Provided by: groff_1.23.0-3build2_amd64 
Name
groff - GNU roff language reference
Description
groff is short for GNU roff, a free reimplementation of the AT&T device-independent troff typesetting
system. See roff(7) for a survey of and background on roff systems.
This document is intended as a reference. The primary groff manual, Groff: The GNU Implementation of
troff, by Trent A. Fisher and Werner Lemberg, is a better resource for learners, containing many examples
and much discussion. It is written in Texinfo; you can browse it interactively with “info groff”.
Additional formats, including plain text, HTML, DVI, and PDF, may be available in /usr/share/doc/
groff-base.
groff is also a name for an extended dialect of the roff language. We use “roff” to denote features that
are universal, or nearly so, among implementations of this family. We apply the term “groff” to the
language documented here, the GNU implementation of the overall system, the project that develops that
system, and the command of that name.
GNU troff, installed on this system as troff(1), is the formatter: a program that reads device and font
descriptions (groff_font(5)), interprets the groff language expressed in text input files, and translates
that input into a device-independent output format (groff_out(5)) that is usually then post-processed by
an output driver to produce PostScript, PDF, HTML, DVI, or terminal output.
Input format
Input to GNU troff is organized into lines separated by the Unix newline character (U+000A), and must be
in one of two character encodings it can recognize: IBM code page 1047 on EBCDIC systems, and ISO Latin-1
(8859-1) otherwise. Use of ISO 646-1991:IRV (“US-ASCII”) or (equivalently) the “Basic Latin” subset of
ISO 10646 (“Unicode”) is recommended; see groff_char(7). The preconv(1) preprocessor transforms other
encodings, including UTF-8, to satisfy troff's requirements.
Syntax characters
Several input characters are syntactically significant to groff.
. A dot at the beginning of an input line marks it as a control line. It can also follow the .el and
.nop requests, and the condition in .if, .ie, and .while requests. The control character invokes
requests and calls macros by the name that follows it. The .cc request can change the control
character.
' The neutral apostrophe is the no-break control character, recognized where the control character is.
It suppresses the (first) break implied by the .bp, .cf, .fi, .fl, .in, .nf, .rj, .sp, .ti, and .trf
requests. The requested operation takes effect at the next break. It makes .br nilpotent. The no-
break control character can be changed with the .c2 request. When formatted, “'” may be typeset as a
typographical quotation mark; use the \[aq] special character escape sequence to format a neutral
apostrophe glyph.
" The neutral double quote can be used to enclose arguments to macros and strings, and is required if
those arguments contain space or tab characters. In the .ds, .ds1, .as, and .as1 requests, an
initial neutral double quote in the second argument is stripped off to allow embedding of leading
spaces. To include a double quote inside a quoted argument, use the \[dq] special character escape
sequence (which also serves to typeset the glyph in text).
\ A backslash introduces an escape sequence. The escape character can be changed with the .ec request;
.eo disables escape sequence recognition. Use the \[rs] special character escape sequence to format
a backslash glyph, and \e to typeset the glyph of the current escape character.
( An opening parenthesis is special only in certain escape sequences; when recognized, it introduces an
argument of exactly two characters. groff offers the more flexible square bracket syntax.
[ An opening bracket is special only in certain escape sequences; when recognized, it introduces an
argument (list) of any length, not including a closing bracket.
] A closing bracket is special only when an escape sequence using an opening bracket as an argument
delimiter is being interpreted. It ends the argument (list).
Additionally, the Control+A character (U+0001) in text is interpreted as a leader (see below).
Horizontal white space characters are significant to groff, but trailing spaces on text lines are
ignored.
space Space characters separate arguments in request invocations, macro calls, and string
interpolations. In text, they separate words. Multiple adjacent space characters in text cause
groff to attempt end-of-sentence detection on the preceding word (and trailing punctuation). The
amount of space between words and sentences is controlled by the .ss request. When filling is
enabled (the default), a line may be broken at a space. When adjustment is enabled (the
default), inter-word spaces are expanded until the output line reaches the configured length. An
adjustable but non-breaking space is available with \~. To get a space of fixed width, use one
of the escape sequences ‘\ ’ (the escape character followed by a space), \0, \|, \^, or \h; see
section “Escape sequences” below.
newline In text, a newline puts an inter-word space onto the output and, if filling is enabled, triggers
end-of-sentence recognition on the preceding text. See section “Line continuation” below.
tab A tab character in text causes the drawing position to advance to the next defined tab stop.
Tabs and leaders
The formatter interprets input horizontal tab characters (“tabs”) and Control+A characters (“leaders”)
into movements to the next tab stop. Tabs simply move to the next tab stop; leaders place enough periods
to fill the space. Tab stops are by default located every half inch measured from the drawing position
corresponding to the beginning of the input line; see section “Page geometry” of roff(7). Tabs and
leaders do not cause breaks and therefore do not interrupt filling. Tab stops can be configured with the
ta request, and tab and leader glyphs with the tc and lc requests, respectively.
Line continuation
When filling is enabled, input and output line breaks generally do not correspond. The roff language
therefore distinguishes input and output line continuation.
A backslash \ immediately followed by a newline, sometimes discussed as \newline, suppresses the effects
of that newline on the input. The next input line thus retains the classification of its predecessor as
a control or text line. \newline is useful for managing line lengths in the input during document
maintenance; you can break an input line in the middle of a request invocation, macro call, or escape
sequence. Input line continuation is invisible to the formatter, with two exceptions: the | operator
recognizes the new input line, and the input line counter register .c is incremented.
The \c escape sequence continues an output line. Nothing on the input line after it is formatted. In
contrast to \newline, a line after \c is treated as a new input line, so a control character is
recognized at its beginning. The visual results depend on whether filling is enabled. An intervening
control line that causes a break overrides \c, flushing out the pending output line in the usual way.
The register .int contains a positive value if the last output line was continued with \c; this datum is
associated with the environment.
Colors
groff supports color output with a variety of color spaces and up to 16 bits per channel. Some devices,
particularly terminals, may be more limited. When color support is enabled, two colors are current at
any given time: the stroke color, with which glyphs, rules (lines), and geometric objects like circles
and polygons are drawn, and the fill color, which can be used to paint the interior of a closed geometric
figure. The color, defcolor, gcolor, and fcolor requests; \m and \M escape sequences; and .color, .m,
and .M registers exercise color support.
Each output device has a color named “default”, which cannot be redefined. A device's default stroke and
fill colors are not necessarily the same. For the dvi, html, pdf, ps, and xhtml output devices, troff
automatically loads a macro file defining many color names at startup. By the same mechanism, the
devices supported by grotty(1) recognize the eight standard ISO 6429/ECMA-48 color names (also known
vulgarly as “ANSI colors”).
Measurements
Numeric parameters that specify measurements are expressed as integers or decimal fractions with an
optional scaling unit suffixed. A scaling unit is a letter that immediately follows the last digit of a
number. Digits after the decimal point are optional.
Measurements are scaled by the scaling unit and stored internally (with any fractional part discarded) in
basic units. The device resolution can therefore be obtained by storing a value of “1i” to a register.
The only constraint on the basic unit is that it is at least as small as any other unit.
u Basic unit.
i Inch; defined as 2.54 centimeters.
c Centimeter.
p Point; a typesetter's unit used for measuring type size. There are 72 points to an inch.
P Pica; another typesetter's unit. There are 6 picas to an inch and 12 points to a pica.
s, z Scaled points and multiplication by the output device's sizescale parameter, respectively.
f Multiplication by 65,536; scales decimal fractions in the interval [0, 1] to 16-bit unsigned
integers.
The magnitudes of other scaling units depend on the text formatting parameters in effect.
m Em; an em is equal to the current type size in points.
n En; an en is one-half em.
v Vee; distance between text baselines.
M Hundredth of an em.
Motion quanta
An output device's basic unit u is not necessarily its smallest addressable length; u can be smaller to
avoid problems with integer roundoff. The minimum distances that a device can work with in the
horizontal and vertical directions are termed its motion quanta, stored in the .H and .V registers,
respectively. Measurements are rounded to applicable motion quanta. Half-quantum fractions round toward
zero.
Default units
A general-purpose register (one created or updated with the nr request; see section “Registers” below) is
implicitly dimensionless, or reckoned in basic units if interpreted in a measurement context. But it is
convenient for many requests and escape sequences to infer a scaling unit for an argument if none is
specified. An explicit scaling unit (not after a closing parenthesis) can override an undesirable
default. Effectively, the default unit is suffixed to the expression if a scaling unit is not already
present. GNU troff's use of integer arithmetic should also be kept in mind; see below.
Numeric expressions
A numeric expression evaluates to an integer. The following operators are recognized.
+ addition
- subtraction
* multiplication
/ truncating division
% modulus
────────────────────────────────────────────
unary + assertion, motion, incrementation
unary - negation, motion, decrementation
────────────────────────────────────────────
; scaling
>? maximum
<? minimum
────────────────────────────────────────────
< less than
> greater than
<= less than or equal
>= greater than or equal
= equal
== equal
────────────────────────────────────────────
& logical conjunction (“and”)
: logical disjunction (“or”)
! logical complementation (“not”)
────────────────────────────────────────────
( ) precedence
────────────────────────────────────────────
| boundary-relative motion
troff provides a set of mathematical and logical operators familiar to programmers—as well as some
unusual ones—but supports only integer arithmetic. (Provision is made for interpreting and reporting
decimal fractions in certain cases.) The internal data type used for computing results is usually a
32-bit signed integer, which suffices to represent magnitudes within a range of ±2 billion. (If that's
not enough, see groff_tmac(5) for the 62bit.tmac macro package.)
Arithmetic infix operators perform a function on the numeric expressions to their left and right; they
are + (addition), - (subtraction), * (multiplication), / (truncating division), and % (modulus).
Truncating division rounds to the integer nearer to zero, no matter how large the fractional portion.
Overflow and division (or modulus) by zero are errors and abort evaluation of a numeric expression.
Arithmetic unary operators operate on the numeric expression to their right; they are - (negation) and +
(assertion—for completeness; it does nothing). The unary minus must often be used with parentheses to
avoid confusion with the decrementation operator, discussed below.
The sign of the modulus of operands of mixed signs is determined by the sign of the first. Division and
modulus operators satisfy the following property: given a dividend a and a divisor b, a quotient q formed
by “(a / b)” and a remainder r by “(a % b)”, then qb + r = a.
GNU troff's scaling operator, used with parentheses as (c;e), evaluates a numeric expression e using c as
the default scaling unit. If c is omitted, scaling units are ignored in the evaluation of e. GNU troff
also provides a pair of operators to compute the extrema of two operands: >? (maximum) and <? (minimum).
Comparison operators comprise < (less than), > (greater than), <= (less than or equal), >= (greater than
or equal), and = (equal). == is a synonym for =. When evaluated, a comparison is replaced with “0” if
it is false and “1” if true. In the roff language, positive values are true, others false.
