Ubuntu Manpage: groff_ms - GNU roff manuscript macro package for formatting documents

Name

       groff_ms - GNU roff manuscript macro package for formatting documents

Synopsis

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

Description

       The  GNU  implementation  of the ms macro package is part of the groff document formatting
       system.  The ms package is suitable for the composition of  letters,  memoranda,  reports,
       and books.

       These  groff  macros  support  cover  page and table of contents generation, automatically
       numbered headings, several paragraph styles, a variety of text styling options, footnotes,
       and  multi-column  page  layouts.   ms  supports  the tbl(1), eqn(1), pic(1), and refer(1)
       preprocessors for inclusion of tables, mathematical equations, diagrams, and  standardized
       bibliographic citations.

       This  implementation  is  mostly  compatible with the documented interface and behavior of
       AT&T Unix Version 7 ms.  Many extensions from 4.2BSD (Berkeley) and Tenth Edition Research
       Unix have been recreated.

Usage

The ms macro package expects a certain amount of structure: a well-formed document
contains at least one paragraphing or heading macro call. To compose a simple document
from scratch, begin it by calling .LP or .PP. Longer documents have a structure as
follows.

Document type
Calling the RP macro at the beginning of your document puts the document
description (see below) on a cover page. Otherwise, ms places this information on
the first page, followed immediately by the body text. Some document types found
in other ms implementations are specific to AT&T or Berkeley, and are not supported
in groff ms.

Format and layout
By setting registers and strings, you can configure your document's typeface,
margins, spacing, headers and footers, and footnote arrangement. See subsection
“Document control settings” below.

Document description
A document description consists of any of: a title, one or more authors' names and
affiliated institutions, an abstract, and a date or other identifier. See
subsection “Document description macros” below.

Body text
The main matter of your document follows its description (if any). ms supports
highly structured text consisting of paragraphs interspersed with multi-level
headings (chapters, sections, subsections, and so forth) and augmented by lists,
footnotes, tables, diagrams, and similar material. The preponderance of
subsections below covers these matters.

Table of contents
Macros enable the collection of entries for a table of contents (or index) as the
material they discuss appears in the document. You then call a macro to emit the
table of contents at the end of your document. The table of contents must
necessarily follow the rest of the text since GNU troff is a single-pass formatter;
it thus cannot determine the page number of a division of the text until it has
been set and output. Since ms output was designed for the production of hard copy,
the traditional procedure was to manually relocate the pages containing the table
of contents between the cover page and the body text. Today, page resequencing is
more often done in the digital domain. An index works similarly, but because it
typically needs to be sorted after collection, its preparation requires separate
processing.

Document control settings
The following tables list the document control registers, strings, and special characters.
For any parameter whose default is unsatisfactory, define it before calling any ms macro
other than RP.

Margin settings
Parameter Definition Effective Default
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
\n[PO] Page offset (left margin) next page 1i (0)
\n[LL] Line length next paragraph 6.5i (65n)
\n[LT] Title line length next paragraph 6.5i (65n)
\n[HM] Top (header) margin next page 1i
\n[FM] Bottom (footer) margin next page 1i
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Titles (headers, footers)
Parameter Definition Effective Default
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
\*[LH] Left header text next header empty
\*[CH] Center header text next header -\n[%]-
\*[RH] Right header text next header empty
\*[LF] Left footer text next footer empty
\*[CF] Center footer text next footer empty
\*[RF] Right footer text next footer empty
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Text settings
Parameter Definition Effective Default
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
\n[PS] Point size next paragraph 10p
\n[VS] Vertical spacing (leading) next paragraph 12p
\n[HY] Hyphenation mode next paragraph 6
\*[FAM] Font family next paragraph T
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Paragraph settings
Parameter Definition Effective Default
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
\n[PI] Indentation next paragraph 5n
\n[PD] Paragraph distance (spacing) next paragraph 0.3v (1v)
\n[QI] Quotation indentation next paragraph 5n
\n[PORPHANS] # of initial lines kept next paragraph 1
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Heading settings
Parameter Definition Effective Default
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
\n[PSINCR] Point size increment next heading 1p
\n[GROWPS] Size increase depth limit next heading 0
\n[HORPHANS] # of following lines kept next heading 1
\*[SN-STYLE] Numbering style (alias) next heading \*[SN-DOT]
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

\*[SN-STYLE] can alternatively be made an alias of \*[SN-NO-DOT] with the als request.

