1GROFF_MS(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual GROFF_MS(7)
2
6 groff_ms - GNU roff manuscript macro package for formatting documents
7
9 groff -ms [option ...] [input-file ...]
10 groff -m ms [option ...] [input-file ...]
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
21 structure. The simplest documents can begin with a paragraph macro and
22 consist of text separated by paragraph macros or even blank lines.
23 Longer documents have a structure as follows:
24 Document type
26 If you use the RP (report) macro at the beginning of the
27 document, groff prints the cover page information on its own
28 page; otherwise it prints the information on the first page with
29 your document text immediately following. Other document
30 formats found in AT&T troff are specific to AT&T or Berkeley,
31 and are not supported in groff ms.
32 Format and layout
34 By setting number registers, you can change your document's
35 margins, spacing, headers and footers, footnotes, and the base
36 point size for the text. See Document control registers below
37 for more 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
45 paragraphs, 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
54 beginning 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
75 increasing 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
119 format 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] (optional) Print the current date, or the arguments to
130 the macro if any, on the title page (if specified) and in the
131 footers. This is the default for nroff.
132 .ND [xxx] (optional) Print the current date, or the arguments to
134 the macro if any, on the title page (if specified) but not in
135 the footers. This is the default for troff.
136 .TL Specifies the document title. Groff collects text following the
138 TL macro into the title, until reaching the author name or
139 abstract.
140 .AU Specifies the author's name. You can specify multiple authors
142 by using an AU macro for each author.
143 .AI Specifies the author's institution. You can specify multiple
145 institutions.
146 .AB [no]
148 Begins the abstract. The default is to print the word ABSTRACT,
149 centered and in italics, above the text of the abstract. The
150 option no suppresses this heading.
151 .AE End the abstract.
153 Paragraphs
155 Use the PP macro to create indented paragraphs, and the LP macro to
156 create paragraphs with no initial indent.
157 The QP macro indents all text at both left and right margins by the
159 amount of the register QI. The effect is reminiscent of the HTML
160 <BLOCKQUOTE> tag. The next paragraph or heading returns the margins to
161 normal. QP inserts the vertical space specified in register PD as
162 inter-paragraph spacing.
163 A paragraph bracketed between the macros QS and QE has the same
165 appearance as a paragraph started with QP and a following paragraph
166 started with LP. Both QS and QE insert the inter-paragraph spacing
167 specified in PD and the text is indented on both sides by the amount of
168 register QI. The text between QS and QE can be split into further
169 paragraphs by using .LP or .PP.
170 The XP macro produces an “exdented” paragraph; that is, one with a
172 hanging indent. The first line of the paragraph begins at the left
173 margin, and subsequent lines are indented (the opposite of PP).
174 For each of the above paragraph types, and also for any list entry
176 introduced by the IP macro (described later), the document control
177 register PORPHANS, sets the minimum number of lines which must be
178 printed, after the start of the paragraph, and before any page break
179 occurs. If there is insufficient space remaining on the current page
180 to accommodate this number of lines, then a page break is forced before
181 the first line of the paragraph is printed.
182 Similarly, when a section heading (see subsection “Headings” below)
184 precedes any of these paragraph types, the HORPHANS document control
185 register specifies the minimum number of lines of the paragraph which
186 must be kept on the same page as the heading. If insufficient space
187 remains on the current page to accommodate the heading and this number
188 of lines of paragraph text, then a page break is forced before the
189 heading is printed.
190 Headings
192 Use headings to create a hierarchical structure for your document. By
193 default, the ms macros print headings in bold using the same font
194 family and point size as the body text. For output devices which
195 support scalable fonts, this behaviour may be modified by defining the
196 document control registers GROWPS and PSINCR.
197 The following heading macros are available:
199 .NH xx Numbered heading. The argument xx is either a numeric argument
201 to indicate the level of the heading, or S xx xx ... to set the
202 section number explicitly. If you specify heading levels out of
203 sequence, such as invoking .NH 3 after .NH 1, groff prints a
204 warning on standard error.
