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]
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 by the
161 amount of the register QI. The effect is reminiscent of the HTML
162 <BLOCKQUOTE> tag. The next paragraph or heading returns the margins to
163 normal. QP inserts the vertical space specified in register PD as
164 inter-paragraph spacing.
165 A paragraph bracketed between the macros QS and QE has the same
167 appearance as a paragraph started with QP and a following paragraph
168 started with LP. Both QS and QE insert the inter-paragraph spacing
169 specified in PD and the text is indented on both sides by the amount of
170 register QI. The text between QS and QE can be split into further
171 paragraphs by using .LP or .PP.
172 The XP macro produces an “exdented” paragraph; that is, one with a
174 hanging indent. The first line of the paragraph begins at the left
175 margin, and subsequent lines are indented (the opposite of PP).
176 For each of the above paragraph types, and also for any list entry
178 introduced by the IP macro (described later), the document control
179 register PORPHANS, sets the minimum number of lines which must be
180 printed, after the start of the paragraph, and before any page break
181 occurs. If there is insufficient space remaining on the current page
182 to accommodate this number of lines, then a page break is forced before
183 the first line of the paragraph is printed.
184 Similarly, when a section heading (see subsection “Headings” below)
186 precedes any of these paragraph types, the HORPHANS document control
187 register specifies the minimum number of lines of the paragraph which
188 must be kept on the same page as the heading. If insufficient space
189 remains on the current page to accommodate the heading and this number
190 of lines of paragraph text, then a page break is forced before the
191 heading is printed.
192 Headings
194 Use headings to create a hierarchical structure for your document. By
195 default, the ms macros print headings in bold using the same font
196 family and point size as the body text. For output devices which
197 support scalable fonts, this behaviour may be modified by defining the
198 document control registers GROWPS and PSINCR.
199 The following heading macros are available:
201 .NH xx Numbered heading. The argument xx is either a numeric argument
203 to indicate the level of the heading, or S xx xx ... to set the
204 section number explicitly. If you specify heading levels out of
205 sequence, such as invoking .NH 3 after .NH 1, groff prints a
206 warning on standard error.
207 If the GROWPS register is set to a value greater than the level
209 of the heading, then the point size of the heading will be
210 increased by PSINCR units over the text size specified by the PS
211 register, for each level by which the heading level is less than
212 the value of GROWPS. For example, the sequence:
213 .nr PS 10
215 .nr GROWPS 3
216 .nr PSINCR 1.5p
217 .
218 .NH 1
219 Top Level Heading
220 .
221 .NH 2
222 Second Level Heading
223 .
224 .NH 3
225 Third Level Heading
226 will cause “1. Top Level Heading” to be printed in 13pt bold
228 text, followed by “1.1. Second Level Heading” in 11.5pt bold
229 text, while “1.1.1. Third Level Heading”, and all more deeply
230 nested heading levels, will remain in the 10pt bold text which
231 is specified by the PS register.
232 Note that the value stored in PSINCR is interpreted in groff
234 basic units; the p scaling factor should be employed when
235 assigning a value specified in points.
236 The style used to represent the section number, within a
238 numbered heading, is controlled by the SN-STYLE string; this may
239 be set to either the SN-DOT or the SN-NO-DOT style, (described
240 below), by aliasing SN-STYLE accordingly. By default, SN-STYLE
241 is initialised by defining the alias
242 .als SN-STYLE SN-DOT
244 it may be changed to the SN-NO-DOT style, if preferred, by
246 defining the alternative alias
247 .als SN-STYLE SN-NO-DOT
249 Any such change becomes effective with the first use of .NH,
251 after the new alias is defined.
252 After invoking .NH, the assigned heading number is available in
254 the strings SN-DOT (as it appears in the default formatting
255 style for numbered headings, with a terminating period following
256 the number), and SN-NO-DOT (with this terminating period
257 omitted). The string SN is also defined, as an alias for
258 SN-DOT; if preferred, the user may redefine it as an alias for
259 SN-NO-DOT, by including the initialisation:
260 .als SN SN-NO-DOT
262 at any time; the change becomes effective with the next use of
264 .NH, after the new alias is defined.