Footnote settings
Parameter Definition Effective Default
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
\n[FI] Indentation next footnote 2n
\n[FF] Format next footnote 0
\n[FPS] Point size next footnote \n[PS]-2p
\n[FVS] Vertical spacing (leading) next footnote \n[FPS]+2p
\n[FPD] Paragraph distance (spacing) next footnote \n[PD]/2

\*[FR] Line length ratio special 11/12
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Display settings
Parameter Definition Effective Default
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
\n[DD] Display distance (spacing) special 0.5v (1v)
\n[DI] Display indentation special 0.5i
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Other settings
Parameter Definition Effective Default
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
\n[MINGW] Minimum gutter width next page 2n
\n[TC-MARGIN] TOC page number margin width next PX call \w'000'
\[TC-LEADER] TOC leader character next PX call .\h'1m'
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

For entries marked “special” in the “Effective” column, see the discussion in the
applicable section below. The PO, LL, and LT register defaults vary by output device and
paper format; the values shown are for typesetters using U.S. letter paper, and then
terminals. See section “Paper format” of groff(1). The PD and DD registers use the
larger value if the vertical motion quantum of the output device is too coarse for the
smaller one; usually, this is the case only for output to terminals and emulators thereof.
The “gutter” affected by \n[MINGW] is the gap between columns in multiple-column page
arrangements. The TC-MARGIN register and TC-LEADER special character affect the
formatting of tables of contents assembled by the XS, XA, and XE macros.

Document description macros
Define information describing the document by calling the macros below in the order shown;
.DA or .ND can be called to set the document date (or other identifier) at any time before
(a) the abstract, if present, or (b) its information is required in a header or footer.
Use of these macros is optional, except that .TL is mandatory if any of .RP, .AU, .AI, or
.AB is called, and .AE is mandatory if .AB is called.

.RP [no-repeat-info] [no-renumber]
Use the “report” (AT&T: “released paper”) format for your document, creating a
separate cover page. The default arrangement is to place most of the document
description (title, author names and institutions, and abstract, but not the date)
at the top of the first page. If the optional no-repeat-info argument is given, ms
produces a cover page but does not repeat any of its information on subsequently
(but see the DA macro below regarding the date). Normally, .RP sets the page
number following the cover page to 1. Specifying the optional no-renumber argument
suppresses this alteration. Optional arguments can occur in any order. “no” is
recognized as a synonym of no-repeat-info for AT&T compatibility.

.TL Specify the document title. ms collects text on input lines following this call
into the title until reaching .AU, .AB, or a heading or paragraphing macro call.

.AU Specify an author's name. ms collects text on input lines following this call into
the author's name until reaching .AI, .AB, another .AU, or a heading or
paragraphing macro call. Call it repeatedly to specify multiple authors.

.AI Specify the preceding author's institution. An .AU call is usefully followed by at
most one .AI call; if there are more, the last .AI call controls. ms collects text
on input lines following this call into the author's institution until reaching
.AU, .AB, or a heading or paragraphing macro call.

.DA [x ...]
Typeset the current date, or any arguments x, in the center footer, and, if .RP is
also called, left-aligned at the end of the document description on the cover page.

.ND [x ...]
Typeset the current date, or any arguments x, if .RP is also called, left-aligned
at the end of the document description on the cover page. This is groff ms's
default.

.AB [no]
Begin the abstract. ms collects text on input lines following this call into the
abstract until reaching an .AE call. By default, ms places the word “ABSTRACT”
centered and in italics above the text of the abstract. The optional argument “no”
suppresses this heading.

.AE End the abstract.

Text settings
The FAM string, a GNU extension, sets the font family for body text; the default is “T”.
The PS and VS registers set the type size and vertical spacing (distance between text
baselines), respectively. The font family and type size are ignored on terminal devices.
Setting these parameters before the first call of a heading, paragraphing, or (non-date)
document description macro also applies them to headers, footers, and (for FAM) footnotes.

The HY register defines the automatic hyphenation mode used with the hy request. Setting
\n[HY] to 0 is equivalent to using the nh request. This is a Tenth Edition Research Unix
extension.

Typographical symbols
ms provides a few strings to obtain typographical symbols not easily entered with the
keyboard. These and many others are available as special character escape sequences—see
groff_char(7).

\*[-] Interpolate an em dash.

\*[Q]
\*[U] Interpolate typographer's quotation marks where available, and neutral double
quotes otherwise. \*[Q] is the left quote and \*[U] the right.