We can operate on truth values with the logical operators & (logical conjunction or “and”) and : (logical
disjunction or “or”). They evaluate as comparison operators do. A logical complementation (“not”)
operator, !, works only within “if”, “ie”, and “while” requests. Furthermore, ! is recognized only at
the beginning of a numeric expression not contained by another numeric expression. In other words, it
must be the “outermost” operator. Including it elsewhere in the expression produces a warning in the
“number” category (see troff(1)), and its expression evaluates false. This unfortunate limitation
maintains compatibility with AT&T troff. Test a numeric expression for falsity by comparing it to a
false value.
The roff language has no operator precedence: expressions are evaluated strictly from left to right, in
contrast to schoolhouse arithmetic. Use parentheses ( ) to impose a desired precedence upon
subexpressions.
For many requests and escape sequences that cause motion on the page, the unary operators + and - work
differently when leading a numeric expression. They then indicate a motion relative to the drawing
position: positive is down in vertical contexts, right in horizontal ones.
+ and - are also treated differently by the following requests and escape sequences: bp, in, ll, pl, pn,
po, ps, pvs, rt, ti, \H, \R, and \s. Here, leading plus and minus signs serve as incrementation and
decrementation operators, respectively. To negate an expression, subtract it from zero or include the
unary minus in parentheses with its argument.
A leading | operator indicates a motion relative not to the drawing position but to a boundary. For
horizontal motions, the measurement specifies a distance relative to a drawing position corresponding to
the beginning of the input line. By default, tab stops reckon movements in this way. Most escape
sequences do not; | tells them to do so. For vertical motions, the | operator specifies a distance from
the first text baseline on the page or in the current diversion, using the current vertical spacing.
The \B escape sequence tests its argument for validity as a numeric expression.
A register interpolated as an operand in a numeric expression must have an Arabic format; luckily, this
is the default.
Due to the way arguments are parsed, spaces are not allowed in numeric expressions unless the
(sub)expression containing them is surrounded by parentheses.
Identifiers
An identifier labels a GNU troff datum such as a register, name (macro, string, or diversion), typeface,
color, special character, character class, environment, or stream. Valid identifiers consist of one or
more ordinary characters. An ordinary character is an input character that is not the escape character,
a leader, tab, newline, or invalid as GNU troff input.
Invalid input characters are subset of control characters (from the sets “C0 Controls” and “C1 Controls”
as Unicode describes them). When troff encounters one in an identifier, it produces a warning in
category “input” (see section “Warnings” in troff(1)). They are removed during interpretation: an
identifier “foo”, followed by an invalid character and then “bar”, is processed as “foobar”.
On a machine using the ISO 646, 8859, or 10646 character encodings, invalid input characters are 0x00,
0x08, 0x0B, 0x0D–0x1F, and 0x80–0x9F. On an EBCDIC host, they are 0x00–0x01, 0x08, 0x09, 0x0B,
0x0D–0x14, 0x17–0x1F, and 0x30–0x3F. Some of these code points are used by troff internally, making it
non-trivial to extend the program to accept UTF-8 or other encodings that use characters from these
ranges.
An identifier with a closing bracket (“]”) in its name can't be accessed with bracket-form escape
sequences that expect an identifier as a parameter. Similarly, the identifier “(” can't be interpolated
except with bracket forms.
If you begin a macro, string, or diversion name with either of the characters “[” or “]”, you foreclose
use of the refer(1) preprocessor, which recognizes “.[” and “.]” as bibliographic reference delimiters.
The escape sequence \A tests its argument for validity as an identifier.
How GNU troff handles the interpretation of an undefined identifier depends on the context. There is no
way to invoke an undefined request; such syntax is interpreted as a macro call instead. If the
identifier is interpreted as a string, macro, or diversion, troff emits a warning in category “mac”,
defines it as empty, and interpolates nothing. If the identifier is interpreted as a register, troff
emits a warning in category “reg”, initializes it to zero, and interpolates that value. See section
“Warnings” in troff(1), and subsection “Interpolating registers” and section “Strings” below. Attempting
to use an undefined typeface, style, special character, color, character class, environment, or stream
generally provokes an error diagnostic.
Identifiers for requests, macros, strings, and diversions share one name space; special characters and
character classes another. No other object types do.
Control characters
Control characters are recognized only at the beginning of an input line, or at the beginning of the
branch of a control structure request; see section “Control structures” below.
A few requests cause a break implicitly; use the no-break control character to prevent the break. Break
suppression is its sole behavioral distinction. Employing the no-break control character to invoke
requests that don't cause breaks is harmless but poor style.
The control character “.” and the no-break control character “'” can be changed with the cc and c2
requests, respectively. Within a macro definition, register .br indicates the control character used to
call it.
Invoking requests
A control character is optionally followed by tabs and/or spaces and then an identifier naming a request
or macro. The invocation of an unrecognized request is interpreted as a macro call. Defining a macro
with the same name as a request replaces the request. Deleting a request name with the rm request makes
it unavailable. The als request can alias requests, permitting them to be wrapped or non-destructively
replaced. See section “Strings” below.
There is no inherent limit on argument length or quantity. Most requests take one or more arguments, and
ignore any they do not expect. A request may be separated from its arguments by tabs or spaces, but only
spaces can separate an argument from its successor. Only one between arguments is necessary; any excess
is ignored. GNU troff does not allow tabs for argument separation.
Generally, a space within a request argument is not relevant, not meaningful, or is supported by bespoke
provisions, as with the tl request's delimiters. Some requests, like ds, interpret the remainder of the
control line as a single argument. See section “Strings” below.
Spaces and tabs immediately after a control character are ignored. Commonly, authors structure the
source of documents or macro files with them.
Calling macros
If a macro of the desired name does not exist when called, it is created, assigned an empty definition,
and a warning in category “mac” is emitted. Calling an undefined macro does end a macro definition
naming it as its end macro (see section “Writing macros” below).
To embed spaces within a macro argument, enclose the argument in neutral double quotes ‘"’. Horizontal
motion escape sequences are sometimes a better choice for arguments to be formatted as text.
The foregoing raises the question of how to embed neutral double quotes or backslashes in macro arguments
when those characters are desired as literals. In GNU troff, the special character escape sequence \[rs]
produces a backslash and \[dq] a neutral double quote.
In GNU troff's AT&T compatibility mode, these characters remain available as \(rs and \(dq, respectively.
AT&T troff did not consistently define these special characters, but its descendants can be made to
support them. See groff_font(5). If even that is not feasible, see the “Calling Macros” section of the
groff Texinfo manual for the complex macro argument quoting rules of AT&T troff.
Using escape sequences
Whereas requests must occur on control lines, escape sequences can occur intermixed with text and may
appear in arguments to requests, macros, and other escape sequences. An escape sequence is introduced by
the escape character, a backslash \. The next character selects the escape's function.
Escape sequences vary in length. Some take an argument, and of those, some have different syntactical
forms for a one-character, two-character, or arbitrary-length argument. Others accept only an arbitrary-
length argument. In the former scheme, a one-character argument follows the function character
immediately, an opening parenthesis “(” introduces a two-character argument (no closing parenthesis is
used), and an argument of arbitrary length is enclosed in brackets “[]”. In the latter scheme, the user
selects a delimiter character. A few escape sequences are idiosyncratic, and support both of the
foregoing conventions (\s), designate their own termination sequence (\?), consume input until the next
newline (\!, \", \#), or support an additional modifier character (\s again, and \n).
If an escape character is followed by a character that does not identify a defined operation, the escape
character is ignored (producing a diagnostic of the “escape” warning category, which is not enabled by
default) and the following character is processed normally.
Escape sequence interpolation is of higher precedence than escape sequence argument interpretation. This
rule affords flexibility in using escape sequences to construct parameters to other escape sequences.
The escape character can be interpolated (\e). Requests permit the escape mechanism to be deactivated
(eo) and restored, or the escape character changed (ec), and to save and restore it (ecs and ecr).
Delimiters
Some escape sequences that require parameters use delimiters. The neutral apostrophe ' is a popular
choice and shown in this document. The neutral double quote " is also commonly seen. Letters, numerals,
and leaders can be used. Punctuation characters are likely better choices, except for those defined as
infix operators in numeric expressions; see below.
The following escape sequences don't take arguments and thus are allowed as delimiters: \space, \%, \|,
\^, \{, \}, \', \`, \-, \_, \!, \?, \), \/, \,, \&, \:, \~, \0, \a, \c, \d, \e, \E, \p, \r, \t, and \u.
However, using them this way is discouraged; they can make the input confusing to read.
A few escape sequences, \A, \b, \o, \w, \X, and \Z, accept a newline as a delimiter. Newlines that serve
as delimiters continue to be recognized as input line terminators. Use of newlines as delimiters in
escape sequences is also discouraged.
Finally, the escape sequences \D, \h, \H, \l, \L, \N, \R, \s, \S, \v, and \x prohibit many delimiters.
• the numerals 0–9 and the decimal point “.”
• the (single-character) operators +-/*%<>=&:()
• any escape sequences other than \%, \:, \{, \}, \', \`, \-, \_, \!, \/, \c, \e, and \p
Delimiter syntax is complex and flexible primarily for historical reasons; the foregoing restrictions
need be kept in mind mainly when using groff in AT&T compatibility mode. GNU troff keeps track of the
nesting depth of escape sequence interpolations, so the only characters you need to avoid using as
delimiters are those that appear in the arguments you input, not any that result from interpolation.
Typically, ' works fine. See section “Implementation differences” in groff_diff(7).
Dummy characters
As discussed in roff(7), the first character on an input line is treated specially. Further, formatting
a glyph has many consequences on formatter state (see section “Environments” below). Occasionally, we
want to escape this context or embrace some of those consequences without actually rendering a glyph to
the output. \& interpolates a dummy character, which is constitutive of output but invisible. Its
presence alters the interpretation context of a subsequent input character, and enjoys several
applications: preventing the insertion of extra space after an end-of-sentence character, preventing
interpretation of a control character at the beginning of an input line, preventing kerning between two
glyphs, and permitting the tr request to remap a character to “nothing”. \) works as \& does, except
that it does not cancel a pending end-of-sentence state.
Control structures
groff has “if” and “while” control structures like other languages. However, the syntax for grouping
multiple input lines in the branches or bodies of these structures is unusual.
They have a common form: the request name is (except for .el “else”) followed by a conditional expression
cond-expr; the remainder of the line, anything, is interpreted as if it were an input line. Any quantity
of spaces between arguments to requests serves only to separate them; leading spaces in anything are
therefore not seen. anything effectively cannot be omitted; if cond-expr is true and anything is empty,
the newline at the end of the control line is interpreted as a blank line (and therefore a blank text
line).
It is frequently desirable for a control structure to govern more than one request, macro call, or text
line, or a combination of the foregoing. The opening and closing brace escape sequences \{ and \}
perform such grouping. Brace escape sequences outside of control structures have no meaning and produce
no output.