265 .SH [xx]
267 Unnumbered subheading. The use of the optional xx argument is a
268 GNU extension, which adjusts the point size of the unnumbered
269 subheading to match that of a numbered heading, introduced using
270 .NH xx with the same value of xx. For example, given the same
271 settings for PS, GROWPS and PSINCR, as used in the preceding .NH
272 example, the sequence:
273 .SH 2
275 An Unnumbered Subheading
276 will print “An Unnumbered Subheading” in 11.5pt bold text.
278 Highlighting
280 The ms macros provide a variety of methods to highlight or emphasize
281 text:
282 .B [txt [post [pre]]]
284 Sets its first argument in bold type. If you specify a second
285 argument, groff prints it in the previous font after the bold
286 text, with no intervening space (this allows you to set
287 punctuation after the highlighted text without highlighting the
288 punctuation). Similarly, it prints the third argument (if any)
289 in the previous font before the first argument. For example,
290 .B foo ) (
292 prints “(foo)”.
294 If you give this macro no arguments, groff prints all text
296 following in bold until the next highlighting, paragraph, or
297 heading macro.
298 .R [txt [post [pre]]]
300 Sets its first argument in roman (or regular) type. It operates
301 similarly to the B macro otherwise.
302 .I [txt [post [pre]]]
304 Sets its first argument in italic type. It operates similarly
305 to the B macro otherwise.
306 .CW [txt [post [pre]]]
308 Sets its first argument in a constant-width face. It operates
309 similarly to the B macro otherwise.
310 .BI [txt [post [pre]]]
312 Sets its first argument in bold italic type. It operates
313 similarly to the B macro otherwise.
314 .BX [txt]
316 Prints its argument and draws a box around it. If you want to
317 box a string that contains spaces, use a digit-width space (\0).
318 .UL [txt [post]]
320 Prints its first argument with an underline. If you specify a
321 second argument, groff prints it in the previous font after the
322 underlined text, with no intervening space.
323 .LG Prints all text following in larger type (2 points larger than
325 the current point size) until the next font size, highlighting,
326 paragraph, or heading macro. You can specify this macro
327 multiple times to enlarge the point size as needed.
328 .SM Prints all text following in smaller type (2 points smaller than
330 the current point size) until the next type size, highlighting,
331 paragraph, or heading macro. You can specify this macro
332 multiple times to reduce the point size as needed.
333 .NL Prints all text following in the normal point size (that is, the
335 value of the PS register).
336 \*{text\*}
338 Print the enclosed text as a superscript.
339 Indents
341 You may need to indent sections of text. A typical use for indents is
342 to create nested lists and sublists.
343 Use the RS and RE macros to start and end a section of indented text,
345 respectively. The PI register controls the amount of indent.
346 You can nest indented sections as deeply as needed by using multiple,
348 nested pairs of RS and RE.
349 Lists
351 The IP macro handles duties for all lists. Its syntax is as follows:
352 .IP [marker [width]]
354 The marker is usually a bullet character \(bu for unordered
355 lists, a number (or auto-incrementing number register) for
356 numbered lists, or a word or phrase for indented (glossary-
357 style) lists.
358 The width specifies the indent for the body of each list item.
360 Once specified, the indent remains the same for all list items
361 in the document until specified again.
362 Tab stops
364 Use the ta request to set tab stops as needed. Use the TA macro to
365 reset tabs to the default (every 5n). You can redefine the TA macro to
366 create a different set of default tab stops.
367 Displays and keeps
369 Use displays to show text-based examples or figures (such as code
370 listings). Displays turn off filling, so lines of code can be
371 displayed as-is without inserting br requests in between each line.
372 Displays can be kept on a single page, or allowed to break across
373 pages. The following table shows the display types available.
374 Display macro Type of display
376 With keep No keep
377 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
378 .DS L .LD Left-justified.