Paragraphs
Paragraphing macros break, or terminate, any pending output line so that a new paragraph
can begin. Several paragraph types are available, differing in how indentation applies to
them: to left, right, or both margins; to the first output line of the paragraph, all
output lines, or all but the first. All paragraphing macro calls cause the insertion of
vertical space in the amount stored in the PD register, except at page or column breaks,
or adjacent to displays.

The PORPHANS register defines the minimum number of initial lines of any paragraph that
must be kept together to avoid isolated lines at the bottom of a page. If a new paragraph
is started close to the bottom of a page, and there is insufficient space to accommodate
\n[PORPHANS] lines before an automatic page break, then a page break is forced before the
start of the paragraph. This is a GNU extension.

.LP Set a paragraph without any (additional) indentation.

.PP Set a paragraph with a first-line left indentation in the amount stored in the PI
register.

.IP [marker [width]]
Set a paragraph with a left indentation. The optional marker is not indented and
is empty by default. width overrides the indentation amount in \n[PI]; its default
unit is “n”. Once specified, width applies to further .IP calls until specified
again or a heading or different paragraphing macro is called.

.QP Set a paragraph indented from both left and right margins by \n[QI].

.QS
.QE Begin (QS) and end (QE) a region where each paragraph is indented from both margins
by \n[QI]. The text between .QS and .QE can be structured further by use of other
paragraphing macros.

.XP Set an “exdented” paragraph—one with a left indentation of \n[PI] on every line
except the first (also known as a hanging indent). This is a Berkeley extension.

Headings
Use headings to create a hierarchical structure for your document. The ms macros print
headings in bold using the same font family and, by default, type size as the body text.
Headings are available with and without automatic numbering. Text on input lines
following the macro call becomes the heading's title. Call a paragraphing macro to end
the heading text and start the section's content.

.NH [depth]
Set an automatically numbered heading. ms produces a numbered heading in the form
a.b.c..., to any level desired, with the numbering of each depth increasing
automatically and being reset to zero when a more significant depth is increased.
“1” is the most significant or coarsest division of the document. Only non-zero
values are output. If depth is omitted, it is taken to be 1. If you specify depth
such that an ascending gap occurs relative to the previous NH call—that is, you
“skip a depth”, as by “.NH 1” and then “.NH 3”, groff ms emits a warning on the
standard error stream.

.NH S heading-depth-index ...
Alternatively, you can give NH a first argument of “S”, followed by integers to
number the heading depths explicitly. Further automatic numbering, if used,
resumes using the specified indices as their predecessors. This feature is a
Berkeley extension.

After .NH is called, the assigned number is made available in the strings SN-DOT (as it
appears in a printed heading with default formatting, followed by a terminating period)
and SN-NO-DOT (with the terminating period omitted). These are GNU extensions.

You can control the style used to print numbered headings by defining an appropriate alias
for the string SN-STYLE. By default, \*[SN-STYLE] is aliased to \*[SN-DOT]. If you
prefer to omit the terminating period from numbers appearing in numbered headings, you may
alias it to \*[SN-NO-DOT]. Any such change in numbering style becomes effective from the
next use of .NH following redefinition of the alias for \*[SN-STYLE]. The formatted
number of the current heading is available in \*[SN] (a feature first documented by
Berkeley); this string facilitates its inclusion in, for example, table captions, equation
labels, and .XS/.XA/.XE table of contents entries.

.SH [depth]
Set an unnumbered heading. The optional depth argument is a GNU extension
indicating the heading depth corresponding to the depth argument of .NH. It
matches the type size at which the heading is set to that of a numbered heading at
the same depth when the \n[GROWPS] and \n[PSINCR] heading size adjustment mechanism
is in effect.

The PSINCR register defines an increment in type size to be applied to a heading at a
lesser depth than that specified in \n[GROWPS]. The value of \n[PSINCR] should be
specified in points with the “p” scaling unit and may include a fractional component.

The GROWPS register defines the heading depth above which the type size increment set by
\n[PSINCR] becomes effective. For each heading depth less than the value of \n[GROWPS],
the type size is increased by \n[PSINCR]. Setting \n[GROWPS] to a value less than 2
disables the incremental heading size feature.

In other words, if the value of GROWPS register is greater than the depth argument to a
.NH or .SH call, the type size of a heading produced by these macros increases by
\n[PSINCR] units over \n[PS] multiplied by the difference of \n[GROWPS] and depth.