205 If the GROWPS register is set to a value greater than the level
207 of the heading, then the point size of the heading will be
208 increased by PSINCR units over the text size specified by the PS
209 register, for each level by which the heading level is less than
210 the value of GROWPS. For example, the sequence:
211 .nr PS 10
213 .nr GROWPS 3
214 .nr PSINCR 1.5p
215 .
216 .NH 1
217 Top Level Heading
218 .
219 .NH 2
220 Second Level Heading
221 .
222 .NH 3
223 Third Level Heading
224 will cause “1. Top Level Heading” to be printed in 13pt bold
226 text, followed by “1.1. Second Level Heading” in 11.5pt bold
227 text, while “1.1.1. Third Level Heading”, and all more deeply
228 nested heading levels, will remain in the 10pt bold text which
229 is specified by the PS register.
230 Note that the value stored in PSINCR is interpreted in groff
232 basic units; the p scaling factor should be employed when
233 assigning a value specified in points.
234 The style used to represent the section number, within a
236 numbered heading, is controlled by the SN-STYLE string; this may
237 be set to either the SN-DOT or the SN-NO-DOT style, (described
238 below), by aliasing SN-STYLE accordingly. By default, SN-STYLE
239 is initialised by defining the alias
240 .als SN-STYLE SN-DOT
242 it may be changed to the SN-NO-DOT style, if preferred, by
244 defining the alternative alias
245 .als SN-STYLE SN-NO-DOT
247 Any such change becomes effective with the first use of .NH,
249 after the new alias is defined.
250 After invoking .NH, the assigned heading number is available in
252 the strings SN-DOT (as it appears in the default formatting
253 style for numbered headings, with a terminating period following
254 the number), and SN-NO-DOT (with this terminating period
255 omitted). The string SN is also defined, as an alias for
256 SN-DOT; if preferred, the user may redefine it as an alias for
257 SN-NO-DOT, by including the initialisation:
258 .als SN SN-NO-DOT
260 at any time; the change becomes effective with the next use of
262 .NH, after the new alias is defined.
263 .SH [xx] Unnumbered subheading. The use of the optional xx
265 argument is a GNU extension, which adjusts the point size of the
266 unnumbered subheading to match that of a numbered heading,
267 introduced using .NH xx with the same value of xx. For example,
268 given the same settings for PS, GROWPS and PSINCR, as used in
269 the preceding .NH example, the sequence:
270 .SH 2
272 An Unnumbered Subheading
273 will print “An Unnumbered Subheading” in 11.5pt bold text.
275 Highlighting
277 The ms macros provide a variety of methods to highlight or emphasize
278 text:
279 .B [txt [post [pre]]] Sets its first argument in bold type. If
281 you specify a second argument, groff prints it in the previous
282 font after the bold text, with no intervening space (this allows
283 you to set punctuation after the highlighted text without
284 highlighting the punctuation). Similarly, it prints the third
285 argument (if any) in the previous font before the first
286 argument. For example,
287 .B foo ) (
289 prints “(foo)”.
291 If you give this macro no arguments, groff prints all text
293 following in bold until the next highlighting, paragraph, or
294 heading macro.
295 .R [txt [post [pre]]] Sets its first argument in roman (or
297 regular) type. It operates similarly to the B macro otherwise.
298 .I [txt [post [pre]]] Sets its first argument in italic type. It
300 operates similarly to the B macro otherwise.
301 .CW [txt [post [pre]]] Sets its first argument in a constant-width
303 face. It operates similarly to the B macro otherwise.
304 .BI [txt [post [pre]]] Sets its first argument in bold italic type.
306 It operates similarly to the B macro otherwise.
307 .BX [txt] Prints its argument and draws a box around it. If you
309 want to box a string that contains spaces, use a digit-width
310 space (\0).
311 .UL [txt [post]] Prints its first argument with an underline. If
313 you specify a second argument, groff prints it in the previous
314 font after the underlined text, with no intervening space.
315 .LG Prints all text following in larger type (2 points larger than
317 the current point size) until the next font size, highlighting,
318 paragraph, or heading macro. You can specify this macro
319 multiple times to enlarge the point size as needed.
320 .SM Prints all text following in smaller type (2 points smaller than
322 the current point size) until the next type size, highlighting,
323 paragraph, or heading macro. You can specify this macro
324 multiple times to reduce the point size as needed.