\{ should appear (after optional spaces and tabs) immediately subsequent to the request's conditional
expression. \} should appear on a line with other occurrences of itself as necessary to match \{
sequences. It can be preceded by a control character, spaces, and tabs. Input after any quantity of \}
sequences on the same line is processed only if all the preceding conditions to which they correspond are
true. Furthermore, a \} closing the body of a .while request must be the last such escape sequence on an
input line.
Conditional expressions
The .if, .ie, and .while requests test the truth values of numeric expressions. They also support
several additional Boolean operators; the members of this expanded class are termed conditional
expressions; their truth values are as shown below.
cond-expr... ...is true if...
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
's1's2' s1 produces the same formatted output as s2.
c g a glyph g is available.
d m a string, macro, diversion, or request m is defined.
e the current page number is even.
F f a font named f is available.
m c a color named c is defined.
n the formatter is in nroff mode.
o the current page number is odd.
r n a register named n is defined.
S s a font style named s is available.
t the formatter is in troff mode.
v n/a (historical artifact; always false).
If the first argument to an .if, .ie, or .while request begins with a non-alphanumeric character apart
from ! (see below); it performs an output comparison test. Shown first in the table above, the output
comparison operator interpolates a true value if formatting its comparands s1 and s2 produces the same
output commands. Other delimiters can be used in place of the neutral apostrophes. troff formats s1 and
s2 in separate environments; after the comparison, the resulting data are discarded. The resulting glyph
properties, including font family, style, size, and slant, must match, but not necessarily the requests
and/or escape sequences used to obtain them. Motions must match in orientation and magnitude to within
the applicable horizontal or vertical motion quantum of the device, after rounding.
Surround the comparands with \? to avoid formatting them; this causes them to be compared character by
character, as with string comparisons in other programming languages. Since comparands protected with \?
are read in copy mode, they need not even be valid groff syntax. The escape character is still lexically
recognized, however, and consumes the next character.
The above operators can't be combined with most others, but a leading “!”, not followed immediately by
spaces or tabs, complements an expression. Spaces and tabs are optional immediately after the “c”, “d”,
“F”, “m”, “r”, and “S” operators, but right after “!”, they end the predicate and the conditional
evaluates true. (This bizarre behavior maintains compatibility with AT&T troff.)
Syntax reference conventions
In the following request and escape sequence specifications, most argument names were chosen to be
descriptive. A few denotations may require introduction.
c denotes a single input character.
font a font either specified as a font name or a numeric mounting position.
anything all characters up to the end of the line, to the ending delimiter for the escape
sequence, or within \{ and \}. Escape sequences may generally be used freely in
anything, except when it is read in copy mode.
message is a character sequence to be emitted on the standard error stream. Special character
escape sequences are not interpreted.
n is a numeric expression that evaluates to a non-negative integer.
npl is a numeric expression constituting a count of subsequent productive input lines; that
is, those that directly produce formatted output. Text lines produce output, as do
control lines containing requests like .tl or escape sequences like \D. Macro calls are
not themselves productive, but their interpolated contents can be.
±N is a numeric expression with a meaning dependent on its sign.
If a numeric expression presented as ±N starts with a ‘+’ sign, an increment in the amount of of N is
applied to the value applicable to the request or escape sequence. If it starts with a ‘-’ sign, a
decrement of magnitude N is applied instead. Without a sign, N replaces any existing value. A leading
minus sign in N is always interpreted as a decrementation operator, not an algebraic sign. To assign a
register a negative value or the negated value of another register, enclose it with its operand in
parentheses or subtract it from zero. If a prior value does not exist (the register was undefined), an
increment or decrement is applied as if to 0.
Request short reference
Not all details of request behavior are outlined here. See the groff Texinfo manual or, for features new
to GNU troff, groff_diff(7).
.ab Abort processing; exit with failure status.
.ab message
Abort processing; write message to the standard error stream and exit with failure status.
.ad Enable output line alignment and adjustment using the mode stored in \n[.j].
.ad c Enable output line alignment and adjustment in mode c (c=b,c,l,n,r). Sets \n[.j].
.af register c
Assign format c to register, where c is “i”, “I”, “a”, “A”, or a sequence of decimal digits
whose quantity denotes the minimum width in digits to be used when the register is
interpolated. “i” and “a” indicate Roman numerals and basic Latin alphabetics, respectively,
in the lettercase specified. The default is 0.
.aln new old
Create alias (additional name) new for existing register named old.
.als new old
Create alias (additional name) new for existing request, string, macro, or diversion old.
.am macro Append to macro until .. is encountered.
.am macro end
Append to macro until .end is called.
.am1 macro
Same as .am but with compatibility mode switched off during macro expansion.
.am1 macro end
Same as .am but with compatibility mode switched off during macro expansion.
.ami macro
Append to a macro whose name is contained in the string macro until .. is encountered.
.ami macro end
Append to a macro indirectly. macro and end are strings whose contents are interpolated for
the macro name and the end macro, respectively.
.ami1 macro
Same as .ami but with compatibility mode switched off during macro expansion.
.ami1 macro end
Same as .ami but with compatibility mode switched off during macro expansion.
.as name Create string name with empty contents; no operation if name already exists.
.as name contents
Append contents to string name.
.as1 string
.as1 string contents
As .as, but with compatibility mode disabled when contents interpolated.
.asciify diversion
Unformat ASCII characters, spaces, and some escape sequences in diversion.
.backtrace
Write the state of the input stack to the standard error stream. See the -b option of
groff(1).
.bd font Stop emboldening font font.
.bd font n
Embolden font by overstriking its glyphs offset by n-1 units. See register .b.
.bd special-font font
Stop emboldening special-font when font is selected.
.bd special-font font n
Embolden special-font, overstriking its glyphs offset by n-1 units when font is selected. See
register .b.
.blm Unset blank line macro (trap). Restore default handling of blank lines.
.blm name Set blank line macro (trap) to name.
.box Stop directing output to current diversion; any pending output line is discarded.
.box name Direct output to diversion name, omitting a partially collected line.
.boxa Stop appending output to current diversion; any pending output line is discarded.
.boxa name
Append output to diversion name, omitting a partially collected line.
.bp Break page and start a new one.
.bp ±N Break page, starting a new one numbered ±N.
.br Break output line.
.brp Break output line; adjust if applicable.
.break Break out of a while loop.
.c2 Reset no-break control character to “'”.
.c2 o Recognize ordinary character o as no-break control character.
.cc Reset control character to ‘.’.
.cc o Recognize ordinary character o as the control character.
.ce Break, center the output of the next productive input line without filling, and break again.
.ce npl Break, center the output of the next npl productive input lines without filling, then break
again. If npl ≤ 0, stop centering.
.cf file Copy contents of file without formatting to the (top-level) diversion.
.cflags n c1 c2 ...
Assign properties encoded by n to characters c1, c2, and so on.
.ch name Unplant page location trap name.
.ch name vpos
Change page location trap name planted by .wh by moving its location to vpos (default scaling
unit v).
.char c contents
Define ordinary or special character c as contents.
.chop object
Remove the last character from the macro, string, or diversion named object.
.class name c1 c2 ...
Define a (character) class name comprising the characters or range expressions c1, c2, and so
on.
.close stream
Close the stream.
.color Enable output of color-related device-independent output commands.
.color n If n is zero, disable output of color-related device-independent output commands; otherwise,
enable them.
.composite from to
Map glyph name from to glyph name to while constructing a composite glyph name.
.continue Finish the current iteration of a while loop.
.cp Enable compatibility mode.
.cp n If n is zero, disable compatibility mode, otherwise enable it.
.cs font n m
Set constant character width mode for font to n/36 ems with em m.
.cu Continuously underline the output of the next productive input line.
.cu npl Continuously underline the output of the next npl productive input lines. If npl=0, stop
continuously underlining.
.da Stop appending output to current diversion.
.da name Append output to diversion name.
.de macro Define or redefine macro until “..” occurs at the start of a control line in the current
conditional block.
.de macro end
Define or redefine macro until end is invoked or called at the start of a control line in the
current conditional block.
.de1 macro
As .de, but disable compatibility mode during macro expansion.
.de1 macro end
As “.de macro end”, but disable compatibility mode during macro expansion.
.defcolor ident scheme color-component ...
Define a color named ident. scheme identifies a color space and determines the number of
required color-components; it must be one of “rgb” (three components), “cmy” (three), “cmyk”
(four), or “gray” (one). “grey” is accepted as a synonym of “gray”. The color components can
be encoded as a single hexadecimal value starting with # or ##. The former indicates that each
component is in the range 0–255 (0–FF), the latter the range 0–65,535 (0–FFFF). Alternatively,
each color component can be specified as a decimal fraction in the range 0–1, interpreted using
a default scaling unit of “f”, which multiplies its value by 65,536 (but clamps it at 65,535).
Each output device has a color named “default”, which cannot be redefined. A device's default
stroke and fill colors are not necessarily the same.
.dei macro
Define macro indirectly. As .de, but use interpolation of string macro as the name of the
defined macro.
.dei macro end
Define macro indirectly. As .de, but use interpolations of strings macro and end as the names
of the defined and end macros.
.dei1 macro
As .dei, but disable compatibility mode during macro expansion.
.dei1 macro end
As .dei macro end, but disable compatibility mode during macro expansion.
.device anything
Write anything, read in copy mode, to troff output as a device control command. An initial
neutral double quote is stripped to allow embedding of leading spaces.
.devicem name
Write contents of macro or string name to troff output as a device control command.
.di Stop directing output to current diversion.
.di name Direct output to diversion name.
.do name ...
Interpret the string, request, diversion, or macro name (along with any arguments) with
compatibility mode disabled. Compatibility mode is restored (only if it was active) when the
expansion of name is interpreted.
.ds name Create empty string name.
.ds name contents
Create a string name containing contents.
.ds1 name
.ds1 name contents
As .ds, but with compatibility mode disabled when contents interpolated.
.dt Clear diversion trap.
.dt vertical-position name
Set the diversion trap to macro name at vertical-position (default scaling unit v).
.ec Recognize \ as the escape character.
.ec o Recognize ordinary character o as the escape character.
.ecr Restore escape character saved with .ecs.
.ecs Save the escape character.
.el anything
Interpret anything as if it were an input line if the conditional expression of the
corresponding .ie request was false.
.em name Call macro name after the end of input.
.eo Disable the escape mechanism in interpretation mode.
.ev Pop environment stack, returning to previous one.
.ev env Push current environment onto stack and switch to env.
.evc env Copy environment env to the current one.
.ex Exit with successful status.
.fam Set default font family to previous value.
.fam name Set default font family to name.
.fc Disable field mechanism.
.fc a Set field delimiter to a and pad glyph to space.
.fc a b Set field delimiter to a and pad glyph to b.
.fchar c contents
Define fallback character (or glyph) c as contents.
.fcolor Restore previous fill color.
.fcolor c Set fill color to c.
.fi Enable filling of output lines; a pending output line is broken. Sets \n[.u].
.fl Flush output buffer.
.fp pos id
Mount font with font description file name id at non-negative position n.
.fp pos id font-description-file-name
Mount font with font-description-file-name as name id at non-negative position n.
