally the author's name and institution,
              an abstract, and the date.  See Cover page macros below for more details.

       Body   Following  the  cover  page is your document.  It consists of paragraphs, headings,
              and lists.

       Table of contents
              Longer documents usually include a table of contents, which you can add by  placing
              the TC macro at the end of your document.

   Document control registers
       The  following  table  lists  the  document  control  number  registers.   For the sake of
       consistency, set registers related to margins at the beginning of your document,  or  just
       after the RP macro.

       Margin settings

              Reg.          Definition             Effective      Default
              ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
              PO     Page offset (left margin)   next page        1i
              LL     Line length                 next paragraph   6i
              LT     Header/footer length        next paragraph   6i
              HM     Top (header) margin         next page        1i
              FM     Bottom (footer) margin      next page        1i
              ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

       Text settings

               Reg.                      Definition                        Effective      Default
              ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
              PS       Point size                                        next paragraph   10p
              VS       Line spacing (leading)                            next paragraph   12p
              PSINCR   Point size increment for section headings of      next heading     1p
                       increasing importance
              GROWPS   Heading level beyond which PSINCR is ignored      next heading     0
              ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

       Paragraph settings

                Reg.                      Definition                       Effective      Default
              ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
              PI         Initial indent                                  next paragraph   5n
              PD         Space between paragraphs                        next paragraph   0.3v
              QI         Quoted paragraph indent                         next paragraph   5n
              PORPHANS   Number of initial lines to be kept together     next paragraph   1
              HORPHANS   Number of initial lines to be kept with         next heading     1
                         heading
              ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

       Footnote settings

              Reg.     Definition        Effective      Default
              ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
              FL     Footnote length   next footnote   \n[LL]*5/6
              FI     Footnote indent   next footnote   2n
              FF     Footnote format   next footnote   0
              FPS    Point size        next footnote   \n[PS]-2
              FVS    Vert. spacing     next footnote   \n[FPS]+2
              FPD    Para. spacing     next footnote   \n[PD]/2
              ────────────────────────────────────────────────────

       Other settings

              Reg.               Definition              Effective    Default
              ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
              DD      Display, table, eqn, pic spacing   next para.   0.5v
              MINGW   Minimum width between columns      next page    2n
              ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

   Cover page macros
       Use the following macros to create a cover page for your document in the order shown.

       .RP [no]
              Specifies  the  report  format  for  your  document.   The  report format creates a
              separate cover page.  With no RP macro, groff prints a subset of the cover page  on
              page 1 of your document.

              If  you use the optional no argument, groff prints a title page but does not repeat
              any of the title page information (title, author, abstract, etc.) on page 1 of  the
              document.

       .P1    (P-one) Prints the header on page 1.  The default is to suppress the header.

       .DA [xxx]
              (optional)  Print  the  current  date, or the arguments to the macro if any, on the
              title page (if specified) and in the footers.  This is the default for nroff.

       .ND [xxx]
              (optional) Print the current date, or the arguments to the macro  if  any,  on  the
              title page (if specified) but not in the footers.  This is the default for troff.

       .TL    Specifies  the document title.  Groff collects text following the TL macro into the
              title, until reaching the author name or abstract.

       .AU    Specifies the author's name.  You can specify multiple authors by using an AU macro
              for each author.

       .AI    Specifies the author's institution.  You can specify multiple institutions.

       .AB [no]
              Begins  the  abstract.   The default is to print the word ABSTRACT, centered and in
              italics, above the text of the abstract.  The option no suppresses this heading.

       .AE    End the abstract.

   Paragraphs
       Use the PP macro to create indented paragraphs, and the LP macro to create paragraphs with
       no initial indent.

       The  QP macro indents all text at both left and right margins.  The effect is identical to
       the HTML <BLOCKQUOTE> The next paragraph or heading returns margins to normal.

