1GROFF_ME(7)            Miscellaneous Information Manual            GROFF_ME(7)
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NAME

6       groff_me - “me” macro package for formatting documents with GNU roff
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SYNOPSIS

9       groff -me [option ...] [input-file ...]
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11       groff -m me [option ...] [input-file ...]
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DESCRIPTION

14       The  me  package  of macro definitions for the roff language provides a
15       convenient facility for preparing technical papers in various  formats.
16       This  manual  page describes the GNU version of the me macros, which is
17       part of the groff document formatting system.  This version can be used
18       with both GNU troff and Unix troff.
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20       Many  roff  requests  are unsafe in conjunction with this package; how‐
21       ever, the following requests may be used with impunity after the  first
22       .pp:
23
24       .bp     begin new page
25       .br     break output line here
26       .sp n   insert n spacing lines
27       .ls n   (line spacing) n=1 single, n=2 double space
28       .na     no alignment of right margin
29       .ce n   center next n lines
30       .ul n   underline next n lines
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32       Note:  In  contrast to its behavior with other macro packages and “raw”
33       roff, when using the me package, the .sp request will not put space  at
34       the top of a page.
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36       Output  of  the pic, eqn, refer, and tbl preprocessors is acceptable as
37       input.
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39   Macro Reference
40       Numeric arguments to macros are  denoted  with  lowercase  letters  and
41       string  arguments with uppercase.  An optional macro argument such as x
42       appears in brackets, [x].  Note that arguments to macros generally must
43       be  quoted if they contain whitespace.  An exception is the argument to
44       header and footer macros, which require some  explanation.   They  take
45       the  form “c left c middle c right c”, with spaces added here for clar‐
46       ity.  The strings left, middle, and  right  correspond  to  their  page
47       placement  and can contain unprotected whitespace, but must not contain
48       the (non-space) character c, which delimits them.  For brevity, the ta‐
49       ble  presents  header and footer arguments as clcmcrc.  Popular choices
50       for c are the ASCII apostrophe “'” and the ASCII double quote “"”.
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52       This list is incomplete; some requests are too complex to summarize  in
53       a table, and some that are listed below accept additional arguments not
54       shown.  See the -me Reference Manual for interesting details.
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56       Request           Initial   Causes   Explanation
57                         Value     Break
58       ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
59       .(c               -         yes      Begin centered block.
60       .(d               -         no       Begin delayed text.
61       .(f               -         no       Begin footnote.
62       .(l               -         yes      Begin list.
63       .(q               -         yes      Begin major quote.
64       .(x [X]           -         no       Begin item in index (named X).
65       .(z               -         no       Begin floating keep.
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67       .)c               -         yes      End centered block.
68       .)d               -         yes      End delayed text.
69       .)f               -         yes      End footnote.
70       .)l               -         yes      End list.
71       .)q               -         yes      End major quote.
72       .)x               -         yes      End index item.
73       .)z               -         yes      End floating keep.
74       .++ M [clcmcrc]   -         no       Define paper section as M, which
75                                            must be one of C (chapter), A (ap‐
76                                            pendix), P (preliminary, i.e.,
77                                            front matter or table of con‐
78                                            tents), AB (abstract), B (bibliog‐
79                                            raphy), RC (chapters renumbered
80                                            from page one each chapter), or RA
81                                            (appendix renumbered from page
82                                            one) (and set page header to clcm‐
83                                            crc).
84       .+c [T]           -         yes      Begin chapter (or appendix, etc.,
85                                            as set by .++) (with title T).
86       .1c               1         yes      One-column format on a new page.
87       .2c               1         yes      Two-column format.
88       .EN               -         yes      Space after equation produced by
89                                            eqn or neqn.
90       .EQ [M [T]]       -         yes      Begin displayed equation (with in‐
91                                            dentation M, which must be one of
92                                            C (centered, default), I (in‐
93                                            dented), or L (justified left)
94                                            (and title T in right margin)).
95       .GE               -         yes      End gremlin picture.
96       .GS               -         yes      Begin gremlin picture.
97       .PE               -         yes      End pic picture.
98       .PS               -         yes      Begin pic picture.