The \n[HORPHANS] register operates in conjunction with the NH and SH macros to inhibit the
printing of isolated headings at the bottom of a page; it specifies the minimum number of
lines of the subsequent paragraph that must be kept on the same page as the heading. If
insufficient space remains on the current page to accommodate the heading and this number
of lines of paragraph text, a page break is forced before the heading is printed. Any
display macro call or tbl, pic, or eqn region between the heading and the subsequent
paragraph suppresses this grouping.

Typeface and decoration
The ms macros provide a variety of ways to style text. Attend closely to the ordering of
arguments labeled pre and post, which is not intuitive. Support for pre arguments is a
GNU extension.

.B [text [post [pre]]]
Style text in bold, followed by post in the previous font style without intervening
space, and preceded by pre similarly. Without arguments, ms styles subsequent text
in bold until the next paragraphing, heading, or no-argument typeface macro call.

.R [text [post [pre]]]
As .B, but use the roman style (upright text of normal weight) instead of bold.
Argument recognition is a GNU extension.

.I [text [post [pre]]]
As .B, but use an italic or oblique style instead of bold.

.BI [text [post [pre]]]
As .B, but use a bold italic or bold oblique style instead of upright bold. This
is a Tenth Edition Research Unix extension.

.CW [text [post [pre]]]
As .B, but use a constant-width (monospaced) roman typeface instead of bold. This
is a Tenth Edition Research Unix extension.

.BX [text]
Typeset text and draw a box around it. On terminal devices, reverse video is used
instead. If you want text to contain space, use unbreakable space or horizontal
motion escape sequences (\~, \space, \^, \|, \0, or \h).

.UL [text [post]]
Typeset text with an underline. post, if present, is set after text with no
intervening space.

.LG Set subsequent text in larger type (2 points larger than the current size) until
the next type size, paragraphing, or heading macro call. You can specify this
macro multiple times to enlarge the type size as needed.

.SM Set subsequent text in smaller type (2 points smaller than the current size) until
the next type size, paragraphing, or heading macro call. You can specify this
macro multiple times to reduce the type size as needed.

.NL Set subsequent text at the normal type size (\n[PS]).

When pre is used, a hyphenation control escape sequence \% that would ordinarily start
text must start pre instead.

groff ms also offers strings to begin and end super- and subscripting. These are GNU
extensions.

\*{
\*} Begin and end superscripting, respectively.

\*<
\*> Begin and end subscripting, respectively.

Indented regions
You may need to indent a region of text while otherwise formatting it normally. Indented
regions can be nested.

.RS Begin a region where headings, paragraphs, and displays are indented (further) by
\n[PI].

.RE End the (next) most recent indented region.

Keeps, boxed keeps, and displays
On occasion, you may want to keep several lines of text, or a region of a document,
together on a single page, preventing an automatic page break within certain boundaries.
This can cause a page break to occur earlier than it normally would.

You can alternatively specify a floating keep: if a keep cannot fit on the current page,
ms holds its contents and allows text following the keep (in the source document) to fill
in the remainder of the current page. When the page breaks, whether by reaching the end
or bp request, ms puts the floating keep at the beginning of the next page.

.KS Begin a keep.

.KF Begin a floating keep.

.KE End (floating) keep.

As an alternative to the keep mechanism, the ne request forces a page break if there is
not at least the amount of vertical space specified in its argument remaining on the page.

A boxed keep has a frame drawn around it.

.B1 Begin a keep with a box drawn around it.

.B2 End boxed keep.

Boxed keep macros cause breaks; if you need to box a word or phrase within a line, see the
BX macro in section “Highlighting” above. Box lines are drawn as close as possible to the
text they enclose so that they are usable within paragraphs. If you wish to place one or
more paragraphs in a boxed keep, you may improve their appearance by calling .B1 after the
first paragraphing macro, and by adding a small amount of vertical space before calling
.B2.

If you want a boxed keep to float, you will need to enclose the .B1 and .B2 calls within a
pair of .KF and .KE calls.

Displays turn off filling; lines of verse or program code are shown with their lines
broken as in the source document without requiring br requests between lines. Displays
can be kept on a single page or allowed to break across pages. The DS macro begins a kept
display of the layout specified in its first argument; non-kept displays are begun with
dedicated macros corresponding to their layout.

.DS L
.LD Begin (DS: kept) left-aligned display.

