groff_man - groff `man' macros to support generation of man pages
groff -man [ options... ] [ files... ]
groff -m man [ options... ] [ files... ]
The man macros used to generate man pages with groff were written by
James Clark. This document provides a brief summary of the use of each
macro in that package.
The man macros understand the following command line options (which
define various registers).
-rcR=1 This option (the default if in nroff mode) will create a single,
very long page instead of multiple pages. Say -rcR=0 to disable
it.
-rC1 If more than one manual page is given on the command line, number
the pages continuously, rather than starting each at 1.
-rD1 Double-sided printing. Footers for even and odd pages are formatted
differently.
-rFT=dist
Set distance of the footer relative to the bottom of the page if
negative or relative to the top if positive. The default is
-0.5i.
-rHY=flags
Set hyphenation flags. Possible values are 1 to hyphenate without
restrictions, 2 to not hyphenate the last word on a page,
4 to not hyphenate the last two characters of a word, and 8 to
not hyphenate the first two characters of a word. These values
are additive; the default is 14.
-rIN=width
Set body text indentation to width. The default is 7n for
nroff, 7.2n for troff. For nroff, this value should always be
an integer multiple of unit `n' to get consistent indentation.
-rLL=line-length
Set line length. If this option is not given, the line length
defaults to 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
-rLT=title-length
Set title length. If this option is not given, the title length
defaults to the line length.
-rPnnn Enumeration of pages will start with nnn rather than with 1.
-rSxx Base document font size is xx points (xx can be 10, 11, or 12)
rather than 10 points.
-rSN=width
Set sub-subheading indentation to width. The default is 3n.
-rXnnn After page nnn, number pages as nnna, nnnb, nnnc, etc. For
example, the option `-rX2' will produce the following page numbers:
1, 2, 2a, 2b, 2c, etc.
This section describes the available macros for manual pages. For further
customization, put additional macros and requests into the file
man.local which will be loaded immediately after the man package.
.TH title section [extra1] [extra2] [extra3]
Set the title of the man page to title and the section to sec-
tion, which must take on a value between 1 and 8. The value
section may also have a string appended, e.g. `.pm', to indicate
a specific subsection of the man pages. Both title and section
are positioned at the left and right in the header line (with
section in parentheses immediately appended to title. extra1
will be positioned in the middle of the footer line. extra2
will be positioned at the left in the footer line (or at the
left on even pages and at the right on odd pages if double-sided
printing is active). extra3 is centered in the header line.
For HTML output, headers and footers are completely supressed.
Additionally, this macro starts a new page; the new line number
is 1 again (except if the `-rC1' option is given on the command
line) -- this feature is intended only for formatting multiple
man pages; a single man page should contain exactly one TH macro
at the beginning of the file.
.SH [text for a heading]
Set up an unnumbered section heading sticking out to the left.
Prints out all the text following SH up to the end of the line
(or the text in the next input line if there is no argument to
SH) in bold face (or the font specified by the string HF), one
size larger than the base document size. Additionally, the left
margin and the indentation for the following text is reset to
the default values.
.SS [text for a heading]
Set up a secondary, unnumbered section heading. Prints out all
the text following SS up to the end of the line (or the text in
the next input line if there is no argument to SS) in bold face
(or the font specified by the string HF), at the same size as
the base document size. Additionally, the left margin and the
indentation for the following text is reset to the default values.
.TP [nnn]
Set up an indented paragraph with label. The indentation is set
to nnn if that argument is supplied (the default unit is `n' if
omitted), otherwise it is set to the previous indentation value
specified with TP, IP, or HP (or to the default value if none of
them have been used yet).
The first input line of text following this macro is interpreted
as a string to be printed flush-left, as it is appropriate for a
label. It is not interpreted as part of a paragraph, so there
is no attempt to fill the first line with text from the following
input lines. Nevertheless, if the label is not as wide as
the indentation the paragraph starts at the same line (but
indented), continuing on the following lines. If the label is
wider than the indentation the descriptive part of the paragraph
begins on the line following the label, entirely indented. Note
that neither font shape nor font size of the label is set to a
default value; on the other hand, the rest of the text will have
default font settings.
The TP macro is the macro used for the explanations you are just
reading.
.LP
.PP
.P These macros are mutual aliases. Any of them causes a line
break at the current position, followed by a vertical space
downwards by the amount specified by the PD macro. The font
size and shape are reset to the default value (10pt resp.
Roman). Finally, the current left margin and the indentation
are restored.
.IP [designator] [nnn]
Set up an indented paragraph, using designator as a tag to mark
its beginning. The indentation is set to nnn if that argument
is supplied (the default unit is `n' if omitted), otherwise it
is set to the previous indentation value specified with TP, IP,
or HP (or to the default value if none of them have been used
yet). Font size and face of the paragraph (but not the designator)
are reset to its default values.
To start an indented paragraph with a particular indentation but
without a designator, use `""' (two doublequotes) as the second
argument.