       The XP macro produces an exdented paragraph.  The first line of the  paragraph  begins  at
       the left margin, and subsequent lines are indented (the opposite of PP).

       For  each  of  the above paragraph types, and also for any list entry introduced by the IP
       macro (described later), the document control register PORPHANS, sets the  minimum  number
       of  lines  which  must  be  printed, after the start of the paragraph, and before any page
       break occurs.  If there is insufficient space remaining on the current page to accommodate
       this  number  of lines, then a page break is forced before the first line of the paragraph
       is printed.

       Similarly, when a section heading (see subsection Headings below) precedes  any  of  these
       paragraph  types,  the  HORPHANS document control register specifies the minimum number of
       lines of the paragraph  which  must  be  kept  on  the  same  page  as  the  heading.   If
       insufficient  space remains on the current page to accommodate the heading and this number
       of lines of paragraph text, then a page break is forced before the heading is printed.

   Headings
       Use headings to create a hierarchical structure for your document.   By  default,  the  ms
       macros  print headings in bold using the same font family and point size as the body text.
       For output devices which support scalable  fonts,  this  behaviour  may  be  modified,  by
       defining the document control registers, GROWPS and PSINCR.

       The following heading macros are available:

       .NH xx Numbered  heading.   The  argument  xx is either a numeric argument to indicate the
              level of the heading, or S xx xx "..."  to set the section number  explicitly.   If
              you  specify  heading  levels  out of sequence, such as invoking .NH 3 after .NH 1,
              groff prints a warning on standard error.

              If the GROWPS register is set to a value greater than the  level  of  the  heading,
              then  the point size of the heading will be increased by PSINCR units over the text
              size specified by the PS register, for each level by which  the  heading  level  is
              less than the value of GROWPS.  For example, the sequence:

                     .nr PS 10
                     .nr GROWPS 3
                     .nr PSINCR 1.5p
                     .
                     .NH 1
                     Top Level Heading
                     .
                     .NH 2
                     Second Level Heading
                     .
                     .NH 3
                     Third Level Heading

              will  cause  “1. Top Level Heading”  to  be  printed in 13pt bold text, followed by
              “1.1. Second Level Heading”      in       11.5pt       bold       text,       while
              “1.1.1. Third Level Heading”,  and  all  more  deeply  nested  heading levels, will
              remain in the 10pt bold text which is specified by the PS register.

              Note that the value stored in PSINCR is interpreted in groff  basic  units;  the  p
              scaling factor should be employed, when assigning a value specified in points.

              The  style  used  to  represent  the  section number, within a numbered heading, is
              controlled by the SN-STYLE string; this may be set to either the SN-DOT or the  SN-
              NO-DOT style, (described below), by aliasing SN-STYLE accordingly.  By default, SN-
              STYLE is initialised by defining the alias

                     .als SN-STYLE SN-DOT

              it may be changed to the SN-NO-DOT style, if preferred, by defining the alternative
              alias

                     .als SN-STYLE SN-NO-DOT

              Any such change becomes effective with the first use of .NH, after the new alias is
              defined.

              After invoking .NH, the assigned heading number is available in the strings  SN-DOT
              (as  it  appears  in  the  default  formatting  style for numbered headings, with a
              terminating period following the number),  and  SN-NO-DOT  (with  this  terminating
              period  omitted).   The  string  SN  is  also  defined,  as an alias for SN-DOT; if
              preferred, the user may redefine it as an alias for  SN-NO-DOT,  by  including  the
              initialisation:

                     .als SN SN-NO-DOT

              at  any  time; the change becomes effective with the next use of .NH, after the new
              alias is defined.

       .SH [xx]
              Unnumbered subheading.  The use of the optional xx argument  is  a  GNU  extension,
              which  adjusts  the  point  size  of  the  unnumbered subheading to match that of a
              numbered heading, introduced using .NH xx with the same value of xx.  For  example,
              given  the  same  settings  for PS, GROWPS and PSINCR, as used in the preceding .NH
              example, the sequence:

                     .SH 2
                     An Unnumbered Subheading

              will print “An Unnumbered Subheading” in 11.5pt bold text.