.fschar f c anything
Define fallback character (or glyph) c for font f as string anything.
.fspecial font
Reset list of special fonts for font to be empty.
.fspecial font s1 s2 ...
When the current font is font, then the fonts s1, s2, ... are special.
.ft
.ft P Select previous font mounting position (abstract style or font); same as \f[] or \fP.
.ft font Select typeface font, which can be a mounting position, abstract style, or font name; same as
\f[font] escape sequence. font cannot be P.
.ftr font1 font2
Translate font1 to font2.
.fzoom font
.fzoom font 0
Stop magnifying font.
.fzoom font z
Set zoom factor for font to z (in thousandths; default: 1000).
.gcolor Restore previous stroke color.
.gcolor c Set stroke color to c.
.hc Reset the hyphenation character to \% (the default).
.hc char Change the hyphenation character to char.
.hcode c1 code1 [c2 code2] ...
Set the hyphenation code of character c1 to code1, that of c2 to code2, and so on.
.hla lang Set the hyphenation language to lang.
.hlm n Set the maximum quantity of consecutive hyphenated lines to n.
.hpf pattern-file
Read hyphenation patterns from pattern-file.
.hpfa pattern-file
Append hyphenation patterns from pattern-file.
.hpfcode a b [c d] ...
Define mappings for character codes in hyphenation pattern files read with .hpf and .hpfa.
.hw word ...
Define hyphenation overrides for each word; a hyphen “-” indicates a hyphenation point.
.hy Set automatic hyphenation mode to 1.
.hy 0 Disable automatic hyphenation; same as .nh.
.hy mode Set automatic hyphenation mode to mode; see section “Hyphenation” below.
.hym Set the (right) hyphenation margin to 0 (the default).
.hym length
Set the (right) hyphenation margin to length (default scaling unit m).
.hys Set the hyphenation space to 0 (the default).
.hys hyphenation-space
Suppress automatic hyphenation in adjustment modes “b” or “n” if the line can be justified with
the addition of up to hyphenation-space to each inter-word space (default scaling unit m).
.ie cond-expr anything
If cond-expr is true, interpret anything as if it were an input line, otherwise skip to a
corresponding .el request.
.if cond-expr anything
If cond-expr is true, then interpret anything as if it were an input line.
.ig Ignore input (except for side effects of \R on auto-incrementing registers) until “..” occurs
at the start of a control line in the current conditional block.
.ig end Ignore input (except for side effects of \R on auto-incrementing registers) until .end is
called at the start of a control line in the current conditional block.
.in Set indentation amount to previous value.
.in ±N Set indentation to ±N (default scaling unit m).
.it Cancel any pending input line trap.
.it npl name
Set (or replace) an input line trap in the environment, calling macro name, after the next npl
productive input lines have been read. Lines interrupted with the \c escape sequence are
counted separately.
.itc Cancel any pending input line trap.
.itc npl name
As .it, except that input lines interrupted with the \c escape sequence are not counted.
.kern Enable pairwise kerning.
.kern n If n is zero, disable pairwise kerning, otherwise enable it.
.lc Unset leader repetition character.
.lc c Set leader repetition character to c (default: “.”).
.length reg anything
Compute the number of characters of anything and store the count in the register reg.
.linetabs Enable line-tabs mode (calculate tab positions relative to beginning of output line).
.linetabs 0
Disable line-tabs mode.
.lf n Set number of next input line to n.
.lf n file
Set number of next input line to n and input file name to file.
.lg m Set ligature mode to m (0 = disable, 1 = enable, 2 = enable for two-letter ligatures only).
.ll Set line length to previous value. Does not affect a pending output line.
.ll ±N Set line length to ±N (default length 6.5i, default scaling unit m). Does not affect a pending
output line.
.lsm Unset the leading space macro (trap). Restore default handling of lines with leading spaces.
.lsm name Set the leading space macro (trap) to name.
.ls Change to the previous value of additional intra-line skip.
.ls n Set additional intra-line skip value to n, i.e., n-1 blank lines are inserted after each text
output line.
.lt Set length of title lines to previous value.
.lt ±N Set length of title lines (default length 6.5i, default scaling unit m).
.mc Cease writing margin character.
.mc c Begin writing margin character c to the right of each output line.
.mc c d Begin writing margin character c on each output line at distance d to the right of the right
margin (default distance 10p, default scaling unit m).
.mk Mark vertical drawing position in an internal register; see .rt.
.mk register
Mark vertical drawing position in register.
.mso file As .so, except that file is sought in the tmac directories.
.msoquiet file
As .mso, but no warning is emitted if file does not exist.
.na Disable output line adjustment.
.ne Break page if distance to next page location trap is less than one vee.
.ne d Break page if distance to next page location trap is less than distance d (default scaling
unit v).
.nf Disable filling of output lines; a pending output line is broken. Clears \n[.u].
.nh Disable automatic hyphenation; same as “.hy 0”.
.nm Deactivate output line numbering.
.nm ±N
.nm ±N m
.nm ±N m s
.nm ±N m s i
Activate output line numbering: number the next output line ±N, writing numbers every m lines,
with s numeral widths (\0) between the line number and the output (default 1), and indenting
the line number by i numeral widths (default 0).
.nn Suppress numbering of the next output line to be numbered with nm.
.nn n Suppress numbering of the next n output lines to be numbered with nm. If n=0, cancel
suppression.
.nop anything
Interpret anything as if it were an input line.
.nr reg ±N
Define or update register reg with value N.
.nr reg ±N I
Define or update register reg with value N and auto-increment I.
.nroff Make the conditional expressions n true and t false.
.ns Enable no-space mode, ignoring .sp requests until a glyph or \D primitive is output. See .rs.
.nx Immediately jump to end of current file.
.nx file Stop formatting current file and begin reading file.
.open stream file
Open file for writing and associate the stream named stream with it. Unsafe request; disabled
by default.
.opena stream file
As .open, but append to file. Unsafe request; disabled by default.
.os Output vertical distance that was saved by the .sv request.
.output contents
Emit contents directly to intermediate output, allowing leading whitespace if string starts
with " (which is stripped off).
.pc Reset page number character to ‘%’.
.pc c Page number character.
.pev Report the state of the current environment followed by that of all other environments to the
standard error stream.
.pi program
Pipe output to program (nroff only). Unsafe request; disabled by default.
.pl Set page length to default 11i. The current page length is stored in register .p.
.pl ±N Change page length to ±N (default scaling unit v).
.pm Report, to the standard error stream, the names and sizes in bytes of defined macros, strings,
and diversions.
.pn ±N Next page number N.
.pnr Write the names and contents of all defined registers to the standard error stream.
.po Change to previous page offset. The current page offset is available in register .o.
.po ±N Page offset N.
.ps Return to previous type size.
.ps ±N Set/increase/decrease the type size to/by N scaled points (a non-positive resulting type size
is set to 1 u); also see \s[±N].
.psbb file
Retrieve the bounding box of the PostScript image found in file, which must conform to Adobe's
Document Structuring Conventions (DSC). See registers llx, lly, urx, ury.
.pso command-line
Execute command-line with popen(3) and interpolate its output. Unsafe request; disabled by
default.
.ptr Report names and positions of all page location traps to the standard error stream.
.pvs Change to previous post-vertical line spacing.
.pvs ±N Change post-vertical line spacing according to ±N (default scaling unit p).
.rchar c1 c2 ...
Remove definition of each ordinary or special character c1, c2, ... defined by a .char, .fchar,
or .schar request.
.rd prompt
Read insertion.
.return Return from a macro.
.return anything
Return twice, namely from the macro at the current level and from the macro one level higher.
.rfschar f c1 c2 ...
Remove the font-specific definitions of glyphs c1, c2, ... for font f.
.rj npl Break, right-align the output of the next productive input line without filling, then break
again.
.rj npl Break, right-align the output of the next npl productive input lines without filling, then
break again. If npl ≤ 0, stop right-aligning.
.rm name Remove request, macro, diversion, or string name.
.rn old new
Rename request, macro, diversion, or string old to new.
.rnn reg1 reg2
Rename register reg1 to reg2.
.rr ident Remove register ident.
.rs Restore spacing; disable no-space mode. See .ns.
.rt Return (upward only) to vertical position marked by .mk on the current page.
.rt N Return (upward only) to vertical position N (default scaling unit v).
.schar c contents
Define global fallback character (or glyph) c as contents.
.shc Reset the soft hyphen character to \[hy].
.shc c Set the soft hyphen character to c.
.shift n In a macro definition, left-shift arguments by n positions.
.sizes s1 s2 ... sn [0]
Set available type sizes similarly to the sizes directive in a DESC file. Each si is
interpreted in units of scaled points (z).
.so file Replace the request's control line with the contents of file, “sourcing” it.
.soquiet file
As .so, but no warning is emitted if file does not exist.
.sp Break and move the next text baseline down by one vee, or until springing a page location trap.
.sp dist Break and move the next text baseline down by dist, or until springing a page location trap
(default scaling unit v). A negative dist will not reduce the position of the text baseline
below zero. Prefixing dist with the | operator moves to a position relative to the page top
for positive N, and the bottom if N is negative; in all cases, one line height (vee) is added
to dist. dist is ignored inside a diversion.
.special Reset global list of special fonts to be empty.
.special s1 s2 ...
Fonts s1, s2, etc. are special and are searched for glyphs not in the current font.
.spreadwarn
Toggle the spread warning on and off (the default) without changing its value.
.spreadwarn N
Emit a break warning if the additional space inserted for each space between words in an
adjusted output line is greater than or equal to N. A negative N is treated as 0. The default
scaling unit is m. At startup, .spreadwarn is inactive and N is 3 m.
.ss n Set minimal inter-word spacing to n 12ths of current font's space width.
.ss n m As “.ss n”, and set additional inter-sentence space to m 12ths of current font's space width.
.stringdown stringvar
Replace each byte in the string named stringvar with its lowercase version.
.stringup stringvar
Replace each byte in the string named stringvar with its uppercase version.
.sty n style
Associate abstract style with font position n.
.substring str start [end]
Replace the string named str with its substring bounded by the indices start and end,
inclusive. Negative indices count backwards from the end of the string.
.sv As .ne, but save 1 v for output with .os request.
.sv d As .ne, but save distance d for later output with .os request (default scaling unit v).
.sy command-line
Execute command-line with system(3). Unsafe request; disabled by default.
.ta n1 n2 ... nn T r1 r2 ... rn
Set tabs at positions n1, n2, ..., nn, then set tabs at nn+m×rn+r1 through nn+m×rn+rn, where m
increments from 0, 1, 2, ... to the output line length. Each n argument can be prefixed with
a “+” to place the tab stop ni at a distance relative to the previous, n(i-1). Each argument
ni or ri can be suffixed with a letter to align text within the tab column bounded by tab stops
i and i+1; “L” for left-aligned (the default), “C” for centered, and “R” for right-aligned.
.tag
.taga Reserved for internal use.
.tc Unset tab repetition character.
.tc c Set tab repetition character to c (default: none).