.DS [I [indent]]
.ID [indent]
Begin (DS: kept) display indented by indent if specified, \n[DI] otherwise.

.DS B
.BD Begin (DS: kept) block display: the entire display is left-aligned, but indented
such that the longest line in the display is centered on the page.

.DS C
.CD Begin (DS: kept) centered display: each line in the display is centered.

.DS R
.RD Begin (DS: kept) right-aligned display. This is a GNU extension.

.DE End any display.

The distance stored in \n[DD] is inserted before and after each pair of display macros;
this is a Berkeley extension. In groff ms, this distance replaces any adjacent inter-
paragraph distance or subsequent spacing prior to a section heading. The DI register is a
GNU extension; its value is an indentation applied to displays created with .DS and .ID
without arguments, to “.DS I” without an indentation argument, and to equations set with
“.EQ I”. Changes to either register take effect at the next display boundary.

Tables, figures, equations, and references
The ms package is often used with the tbl, pic, eqn, and refer preprocessors. The \n[DD]
distance is also applied to regions of the document preprocessed with eqn, pic, and tbl.
Mark text meant for preprocessors by enclosing it in pairs of tokens as follows, with
nothing between the dot and the macro name. The preprocessors match these tokens only at
the start of an input line.

.TS [H]
.TE Demarcate a table to be processed by the tbl preprocessor. The optional H argument
instructs ms to repeat table rows (often column headings) at the top of each new
page the table spans, if applicable; calling the TH macro marks the end of such
rows. tbl(1) provides a comprehensive reference to the preprocessor and offers
examples of its use.

.PS
.PE
.PF .PS begins a picture to be processed by the pic preprocessor; either of .PE or .PF
ends it, the latter with “flyback” to the vertical position at its top.

.EQ [align [label]]
.EN Demarcate an equation to be processed by the eqn preprocessor. The equation is
centered by default; align can be C, L, or I to (explicitly) center, left-align, or
indent it by \n[DI], respectively. If specified, label is set right-aligned.

.[
.] Demarcate a bibliographic citation to be processed by the refer preprocessor.
refer(1) provides a comprehensive reference to the preprocessor and the format of
its bibliographic database.

When refer emits collected references (as might be done on a “Works Cited” page), it
interpolates the string \*[REFERENCES] as an unnumbered heading (.SH).

Attempting to place a multi-page table inside a keep can lead to unpleasant results,
particularly if the tbl “allbox” option is used.

Footnotes
A footnote is typically anchored to a place in the text with a marker, which is a small
integer, a symbol, or arbitrary user-specified text.

\** Place an automatic number, an automatically generated numeric footnote marker, in
the text. Each time this string is interpolated, the number it produces increments
by one. Automatic numbers start at 1. This is a Berkeley extension.

Enclose the footnote text in FS and FE macro calls to set it at the nearest available
“foot”, or bottom, of a text column or page.

.FS [marker]
Begin a footnote. The .FS-MARK hook (see below) is called with any supplied marker
argument, which is then also placed at the beginning of the footnote text. If
marker is omitted, the next pending automatic number enqueued by interpolation of
the * string is used, and if none exists, nothing is prefixed.

.FE End footnote text.

groff ms provides a hook macro, FS-MARK, for user-determined operations to be performed
when the FS macro is called. It is passed the same arguments as .FS itself. By default,
this macro has an empty definition. .FS-MARK is a GNU extension.

Footnote text is formatted as paragraphs are, using analogous parameters. The registers
FI, FPD, FPS, and FVS correspond to PI, PD, PS, and VS, respectively; FPD, FPS, and FVS
are GNU extensions.

The FF register controls the formatting of automatically numbered footnote paragraphs, and
those for which .FS is given a marker argument, at the bottom of a column or page as
follows.

0 Set an automatic number, or a specified FS marker argument, as a superscript
(on typesetter devices) or surrounded by square brackets (on terminals).
The footnote paragraph is indented as with .PP if there is an .FS argument
or an automatic number, and as with .LP otherwise. This is the default.

1 As 0, but set the marker as regular text, and follow an automatic number
with a period.

2 As 1, but without indentation (like .LP).

3 As 1, but set the footnote paragraph with the marker hanging (like .IP).

Language and localization
groff ms provides several strings that you can customize for your own purposes, or
redefine to adapt the macro package to languages other than English. It is already
localized for Czech, German, French, Italian, and Swedish. Load the desired localization
macro package after ms; see groff_tmac(5).