325 .NL Prints all text following in the normal point size (that is, the
327 value of the PS register).
328 \*{text\*}
330 Print the enclosed text as a superscript.
331 Indents
333 You may need to indent sections of text. A typical use for indents is
334 to create nested lists and sublists.
335 Use the RS and RE macros to start and end a section of indented text,
337 respectively. The PI register controls the amount of indent.
338 You can nest indented sections as deeply as needed by using multiple,
340 nested pairs of RS and RE.
341 Lists
343 The IP macro handles duties for all lists. Its syntax is as follows:
344 .IP [marker [width]] The marker is usually a bullet character \(bu
346 for unordered lists, a number (or auto-incrementing number
347 register) for numbered lists, or a word or phrase for indented
348 (glossary-style) lists.
349 The width specifies the indent for the body of each list item.
351 Once specified, the indent remains the same for all list items
352 in the document until specified again.
353 Tab stops
355 Use the ta request to set tab stops as needed. Use the TA macro to
356 reset tabs to the default (every 5n). You can redefine the TA macro to
357 create a different set of default tab stops.
358 Displays and keeps
360 Use displays to show text-based examples or figures (such as code
361 listings). Displays turn off filling, so lines of code can be
362 displayed as-is without inserting br requests in between each line.
363 Displays can be kept on a single page, or allowed to break across
364 pages. The following table shows the display types available.
365 Display macro Type of display
367 With keep No keep
368 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
369 .DS L .LD Left-justified.
370 .DS I [indent] .ID Indented (default indent in the DI
371 register).
372 .DS B .BD Block-centered (left-justified,
373 longest line centered).
374 .DS C .CD Centered.
375 .DS R .RD Right-justified.
376 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
377 Use the DE macro to end any display type. The macros Ds and De were
379 formerly provided as aliases for DS and DE, respectively, but they have
380 been removed, and should no longer be used. X11 documents which
381 actually use Ds and De always load a specific macro file from the X11
382 distribution (macros.t) which provides proper definitions for the two
383 macros.
384 To keep text together on a page, such as a paragraph that refers to a
386 table (or list, or other item) immediately following, use the KS and KE
387 macros. The KS macro begins a block of text to be kept on a single
388 page, and the KE macro ends the block.
389 You can specify a floating keep using the KF and KE macros. If the
391 keep cannot fit on the current page, groff holds the contents of the
392 keep and allows text following the keep (in the source file) to fill in
393 the remainder of the current page. When the page breaks, whether by an
394 explicit bp request or by reaching the end of the page, groff prints
395 the floating keep at the top of the new page. This is useful for
396 printing large graphics or tables that do not need to appear exactly
397 where specified.
398 The macros B1 and B2 can be used to enclose a text within a box; .B1
400 begins the box, and .B2 ends it. Text in the box is automatically
401 placed in a diversion (keep).
402 Tables, figures, equations, and references
404 The ms macros support the standard groff preprocessors: tbl, pic, eqn,
405 and refer. Mark text meant for preprocessors by enclosing it in pairs
406 of tags as follows:
407 .TS [H] and .TE
409 Denote a table to be processed by the tbl preprocessor. The
410 optional H argument instructs groff to create a running header
411 with the information up to the TH macro. Groff prints the
412 header at the beginning of the table; if the table runs onto
413 another page, groff prints the header on the next page as well.
414 .PS and .PE
416 Denote a graphic to be processed by the pic preprocessor. You
417 can create a pic file by hand, using the AT&T pic manual
418 available on the Web as a reference, or by using a graphics
419 program such as xfig.
420 .EQ [align] and .EN Denote an equation to be processed by the eqn
422 preprocessor. The optional align argument can be C, L, or I to
423 center (the default), left-justify, or indent the equation,
424 respectively.
425 .[ and .]
427 Denote a reference to be processed by the refer preprocessor.
428 The GNU refer(1) manual page provides a comprehensive reference
429 to the preprocessor and the format of the bibliographic
430 database.
431 Footnotes
433 The ms macros provide a flexible footnote system. You can specify a
434 numbered footnote by using the \** escape, followed by the text of the
435 footnote enclosed by FS and FE macros.