For example, the following paragraphs were all set up with bullets
as the designator, using `.IP \(bu 4'. The whole block has
been enclosed with `.RS' and `.RE' to set the left margin temporarily
to the current indentation value.
o IP is one of the three macros used in the man package to
format lists.
o HP is another. This macro produces a paragraph with a left
hanging indentation.
o TP is another. This macro produces an unindented label followed
by an indented paragraph.
.HP [nnn]
Set up a paragraph with hanging left indentation. The indentation
is set to nnn if that argument is supplied (the default
unit is `n' if omitted), otherwise it is set to the previous
indentation value specified with TP, IP, or HP (or to the
default value if none of them have been used yet). Font size
and face are reset to its default values. The following paragraph
illustrates the effect of this macro with hanging indentation
set to 4 (enclosed by `.RS' and `.RE' to set the left margin
temporarily to the current indentation):
This is a paragraph following an invocation of the HP macro. As
you can see, it produces a paragraph where all lines but the
first are indented.
.RS [nnn]
This macro moves the left margin to the right by the value nnn
if specified (default unit is `n'); otherwise it is set to the
previous indentation value specified with TP, IP, or HP (or to
the default value if none of them have been used yet). The
indentation value is then set to the default.
Calls to the RS macro can be nested.
.RE [nnn]
This macro moves the left margin back to level nnn, restoring
the previous left margin. If no argument is given, it moves one
level back. The first level (i.e., no call to RS yet) has number
1, and each call to RS increases the level by 1.
To summarize, the following macros cause a line break with the insertion
of vertical space (which amount can be changed with the PD macro):
SH, SS, TP, LP (PP, P), IP, and HP. The macros RS and RE also cause a
break but no insertion of vertical space.
The standard font is Roman; the default text size is 10 point.
.SM [text]
Causes the text on the same line or the text on the next input
line to appear in a font that is one point size smaller than the
default font.
.SB [text]
Causes the text on the same line or the text on the next input
line to appear in boldface font, one point size smaller than the
default font.
.BI text
Causes text on the same line to appear alternately in bold face
and italic. The text must be on the same line as the macro
call. Thus
.BI this "word and" that
would cause `this' and `that' to appear in bold face, while
`word and' appears in italics.
.IB text
Causes text to appear alternately in italic and bold face. The
text must be on the same line as the macro call.
.RI text
Causes text on the same line to appear alternately in roman and
italic. The text must be on the same line as the macro call.
.IR text
Causes text on the same line to appear alternately in italic and
roman. The text must be on the same line as the macro call.
.BR text
Causes text on the same line to appear alternately in bold face
and roman. The text must be on the same line as the macro call.
.RB text
Causes text on the same line to appear alternately in roman and
bold face. The text must be on the same line as the macro call.
.B [text]
Causes text to appear in bold face. If no text is present on
the line where the macro is called the text of the next input
line appears in bold face.
.I [text]
Causes text to appear in italic. If no text is present on the
line where the macro is called the text of the next input line
appears in italic.
The default indentation is 7.2n in troff mode and 7n in nroff mode
except for grohtml which ignores indentation.
.DT Set tabs every 0.5 inches. Since this macro is always called
during a TH request, it makes sense to call it only if the tab
positions have been changed.
.PD [nnn]
Adjust the empty space before a new paragraph or section. The
optional argument gives the amount of space (default unit is
`v'); without parameter, the value is reset to its default value
(1 line in nroff mode, 0.4v otherwise). This affects the macros
SH, SS, TP, LP (resp. PP and P), IP, and HP.
.AT [system [release]]
Alter the footer for use with AT&T manpages. This command
exists only for compatibility; don't use it. See the groff info
manual for more.
.UC [version]
Alter the footer for use with BSD manpages. This command exists
only for compatibility; don't use it. See the groff info manual
for more.
.PT Print the header string. Redefine this macro to get control of
the header.
.BT Print the footer string. Redefine this macro to get control of
the footer.
The following strings are defined:
\*S Switch back to the default font size.
\*R The `registered' sign.
\*(Tm The `trademark' sign.
\*(lq
\*(rq Left and right quote. This is equal to `\(lq' and `\(rq',
respectively.
\*(HF The typeface used to print headings and subheadings. The
default is `B'.
If a preprocessor like tbl or eqn is needed, it has become usage to
make the first line of the man page look like this:
.\" word
Note the single space character after the double quote. word consists
of letters for the needed preprocessors: `e' for eqn, `r' for refer,
and `t' for tbl. Modern implementations of the man program read this
first line and automatically call the right preprocessor(s).
man.tmac
an.tmac
These are wrapper files to call andoc.tmac.
andoc.tmac
This file checks whether the man macros or the mdoc package
should be used.
an-old.tmac
All man macros are contained in this file.
man.local
Local changes and customizations should be put into this file.
Since the man macros consist of groups of groff requests, one can, in
principle, supplement the functionality of the man macros with individual
groff requests where necessary. See the groff info pages for a
complete reference of all requests.
tbl(1), eqn(1), refer(1), man(1)
This manual page was originally written for the Debian GNU/Linux system
by Susan G. Kleinmann <sgk@debian.org>, corrected and updated by Werner
Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>, and is now part of the GNU troff distribution.
Groff Version 1.19 1 May 2003 GROFF_MAN(7)
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