Provided by: groff_1.22.4-10_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      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 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