436 You can specify symbolic footnotes by placing the mark character (such
438 as \(dg for the dagger character) in the body text, followed by the
439 text of the footnote enclosed by FS \(dg and FE macros.
440 You can control how groff prints footnote numbers by changing the value
442 of the FF register as follows:
443 0 Prints the footnote number as a superscript; indents the
445 footnote (default).
446 1 Prints the number followed by a period (that is, “1.”)
448 and indents the footnote.
449 2 Like 1, without an indent.
451 3 Like 1, but prints the footnote number as a paragraph
453 with a hanging indent.
454 You can use footnotes safely within keeps and displays, but avoid using
456 numbered footnotes within floating keeps. You can set a second \**
457 between a \** and its corresponding .FS; as long as each .FS occurs
458 after the corresponding \** and the occurrences of .FS are in the same
459 order as the corresponding occurrences of \**.
460 Headers and footers
462 There are three ways to define headers and footers:
463 · Use the strings LH, CH, and RH to set the left, center, and right
465 headers. Use LF, CF, and RF to set the left, center, and right
466 footers. The string-setting approach works best for documents that
467 do not distinguish between odd and even pages.
468 · Use the OH and EH macros to define headers for the odd and even
470 pages, and OF and EF macros to define footers for the odd and even
471 pages. This is more flexible than defining the individual strings.
472 The syntax for these macros is as follows:
473 .XX 'left'center'right'
475 where XX is one of the foregoing four macros and each of left,
477 center, and right is text of your choice. You can replace the quote
478 (') marks with any character not appearing in the header or footer
479 text.
480 · You can redefine the PT and BT macros to change the behavior of the
482 header and footer, respectively. The header process also calls the
483 (undefined) HD macro after PT; you can define this macro if you need
484 additional processing after printing the header (for example, to
485 draw a line below the header).
486 Margins
488 You control margins using a set of number registers. The following
489 table lists the register names and defaults:
490 Reg. Definition Effective Default
492 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
493 PO Page offset (left margin) next page 1i
494 LL Line length next paragraph 6i
495 LT Header/footer length next paragraph 6i
496 HM Top (header) margin next page 1i
497 FM Bottom (footer) margin next page 1i
498 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
499 Note that there is no right margin setting. The combination of page
501 offset and line length provide the information necessary to derive the
502 right margin.
503 Multiple columns
505 The ms macros can set text in as many columns as will reasonably fit on
506 the page. The following macros are available. All of them force a
507 page break if a multi-column mode is already set. However, if the
508 current mode is single-column, starting a multi-column mode does not
509 force a page break.
510 .1C Single-column mode.
512 .2C Two-column mode.
514 .MC [column-width [gutter-width]] Multi-column mode. If you
516 specify no arguments, it is equivalent to the 2C macro.
517 Otherwise, column-width is the width of each column and gutter-
518 width is the space between columns. The MINGW number register
519 is the default gutter width.
520 Creating a table of contents
522 Wrap text that you want to appear in the table of contents in XS and XE
523 macros. Use the TC macro to print the table of contents at the end of
524 the document, resetting the page number to i (Roman numeral 1).
525 You can manually create a table of contents by specifying a page number
527 as the first argument to XS. Add subsequent entries using the XA
528 macro. For example:
529 .XS 1
531 Introduction
532 .XA 2
533 A Brief History of the Universe
534 .XA 729
535 Details of Galactic Formation
536 ...
537 .XE
538 Use the PX macro to print a manually-generated table of contents
540 without resetting the page number.
541 If you give the argument no to either PX or TC, groff suppresses
543 printing the title specified by the \*[TOC] string.
544 Fractional point sizes
546 Traditionally, the ms macros only support integer values for the
547 document's font size and vertical spacing. To overcome this
548 restriction, values larger than or equal to 1000 are taken as
549 fractional values, multiplied by 1000. For example, ‘.nr PS 10250’
550 sets the font size to 10.25 points.
551 The following four registers accept fractional point sizes: PS, VS,
553 FPS, and FVS.
554 Due to backwards compatibility, the value of VS must be smaller than
556 40000 (this is 40.0 points).