   Highlighting
       The ms macros provide a variety of methods to highlight or emphasize text:

       .B [txt [post [pre]]]
              Sets its first argument in bold type.  If you  specify  a  second  argument,  groff
              prints it in the previous font after the bold text, with no intervening space (this
              allows you to set punctuation after the highlighted text without  highlighting  the
              punctuation).   Similarly,  it  prints  the third argument (if any) in the previous
              font before the first argument.  For example,

                     .B foo ) (

              prints (foo).

              If you give this macro no arguments, groff prints all text following in bold  until
              the next highlighting, paragraph, or heading macro.

       .R [txt [post [pre]]]
              Sets its first argument in roman (or regular) type.  It operates similarly to the B
              macro otherwise.

       .I [txt [post [pre]]]
              Sets its first argument in italic type.  It  operates  similarly  to  the  B  macro
              otherwise.

       .CW [txt [post [pre]]]
              Sets  its  first argument in a constant width face.  It operates similarly to the B
              macro otherwise.

       .BI [txt [post [pre]]]
              Sets its first argument in bold italic type.  It operates similarly to the B  macro
              otherwise.

       .BX [txt]
              Prints  its  argument  and draws a box around it.  If you want to box a string that
              contains spaces, use a digit-width space (\0).

       .UL [txt [post]]
              Prints its first argument with an underline.  If you  specify  a  second  argument,
              groff prints it in the previous font after the underlined text, with no intervening
              space.

       .LG    Prints all text following in larger type (2 points larger than  the  current  point
              size) until the next font size, highlighting, paragraph, or heading macro.  You can
              specify this macro multiple times to enlarge the point size as needed.

       .SM    Prints all text following in smaller type (2 points smaller than the current  point
              size) until the next type size, highlighting, paragraph, or heading macro.  You can
              specify this macro multiple times to reduce the point size as needed.

       .NL    Prints all text following in the normal point size (that is, the value  of  the  PS
              register).

       \*{text\*}
              Print the enclosed text as a superscript.

   Indents
       You  may  need  to indent sections of text.  A typical use for indents is to create nested
       lists and sublists.

       Use the RS and RE macros to start and end a section of indented text,  respectively.   The
       PI register controls the amount of indent.

       You  can  nest indented sections as deeply as needed by using multiple, nested pairs of RS
       and RE.

   Lists
       The IP macro handles duties for all lists.  Its syntax is as follows:

       .IP [marker [width]]

              The marker is usually a bullet character \(bu for unordered  lists,  a  number  (or
              auto-incrementing  number  register)  for  numbered  lists, or a word or phrase for
              indented (glossary-style) lists.

              The width specifies the indent for the body of each list item.  Once specified, the
              indent remains the same for all list items in the document until specified again.

   Tab stops
       Use  the  ta  request  to  set tab stops as needed.  Use the TA macro to reset tabs to the
       default (every 5n).  You can redefine the TA macro to create a different  set  of  default
       tab stops.

   Displays and keeps
       Use  displays  to  show  text-based examples or figures (such as code listings).  Displays
       turn off filling, so lines of code can be displayed as-is without inserting br requests in
       between  each  line.   Displays  can  be kept on a single page, or allowed to break across
       pages.  The following table shows the display types available.

                   Display macro                             Type of display
                With keep      No keep
              ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
              .DS L            .LD       Left-justified.
              .DS I [indent]   .ID       Indented (default indent in the DI register).
              .DS B            .BD       Block-centered (left-justified, longest line centered).
              .DS C            .CD       Centered.
              .DS R            .RD       Right-justified.
              ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

       Use the DE macro to end any display type.  The macros Ds and De were formerly provided  as
       aliases  for  DS and DE, respectively, but they have been removed, and should no longer be
       used.  X11 documents which actually use Ds and De always load a specific macro  file  from
       the X11 distribution (macros.t) which provides proper definitions for the two macros.

