1GROFF_MS(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual GROFF_MS(7)
2
6 groff_ms - groff ms macros
7
9 groff -ms [ options... ] [ files... ]
10 groff -m ms [ options... ] [ files... ]
11
13 This manual page describes the GNU version of the ms macros, part of
14 the groff typesetting system. The ms macros are mostly compatible with
15 the documented behavior of the 4.3 BSD Unix ms macros (see Differences
16 from troff ms below for details). The ms macros are suitable for
17 reports, letters, books, and technical documentation.
18
20 The ms macro package expects files to have a certain amount of struc‐
21 ture. The simplest documents can begin with a paragraph macro and con‐
22 sist of text separated by paragraph macros or even blank lines. Longer
23 documents have a structure as follows:
24 Document type
26 If you use the RP (report) macro at the beginning of the docu‐
27 ment, groff prints the cover page information on its own page;
28 otherwise it prints the information on the first page with your
29 document text immediately following. Other document formats
30 found in AT&T troff are specific to AT&T or Berkeley, and are
31 not supported in groff ms.
32 Format and layout
34 By setting number registers, you can change your document's type
35 (font and size), margins, spacing, headers and footers, and
36 footnotes. See Document control registers below for more
37 details.
38 Cover page
40 A cover page consists of a title, and optionally the author's
41 name and institution, an abstract, and the date. See Cover page
42 macros below for more details.
43 Body Following the cover page is your document. It consists of para‐
45 graphs, headings, and lists.
46 Table of contents
48 Longer documents usually include a table of contents, which you
49 can add by placing the TC macro at the end of your document.
50 Document control registers
52 The following table lists the document control number registers. For
53 the sake of consistency, set registers related to margins at the begin‐
54 ning of your document, or just after the RP macro.
55 Margin settings
57 Reg. Definition Effective Default
59 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
60 PO Page offset (left margin) next page 1i
61 LL Line length next paragraph 6i
62 LT Header/footer length next paragraph 6i
63 HM Top (header) margin next page 1i
64 FM Bottom (footer) margin next page 1i
65 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
66 Text settings
68 Reg. Definition Effective Default
70 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
71 PS Point size next paragraph 10p
72 VS Line spacing (leading) next paragraph 12p
73 PSINCR Point size increment for next heading 1p
74 section headings of increas‐
75 ing importance
76 GROWPS Heading level beyond which next heading 0
77 PSINCR is ignored
78 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
79 Paragraph settings
81 Reg. Definition Effective Default
83 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
84 PI Initial indent next paragraph 5n
85 PD Space between paragraphs next paragraph 0.3v
86 QI Quoted paragraph indent next paragraph 5n
87 PORPHANS Number of initial lines to next paragraph 1
88 be kept together
89 HORPHANS Number of initial lines to next heading 1
90 be kept with heading
91 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
92 Footnote settings
94 Reg. Definition Effective Default
96 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
97 FL Footnote length next footnote \n[LL]*5/6
98 FI Footnote indent next footnote 2n
99 FF Footnote format next footnote 0
100 FPS Point size next footnote \n[PS]-2
101 FVS Vert. spacing next footnote \n[FPS]+2
102 FPD Para. spacing next footnote \n[PD]/2
103 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
104 Other settings
106 Reg. Definition Effective Default
108 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
109 DD Display, table, eqn, pic spacing next para. 0.5v
110 MINGW Minimum width between columns next page 2n
111 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
112 Cover page macros
114 Use the following macros to create a cover page for your document in
115 the order shown.
116 .RP [no]
118 Specifies the report format for your document. The report for‐
119 mat creates a separate cover page. With no RP macro, groff
120 prints a subset of the cover page on page 1 of your document.
121 If you use the optional no argument, groff prints a title page
123 but does not repeat any of the title page information (title,
124 author, abstract, etc.) on page 1 of the document.
125 .P1 (P-one) Prints the header on page 1. The default is to suppress
127 the header.
128 .DA [xxx]
130 (optional) Print the current date, or the arguments to the macro
131 if any, on the title page (if specified) and in the footers.