379 .DS I [indent] .ID Indented (default indent in the DI
380 register).
381 .DS B .BD Block-centered (left-justified,
382 longest line centered).
383 .DS C .CD Centered.
384 .DS R .RD Right-justified.
385 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
386 Use the DE macro to end any display type. The macros Ds and De were
388 formerly provided as aliases for DS and DE, respectively, but they have
389 been removed, and should no longer be used. X11 documents which
390 actually use Ds and De always load a specific macro file from the X11
391 distribution (macros.t) which provides proper definitions for the two
392 macros.
393 To keep text together on a page, such as a paragraph that refers to a
395 table (or list, or other item) immediately following, use the KS and KE
396 macros. The KS macro begins a block of text to be kept on a single
397 page, and the KE macro ends the block.
398 You can specify a floating keep using the KF and KE macros. If the
400 keep cannot fit on the current page, groff holds the contents of the
401 keep and allows text following the keep (in the source file) to fill in
402 the remainder of the current page. When the page breaks, whether by an
403 explicit bp request or by reaching the end of the page, groff prints
404 the floating keep at the top of the new page. This is useful for
405 printing large graphics or tables that do not need to appear exactly
406 where specified.
407 The macros B1 and B2 can be used to enclose a text within a box; .B1
409 begins the box, and .B2 ends it. Text in the box is automatically
410 placed in a diversion (keep).
411 Tables, figures, equations, and references
413 The ms macros support the standard groff preprocessors: tbl, pic, eqn,
414 and refer. Mark text meant for preprocessors by enclosing it in pairs
415 of tags as follows:
416 .TS [H] and .TE
418 Denote a table to be processed by the tbl preprocessor. The
419 optional H argument instructs groff to create a running header
420 with the information up to the TH macro. Groff prints the
421 header at the beginning of the table; if the table runs onto
422 another page, groff prints the header on the next page as well.
423 .PS and .PE
425 Denote a graphic to be processed by the pic preprocessor. You
426 can create a pic file by hand, using the AT&T pic manual
427 available on the Web as a reference, or by using a graphics
428 program such as xfig.
429 .EQ [align] and .EN
431 Denote an equation to be processed by the eqn preprocessor. The
432 optional align argument can be C, L, or I to center (the
433 default), left-justify, or indent the equation, respectively.
434 .[ and .]
436 Denote a reference to be processed by the refer preprocessor.
437 The GNU refer(1) manual page provides a comprehensive reference
438 to the preprocessor and the format of the bibliographic
439 database.
440 Footnotes
442 The ms macros provide a flexible footnote system. You can specify a
443 numbered footnote by using the \** escape, followed by the text of the
444 footnote enclosed by FS and FE macros.
445 You can specify symbolic footnotes by placing the mark character (such
447 as \(dg for the dagger character) in the body text, followed by the
448 text of the footnote enclosed by FS \(dg and FE macros.
449 You can control how groff prints footnote numbers by changing the value
451 of the FF register as follows:
452 0 Prints the footnote number as a superscript; indents the
454 footnote (default).
455 1 Prints the number followed by a period (that is, “1.”)
457 and indents the footnote.
458 2 Like 1, without an indent.
460 3 Like 1, but prints the footnote number as a paragraph
462 with a hanging indent.
463 You can use footnotes safely within keeps and displays, but avoid using
465 numbered footnotes within floating keeps. You can set a second \**
466 between a \** and its corresponding .FS; as long as each .FS occurs
467 after the corresponding \** and the occurrences of .FS are in the same
468 order as the corresponding occurrences of \**.
469 Headers and footers
471 There are three ways to define headers and footers:
472 • Use the strings LH, CH, and RH to set the left, center, and right
474 headers. Use LF, CF, and RF to set the left, center, and right
475 footers. The string-setting approach works best for documents that
476 do not distinguish between odd and even pages.
477 • Use the OH and EH macros to define headers for the odd and even
479 pages, and OF and EF macros to define footers for the odd and even
480 pages. This is more flexible than defining the individual strings.