String Default
───────────────────────────────────
\*[REFERENCES] References
\*[ABSTRACT] \f[I]ABSTRACT\f[]
\*[TOC] Table of Contents
\*[MONTH1] January
\*[MONTH2] February
\*[MONTH3] March
\*[MONTH4] April
\*[MONTH5] May
\*[MONTH6] June
\*[MONTH7] July
\*[MONTH8] August
\*[MONTH9] September
\*[MONTH10] October
\*[MONTH11] November
\*[MONTH12] December
───────────────────────────────────
The default for ABSTRACT includes font selection escape sequences to set the word in
italics.

Headers and footers
There are multiple ways to produce headers and footers. One is to define the strings LH,
CH, and RH to set the left, center, and right headers, respectively; and LF, CF, and RF to
set the left, center, and right footers. This approach suffices for documents that do not
distinguish odd- and even-numbered pages.

Another method is to call macros that set headers or footers for odd- or even-numbered
pages. Each such macro takes a delimited argument separating the left, center, and right
header or footer texts from each other. You can replace the neutral apostrophes (') shown
below with any character not appearing in the header or footer text. These macros are
Berkeley extensions.

.OH 'left'center'right'
.OF 'left'center'right'
.EH 'left'center'right'
.EF 'left'center'right'
The OH and EH macros define headers for odd- (recto) and even-numbered (verso)
pages, respectively; the OF and EF macros define footers for them.

With either method, a percent sign % in header or footer text is replaced by the current
page number. By default, ms places no header on a page numbered “1” (regardless of its
number format).

.P1 Typeset the header even on page 1. To be effective, this macro must be called
before the header trap is sprung on any page numbered “1”. This is a Berkeley
extension.

For even greater flexibility, ms permits redefinition of the macros called when the page
header and footer traps are sprung. PT (“page trap”) is called by ms when the header is
to be written, and BT (“bottom trap”) when the footer is to be. The groff page location
trap that ms sets up to format the header also calls the (normally undefined) HD macro
after .PT; you can define .HD if you need additional processing after setting the header.
The HD hook is a Berkeley extension. Any such macros you (re)define must implement any
desired specialization for odd-, even-, or first numbered pages.

Tab stops
Use the ta request to set tab stops as needed.

.TA Reset the tab stops to the ms default (every 5 ens). Redefine this macro to create
a different set of default tab stops.

Margins
Control margins using the registers summarized in the “Margins” portion of the table in
section “Document control settings” above. There is no setting for the right margin; the
combination of page offset \n[PO] and line length \n[LL] determines it.

Multiple columns
ms can set text in as many columns as reasonably fit on the page. The following macros
force a page break if a multi-column layout is active when they are called. \n[MINGW] is
the default minimum gutter width; it is a GNU extension. When multiple columns are in
use, keeps and the HORPHANS and PORPHANS registers work with respect to column breaks
instead of page breaks.

.1C Arrange page text in a single column (the default).

.2C Arrange page text in two columns.

.MC [column-width [gutter-width]]
Arrange page text in multiple columns. If you specify no arguments, it is
equivalent to the 2C macro. Otherwise, column-width is the width of each column
and gutter-width is the minimum distance between columns.

Creating a table of contents
Define an entry to appear in the table of contents by bracketing its text between calls to
the XS and XE macros. A typical application is to call them immediately after NH or SH
and repeat the heading text within them. The XA macro, used within .XS/.XE pairs,
supplements an entry—for instance, when it requires multiple output lines, whether because
a heading is too long to fit or because style dictates that page numbers not be repeated.
You may wish to indent the text thus wrapped to correspond to its heading depth; this can
be done in the entry text by prefixing it with tabs or horizontal motion escape sequences,
or by providing a second argument to the XA macro. .XS and .XA automatically associate
the page number where they are called with the text following them, but they accept
arguments to override this behavior. At the end of the document, call TC or PX to emit
the table of contents; .TC resets the page number to i (Roman numeral one), and then calls
PX. All of these macros are Berkeley extensions.

.XS [page-number]
.XA [page-number [indentation]]
.XE Begin, supplement, and end a table of contents entry. Each entry is associated
with page-number (otherwise the current page number); a page-number of “no”
prevents a leader and page number from being emitted for that entry. Use of .XA
within .XS/.XE is optional; it can be repeated. If indentation is present, a
supplemental entry is indented by that amount; ens are assumed if no unit is
indicated. Text on input lines between .XS and .XE is stored for later recall by
.PX.