.ti ±N Temporarily indent next output line (default scaling unit m).
.tkf font s1 n1 s2 n2
Enable track kerning for font.
.tl 'left'center'right'
Format three-part title.
.tm message
Write message, followed by a newline, to the standard error stream.
.tm1 message
As .tm, but an initial neutral double quote in message is removed, allowing it to contain
leading spaces.
.tmc message
As .tm1, without emitting a newline.
.tr abcd...
Translate ordinary or special characters a to b, c to d, and so on prior to output.
.trf file Transparently output the contents of file. Unlike .cf, invalid input characters in file are
rejected.
.trin abcd...
As .tr, except that .asciify ignores the translation when a diversion is interpolated.
.trnt abcd...
As .tr, except that translations are suppressed in the argument to \!.
.troff Make the conditional expressions t true and n false.
.uf font Set underline font used by .ul to font.
.ul Underline (italicize in troff mode) the output of the next productive input line.
.ul npl Underline (italicize in troff mode) the output of the next npl productive input line. If
npl=0, stop underlining.
.unformat diversion
Unformat space characters and tabs in diversion, preserving font information.
.vpt Enable vertical position traps.
.vpt 0 Disable vertical position traps.
.vs Change to previous vertical spacing.
.vs ±N Set vertical spacing to ±N (default scaling unit p).
.warn Enable all warning categories.
.warn 0 Disable all warning categories.
.warn n Enable warnings in categories whose codes sum to n; see troff(1).
.warnscale su
Set scaling unit used in certain warnings to su (one of u, i, c, p, or P; default: i).
.wh vpos Remove visible page location trap at vpos (default scaling unit v).
.wh vpos name
Plant macro name as page location trap at vpos (default scaling unit v), removing any visible
trap already there.
.while cond-expr anything
Repeatedly execute anything unless and until cond-expr evaluates false.
.write stream anything
Write anything to the stream named stream.
.writec stream anything
Similar to .write without emitting a final newline.
.writem stream xx
Write contents of macro or string xx to the stream named stream.
Escape sequence short reference
The escape sequences \", \#, \$, \*, \?, \a, \e, \n, \t, \g, \V, and \newline are interpreted even in
copy mode.
\" Comment. Everything up to the end of the line is ignored.
\# Comment. Everything up to and including the next newline is ignored.
\*s Interpolate string with one-character name s.
\*(st Interpolate string with two-character name st.
\*[string]
Interpolate string with name string (of arbitrary length).
\*[string arg ...]
Interpolate string with name string (of arbitrary length), taking arg ... as arguments.
\$0 Interpolate name by which currently executing macro was invoked.
\$n Interpolate macro or string parameter numbered n (1≤n≤9).
\$(nn Interpolate macro or string parameter numbered nn (01≤nn≤99).
\$[nnn]
Interpolate macro or string parameter numbered nnn (nnn≥1).
\$* Interpolate concatenation of all macro or string parameters, separated by spaces.
\$@ Interpolate concatenation of all macro or string parameters, with each surrounded by double quotes
and separated by spaces.
\$^ Interpolate concatenation of all macro or string parameters as if they were arguments to the .ds
request.
\' is a synonym for \[aa], the acute accent special character.
\` is a synonym for \[ga], the grave accent special character.
\- is a synonym for \[-], the minus sign special character.
\_ is a synonym for \[ul], the underrule special character.
\% Control hyphenation.
\! Transparent line. The remainder of the input line is interpreted (1) when the current diversion
is read; or (2) if in the top-level diversion, by the postprocessor (if any).
\?anything\?
Transparently embed anything, read in copy mode, in a diversion, or unformatted as an output
comparand in a conditional expression.
\space Move right one word space.
\~ Insert an unbreakable, adjustable space.
\0 Move right by the width of a numeral in the current font.
\| Move one-sixth em to the right on typesetters.
\^ Move one-twelfth em to the right on typesetters.
\& Interpolate a dummy character.
\) Interpolate a dummy character that is transparent to end-of-sentence recognition.
\/ Apply italic correction. Use between an immediately adjacent oblique glyph on the left and an
upright glyph on the right.
\, Apply left italic correction. Use between an immediately adjacent upright glyph on the left and
an oblique glyph on the right.
\: Non-printing break point (similar to \%, but never produces a hyphen glyph).
\newline
Continue current input line on the next.
\{ Begin conditional input.
\} End conditional input.
\(gl Interpolate glyph with two-character name gl.
\[glyph]
Interpolate glyph with name glyph (of arbitrary length).
\[base-char comp ...]
Interpolate composite glyph constructed from base-char and each component comp.
\[charnnn]
Interpolate glyph of eight-bit encoded character nnn, where 0≤nnn≤255.
\[unnnn[n[n]]]
Interpolate glyph of Unicode character with code point nnnn[n[n]] in uppercase hexadecimal.
\[ubase-char[_combining-component]...]
Interpolate composite glyph from Unicode character base-char and combining-components.
\a Interpolate a leader in copy mode.
\A'anything'
Interpolate 1 if anything is a valid identifier, and 0 otherwise.
\b'string'
Build bracket: pile a sequence of glyphs corresponding to each character in string vertically, and
center it vertically on the output line.
\B'anything'
Interpolate 1 if anything is a valid numeric expression, and 0 otherwise.
\c Continue output line at next input line.
\C'glyph'
As \[glyph], but compatible with other troff implementations.
\d Move downward ½ em on typesetters.
\D'drawing-command'
See subsection “Drawing commands” below.
\e Interpolate the escape character.
\E As \e, but not interpreted in copy mode.
\fP Select previous font mounting position (abstract style or font); same as “.ft” or “.ft P”.
\fF Select font mounting position, abstract style, or font with one-character name or one-digit
position F. F cannot be P.
\f(ft Select font mounting position, abstract style, or font with two-character name or two-digit
position ft.
\f[font]
Select font mounting position, abstract style, or font with arbitrarily long name or position
font. font cannot be P.
\f[] Select previous font mounting position (abstract style or font).
\Ff Set default font family to that with one-character name f.
\F(fm Set default font family to that with two-character name fm.
\F[fam]
Set default font family to that with arbitrarily long name fam.
\F[] Set default font family to previous value.
\gr Interpolate format of register with one-character name r.
\g(rg Interpolate format of register with two-character name rg.
\g[reg]
Interpolate format of register with arbitrarily long name reg.
\h'N' Horizontally move the drawing position by N ems (or specified units); | may be used. Positive
motion is rightward.
\H'N' Set height of current font to N scaled points (or specified units).
\kr Mark horizontal position in one-character register name r.
\k(rg Mark horizontal position in two-character register name rg.
\k[reg]
Mark horizontal position in register with arbitrarily long name reg.
\l'N[c]'
Draw horizontal line of length N with character c (default: \[ru]; default scaling unit m).
\L'N[c]'
Draw vertical line of length N with character c (default: \[br]; default scaling unit v).
\mc Set stroke color to that with one-character name c.
\m(cl Set stroke color to that with two-character name cl.
\m[color]
Set stroke color to that with arbitrarily long name color.
\m[] Restore previous stroke color.
\Mc Set fill color to that with one-character name c.
\M(cl Set fill color to that with two-character name cl.
\M[color]
Set fill color to that with arbitrarily long name color.
\M[] Restore previous fill color.
\nr Interpolate contents of register with one-character name r.
\n(rg Interpolate contents of register with two-character name rg.
\n[reg]
Interpolate contents of register with arbitrarily long name reg.
\N'n' Interpolate glyph with index n in the current font.
\o'abc...'
Overstrike centered glyphs of characters a, b, c, and so on.
\O0 At the outermost suppression level, disable emission of glyphs and geometric objects to the output
driver.
\O1 At the outermost suppression level, enable emission of glyphs and geometric objects to the output
driver.
\O2 At the outermost suppression level, enable glyph and geometric primitive emission to the output
driver and write to the standard error stream the page number, four bounding box registers
enclosing glyphs written since the previous \O escape sequence, the page offset, line length,
image file name (if any), horizontal and vertical device motion quanta, and input file name.
\O3 Begin a nested suppression level.
\O4 End a nested suppression level.
\O[5Pfile]
At the outermost suppression level, write the name file to the standard error stream at
position P, which must be one of l, r, c, or i.
\p Break output line at next word boundary; adjust if applicable.
\r Move “in reverse” (upward) 1 em.
\R'name ±N'
Set, increment, or decrement register name by N.
\s±N Set/increase/decrease the type size to/by N scaled points. N must be a single digit; 0 restores
the previous type size. (In compatibility mode only, a non-zero N must be in the range 4–39.)
Otherwise, as .ps request.
\s(±N
\s±(N Set/increase/decrease the type size to/by N scaled points; N is a two-digit number ≥1. As .ps
request.
\s[±N]
\s±[N]
\s'±N'
\s±'N' Set/increase/decrease the type size to/by N scaled points. As .ps request.
\S'N' Slant output glyphs by N degrees; the direction of text flow is positive.
\t Interpolate a tab in copy mode.
\u Move upward ½ em on typesetters.
\v'N' Vertically move the drawing position by N vees (or specified units); | may be used. Positive
motion is downward.
\Ve Interpolate contents of environment variable with one-character name e.
\V(ev Interpolate contents of environment variable with two-character name ev.
\V[env]
Interpolate contents of environment variable with arbitrarily long name env.
\w'anything'
Interpolate width of anything, formatted in a dummy environment.
\x'N' Increase vertical spacing of pending output line by N vees (or specified units; negative before,
positive after).
\X'anything'
Write anything to troff output as a device control command. Within anything, the escape sequences
\&, \), \%, and \: are ignored; \space and \~ are converted to single space characters; and \\ has
its escape character stripped. So that the basic Latin subset of the Unicode character set can be
reliably encoded in anything, the special character escape sequences \-, \[aq], \[dq], \[ga],
\[ha], \[rs], and \[ti] are mapped to basic Latin characters; see groff_char(7). For this
transformation, character translations and special character definitions are ignored.
\Yn Write contents of macro or string n to troff output as a device control command.
\Y(nm Write contents of macro or string nm to troff output as a device control command.
\Y[name]
Write contents of macro or string name to troff output as a device control command.
\zc Format character c with zero width—without advancing the drawing position.
\Z'anything'
Save the drawing position, format anything, then restore it.
Drawing commands
Drawing commands direct the output device to render geometrical objects rather than glyphs. Specific
devices may support only a subset, or may feature additional ones; consult the man page for the output
driver in use. Terminal devices in particular implement almost none.
Rendering starts at the drawing position; when finished, the drawing position is left at the rightmost
point of the object, even for closed figures, except where noted. GNU troff draws stroked (outlined)
objects with the stroke color, and shades filled ones with the fill color. See section “Colors” above.
Coordinates h and v are horizontal and vertical motions relative to the drawing position or previous
point in the command. The default scaling unit for horizontal measurements (and diameters of circles)
is m; for vertical ones, v.