132 This is the default for nroff.
133 .ND [xxx]
135 (optional) Print the current date, or the arguments to the macro
136 if any, on the title page (if specified) but not in the footers.
137 This is the default for troff.
138 .TL Specifies the document title. Groff collects text following the
140 TL macro into the title, until reaching the author name or
141 abstract.
142 .AU Specifies the author's name. You can specify multiple authors
144 by using an AU macro for each author.
145 .AI Specifies the author's institution. You can specify multiple
147 institutions.
148 .AB [no]
150 Begins the abstract. The default is to print the word ABSTRACT,
151 centered and in italics, above the text of the abstract. The
152 option no suppresses this heading.
153 .AE End the abstract.
155 Paragraphs
157 Use the PP macro to create indented paragraphs, and the LP macro to
158 create paragraphs with no initial indent.
159 The QP macro indents all text at both left and right margins. The
161 effect is identical to the HTML <BLOCKQUOTE> element. The next para‐
162 graph or heading returns margins to normal.
163 The XP macro produces an exdented paragraph. The first line of the
165 paragraph begins at the left margin, and subsequent lines are indented
166 (the opposite of PP).
167 For each of the above paragraph types, and also for any list entry
169 introduced by the IP macro (described later), the document control reg‐
170 ister PORPHANS, sets the minimum number of lines which must be printed,
171 after the start of the paragraph, and before any page break occurs. If
172 there is insufficient space remaining on the current page to accommo‐
173 date this number of lines, then a page break is forced before the first
174 line of the paragraph is printed.
175 Similarly, when a section heading (see subsection Headings below) pre‐
177 cedes any of these paragraph types, the HORPHANS document control reg‐
178 ister specifies the minimum number of lines of the paragraph which must
179 be kept on the same page as the heading. If insufficient space remains
180 on the current page to accommodate the heading and this number of lines
181 of paragraph text, then a page break is forced before the heading is
182 printed.
183 Headings
185 Use headings to create a hierarchical structure for your document. By
186 default, the ms macros print headings in bold using the same font fam‐
187 ily and point size as the body text. For output devices which support
188 scalable fonts, this behaviour may be modified, by defining the docu‐
189 ment control registers, GROWPS and PSINCR.
190 The following heading macros are available:
192 .NH xx Numbered heading. The argument xx is either a numeric argument
194 to indicate the level of the heading, or S xx xx "..." to set
195 the section number explicitly. If you specify heading levels
196 out of sequence, such as invoking .NH 3 after .NH 1, groff
197 prints a warning on standard error.
198 If the GROWPS register is set to a value greater than the level
200 of the heading, then the point size of the heading will be
201 increased by PSINCR units over the text size specified by the PS
202 register, for each level by which the heading level is less than
203 the value of GROWPS. For example, the sequence:
204 .nr PS 10
206 .nr GROWPS 3
207 .nr PSINCR 1.5p
208 .
209 .NH 1
210 Top Level Heading
211 .
212 .NH 2
213 Second Level Heading
214 .
215 .NH 3
216 Third Level Heading
217 will cause “1. Top Level Heading” to be printed in 13pt bold
219 text, followed by “1.1. Second Level Heading” in 11.5pt bold
220 text, while “1.1.1. Third Level Heading”, and all more deeply
221 nested heading levels, will remain in the 10pt bold text which
222 is specified by the PS register.
223 Note that the value stored in PSINCR is interpreted in groff
225 basic units; the p scaling factor should be employed, when
226 assigning a value specified in points.
227 The style used to represent the section number, within a num‐
229 bered heading, is controlled by the SN-STYLE string; this may be
230 set to either the SN-DOT or the SN-NO-DOT style, (described
231 below), by aliasing SN-STYLE accordingly. By default, SN-STYLE
232 is initialised by defining the alias
233 .als SN-STYLE SN-DOT
235 it may be changed to the SN-NO-DOT style, if preferred, by
237 defining the alternative alias
238 .als SN-STYLE SN-NO-DOT
240 Any such change becomes effective with the first use of .NH,
242 after the new alias is defined.