99       .TE               -         yes      End tbl table.
100       .TH               -         yes      End heading of tbl table.
101       .TS [H]           -         yes      Begin tbl table; if H, table re‐
102                                            peats heading on each page.
103       .b [X [Y]]        -         no       Print X in bold (appending Y in
104                                            the previous font); if no argu‐
105                                            ments, switch to bold.
106       .ba n             0         yes      Augment the base indent (for regu‐
107                                            lar text, like paragraphs) by n.
108       .bc               -         yes      Begin new column.
109       .bi [X [Y]]       -         no       Print X in bold italics (appending
110                                            Y in the previous font); if no ar‐
111                                            guments, switch to bold italics.
112       .bu               -         yes      Begin bulleted paragraph.
113       .bx [X [Y]]       -         no       Print X in a box (with Y ap‐
114                                            pended).  Renders reliably only in
115                                            no-fill mode.
116       .ef clcmcrc       """"      no       Set even-numbered page footer.
117       .eh clcmcrc       """"      no       Set even-numbered page header.
118       .fo clcmcrc       """"      no       Set page footer.
119       .hx               -         no       Suppress headers and footers on
120                                            next page.
121       .he clcmcrc       """"      no       Set page header.
122       .hl               -         yes      Draw a horizontal line.
123       .i [X [Y]]        -         no       Print X in italics (appending Y in
124                                            the previous font); if no argu‐
125                                            ments, switch to italics.
126       .ip [X [n]]       n=5n      yes      Start indented paragraph (with
127                                            hanging tag X (and indentation
128                                            n)).
129       .lp               -         yes      Begin paragraph with first line
130                                            flush left.
131       .np               1         yes      Start numbered paragraph.
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133       .of clcmcrc       """"      no       Set odd-numbered page footer.
134       .oh clcmcrc       """"      no       Set odd-numbered page header.
135       .pd               -         yes      Print delayed text.
136       .pp               -         yes      Begin paragraph with indented
137                                            first line.
138       .r [X [Y]]        -         no       Print X in roman (appending Y in
139                                            the previous font); if no argu‐
140                                            ments, switch to roman.
141       .re               0.5i      no       Reset tabs to default values.
142       .sh [n [T]]       n=1       yes      Start numbered section; print sec‐
143                                            tion number (set to n (and title
144                                            T)) in bold.
145       .sk               -         no       Leave the next page blank.  Only
146                                            one page is remembered ahead.
147       .sm X [Y]         -         no       Print X in a smaller point size
148                                            (appending Y at the previous
149                                            size).
150       .sz n             10p       no       Augment the point size by n
151                                            points.
152       .tp               -         yes      Begin title page.
153       .u X [Y]          -         no       Underline X (appending Y without
154                                            underlining).  Renders reliably
155                                            only in no-fill mode.
156       .uh [T]           -         yes      Start unnumbered section (and
157                                            print title T in bold).
158       .xp [X]           -         no       Print index (named X).
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FILES

161       /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/me.tmac (a wrapper file for e.tmac)
162       /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/e.tmac
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NOTES

165       Early roff macro packages limited themselves to a single-letter name‐
166       space (mm, ms, mv, mn, etc.).  The “e” in “me” stands for “Eric P. All‐
167       man”, who wrote the macro package and the original technical papers
168       documenting it while an undergraduate at the University of California.
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SEE ALSO

171       groff(1), troff(1)
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173       Two manuals are available in source and rendered form.  On your system,
174       they may be compressed and/or available in additional formats.
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176       /usr/share/doc/groff/meintro.me
177       /usr/share/doc/groff/meintro.ps
178              is Writing Papers with Groff Using -me, by Eric P. Allman and
179              James Clark.
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181       /usr/share/doc/groff/meref.me
182       /usr/share/doc/groff/meref.ps
183              is the -me Reference Manual, by Eric P. Allman and James Clark.
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185       For preprocessors supported by me, see eqn(1), grn(1), pic(1), re‐
186       fer(1), and tbl(1).
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190groff 1.22.4                    20 January 2022                    GROFF_ME(7)
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