Circles, ellipses, and polygons can be drawn stroked or filled. These are independent properties; if you
want a filled, stroked figure, you must draw the same figure twice using each drawing command. A filled
figure is always smaller than an outlined one because the former is drawn only within its defined area,
whereas strokes have a line thickness (set with \D't').
\D'~ h1 v1 ... hn vn'
Draw B-spline to each point in sequence, leaving drawing position at (hn, vn).
\D'a hc vc h v'
Draw circular arc centered at (hc, vc) counterclockwise from the drawing position to a point
(h, v) relative to the center. (hc, vc) is adjusted to the point nearest the perpendicular
bisector of the arc's chord.
\D'c d'
Draw circle of diameter d with its leftmost point at the drawing position.
\D'C d'
As \D'C', but the circle is filled.
\D'e h v'
Draw ellipse of width h and height v with its leftmost point at the drawing position.
\D'E h v'
As \D'e', but the ellipse is filled.
\D'l h v'
Draw line from the drawing position to (h, v).
\D'p h1 v1 ... hn vn'
Draw polygon with vertices at drawing position and each point in sequence. GNU troff closes the
polygon by drawing a line from (hn, vn) back to the initial drawing position. Afterward, the
drawing position is left at (hn, vn).
\D'P h1 v1 ... hn vn'
As \D'p', but the polygon is filled.
\D't n'
Set stroke thickness of geometric objects to to n basic units. A zero n selects the minimal
supported thickness. A negative n selects a thickness proportional to the type size; this is the
default.
Device control commands
The .device and .devicem requests, and \X and \Y escape sequences, enable documents to pass information
directly to a postprocessor. These are useful for exercising device-specific capabilities that the groff
language does not abstract or generalize; such functions include the embedding of hyperlinks and image
files. Device-specific functions are documented in each output driver's man page.
Strings
groff supports strings primarily for user convenience. Conventionally, if one would define a macro only
to interpolate a small amount of text, without invoking requests or calling any other macros, one defines
a string instead. Only one string is predefined by the language.
\*[.T] Contains the name of the output device (for example, “utf8” or “pdf”).
The .ds request creates a string with a specified name and contents. If the identifier named by .ds
already exists as an alias, the target of the alias is redefined. If .ds is called with only one
argument, the named string becomes empty. Otherwise, troff stores the remainder of the control line in
copy mode; see subsection “Copy mode” below.
The \* escape sequence dereferences a string's name, interpolating its contents. If the name does not
exist, it is defined as empty, nothing is interpolated, and a warning in category “mac” is emitted. See
section “Warnings” in troff(1). The bracketed interpolation form accepts arguments that are handled as
macro arguments are; see section “Calling macros” above. In contrast to macro calls, however, if a
closing bracket ] occurs in a string argument, that argument must be enclosed in double quotes. \* is
interpreted even in copy mode. When defining strings, argument interpolations must be escaped if they
are to reference parameters from the calling context; see section “Parameters” below.
An initial neutral double quote " in the string contents is stripped to allow embedding of leading
spaces. Any other " is interpreted literally, but it is wise to use the special character escape
sequence \[dq] instead if the string might be interpolated as part of a macro argument; see section
“Calling macros” above. Strings are not limited to a single input line of text. \newline works just as
it does elsewhere. The resulting string is stored without the newlines. Care is therefore required when
interpolating strings while filling is disabled. It is not possible to embed a newline in a string that
will be interpreted as such when the string is interpolated. To achieve that effect, use \* to
interpolate a macro instead.
The .as request is similar to .ds but appends to a string instead of redefining it. If .as is called
with only one argument, no operation is performed (beyond dereferencing the string).
Because strings are similar to macros, they too can be defined to suppress AT&T troff compatibility mode
enablement when interpolated; see section “Compatibility mode” below. The .ds1 request defines a string
that suspends compatibility mode when the string is later interpolated. .as1 is likewise similar to .as,
with compatibility mode suspended when the appended portion of the string is later interpolated.
Caution: Unlike other requests, the second argument to these requests consumes the remainder of the input
line, including trailing spaces. Ending string definitions (and appendments) with a comment, even an
empty one, prevents unwanted space from creeping into them during source document maintenance.
Several requests exist to perform rudimentary string operations. Strings can be queried (.length) and
modified (.chop, .substring, .stringup, .stringdown), and their names can be manipulated through
renaming, removal, and aliasing (.rn, .rm, .als).
When a request, macro, string, or diversion is aliased, redefinitions and appendments “write through”
alias names. To replace an alias with a separately defined object, you must use the rm request on its
name first.
Registers
In the roff language, numbers can be stored in registers. Many built-in registers exist, supplying
anything from the date to details of formatting parameters. You can also define your own. See section
“Identifiers” above for information on constructing a valid name for a register.
Define registers and update their values with the nr request or the \R escape sequence.
Registers can also be incremented or decremented by a configured amount at the time they are
interpolated. The value of the increment is specified with a third argument to the .nr request, and a
special interpolation syntax, \n± is used to alter and then retrieve the register's value. Together,
these features are called auto-increment. (A negative auto-increment can be considered an “auto-
decrement”.)
Many predefined registers are available. In the following presentation, the register interpolation
syntax \n[name] is used to refer to a register name to clearly distinguish it from a string or request
name. The register name space is separate from that used for requests, macros, strings, and diversions.
Bear in mind that the symbols \n[] are not part of the register name.
Read-only registers
Predefined registers whose identifiers start with a dot are read-only. Many are Boolean-valued. Some
are string-valued, meaning that they interpolate text. A register name (without the dot) is often
associated with a request of the same name; exceptions are noted.
\n[.$] Count of arguments passed to currently interpolated macro or string.
\n[.a] Amount of extra post-vertical line space; see \x.
\n[.A] Approximate output is being formatted (Boolean-valued); see troff -a option.
\n[.b] Font emboldening offset; see .bd.
\n[.br] The normal control character was used to call the currently interpolated macro (Boolean-
valued).
\n[.c] Input line number; see .lf and register “c.”.
\n[.C] Compatibility mode is enabled (Boolean-valued); see .cp. Always false when processing
.do; see register .cp.
\n[.cdp] Depth of last glyph formatted in the environment; positive if glyph extends below the
baseline.
\n[.ce] Count of output lines remaining to be centered.
\n[.cht] Height of last glyph formatted in the environment; positive if glyph extends above the
baseline.
\n[.color] Color output is enabled (Boolean-valued).
\n[.cp] Within .do, the saved value of compatibility mode; see register .C.
\n[.csk] Skew of the last glyph formatted in the environment; skew is how far to the right of the
center of a glyph the center of an accent over that glyph should be placed.
\n[.d] Vertical drawing position in diversion.
\n[.ev] Name of environment (string-valued).
\n[.f] Mounting position of selected font; see .ft and \f.
\n[.F] Name of input file (string-valued); see .lf.
\n[.fam] Name of default font family (string-valued).
\n[.fn] Resolved name of selected font (string-valued); see .ft and \f.
\n[.fp] Next non-zero free font mounting position index.
\n[.g] Always true in GNU troff (Boolean-valued).
\n[.h] Text baseline high-water mark on page or in diversion.
\n[.H] Horizontal motion quantum of output device in basic units.
\n[.height] Font height; see \H.
\n[.hla] Hyphenation language in environment (string-valued).
\n[.hlc] Count of immediately preceding consecutive hyphenated lines in environment.
\n[.hlm] Maximum quantity of consecutive hyphenated lines allowed in environment.
\n[.hy] Automatic hyphenation mode in environment.
\n[.hym] Hyphenation margin in environment.
\n[.hys] Hyphenation space adjustment threshold in environment.
\n[.i] Indentation amount; see .in.
\n[.in] Indentation amount applicable to the pending output line; see .ti.
\n[.int] Previous output line was “interrupted” or continued with \c (Boolean-valued).
\n[.j] Adjustment mode encoded as an integer; see .ad and .na. Do not interpret or perform
arithmetic on its value.
\n[.k] Horizontal drawing position relative to indentation.
\n[.kern] Pairwise kerning is enabled (Boolean-valued).
\n[.l] Line length; see .ll.
\n[.L] Line spacing; see .ls.
\n[.lg] Ligature mode.
\n[.linetabs] Line-tabs mode is enabled (Boolean-valued).
\n[.ll] Line length applicable to the pending output line.
\n[.lt] Title length.
\n[.m] Stroke color (string-valued); see .gcolor and \m. Empty if the stroke color is the
default.
\n[.M] Fill color (string-valued); see .fcolor and \M. Empty if the fill color is the default.
\n[.n] Length of formatted output on previous output line.
\n[.ne] Amount of vertical space required by last .ne that caused a trap to be sprung; also see
register .trunc.
\n[.nm] Output line numbering is enabled (Boolean-valued).
\n[.nn] Count of output lines remaining to have numbering suppressed.
\n[.ns] No-space mode is enabled (Boolean-valued).
\n[.o] Page offset; see .po.
\n[.O] Output suppression nesting level; see \O.
\n[.p] Page length; see .pl.
\n[.P] The page is selected for output (Boolean-valued); see troff -o option.
\n[.pe] Page ejection is in progress (Boolean-valued).
\n[.pn] Number of the next page.
\n[.ps] Type size in scaled points.
\n[.psr] Most recently requested type size in scaled points; see .ps and \s.
\n[.pvs] Post-vertical line spacing.
\n[.R] Count of available unused registers; always 10,000 in GNU troff.
\n[.rj] Count of lines remaining to be right-aligned.
\n[.s] Type size in points as a decimal fraction (string-valued); see .ps and \s.
\n[.slant] Slant of font in degrees; see \S.
\n[.sr] Most recently requested type size in points as a decimal fraction (string-valued); see .ps
and \s.
\n[.ss] Size of minimal inter-word space in twelfths of the space width of the selected font.
\n[.sss] Size of additional inter-sentence space in twelfths of the space width of the selected
font.
\n[.sty] Selected abstract style (string-valued); see .ft and \f.
\n[.t] Distance to next vertical position trap; see .wh and .ch.
\n[.T] An output device was explicitly selected (Boolean-valued); see troff -T option.
\n[.tabs] Representation of tab settings suitable for use as argument to .ta (string-valued).
\n[.trunc] Amount of vertical space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap, or,
if the trap was sprung by an .ne, minus the amount of vertical motion produced by .ne;
also see register .ne.
\n[.u] Filling is enabled (Boolean-valued); see .fi and .nf.
\n[.U] Unsafe mode is enabled (Boolean-valued); see troff -U option.
\n[.v] Vertical line spacing; see .vs.
\n[.V] Vertical motion quantum of the output device in basic units.
\n[.vpt] Vertical position traps are enabled (Boolean-valued).
\n[.w] Width of previous glyph formatted in the environment.
\n[.warn] Sum of the numeric codes of enabled warning categories.
\n[.x] Major version number of the running troff formatter.
\n[.y] Minor version number of the running troff formatter.
\n[.Y] Revision number of the running troff formatter.
\n[.z] Name of diversion (string-valued). Empty if output is directed to the top-level
diversion.