.PX [no]
Switch to single-column layout. Unless “no” is specified, center and interpolate
\*[TOC] in bold and two points larger than the body text. Emit the table of
contents entries.

.TC [no]
Set the page number to 1, the page number format to lowercase Roman numerals, and
call PX (with a “no” argument, if present).

The remaining features in this subsection are GNU extensions. groff ms obviates the need
to repeat heading text after .XS calls. Call .XN and .XH after .NH and .SH, respectively.
Text to be appended to the formatted section heading, but not to appear in the table of
contents entry, can follow these calls.

.XN heading-text
Format heading-text and create a corresponding table of contents entry; the
indentation is computed from the depth argument of the preceding NH call.

.XH depth heading-text
As .XN, but use depth to determine the indentation.

groff ms encourages customization of table of contents entry production. (Re-)define any
of the following macros as desired.

.XN-REPLACEMENT heading-text
.XH-REPLACEMENT depth heading-text
These hook macros implement .XN and .XH, and call XN-INIT and XH-INIT,
respectively, then call XH-UPDATE-TOC with the arguments given them.

.XH-INIT
.XN-INIT
These hook macros do nothing by default.

.XH-UPDATE-TOC depth heading-text
Bracket heading-text with XS and XE calls, indenting it by 2 ens per level of depth
beyond the first.

You can customize the style of the leader that bridges each table of contents entry with
its page number; define the TC-LEADER special character by using the char request. A
typical leader combines the dot glyph “.” with a horizontal motion escape sequence to
spread the dots. The width of the page number field is stored in the TC-MARGIN register.

Differences from AT&T ms
The groff ms macros are an independent reimplementation, using no AT&T code. Since they
take advantage of the extended features of groff, they cannot be used with AT&T troff.
groff ms supports features described above as Berkeley and Tenth Edition Research Unix
extensions, and adds several of its own.

• The internals of groff ms differ from the internals of AT&T ms. Documents that depend
upon implementation details of AT&T ms may not format properly with groff ms. Such
details include macros whose function was not documented in the AT&T ms manual (“Typing
Documents on the UNIX System: Using the -ms Macros with Troff and Nroff”, M. E. Lesk,
Bell Laboratories, 1978).

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

• Tenth Edition Research Unix supported P1/P2 macros to bracket code examples; groff ms
does not.

• groff ms does not work in GNU troff's AT&T compatibility mode. If loaded when that
mode is enabled, it aborts processing with a diagnostic message.

• Multiple line spacing is not supported. Use a larger vertical spacing instead.

• groff ms uses the same header and footer defaults in both nroff and troff modes as AT&T
ms does in troff mode; AT&T's default in nroff mode is to put the date, in U.S.
traditional format (e.g., “January 1, 2021”), in the center footer (the CF string).

• Many groff ms macros, including those for paragraphs, headings, and displays, cause a
reset of paragraph rendering parameters, and may change the indentation; they do so not
by incrementing or decrementing it, but by setting it absolutely. This can cause
problems for documents that define additional macros of their own that try to
manipulate indentation. Use .RS and .RE instead of the in request.

• AT&T ms interpreted the values of the registers PS and VS in points, and did not
support the use of scaling units with them. groff ms interprets values of the
registers PS, VS, FPS, and FVS, equal to or larger than 1,000 (one thousand) as decimal
fractions multiplied by 1,000. (Register values are converted to and stored as basic
units. See “Measurements” in the groff Texinfo manual or in groff(7)). This threshold
makes use of a scaling unit with these parameters practical for high-resolution devices
while preserving backward compatibility. It also permits expression of non-integral
type sizes. For example, “groff -rPS=10.5p” at the shell prompt is equivalent to
placing “.nr PS 10.5p” at the beginning of the document.

• AT&T ms's AU macro supported arguments used with some document types; groff ms does
not.

• Right-aligned displays are available. The AT&T ms manual observes that “it is tempting
to assume that “.DS R” will right adjust lines, but it doesn't work”. In groff ms, it
does.

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

• groff ms supports the PN register, but it is not necessary; you can access the page
number via the usual % register and invoke the af request to assign a different format
to it if desired. (If you redefine the ms PT macro and desire special treatment of
certain page numbers—like “1”—you may need to handle a non-Arabic page number format,
as groff ms's .PT does; see the macro package source. groff ms aliases the PN register
to %.)