243 After invoking .NH, the assigned heading number is available in
245 the strings SN-DOT (as it appears in the default formatting
246 style for numbered headings, with a terminating period following
247 the number), and SN-NO-DOT (with this terminating period omit‐
248 ted). The string SN is also defined, as an alias for SN-DOT; if
249 preferred, the user may redefine it as an alias for SN-NO-DOT,
250 by including the initialisation:
251 .als SN SN-NO-DOT
253 at any time; the change becomes effective with the next use of
255 .NH, after the new alias is defined.
256 .SH [xx]
258 Unnumbered subheading. The use of the optional xx argument is a
259 GNU extension, which adjusts the point size of the unnumbered
260 subheading to match that of a numbered heading, introduced using
261 .NH xx with the same value of xx. For example, given the same
262 settings for PS, GROWPS and PSINCR, as used in the preceding .NH
263 example, the sequence:
264 .SH 2
266 An Unnumbered Subheading
267 will print “An Unnumbered Subheading” in 11.5pt bold text.
269 Highlighting
271 The ms macros provide a variety of methods to highlight or emphasize
272 text:
273 .B [txt [post [pre]]]
275 Sets its first argument in bold type. If you specify a second
276 argument, groff prints it in the previous font after the bold
277 text, with no intervening space (this allows you to set punctua‐
278 tion after the highlighted text without highlighting the punctu‐
279 ation). Similarly, it prints the third argument (if any) in the
280 previous font before the first argument. For example,
281 .B foo ) (
283 prints (foo).
285 If you give this macro no arguments, groff prints all text fol‐
287 lowing in bold until the next highlighting, paragraph, or head‐
288 ing macro.
289 .R [txt [post [pre]]]
291 Sets its first argument in roman (or regular) type. It operates
292 similarly to the B macro otherwise.
293 .I [txt [post [pre]]]
295 Sets its first argument in italic type. It operates similarly
296 to the B macro otherwise.
297 .CW [txt [post [pre]]]
299 Sets its first argument in a constant width face. It operates
300 similarly to the B macro otherwise.
301 .BI [txt [post [pre]]]
303 Sets its first argument in bold italic type. It operates simi‐
304 larly to the B macro otherwise.
305 .BX [txt]
307 Prints its argument and draws a box around it. If you want to
308 box a string that contains spaces, use a digit-width space (\0).
309 .UL [txt [post]]
311 Prints its first argument with an underline. If you specify a
312 second argument, groff prints it in the previous font after the
313 underlined text, with no intervening space.
314 .LG Prints all text following in larger type (2 points larger than
316 the current point size) until the next font size, highlighting,
317 paragraph, or heading macro. You can specify this macro multi‐
318 ple times to enlarge the point size as needed.
319 .SM Prints all text following in smaller type (2 points smaller than
321 the current point size) until the next type size, highlighting,
322 paragraph, or heading macro. You can specify this macro multi‐
323 ple times to reduce the point size as needed.
324 .NL Prints all text following in the normal point size (that is, the
326 value of the PS register).
327 \*{text\*}
329 Print the enclosed text as a superscript.
330 Indents
332 You may need to indent sections of text. A typical use for indents is
333 to create nested lists and sublists.
334 Use the RS and RE macros to start and end a section of indented text,
336 respectively. The PI register controls the amount of indent.
337 You can nest indented sections as deeply as needed by using multiple,
339 nested pairs of RS and RE.
340 Lists
342 The IP macro handles duties for all lists. Its syntax is as follows:
343 .IP [marker [width]]
345 The marker is usually a bullet character \(bu for unordered
347 lists, a number (or auto-incrementing number register) for num‐
348 bered lists, or a word or phrase for indented (glossary-style)
349 lists.
350 The width specifies the indent for the body of each list item.
352 Once specified, the indent remains the same for all list items
353 in the document until specified again.
354 Tab stops
356 Use the ta request to set tab stops as needed. Use the TA macro to
357 reset tabs to the default (every 5n). You can redefine the TA macro to
358 create a different set of default tab stops.