       To  keep  text together on a page, such as a paragraph that refers to a table (or list, or
       other item) immediately following, use the KS and KE macros.  The KS macro begins a  block
       of text to be kept on a single page, and the KE macro ends the block.

       You can specify a floating keep using the KF and KE macros.  If the keep cannot fit on the
       current page, groff holds the contents of the keep and allows text following the keep  (in
       the  source  file)  to  fill  in the remainder of the current page.  When the page breaks,
       whether by an explicit bp request or by reaching the end of the  page,  groff  prints  the
       floating  keep  at the top of the new page.  This is useful for printing large graphics or
       tables that do not need to appear exactly where specified.

       The macros B1 and B2 can be used to enclose a text within a box; .B1 begins the  box,  and
       .B2 ends it.  Text in the box is automatically placed in a diversion (keep).

   Tables, figures, equations, and references
       The  -ms  macros support the standard groff preprocessors: tbl, pic, eqn, and refer.  Mark
       text meant for preprocessors by enclosing it in pairs of tags as follows:

       .TS [H] and .TE
              Denotes a table, to be processed by the tbl preprocessor.  The optional H  argument
              instructs groff to create a running header with the information up to the TH macro.
              Groff prints the header at the beginning of the  table;  if  the  table  runs  onto
              another page, groff prints the header on the next page as well.

       .PS and .PE
              Denotes  a  graphic, to be processed by the pic preprocessor.  You can create a pic
              file by hand, using the AT&T pic manual available on the Web as a reference, or  by
              using a graphics program such as xfig.

       .EQ [align] and .EN
              Denotes  an  equation, to be processed by the eqn preprocessor.  The optional align
              argument can be C, L, or I to center (the default),  left-justify,  or  indent  the
              equation.

       .[ and .]
              Denotes  a  reference, to be processed by the refer preprocessor.  The GNU refer(1)
              manual page provides a comprehensive reference to the preprocessor and  the  format
              of the bibliographic database.

   Footnotes
       The  ms macros provide a flexible footnote system.  You can specify a numbered footnote by
       using the \** escape, followed by the text of the footnote enclosed by FS and FE macros.

       You can specify symbolic footnotes by placing the mark character (such  as  \(dg  for  the
       dagger  character)  in  the  body  text,  followed by the text of the footnote enclosed by
       FS \(dg and FE macros.

       You can control how groff prints footnote numbers by changing the value of the FF register
       as follows:

              0      Prints the footnote number as a superscript; indents the footnote (default).

              1      Prints the number followed by a period (like 1.) and indents the footnote.

              2      Like 1, without an indent.

              3      Like 1, but prints the footnote number as a hanging paragraph.

       You can use footnotes safely within keeps and displays, but avoid using numbered footnotes
       within floating keeps.  You can set a second \** between a \** and its corresponding  .FS;
       as  long  as each .FS occurs after the corresponding \** and the occurrences of .FS are in
       the same order as the corresponding occurrences of \**.

   Headers and footers
       There are three ways to define headers and footers:

       •  Use the strings LH, CH, and RH to set the left, center, and right headers; use LF,  CF,
          and  RF to set the left, center, and right footers.  This works best for documents that
          do not distinguish between odd and even pages.

       •  Use the OH and EH macros to define headers for the odd and even pages; and  OF  and  EF
          macros  to  define  footers  for  the  odd  and even pages.  This is more flexible than
          defining the individual strings.  The syntax for these macros is as follows:

                 .OH 'left'center'right'

          You can replace the quote (') marks with any character not appearing in the  header  or
          footer text.

       You  can  also  redefine  the  PT  and  BT macros to change the behavior of the header and
       footer, respectively.  The header process also calls the (undefined) HD macro after  PT  ;
       you can define this macro if you need additional processing after printing the header (for
       example, to draw a line below the header).