• The AT&T ms manual documents registers CW and GW as setting the default column width
and “intercolumn gap”, respectively, and which applied when .MC was called with fewer
than two arguments. groff ms instead treats .MC without arguments as synonymous with
.2C; there is thus no occasion for a default column width register. Further, the MINGW
register and the second argument to .MC specify a minimum space between columns, not
the fixed gutter width of AT&T ms.

• The AT&T ms manual did not document the QI register; Berkeley and groff ms do.

• The register GS is set to 1 by the groff ms macros, but is not used by the AT&T ms
package. Documents that need to determine whether they are being formatted with groff
ms or another implementation should test this register.

Unix Version 7 macros not implemented by groff ms
Several macros described in the Unix Version 7 ms documentation are unimplemented by groff
ms because they are specific to the requirements of documents produced internally by Bell
Laboratories, some of which also require a glyph for the Bell System logo that groff does
not support. These macros implemented several document type formats (EG, IM, MF, MR, TM,
TR), were meaningful only in conjunction with the use of certain document types (AT, CS,
CT, OK, SG), stored the postal addresses of Bell Labs sites (HO, IH, MH, PY, WH), or
lacked a stable definition over time (UX).

Legacy features

       groff ms  retains  some  legacy  features  solely  to  support  formatting  of  historical
       documents;  contemporary  ones  should  not  use them because they can render poorly.  See
       groff_char(7) instead.

   AT&T ms accent mark strings
       AT&T ms defined accent mark strings as follows.

       String   Description
       ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       \*[']    Apply acute accent to subsequent glyph.
       \*[`]    Apply grave accent to subsequent glyph.
       \*[:]    Apply dieresis (umlaut) to subsequent glyph.
       \*[^]    Apply circumflex accent to subsequent glyph.
       \*[~]    Apply tilde accent to subsequent glyph.
       \*[C]    Apply caron to subsequent glyph.
       \*[,]    Apply cedilla to subsequent glyph.

   Berkeley ms accent mark and glyph strings
       Berkeley ms offered an AM macro; calling it redefined the AT&T accent mark strings (except
       for  \*C),  applied  them to the preceding glyph, and defined additional strings, some for
       spacing glyphs.

       .AM    Enable alternative accent mark and glyph-producing strings.

       String   Description
       ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       \*[']    Apply acute accent to preceding glyph.
       \*[`]    Apply grave accent to preceding glyph.
       \*[:]    Apply dieresis (umlaut) to preceding glyph.
       \*[^]    Apply circumflex accent to preceding glyph.
       \*[~]    Apply tilde accent to preceding glyph.
       \*[,]    Apply cedilla to preceding glyph.
       \*[/]    Apply stroke (slash) to preceding glyph.
       \*[v]    Apply caron to preceding glyph.
       \*[_]    Apply macron to preceding glyph.
       \*[.]    Apply underdot to preceding glyph.
       \*[o]    Apply ring accent to preceding glyph.
       ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       \*[?]    Interpolate inverted question mark.
       \*[!]    Interpolate inverted exclamation mark.
       \*[8]    Interpolate small letter sharp s.
       \*[q]    Interpolate small letter o with hook accent (ogonek).
       \*[3]    Interpolate small letter yogh.
       \*[d-]   Interpolate small letter eth.
       \*[D-]   Interpolate capital letter eth.
       \*[th]   Interpolate small letter thorn.
       \*[TH]   Interpolate capital letter thorn.
       \*[ae]   Interpolate small ae ligature.
       \*[AE]   Interpolate capital ae ligature.
       \*[oe]   Interpolate small oe ligature.
       \*[OE]   Interpolate capital oe ligature.

Naming conventions

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

       Internally, the macros are divided into modules.  Conventions for identifier names are  as
       follows.

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

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

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

       •  name does not have a module prefix.

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

       Thus the groff ms macros reserve the following names:

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

       •  Names containing only uppercase letters and digits.

Files

       /usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/s.tmac
              implements the package.

       /usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/refer-ms.tmac
              implements refer(1) support for ms.

       /usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/ms.tmac
              is a wrapper enabling the package to be loaded with “groff -m ms”.

Authors

       The GNU version of the ms macro package was written by James Clark and contributors.  This
       document  was  written  by  Clark,  Larry  Kollar  ⟨lkollar@despammed.com⟩, and G. Branden
       Robinson ⟨g.branden.robinson@gmail.com⟩.