359 Displays and keeps
361 Use displays to show text-based examples or figures (such as code list‐
362 ings). Displays turn off filling, so lines of code can be displayed
363 as-is without inserting br requests in between each line. Displays can
364 be kept on a single page, or allowed to break across pages. The fol‐
365 lowing table shows the display types available.
366 Display macro Type of display
368 With keep No keep
369 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
370 .DS L .LD Left-justified.
371 .DS I [indent] .ID Indented (default indent in the DI
372 register).
373 .DS B .BD Block-centered (left-justified, long‐
374 est line centered).
375 .DS C .CD Centered.
376 .DS R .RD Right-justified.
377 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
378 Use the DE macro to end any display type. The macros Ds and De were
380 formerly provided as aliases for DS and DE, respectively, but they have
381 been removed, and should no longer be used. X11 documents which actu‐
382 ally use Ds and De always load a specific macro file from the X11 dis‐
383 tribution (macros.t) which provides proper definitions for the two
384 macros.
385 To keep text together on a page, such as a paragraph that refers to a
387 table (or list, or other item) immediately following, use the KS and KE
388 macros. The KS macro begins a block of text to be kept on a single
389 page, and the KE macro ends the block.
390 You can specify a floating keep using the KF and KE macros. If the
392 keep cannot fit on the current page, groff holds the contents of the
393 keep and allows text following the keep (in the source file) to fill in
394 the remainder of the current page. When the page breaks, whether by an
395 explicit bp request or by reaching the end of the page, groff prints
396 the floating keep at the top of the new page. This is useful for
397 printing large graphics or tables that do not need to appear exactly
398 where specified.
399 The macros B1 and B2 can be used to enclose a text within a box; .B1
401 begins the box, and .B2 ends it. Text in the box is automatically
402 placed in a diversion (keep).
403 Tables, figures, equations, and references
405 The -ms macros support the standard groff preprocessors: tbl, pic, eqn,
406 and refer. Mark text meant for preprocessors by enclosing it in pairs
407 of tags as follows:
408 .TS [H] and .TE
410 Denotes a table, to be processed by the tbl preprocessor. The
411 optional H argument instructs groff to create a running header
412 with the information up to the TH macro. Groff prints the
413 header at the beginning of the table; if the table runs onto
414 another page, groff prints the header on the next page as well.
415 .PS and .PE
417 Denotes a graphic, to be processed by the pic preprocessor. You
418 can create a pic file by hand, using the AT&T pic manual avail‐
419 able on the Web as a reference, or by using a graphics program
420 such as xfig.
421 .EQ [align] and .EN
423 Denotes an equation, to be processed by the eqn preprocessor.
424 The optional align argument can be C, L, or I to center (the
425 default), left-justify, or indent the equation.
426 .[ and .]
428 Denotes a reference, to be processed by the refer preprocessor.
429 The GNU refer(1) manual page provides a comprehensive reference
430 to the preprocessor and the format of the bibliographic data‐
431 base.
432 Footnotes
434 The ms macros provide a flexible footnote system. You can specify a
435 numbered footnote by using the \** escape, followed by the text of the
436 footnote enclosed by FS and FE macros.
437 You can specify symbolic footnotes by placing the mark character (such
439 as \(dg for the dagger character) in the body text, followed by the
440 text of the footnote enclosed by FS \(dg and FE macros.
441 You can control how groff prints footnote numbers by changing the value
443 of the FF register as follows:
444 0 Prints the footnote number as a superscript; indents the
446 footnote (default).
447 1 Prints the number followed by a period (like 1.) and
449 indents the footnote.
450 2 Like 1, without an indent.
452 3 Like 1, but prints the footnote number as a hanging para‐
454 graph.
455 You can use footnotes safely within keeps and displays, but avoid using
457 numbered footnotes within floating keeps. You can set a second \**
458 between a \** and its corresponding .FS; as long as each .FS occurs
459 after the corresponding \** and the occurrences of .FS are in the same
460 order as the corresponding occurrences of \**.
461 Headers and footers
463 There are three ways to define headers and footers:
464 · Use the strings LH, CH, and RH to set the left, center, and right
466 headers; use LF, CF, and RF to set the left, center, and right foot‐
467 ers. This works best for documents that do not distinguish between
468 odd and even pages.