   Margins
       You control margins using a set of  number  registers.   The  following  table  lists  the
       register names and defaults:

              Reg.          Definition             Effective      Default
              ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
              PO     Page offset (left margin)   next page        1i
              LL     Line length                 next paragraph   6i
              LT     Header/footer length        next paragraph   6i
              HM     Top (header) margin         next page        1i
              FM     Bottom (footer) margin      next page        1i
              ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

       Note  that  there  is  no  right  margin setting.  The combination of page offset and line
       length provide the information necessary to derive the right margin.

   Multiple columns
       The ms macros can set text in as many columns as will reasonably fit  on  the  page.   The
       following  macros are available.  All of them force a page break if a multi-column mode is
       already set.  However, if the current mode is single-column, starting a multi-column  mode
       does not force a page break.

       .1C    Single-column mode.

       .2C    Two-column mode.

       .MC [width [gutter]]
              Multi-column  mode.  If you specify no arguments, it is equivalent to the 2C macro.
              Otherwise, width is the width of each  column  and  gutter  is  the  space  between
              columns.  The MINGW number register is the default gutter width.

   Creating a table of contents
       Wrap  text  that you want to appear in the table of contents in XS and XE macros.  Use the
       TC macro to print the table of contents at the end of the  document,  resetting  the  page
       number to i (Roman numeral 1).

       You  can  manually  create  a  table  of contents by specifying a page number as the first
       argument to XS.  Add subsequent entries using the XA macro.  For example:

              .XS 1
              Introduction
              .XA 2
              A Brief History of the Universe
              .XA 729
              Details of Galactic Formation
              ...
              .XE

       Use the PX macro to print a manually-generated table of  contents  without  resetting  the
       page number.

       If  you  give  the  argument  no  to  either PX or TC, groff suppresses printing the title
       specified by the \*[TOC] string.

   Fractional point sizes
       Traditionally, the ms macros only support integer values for the document's font size  and
       vertical  spacing.   To overcome this restriction, values larger than or equal to 1000 are
       taken as fractional values, multiplied by 1000.  For example, ‘.nr PS 10250’ sets the font
       size to 10.25 points.

       The following four registers accept fractional point sizes: PS, VS, FPS, and FVS.

       Due  to  backwards compatibility, the value of VS must be smaller than 40000 (this is 40.0
       points).

DIFFERENCES FROM troff ms

       The groff ms macros are a complete re-implementation, using no original AT&T code.   Since
       they  take  advantage  of  the  extended  features in groff, they cannot be used with AT&T
       troff.  Other differences include:

       •  The internals of groff ms differ from the internals of Unix ms.  Documents that  depend
          upon implementation details of Unix ms may not format properly with groff ms.

       •  The  error-handling  policy  of  groff  ms  is to detect and report errors, rather than
          silently to ignore them.

       •  Some Bell Labs localisms are not implemented by default.   However,  if  you  call  the
          otherwise  undocumented  SC  section-header  macro,  you will enable implementations of
          three other archaic Bell Labs macros: UC, P1, and P2.  These are not enabled by default
          because  (a) they were not documented, in the original ms manual, and (b) the P1 and UC
          macros both collide with different macros in the Berkeley version of ms.

          These emulations are sufficient  to  give  back  the  1976  Kernighan  &  Cherry  paper
          Typesetting Mathematics  User's Guide its section headings, and restore some text that
          had gone missing as arguments of undefined macros.  No warranty express or  implied  is
          given as to how well the typographic details these produce match the original Bell Labs
          macros.

       •  Berkeley localisms, in particular the TM and CT macros, are not implemented.

       •  Groff ms does not work in compatibility mode (e.g., with the -C option).

       •  There is no support for typewriter-like devices.

       •  Groff ms does not provide cut marks.

