focal (7) groff_ms.7.gz

Provided by: groff_1.22.4-4build1_amd64 bug

NAME

       groff_ms - GNU roff manuscript macro package for formatting documents

SYNOPSIS

       groff -ms [option ...] [input-file ...]
       groff -m ms [option ...] [input-file ...]

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 margins, spacing, headers and footers,
              footnotes, and the base point size for the text.  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 increasing          next heading     1p
                       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 heading                next heading     1
              ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

       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 by the amount of the register QI.  The
       effect is reminiscent of the HTML <BLOCKQUOTE> tag.  The next paragraph or heading returns the margins to
       normal.  QP inserts the vertical space specified in register PD as inter-paragraph spacing.

       A paragraph bracketed between the macros QS and QE has the same appearance as a paragraph started with QP
       and a following paragraph started with LP.  Both QS and QE insert the inter-paragraph spacing specified
       in PD and the text is indented on both sides by the amount of register QI.  The text between QS and QE
       can be split into further paragraphs by using .LP or .PP.

       The XP macro produces an “exdented” paragraph; that is, one with a hanging indent.  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
              Denote  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
              Denote 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
              Denote 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, respectively.

       .[ and .]
              Denote  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 (that is, “1.”) and indents the footnote.

              2      Like 1, without an indent.

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

       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.  The string-setting approach 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:

                 .XX 'left'center'right'

          where XX is one of the foregoing four macros and each of left, center,  and  right  is  text  of  your
          choice.   You can replace the quote (') marks with any character not appearing in the header or footer
          text.

       •  You can 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 [column-width [gutter-width]]
              Multi-column mode.  If you specify no arguments, it is equivalent to  the  2C  macro.   Otherwise,
              column-width is the width of each column and gutter-width 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 6.

       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/1.22.4/tmac/ms.tmac (a wrapper file for s.tmac)
       /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/s.tmac

AUTHORS

       The  GNU  version of the ms macro package was written by James Clark and contributors.  This document was
       (re-)written by Larry Kollar ⟨lkollar@despammed.com⟩.

SEE ALSO

       groff(1), troff(1), tbl(1), pic(1), eqn(1), refer(1)

       Groff: The GNU Implementation of troff, by Trent A. Fisher and Werner Lemberg