469 · Use the OH and EH macros to define headers for the odd and even
471 pages; and OF and EF macros to define footers for the odd and even
472 pages. This is more flexible than defining the individual strings.
473 The syntax for these macros is as follows:
474 .OH 'left'center'right'
476 You can replace the quote (') marks with any character not appearing
478 in the header or footer text.
479 You can also redefine the PT and BT macros to change the behavior of
481 the header and footer, respectively. The header process also calls the
482 (undefined) HD macro after PT ; you can define this macro if you need
483 additional processing after printing the header (for example, to draw a
484 line below the header).
485 Margins
487 You control margins using a set of number registers. The following ta‐
488 ble lists the register names and defaults:
489 Reg. Definition Effective Default
491 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
492 PO Page offset (left margin) next page 1i
493 LL Line length next paragraph 6i
494 LT Header/footer length next paragraph 6i
495 HM Top (header) margin next page 1i
496 FM Bottom (footer) margin next page 1i
497 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
498 Note that there is no right margin setting. The combination of page
500 offset and line length provide the information necessary to derive the
501 right margin.
502 Multiple columns
504 The ms macros can set text in as many columns as will reasonably fit on
505 the page. The following macros are available. All of them force a
506 page break if a multi-column mode is already set. However, if the cur‐
507 rent mode is single-column, starting a multi-column mode does not force
508 a page break.
509 .1C Single-column mode.
511 .2C Two-column mode.
513 .MC [width [gutter]]
515 Multi-column mode. If you specify no arguments, it is equiva‐
516 lent to the 2C macro. Otherwise, width is the width of each
517 column and gutter is the space between columns. The MINGW num‐
518 ber register is the default gutter width.
519 Creating a table of contents
521 Wrap text that you want to appear in the table of contents in XS and XE
522 macros. Use the TC macro to print the table of contents at the end of
523 the document, resetting the page number to i (Roman numeral 1).
524 You can manually create a table of contents by specifying a page number
526 as the first argument to XS. Add subsequent entries using the XA
527 macro. For example:
528 .XS 1
530 Introduction
531 .XA 2
532 A Brief History of the Universe
533 .XA 729
534 Details of Galactic Formation
535 ...
536 .XE
537 Use the PX macro to print a manually-generated table of contents with‐
539 out resetting the page number.
540 If you give the argument no to either PX or TC, groff suppresses print‐
542 ing the title specified by the \*[TOC] string.
543 Fractional point sizes
545 Traditionally, the ms macros only support integer values for the docu‐
546 ment's font size and vertical spacing. To overcome this restriction,
547 values larger than or equal to 1000 are taken as fractional values,
548 multiplied by 1000. For example, `.nr PS 10250' sets the font size to
549 10.25 points.
550 The following four registers accept fractional point sizes: PS, VS,
552 FPS, and FVS.
553 Due to backwards compatibility, the value of VS must be smaller than
555 40000 (this is 40.0 points).
556
558 The groff ms macros are a complete re-implementation, using no original
559 AT&T code. Since they take advantage of the extended features in
560 groff, they cannot be used with AT&T troff. Other differences include:
561 · The internals of groff ms differ from the internals of Unix ms.
563 Documents that depend upon implementation details of Unix ms may not
564 format properly with groff ms.
565 · The error-handling policy of groff ms is to detect and report
567 errors, rather than silently to ignore them.
568 · Some Bell Labs localisms are not implemented by default. However,
570 if you call the otherwise undocumented SC section-header macro, you
571 will enable implementations of three other archaic Bell Labs macros:
572 UC, P1, and P2. These are not enabled by default because (a) they
573 were not documented, in the original ms manual, and (b) the P1 and
574 UC macros both collide with different macros in the Berkeley version
575 of ms.
576 These emulations are sufficient to give back the 1976 Kernighan &
578 Cherry paper Typsetting Mathematics – User's Guide its section head‐
579 ings, and restore some text that had gone missing as arguments of
580 undefined macros. No warranty express or implied is given as to how
581 well the typographic details these produce match the original Bell
582 Labs macros.
583 · Berkeley localisms, in particular the TM and CT macros, are not
585 implemented.