\n[.zoom] Zoom multiplier of current font (in thousandths; zero if no magnification); see .fzoom.
Writable predefined registers
Several registers are predefined but also modifiable; some are updated upon interpretation of certain
requests or escape sequences. Date- and time-related registers are set to the local time as determined
by localtime(3) when the formatter launches. This initialization can be overridden by SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
and TZ; see section “Environment” of groff(1).
\n[$$] Process ID of troff.
\n[%] Page number.
\n[c.] Input line number.
\n[ct] Union of character types of each glyph rendered into dummy environment by \w.
\n[dl] Width of last closed diversion.
\n[dn] Height of last closed diversion.
\n[dw] Day of the week (1–7; 1 is Sunday).
\n[dy] Day of the month (1–31).
\n[hours] Count of hours elapsed since midnight (0–23).
\n[hp] Horizontal drawing position relative to start of input line.
\n[llx] Lower-left x coordinate (in PostScript units) of PostScript image; see .psbb.
\n[lly] Lower-left y coordinate (in PostScript units) of PostScript image; see .psbb.
\n[ln] Output line number; see .nm.
\n[lsn] Count of leading spaces on input line.
\n[lss] Amount of horizontal space corresponding to leading spaces on input line.
\n[minutes] Count of minutes elapsed in the hour (0–59).
\n[mo] Month of the year (1–12).
\n[nl] Vertical drawing position.
\n[opmaxx]
\n[opmaxy]
\n[opminx]
\n[opminy] These four registers mark the top left- and bottom right-hand corners of a rectangle
encompassing all formatted output on the page. They are reset to -1 by \O0 or \O1.
\n[rsb] As register sb, adding maximum glyph height to measurement.
\n[rst] As register st, adding maximum glyph depth to measurement.
\n[sb] Maximum displacement of text baseline below its original position after rendering into
dummy environment by \w.
\n[seconds] Count of seconds elapsed in the minute (0–60).
\n[skw] Skew of last glyph rendered into dummy environment by \w.
\n[slimit] The maximum depth of troff's internal input stack. If ≤0, there is no limit: recursion
can continue until available memory is exhausted. The default is 1,000.
\n[ssc] Subscript correction of last glyph rendered into dummy environment by \w.
\n[st] Maximum displacement of text baseline above its original position after rendering into
dummy environment by \w.
\n[systat] Return value of system() function; see .sy.
\n[urx] Upper-right x coordinate (in PostScript units) of PostScript image; see .psbb.
\n[ury] Upper-right y coordinate (in PostScript units) of PostScript image; see .psbb.
\n[year] Gregorian year.
\n[yr] Gregorian year minus 1900.
Using fonts
In digital typography, a font is a collection of characters in a specific typeface that a device can
render as glyphs at a desired size. (Terminals and some output devices have fonts that render at only
one or two sizes. As examples of the latter, take the groff lj4 device's Lineprinter, and lbp's Courier
and Elite faces.) A roff formatter can change typefaces at any point in the text. The basic faces are a
set of styles combining upright and slanted shapes with normal and heavy stroke weights: “R”, “I”, “B”,
and “BI”—these stand for roman, bold, italic, and bold-italic. For linguistic text, GNU troff groups
typefaces into families containing each of these styles. (Font designers prepare families such that the
styles share esthetic properties.) A text font is thus often a family combined with a style, but it need
not be: consider the ps and pdf devices' ZCMI (Zapf Chancery Medium italic)—often, no other style of Zapf
Chancery Medium is provided. On typesetting devices, at least one special font is available, comprising
unstyled glyphs for mathematical operators and other purposes.
Like AT&T troff, GNU troff does not itself load or manipulate a digital font file; instead it works with
a font description file that characterizes it, including its glyph repertoire and the metrics
(dimensions) of each glyph. This information permits the formatter to accurately place glyphs with
respect to each other. Before using a font description, the formatter associates it with a mounting
position, a place in an ordered list of available typefaces. So that a document need not be strongly
coupled to a specific font family, in GNU troff an output device can associate a style in the abstract
sense with a mounting position. Thus the default family can be combined with a style dynamically,
producing a resolved font name.
Fonts often have trademarked names, and even Free Software fonts can require renaming upon modification.
groff maintains a convention that a device's serif font family is given the name T (“Times”), its sans-
serif family H (“Helvetica”), and its monospaced family C (“Courier”). Historical inertia has driven
groff's font identifiers to short uppercase abbreviations of font names, as with TR, TB, TI, TBI, and a
special font S.
The default family used with abstract styles can be changed at any time; initially, it is T. Typically,
abstract styles are arranged in the first four mounting positions in the order shown above. The default
mounting position, and therefore style, is always 1 (R). By issuing appropriate formatter instructions,
you can override these defaults before your document writes its first glyph.
Terminal output devices cannot change font families and lack special fonts. They support style changes
by overstriking, or by altering ISO 6429/ECMA-48 graphic renditions (character cell attributes).
Hyphenation
When filling, groff hyphenates words as needed at user-specified and automatically determined hyphenation
points. Explicitly hyphenated words such as “mother-in-law” are always eligible for breaking after each
of their hyphens. The hyphenation character \% and non-printing break point \: escape sequences may be
used to control the hyphenation and breaking of individual words. The .hw request sets user-defined
hyphenation points for specified words at any subsequent occurrence. Otherwise, groff determines
hyphenation points automatically by default.
Several requests influence automatic hyphenation. Because conventions vary, a variety of hyphenation
modes is available to the .hy request; these determine whether hyphenation will apply to a word prior to
breaking a line at the end of a page (more or less; see below for details), and at which positions within
that word automatically determined hyphenation points are permissible. The default is “1” for historical
reasons, but this is not an appropriate value for the English hyphenation patterns used by groff;
localization macro files loaded by troffrc and macro packages often override it.
0 disables hyphenation.
1 enables hyphenation except after the first and before the last character of a word.
The remaining values “imply” 1; that is, they enable hyphenation under the same conditions as “.hy 1”,
and then apply or lift restrictions relative to that basis.
2 disables hyphenation of the last word on a page. (Hyphenation is prevented if the next page
location trap is closer to the vertical drawing position than the next text baseline would be.
See section “Traps” below.)
4 disables hyphenation before the last two characters of a word.
8 disables hyphenation after the first two characters of a word.
16 enables hyphenation before the last character of a word.
32 enables hyphenation after the first character of a word.
Apart from value 2, restrictions imposed by the hyphenation mode are not respected for words whose
hyphenations have been specified with the hyphenation character (“\%” by default) or the .hw request.
Nonzero values are additive. For example, mode 12 causes groff to hyphenate neither the last two nor the
first two characters of a word. Some values cannot be used together because they contradict; for
instance, values 4 and 16, and values 8 and 32. As noted, it is superfluous to add 1 to any non-zero
even mode.
The places within a word that are eligible for hyphenation are determined by language-specific data
(.hla, .hpf, and .hpfa) and lettercase relationships (.hcode and .hpfcode). Furthermore, hyphenation of
a word might be suppressed due to a limit on consecutive hyphenated lines (.hlm), a minimum line length
threshold (.hym), or because the line can instead be adjusted with additional inter-word space (.hys).
Localization
The set of hyphenation patterns is associated with the hyphenation language set by the .hla request. The
.hpf request is usually invoked by a localization file loaded by the troffrc file. groff provides
localization files for several languages; see groff_tmac(5).
Writing macros
The .de request defines a macro named for its argument. If that name already exists as an alias, the
target of the alias is redefined; see section “Strings” above. troff enters “copy mode” (see below),
storing subsequent input lines as the definition. If the optional second argument is not specified, the
definition ends with the control line “..” (two dots). Alternatively, a second argument names a macro
whose call syntax ends the definition; this “end macro” is then called normally. Spaces or tabs are
permitted after the first control character in the line containing this ending token, but a tab
immediately after the token prevents its recognition as the end of a macro definition. Macro definitions
can be nested if they use distinct end macros or if their ending tokens are sufficiently escaped. An end
macro need not be defined until it is called. This fact enables a nested macro definition to begin
inside one macro and end inside another.
Variants of .de disable compatibility mode and/or indirect the names of the macros specified for
definition or termination: these are .de1, .dei, and .dei1. Append to macro definitions with .am, .am1,
.ami, and .ami1. The .als, .rm, and .rn requests create an alias of, remove, and rename a macro,
respectively. .return stops the execution of a macro immediately, returning to the enclosing context.
Parameters
Macro call and string interpolation parameters can be accessed using escape sequences starting with “\$”.
The \n[.$] read-only register stores the count of parameters available to a macro or string; its value
can be changed by the .shift request, which dequeues parameters from the current list. The \$0 escape
sequence interpolates the name by which a macro was called. Applying string interpolation to a macro
does not change this name.
Copy mode
When troff processes certain requests, most importantly those which define or append to a macro or
string, it does so in copy mode: it copies the characters of the definition into a dedicated storage
region, interpolating the escape sequences \n, \g, \$, \*, \V, and \? normally; interpreting \newline
immediately; discarding comments \" and \#; interpolating the current leader, escape, or tab character
with \a, \e, and \t, respectively; and storing all other escape sequences in an encoded form. The
complement of copy mode—a roff formatter's behavior when not defining or appending to a macro, string, or
diversion—where all macros are interpolated, requests invoked, and valid escape sequences processed
immediately upon recognition, can be termed interpretation mode.
The escape character, \ by default, can escape itself. This enables you to control whether a given \n,
\g, \$, \*, \V, or \? escape sequence is interpreted at the time the macro containing it is defined, or
later when the macro is called.
You can think of \\ as a “delayed” backslash; it is the escape character followed by a backslash from
which the escape character has removed its special meaning. Consequently, \\ is not an escape sequence
in the usual sense. In any escape sequence \X that troff does not recognize, the escape character is
ignored and X is output. An unrecognized escape sequence causes a warning in category “escape”, with two
exceptions, \\ being one. The other is \., which escapes the control character. It is used to permit
nested macro definitions to end without a named macro call to conclude them. Without a syntax for
escaping the control character, this would not be possible. roff documents should not use the \\ or \.
character sequences outside of copy mode; they serve only to obfuscate the input. Use \e to represent
the escape character, \[rs] to obtain a backslash glyph, and \& before . and ' where troff expects them
as control characters if you mean to use them literally.
Macro definitions can be nested to arbitrary depth. In “\\”, each escape character is interpreted twice—
once in copy mode, when the macro is defined, and once in interpretation mode, when the macro is called.
This fact leads to exponential growth in the quantity of escape characters required to delay
interpolation of \n, \g, \$, \*, \V, and \? at each nesting level. An alternative is to use \E, which
represents an escape character that is not interpreted in copy mode. Because \. is not a true escape
sequence, we can't use \E to keep “..” from ending a macro definition prematurely. If the multiplicity
of backslashes complicates maintenance, use end macros.
Traps
Traps are locations in the output, or conditions on the input that, when reached or fulfilled, call a
specified macro. A vertical position trap calls a macro when the formatter's vertical drawing position
reaches or passes, in the downward direction, a certain location on the output page or in a diversion.