481 The syntax for these macros is as follows:
482 .XX 'left'center'right'
484 where XX is one of the foregoing four macros and each of left,
486 center, and right is text of your choice. You can replace the quote
487 (') marks with any character not appearing in the header or footer
488 text.
489 • You can redefine the PT and BT macros to change the behavior of the
491 header and footer, respectively. The header process also calls the
492 (undefined) HD macro after PT; you can define this macro if you need
493 additional processing after printing the header (for example, to
494 draw a line below the header).
495 Margins
497 You control margins using a set of number registers. The following
498 table lists the register names and defaults:
499 Reg. Definition Effective Default
501 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
502 PO Page offset (left margin) next page 1i
503 LL Line length next paragraph 6i
504 LT Header/footer length next paragraph 6i
505 HM Top (header) margin next page 1i
506 FM Bottom (footer) margin next page 1i
507 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
508 Note that there is no right margin setting. The combination of page
510 offset and line length provide the information necessary to derive the
511 right margin.
512 Multiple columns
514 The ms macros can set text in as many columns as will reasonably fit on
515 the page. The following macros are available. All of them force a
516 page break if a multi-column mode is already set. However, if the
517 current mode is single-column, starting a multi-column mode does not
518 force a page break.
519 .1C Single-column mode.
521 .2C Two-column mode.
523 .MC [column-width [gutter-width]]
525 Multi-column mode. If you specify no arguments, it is
526 equivalent to the 2C macro. Otherwise, column-width is the
527 width of each column and gutter-width is the space between
528 columns. The MINGW number register is the default gutter width.
529 Creating a table of contents
531 Wrap text that you want to appear in the table of contents in XS and XE
532 macros. Use the TC macro to print the table of contents at the end of
533 the document, resetting the page number to i (Roman numeral 1).
534 You can manually create a table of contents by specifying a page number
536 as the first argument to XS. Add subsequent entries using the XA
537 macro. For example:
538 .XS 1
540 Introduction
541 .XA 2
542 A Brief History of the Universe
543 .XA 729
544 Details of Galactic Formation
545 ...
546 .XE
547 Use the PX macro to print a manually-generated table of contents
549 without resetting the page number.
550 If you give the argument no to either PX or TC, groff suppresses
552 printing the title specified by the \*[TOC] string.
553 Fractional point sizes
555 Traditionally, the ms macros only support integer values for the
556 document's font size and vertical spacing. To overcome this
557 restriction, values larger than or equal to 1000 are taken as
558 fractional values, multiplied by 1000. For example, ‘.nr PS 10250’
559 sets the font size to 10.25 points.
560 The following four registers accept fractional point sizes: PS, VS,
562 FPS, and FVS.
563 Due to backwards compatibility, the value of VS must be smaller than
565 40000 (this is 40.0 points).
566
568 The groff ms macros are a complete re-implementation, using no original
569 AT&T code. Since they take advantage of the extended features in
570 groff, they cannot be used with AT&T troff. Other differences include:
571 • The internals of groff ms differ from the internals of Unix ms.
573 Documents that depend upon implementation details of Unix ms may not
574 format properly with groff ms.
575 • The error-handling policy of groff ms is to detect and report
577 errors, rather than silently to ignore them.
578 • Some Bell Labs localisms are not implemented by default. However,
580 if you call the otherwise undocumented SC section-header macro, you
581 will enable implementations of three other archaic Bell Labs macros:
582 UC, P1, and P2. These are not enabled by default because (a) they
583 were not documented, in the original ms manual, and (b) the P1 and
584 UC macros both collide with different macros in the Berkeley version
585 of ms.
586 These emulations are sufficient to give back the 1976 Kernighan &
588 Cherry paper Typesetting Mathematics – User's Guide its section
589 headings, and restore some text that had gone missing as arguments
590 of undefined macros. No warranty express or implied is given as to
591 how well the typographic details these produce match the original
592 Bell Labs macros.
593 • Berkeley localisms, in particular the TM and CT macros, are not
595 implemented.