586 · Groff ms does not work in compatibility mode (e.g., with the -C
588 option).
589 · There is no support for typewriter-like devices.
591 · Groff ms does not provide cut marks.
593 · Multiple line spacing is not supported (use a larger vertical spac‐
595 ing instead).
596 · Some Unix ms documentation says that the CW and GW number registers
598 can be used to control the column width and gutter width, respec‐
599 tively. These number registers are not used in groff ms.
600 · Macros that cause a reset (paragraphs, headings, etc.) may change
602 the indent. Macros that change the indent do not increment or
603 decrement the indent, but rather set it absolutely. This can cause
604 problems for documents that define additional macros of their own.
605 The solution is to use not the in request but instead the RS and RE
606 macros.
607 · The number register GS is set to 1 by the groff ms macros, but is
609 not used by the Unix ms macros. Documents that need to determine
610 whether they are being formatted with Unix ms or groff ms should use
611 this number register.
612 · To make groff ms use the default page offset (which also specifies
614 the left margin), the PO number register must stay undefined until
615 the first ms macro is evaluated. This implies that PO should not be
616 used early in the document, unless it is changed also: Remember that
617 accessing an undefined register automatically defines it.
618 Strings
620 You can redefine the following strings to adapt the groff ms macros to
621 languages other than English:
622 String Default Value
624 ───────────────────────────────
625 REFERENCES References
626 ABSTRACT ABSTRACT
627 TOC Table of Contents
628 MONTH1 January
629 MONTH2 February
630 MONTH3 March
631 MONTH4 April
632 MONTH5 May
633 MONTH6 June
634 MONTH7 July
635 MONTH8 August
636 MONTH9 September
637 MONTH10 October
638 MONTH11 November
639 MONTH12 December
640 ───────────────────────────────
641 The \*- string produces an em dash — like this.
643 Use \*Q and \*U to get a left and right typographer's quote, respec‐
645 tively, in troff (and plain quotes in nroff).
646 Text Settings
649 The FAM string sets the default font family. If this string is unde‐
650 fined at initialization, it is set to Times.
651 The point size, vertical spacing, and inter-paragraph spacing for foot‐
653 notes are controlled by the number registers FPS, FVS, and FPD; at ini‐
654 tialization these are set to \n(PS-2, \n[FPS]+2, and \n(PD/2, respec‐
655 tively. If any of these registers are defined before initialization,
656 the initialization macro does not change them.
657 The hyphenation flags (as set by the hy request) are set from the HY
659 register; the default is 14.
660 Improved accent marks (as originally defined in Berkeley's ms version)
662 are available by specifying the AM macro at the beginning of your docu‐
663 ment. You can place an accent over most characters by specifying the
664 string defining the accent directly after the character. For example,
665 n\*~ produces an n with a tilde over it.
666
668 The following conventions are used for names of macros, strings and
669 number registers. External names available to documents that use the
670 groff ms macros contain only uppercase letters and digits.
671 Internally the macros are divided into modules; naming conventions are
673 as follows:
674 · Names used only within one module are of the form module*name.
676 · Names used outside the module in which they are defined are of the
678 form module@name.
679 · Names associated with a particular environment are of the form
681 environment:name; these are used only within the par module.
682 · name does not have a module prefix.
684 · Constructed names used to implement arrays are of the form
686 array!index.
687 Thus the groff ms macros reserve the following names:
689 · Names containing the characters *, @, and :.
691 · Names containing only uppercase letters and digits.
693
695 /usr/share/groff/1.22.2/tmac/ms.tmac (a wrapper file for s.tmac)
696 /usr/share/groff/1.22.2/tmac/s.tmac
697
699 groff(1), troff(1), tbl(1), pic(1), eqn(1), refer(1), Groff: The GNU
700 Implementation of troff by Trent Fisher and Werner Lemberg.
701
703 Original manual page by James Clark et al; rewritten by Larry Kollar
704 (lkollar@despammed.com).
705Groff Version 1.22.2 7 February 2013 GROFF_MS(7)