groff_filenames(5)

1GROFF_FILENAMES(5)            File Formats Manual           GROFF_FILENAMES(5)
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NAME

6       groff_filenames - filename extensions for roff and groff
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DESCRIPTION

9       Since the evolution of roff in the 1970s, a whole bunch of filename ex‐
10       tensions for roff files were used.
11
12       The roff extensions refer to preprocessors or  macro  packages.   These
13       extensions are fixed in all Unix-like operating systems.
14
15       Later  on,  groff  added  some more extensions.  This man page is about
16       these filename extensions.
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COMPRESSION OF ROFF FILES

19       Each roff file can be optionally compressed.  That means that the total
20       filename  ends  with  a compressor name.  So the whole filename has the
21       structure <name>.<extension>[.<compression>].
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23       Best-known are the compressor extensions .Z, .gz,  and  .bzip2.   Rela‐
24       tively new is .xz.
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26       From  now  on,  we  will  ignore  the compressions and only comment the
27       structure <name>.<extension>.
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MAN PAGES

30       The Unix manual pages are widely called man pages.  The man page  style
31       is the best known part of the roff language.
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33       The  extensions  for man should be better documented.  So this is docu‐
34       mented here.
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36       Files written in the man language use the following extension:  *.<sec‐
37       tion>[<group>].
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39   Man page Sections
40       The traditional man page <section> is a digit from 1 to 8.
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42       <name>.1
43       <name>.2
44       <name>.3
45       <name>.4
46       <name>.5
47       <name>.6
48       <name>.7
49       <name>.8
50              Classic man page sections.
51
52       In  older  commercial  Unix  systems, the 3 characters l, n, and o were
53       also used as section names.  This is today deprecated,  but  there  are
54       still documents in this format.
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56       <name>.l
57       <name>.n
58       <name>.o
59              Deprecated  man  page  sections, which stood for “local”, “new”,
60              and “old”, respectively.
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62   Man page Group Extensions
63       The <group> extension in .<section>[<group>] is optional, but it can be
64       any  string  of  word characters.  Usually programmers use a group name
65       that is already used, e.g. x for X Window System documents  or  tcl  to
66       refer to the Tcl programming language.
67
68       Examples:
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70       groff.1
71              is the man page for groff in section 1 without a group
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73       xargs.1posix.gz
74              is  the  man  page  for the program xargs in section 1 and group
75              posix; moreover it is compressed with gz (gzip).
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77       config.5ssl
78              OpenSSL CONF library configuration files  from  section  5  with
79              group ssl.
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81       dpkg-reconfigure.8cdebconf
82              man page for the program dpkg-reconfigure in section 8 and group
83              cdebconf.
84
85   Source of man pages
86       There are 2 roff languages for writing man pages: man and mdoc.
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88       The names of these 2 styles are taken as extensions for the source code
89       files of man pages in the groff package.
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91       <name>.man
92              traditional Unix-like man page format within groff source files.
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94       <name>.n
95              A temporary man page file produced from a name.man man page by a
96              run of make within the groff source package.
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98       <name>.mdoc
99              Man page format in BSD.
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101       <name>.1b
102              Man page format in heirloom roff .
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104       <name>.mandoc
105              Files using this extension recognize both man  page  formats  in
106              groff and other processors.
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TRADITIONAL TROFF EXTENSIONS

109   Files Using Macro Packages
110       The  classical roff languages were interpreted by the traditional troff
111       and nroff programs.
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113       There were several roff languages, each represented by a macro-package.
114       Each of these provided a suitable file name extension:
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116       <name>.me
117              roff file using the me macro package.
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119       <name>.mm
120              roff file using the mm macro package
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122       <name>.ms
123              roff file using the ms macro package
124
125       All  of  these  classical roff languages and their extensions are still
126       very active in groff.
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128   Source Code for Macro Packages (TMAC Files)
129       In traditional roff the source code for the macro packages  was  stored
130       in TMAC files.  Their file names have the form:
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132       tmac.<package>,
133              <package> is the name of the macro package without the leading m
134              character, which is reintegrated by the option -m.
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136       For example, tmac.an is the source for the man macro package.
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138       In the groff source, more suitable  file  names  were  integrated,  see
139       later on.
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141   Preprocessors
142       Moreover, the following preprocessors were used as filename extension:
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144       <name>.chem
145              for the integration of chemical formulas
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147       <name>.eqn
148              for the mathematical use of equations
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150       <name>.pic
151              graphical tool
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153       <name>.tbl
154              for tables with tbl
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156       <name>.ref
157              for files using the prefer preprocessor
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159   Classical Roff Files
160       <name>.t
161       <name>.tr
162              for files using the roff language of any kind
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NEW GROFF EXTENSIONS

165       GNU roff groff is the actual roff standard, both for classical roff and
166       new extensions.  So even the used new extensions  in  the  source  code
167       should  be  regarded  as actual standard.  The following extensions are
168       used instead of classical .t or .tr:
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170       <name>.groff
171       <name>.roff
172              general ending for files using the groff language
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174   Source Code for Macro Packages (TMAC Files)
175       As the classical form tmac.<package_without_m>, of the TMAC file  names
176       is quite strange, groff added the following structures:
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178       <package_without_m>.tmac
179       m<package>.tmac
180       groff_m<package>.tmac
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182   Files Using new Macro Packages
183       Groff uses the following new macro packages:
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185       <name>.mmse
186              file with swedish mm macros for groff
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188       <name>.mom
189              files written in the groff macro package mom
190
191       <name>.www
192              files written in HTML-like groff macros.
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194   Preprocessors and Postprocessors
195       <name>.hdtbl
196              Heidelberger  tables,  an  alternative  to the preprocessor tbl.
197              See groff_hdtbl(7).
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199       <name>.grap
200              files written for the graphical grap processor.
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202       <name>.grn
203              for including gremlin(1), pictures, see grn(1).
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205       <name>.pdfroff
206              transform this file with pdfroff of the groff system
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AUTHORS

209       This document  was  written  by  Bernd  Warken  ⟨groff-bernd.warken-72@
210       web.de⟩.
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