596 • Groff ms does not work in compatibility mode (e.g., with the -C
598 option).
599 • There is no support for typewriter-like devices.
601 • Groff ms does not provide cut marks.
603 • Multiple line spacing is not supported (use a larger vertical
605 spacing instead).
606 • Some Unix ms documentation says that the CW and GW number registers
608 can be used to control the column width and gutter width,
609 respectively. These number registers are not used in groff ms.
610 • Macros that cause a reset (paragraphs, headings, etc.) may change
612 the indent. Macros that change the indent do not increment or
613 decrement the indent, but rather set it absolutely. This can cause
614 problems for documents that define additional macros of their own.
615 The solution is to use not the in request but instead the RS and RE
616 macros.
617 • The number register GS is set to 1 by the groff ms macros, but is
619 not used by the Unix ms macros. Documents that need to determine
620 whether they are being formatted with Unix ms or groff ms should use
621 this number register.
622 • To make groff ms use the default page offset (which also specifies
624 the left margin), the PO number register must stay undefined until
625 the first ms macro is evaluated. This implies that PO should not be
626 used early in the document, unless it is changed also: remember that
627 accessing an undefined register automatically defines it.
628 Strings
630 You can redefine the following strings to adapt the groff ms macros to
631 languages other than English:
632 String Default Value
634 ───────────────────────────────
635 REFERENCES References
636 ABSTRACT ABSTRACT
637 TOC Table of Contents
638 MONTH1 January
639 MONTH2 February
640 MONTH3 March
641 MONTH4 April
642 MONTH5 May
643 MONTH6 June
644 MONTH7 July
645 MONTH8 August
646 MONTH9 September
647 MONTH10 October
648 MONTH11 November
649 MONTH12 December
650 ───────────────────────────────
651 The \*- string produces an em dash—like this.
653 Use \*Q and \*U to get a left and right typographer's quote,
655 respectively, in troff (and plain quotes in nroff).
656 Text Settings
658 The FAM string sets the default font family. If this string is
659 undefined at initialization, it is set to Times.
660 The point size, vertical spacing, and inter-paragraph spacing for
662 footnotes are controlled by the number registers FPS, FVS, and FPD; at
663 initialization these are set to \n(PS-2, \n[FPS]+2, and \n(PD/2,
664 respectively. If any of these registers are defined before
665 initialization, the initialization macro does not change them.
666 The hyphenation flags (as set by the hy request) are set from the HY
668 register; the default is 6.
669 Improved accent marks (as originally defined in Berkeley's ms version)
671 are available by specifying the AM macro at the beginning of your
672 document. You can place an accent over most characters by specifying
673 the string defining the accent directly after the character. For
674 example, n\*~ produces an n with a tilde over it.
675
677 The following conventions are used for names of macros, strings, and
678 number registers. External names available to documents that use the
679 groff ms macros contain only uppercase letters and digits.
680 Internally the macros are divided into modules; naming conventions are
682 as follows:
683 • Names used only within one module are of the form module*name.
685 • Names used outside the module in which they are defined are of the
687 form module@name.
688 • Names associated with a particular environment are of the form
690 environment:name; these are used only within the par module.
691 • name does not have a module prefix.
693 • Constructed names used to implement arrays are of the form
695 array!index.
696 Thus the groff ms macros reserve the following names:
698 • Names containing the characters *, @, and :.
700 • Names containing only uppercase letters and digits.
702
704 /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/ms.tmac (a wrapper file for s.tmac)
705 /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/s.tmac
706
708 The GNU version of the ms macro package was written by James Clark and
709 contributors. This document was (re-)written by Larry Kollar ⟨lkollar@
710 despammed.com⟩.
711
713 groff(1), troff(1), tbl(1), pic(1), eqn(1), refer(1)
714 Groff: The GNU Implementation of troff, by Trent A. Fisher and Werner
716 Lemberg
717groff 1.22.4 19 January 2023 GROFF_MS(7)