Its applications include setting page headers and footers, body text in multiple columns, and footnotes.
These traps can occur at a given location on the page (.wh, .ch); at a given location in the current
diversion (.dt)—together, these are known as vertical position traps, which can be disabled and re-
enabled (.vpt).
A diversion is not formatted in the context of a page, so it lacks page location traps; instead it can
have a diversion trap. There can exist at most one such vertical position trap per diversion.
Other kinds of trap can be planted at a blank line (.blm); at a line with leading space characters
(.lsm); after a certain number of productive input lines (.it, .itc); or at the end of input (.em).
Macros called by traps are passed no arguments. Setting a trap is also called planting one. It is said
that a trap is sprung if its condition is fulfilled.
Registers associated with trap management include vertical position trap enablement status (\n[.vpt]),
distance to the next trap (\n[.t]), amount of needed (.ne-requested) space that caused the most recent
vertical position trap to be sprung (\n[.ne]), amount of needed space truncated from the amount requested
(\n[.trunc]), page ejection status (\n[.pe]), and leading space count (\n[.lsn]) with its corresponding
amount of motion (\n[.lss]).
Page location traps
A page location trap is a vertical position trap that applies to the page; that is, to undiverted output.
Many can be present; manage them with the wh and ch requests. Non-negative page locations given to these
requests set the trap relative to the top of the page; negative values set the trap relative to the
bottom of the page. It is not possible to plant a trap less than one basic unit from the page bottom: a
location of “-0” is interpreted as “0”, the top of the page. An existing visible trap (see below) at the
same location is removed; this is .wh's sole function if its second argument is missing.
A trap is sprung only if it is visible, meaning that its location is reachable on the page and it is not
hidden by another trap at the same location already planted there. (A trap planted at “20i” or “-30i”
will not be sprung on a page of length “11i”.)
A trap above the top or at or below the bottom of the page can be made visible by either moving it into
the page area or increasing the page length so that the trap is on the page. Negative trap values always
use the current page length; they are not converted to an absolute vertical position. Use .ptr to dump
page location traps to the standard error stream; their positions are reported in basic units.
The implicit page trap
An implicit page trap always exists in the top-level diversion; it works like a trap in some ways but not
others. Its purpose is to eject the current page and start the next one. It has no name, so it cannot
be moved or deleted with wh or ch requests. You cannot hide it by placing another trap at its location,
and can move it only by redefining the page length with .pl. Its operation is suppressed when vertical
page traps are disabled with the vpt request.
Diversions
In roff systems it is possible to format text as if for output, but instead of writing it immediately,
one can divert the formatted text into a named storage area. It is retrieved later by specifying its
name after a control character. The same name space is used for such diversions as for strings and
macros; see section “Identifiers” above. Such text is sometimes said to be “stored in a macro”, but this
coinage obscures the important distinction between macros and strings on one hand and diversions on the
other; the former store unformatted input text, and the latter capture formatted output. Diversions also
do not interpret arguments. Applications of diversions include “keeps” (preventing a page break from
occurring at an inconvenient place by forcing a set of output lines to be set as a group), footnotes,
tables of contents, and indices. For orthogonality it is said that GNU troff is in the top-level
diversion if no diversion is active (that is, formatted output is being “diverted” immediately to the
output device.
Dereferencing an undefined diversion will create an empty one of that name and cause a warning in
category mac to be emitted. (see section “Warnings” in troff(1)). A diversion does not exist for the
purpose of testing with the d conditional operator until its initial definition ends (see subsection
“Conditional expressions” above).
The di request creates a diversion, including any partially collected line. da appends to a diversion,
creating one if it does not already exist. If the diversion's name already exists as an alias, the
target of the alias is replaced or appended to; see section “Strings” above. box and boxa works
similarly, but ignore partially collected lines. Call any of these macros again without an argument to
end the diversion.
Diversions can be nested. The registers .d, .z, dn, and dl report information about the current (or last
closed) diversion. .h is meaningful in diversions, including the top level.
The \! and \? escape sequences and output request escape from a diversion, the first two to the
enclosing level and the last to the top level. This facility is termed transparent embedding.
The asciify and unformat requests reprocess diversions.
Punning names
Macros, strings, and diversions share a name space; see section “Identifiers” above. Internally, the
same mechanism is used to store them. You can thus call a macro with string interpolation syntax and
vice versa. Interpolating a string does not hide existing macro arguments. The sequence \\ can be
placed at the end of a line in a macro definition or, within a macro definition, immediately after the
interpolation of a macro as a string to suppress the effect of a newline.
Environments
Environments store most of the parameters that control text processing. A default environment named “0”
exists when troff starts up; it is modified by formatting-related requests and escape sequences.
You can create new environments and switch among them. Only one is current at any given time. Active
environments are managed using a stack, a data structure supporting “push” and “pop” operations. The
current environment is at the top of the stack. The same environment name can be pushed onto the stack
multiple times, possibly interleaved with others. Popping the environment stack does not destroy the
current environment; it remains accessible by name and can be made current again by pushing it at any
time. Environments cannot be renamed or deleted, and can only be modified when current. To inspect the
environment stack, use the pev request; see section “Debugging” below.
Environments store the following information.
• a partially collected line, if any
• data about the most recently output glyph and line (registers .cdp, .cht, .csk, .n, .w)
• typeface parameters (size, family, style, height and slant, inter-word and inter-sentence space sizes)
• page parameters (line length, title length, vertical spacing, line spacing, indentation, line
numbering, centering, right-alignment, underlining, hyphenation parameters)
• filling enablement; adjustment enablement and mode
• tab stops; tab, leader, escape, control, no-break control, hyphenation, and margin characters
• input line traps
• stroke and fill colors
The ev request pushes to and pops from the environment stack, while evc copies a named environment's
contents to the current one.
Underlining
In RUNOFF (see roff(7)), underlining, even of lengthy passages, was straightforward because only fixed-
pitch printing devices were targeted. Typesetter output posed a greater challenge. There exists a groff
request .ul (see above) that underlines subsequent source lines on terminal devices, but on typesetters,
it selects an italic font style instead. The ms macro package (see groff_ms(7)) offers a macro .UL, but
it too produces the desired effect only on typesetters, and has other limitations.
One could adapt ms's approach to the construction of a macro as follows.
.de UNDERLINE
. ie n \\$1\f[I]\\$2\f[P]\\$3
. el \\$1\Z'\\$2'\v'.25m'\D'l \w'\\$2'u 0'\v'-.25m'\\$3
..
If doclifter(1) makes trouble, change the macro name UNDERLINE into some 2-letter word, like Ul.
Moreover, change the form of the font selection escape sequence from \f[P] to \fP.
Underlining without macro definitions
If one does not want to use macro definitions, e.g., when doclifter gets lost, use the following.
.ds u1 before
.ds u2 in
.ds u3 after
.ie n \*[u1]\f[I]\*[u2]\f[P]\*[u3]
.el \*[u1]\Z'\*[u2]'\v'.25m'\D'l \w'\*[u2]'u 0'\v'-.25m'\*[u3]
When using doclifter, it might be necessary to change syntax forms such as \[xy] and \*[xy] to those
supported by AT&T troff: \*(xy and \(xy, and so on.
Then these lines could look like
.ds u1 before
.ds u2 in
.ds u3 after
.ie n \*[u1]\fI\*(u2\fP\*(u3
.el \*(u1\Z'\*(u2'\v'.25m'\D'l \w'\*(u2'u 0'\v'-.25m'\*(u3
The result looks like
before in after
Underlining by overstriking with \(ul
The \z escape sequence writes a glyph without advancing the drawing position, enabling overstriking.
Thus, \zc\(ul formats c with an underrule glyph on top of it. Video terminals implement the underrule by
setting a character cell's underline attribute, so this technique works in both nroff and troff modes.
Long words may then look intimidating in the input; a clarifying approach might be to use the input line
continuation escape sequence \newline to place each underlined character on its own input line. Thus,
.nf
\&\fB: ${\fIvar\fR\c
\zo\(ul\
\zp\(ul\c
\&\fIvalue\fB}
.fi
produces
: ${varopvalue}
as output.
Compatibility mode
The differences between the roff language recognized by GNU troff and that of AT&T troff, as well as the
device, font, and device-independent intermediate output formats described by CSTR #54 are documented in
groff_diff(7). groff provides an AT&T compatibility mode. The .cp request and registers .C and .cp set
and test the enablement of this mode.
Debugging
Preprocessors use the .lf request to preserve the identities of line numbers and names of input files.
groff emits a variety of error diagnostics and supports several categories of warning; the output of
these can be selectively suppressed with .warn (and see the -E, -w, and -W options of troff(1)). A trace
of the formatter's input processing stack can be emitted when errors or warnings occur by means of
troff(1)'s -b option, or produced on demand with the .backtrace request. .tm, .tmc, and .tm1 can be used
to emit customized diagnostic messages or for instrumentation while troubleshooting. .ex and .ab cause
early termination with successful and error exit codes respectively, to halt further processing when
continuing would be fruitless. Examine the state of the formatter with requests that write lists of
defined names—macros, strings, and diversions—(.pm); environments (.pev), registers (.pnr), and page
location traps (.ptr) to the standard error stream.
Authors
This document was written by by Trent A. Fisher, Werner Lemberg, and G. Branden Robinson ⟨g.branden
.robinson@gmail.com⟩. Section “Underlining” was primarily written by Bernd Warken ⟨groff-bernd
.warken-72@web.de⟩.
See also
Groff: The GNU Implementation of troff, by Trent A. Fisher and Werner Lemberg, is the primary groff
manual. You can browse it interactively with “info groff”.
“Troff User's Manual” by Joseph F. Ossanna, 1976 (revised by Brian W. Kernighan, 1992), AT&T Bell
Laboratories Computing Science Technical Report No. 54, widely called simply “CSTR #54”, documents the
language, device and font description file formats, and device-independent output format referred to
collectively in groff documentation as “AT&T troff”.
“A Typesetter-independent TROFF” by Brian W. Kernighan, 1982, AT&T Bell Laboratories Computing Science
Technical Report No. 97 (CSTR #97), provides additional insights into the device and font description
file formats and device-independent output format.
groff(1)
is the preferred interface to the groff system; it manages the pipeline that carries a source
document through preprocessors, the troff formatter, and an output driver to viewable or printable
form. It also exhaustively lists the man pages provided with the GNU roff system.
groff_char(7)
discusses character encoding issues, escape sequences that produce glyphs, and enumerates groff's
predefined special character escape sequences.
groff_diff(7)
covers differences between the GNU troff formatter, its device and font description file formats,
its device-independent output format, and those of AT&T troff, whose design it reimplements.
groff_font(5)
describes the formats of the files that describe devices (DESC) and fonts.
groff_tmac(5)
surveys macro packages provided with groff, describes how documents can take advantage of them,
offers guidance on writing macro packages and using diversions, and includes historical
information on macro package naming conventions.
roff(7)
presents a detailed history of roff systems and summarizes concepts common to them.