       •  Multiple line spacing is not supported (use a larger vertical spacing instead).

       •  Some Unix ms documentation says that the CW and GW number  registers  can  be  used  to
          control  the  column  width and gutter width, respectively.  These number registers are
          not used in groff ms.

       •  Macros that cause a reset (paragraphs, headings, etc.) may change the  indent.   Macros
          that  change  the  indent  do  not increment or decrement the indent, but rather set it
          absolutely.  This can cause problems for documents that  define  additional  macros  of
          their own.  The solution is to use not the in request but instead the RS and RE macros.

       •  The  number register GS is set to 1 by the groff ms macros, but is not used by the Unix
          ms macros.  Documents that need to determine whether they are being formatted with Unix
          ms or groff ms should use this number register.

       •  To  make  groff  ms use the default page offset (which also specifies the left margin),
          the PO number register must stay undefined until the first ms macro is evaluated.  This
          implies  that  PO  should not be used early in the document, unless it is changed also:
          Remember that accessing an undefined register automatically defines it.

   Strings
       You can redefine the following strings to adapt the groff ms  macros  to  languages  other
       than English:

                                       String       Default Value
                                     ───────────────────────────────
                                     REFERENCES   References
                                     ABSTRACT     ABSTRACT
                                     TOC          Table of Contents
                                     MONTH1       January
                                     MONTH2       February
                                     MONTH3       March
                                     MONTH4       April
                                     MONTH5       May
                                     MONTH6       June
                                     MONTH7       July
                                     MONTH8       August
                                     MONTH9       September
                                     MONTH10      October
                                     MONTH11      November
                                     MONTH12      December
                                     ───────────────────────────────

       The \*- string produces an em dash — like this.

       Use  \*Q  and \*U to get a left and right typographer's quote, respectively, in troff (and
       plain quotes in nroff).

   Text Settings
       The  FAM  string  sets  the  default  font  family.   If  this  string  is  undefined   at
       initialization, it is set to Times.

       The point size, vertical spacing, and inter-paragraph spacing for footnotes are controlled
       by the number registers FPS, FVS, and FPD; at initialization these  are  set  to  \n(PS-2,
       \n[FPS]+2,  and  \n(PD/2,  respectively.   If  any  of  these registers are defined before
       initialization, the initialization macro does not change them.

       The hyphenation flags (as set by the hy request) are set from the HY register; the default
       is 14.

       Improved  accent  marks  (as originally defined in Berkeley's ms version) are available by
       specifying the AM macro at the beginning of your document.  You can place an  accent  over
       most characters by specifying the string defining the accent directly after the character.
       For example, n\*~ produces an n with a tilde over it.

NAMING CONVENTIONS

       The following conventions are used for names of  macros,  strings  and  number  registers.
       External  names available to documents that use the groff ms macros contain only uppercase
       letters and digits.

       Internally the macros are divided into modules; naming conventions are as follows:

       •  Names used only within one module are of the form module*name.

       •  Names used outside the module in which they are defined are of the form module@name.

       •  Names associated with a particular environment are of the form environment:name;  these
          are used only within the par module.

       •  name does not have a module prefix.

       •  Constructed names used to implement arrays are of the form array!index.

       Thus the groff ms macros reserve the following names:

       •  Names containing the characters *, @, and :.

       •  Names containing only uppercase letters and digits.

FILES

       /usr/share/groff/1.22.3/tmac/ms.tmac (a wrapper file for s.tmac)
       /usr/share/groff/1.22.3/tmac/s.tmac

SEE ALSO

       groff(1), troff(1), tbl(1), pic(1), eqn(1), refer(1), Groff: The GNU Implementation of
       troff by Trent Fisher and Werner Lemberg.

COPYING

       Copyright © 1989-2014 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

       Original manual page by James Clark et al, rewritten by Larry Kollar
       ⟨lkollar@despammed.com⟩.