557
559 The groff ms macros are a complete re-implementation, using no original
560 AT&T code. Since they take advantage of the extended features in
561 groff, they cannot be used with AT&T troff. Other differences include:
562 · The internals of groff ms differ from the internals of Unix ms.
564 Documents that depend upon implementation details of Unix ms may not
565 format properly with groff ms.
566 · The error-handling policy of groff ms is to detect and report
568 errors, rather than silently to ignore them.
569 · Some Bell Labs localisms are not implemented by default. However,
571 if you call the otherwise undocumented SC section-header macro, you
572 will enable implementations of three other archaic Bell Labs macros:
573 UC, P1, and P2. These are not enabled by default because (a) they
574 were not documented, in the original ms manual, and (b) the P1 and
575 UC macros both collide with different macros in the Berkeley version
576 of ms.
577 These emulations are sufficient to give back the 1976 Kernighan &
579 Cherry paper Typesetting Mathematics – User's Guide its section
580 headings, and restore some text that had gone missing as arguments
581 of undefined macros. No warranty express or implied is given as to
582 how well the typographic details these produce match the original
583 Bell Labs macros.
584 · Berkeley localisms, in particular the TM and CT macros, are not
586 implemented.
587 · Groff ms does not work in compatibility mode (e.g., with the -C
589 option).
590 · There is no support for typewriter-like devices.
592 · Groff ms does not provide cut marks.
594 · Multiple line spacing is not supported (use a larger vertical
596 spacing instead).
597 · Some Unix ms documentation says that the CW and GW number registers
599 can be used to control the column width and gutter width,
600 respectively. These number registers are not used in groff ms.
601 · Macros that cause a reset (paragraphs, headings, etc.) may change
603 the indent. Macros that change the indent do not increment or
604 decrement the indent, but rather set it absolutely. This can cause
605 problems for documents that define additional macros of their own.
606 The solution is to use not the in request but instead the RS and RE
607 macros.
608 · The number register GS is set to 1 by the groff ms macros, but is
610 not used by the Unix ms macros. Documents that need to determine
611 whether they are being formatted with Unix ms or groff ms should use
612 this number register.
613 · To make groff ms use the default page offset (which also specifies
615 the left margin), the PO number register must stay undefined until
616 the first ms macro is evaluated. This implies that PO should not be
617 used early in the document, unless it is changed also: remember that
618 accessing an undefined register automatically defines it.
619 Strings
621 You can redefine the following strings to adapt the groff ms macros to
622 languages other than English:
623 String Default Value
625 ───────────────────────────────
626 REFERENCES References
627 ABSTRACT ABSTRACT
628 TOC Table of Contents
629 MONTH1 January
630 MONTH2 February
631 MONTH3 March
632 MONTH4 April
633 MONTH5 May
634 MONTH6 June
635 MONTH7 July
636 MONTH8 August
637 MONTH9 September
638 MONTH10 October
639 MONTH11 November
640 MONTH12 December
641 ───────────────────────────────
642 The \*- string produces an em dash—like this.
644 Use \*Q and \*U to get a left and right typographer's quote,
646 respectively, in troff (and plain quotes in nroff).
647 Text Settings
649 The FAM string sets the default font family. If this string is
650 undefined at initialization, it is set to Times.
651 The point size, vertical spacing, and inter-paragraph spacing for
653 footnotes are controlled by the number registers FPS, FVS, and FPD; at
654 initialization these are set to \n(PS-2, \n[FPS]+2, and \n(PD/2,
655 respectively. If any of these registers are defined before
656 initialization, 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 6.
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
663 document. You can place an accent over most characters by specifying
664 the string defining the accent directly after the character. For
665 example, 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/1.22.4/tmac/ms.tmac (a wrapper file for s.tmac)
696 /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/s.tmac
697
699 The GNU version of the ms macro package was written by James Clark and
700 contributors. This document was (re-)written by Larry Kollar ⟨lkollar@
701 despammed.com⟩.
702
704 groff(1), troff(1), tbl(1), pic(1), eqn(1), refer(1)
705 Groff: The GNU Implementation of troff, by Trent A. Fisher and Werner
707 Lemberg
708groff 1.22.4 3 November 2020 GROFF_MS(7)