Manual Pages for UNIX Darwin command on man groff

Manual Pages for UNIX Darwin command on man groff_tmac

GROFFTMAC(5) GROFFTMAC(5)

NAME

grofftmac - macro files in the roff typesetting system

DESCRIPTION

The rrooffff(7) type-setting system provides a set of macro packages suit-

able for special kinds of documents. Each macro package stores its macros and definitions in a file called the package's ttmmaacc ffiillee. The name is deduced from `TTroffMMAACCros'.

The tmac files are normal roff source documents, except that they usu-

ally contain only definitions and setup commands, but no text. All tmac files are kept in a single or a small number of directories, the ttmmaacc directories. GGRROOFFFF MMAACCRROO PPAACCKKAAGGEESS groff provides all classical macro packages, some more full packages, and some secondary packages for special purposes. Note that it is not

possible to use multiple primary macro packages at the same time; say-

ing e.g.

sh# groff -m man -m ms foo

sh# groff -m man foo -m ms bar

will fail. MMaann PPaaggeess mmaann This is the classical macro package for UNIX manual pages (man pages); it is quite handy and easy to use; see ggrrooffffmmaann(7). ddoocc mmddoocc An alternative macro package for man pages mainly used in BSD

systems; it provides many new features, but it is not the stan-

dard for man pages; see ggrrooffffmmddoocc(7). FFuullll PPaacckkaaggeess

The packages in this section provide a complete set of macros for writ-

ing documents of any kind, up to whole books. They are similar in functionality; it is a matter of taste which one to use. mmee The classical me macro package; see ggrrooffffmmee(7).

mmmm The semi-classical mm macro package; see ggrrooffffmmmm(7).

mmoomm The new mom macro package, only available in groff. As this is not based on other packages, it can be freely designed. So it is expected to become quite a nice, modern macro package. See ggrrooffffmmoomm(7). mmss The classical ms macro package; see ggrrooffffmmss(7). SSppeecciiaall PPaacckkaaggeess

The macro packages in this section are not intended for stand-alone us-

age, but can be used to add special functionality to any other macro package or to plain groff. ppaappeerrssiizzee

This macro file is already loaded at start-up by ttrrooffff so it

isn't necessary to call it explicitly. It provides an interface to set the paper size on the command line with the option

-ddppaappeerr==size. Possible values for size are the same as the pre-

defined ppaappeerrssiizzee values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see

ggrrooffffffoonntt(5) for more) except aa77-dd77. An appended ll (ell) char-

acter denotes landscape orientation. Examples: aa44, cc33ll, lleett-

tteerrll.

Most output drivers need additional command line switches -pp and

-ll to override the default paper length and orientation as set

in the driver specific DESC file. For example, use the follow-

ing for PS output on A4 paper in landscape orientation:

sh# groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps

ppssppiicc A single macro is provided in this file, PPSSPPIICC, to include a

PostScript graphic in a document. It makes only sense for out-

put devices which support inclusion of PS images: -TTppss, -TTddvvii,

and -TThhttmmll; the file is then loaded automatically. Syntax:

..PPSSPPIICC [-LL|-RR|-II n] file [width [height]]

file is the name of the file containing the illustration; width and height give the desired width and height of the graphic.

The width and height arguments may have scaling indicators at-

tached; the default scaling indicator is ii. This macro will scale the graphic uniformly in the x and y directions so that it is no more than width wide and height high. By default, the

graphic will be horizontally centered. The -LL and -RR options

cause the graphic to be left-aligned and right-aligned, respec-

tively. The -II option causes the graphic to be indented by n

(default scaling indicator is mm).

ttttyy-cchhaarr

Overrides the definition of standard troff characters and some

groff characters for tty devices. The optical appearance is in-

tentionally inferior compared to that of normal tty formatting to allow processing with critical equipment. wwwwww Additions of elements known from the html format, as being used in the internet (World Wide Web) pages; this includes URL links and mail addresses; see ggrrooffffwwwwww(7). NNAAMMIINNGG In classical roff systems, there was a funny naming scheme for macro packages, due to a simplistic design in option parsing. Macro packages

were always included by option -mm;; when this option was directly fol-

lowed by its argument without an intervening space, this looked like a

long option preceded by a single minus - a sensation in the computer

stone age. To make this optically working for macro package names, all classical macro packages choose a name that started with the letter `m', which was omitted in the naming of the macro file. For example, the macro package for the man pages was called man, while its macro file tmac.an. So it could be activated by the argument an to

option -mm, or -mmaann for short.

For similar reasons, macro packages that did not start with an `m' had a leading `m' added in the documentation and in talking; for example,

the package corresponding to tmac.doc was called mdoc in the documenta-

tion, although a more suitable name would be doc. For, when omitting the space between the option and its argument, the command line option

for activating this package reads -mmddoocc.

To cope with all situations, actual versions of ggrrooffff(1) are smart

about both naming schemes by providing two macro files for the inflict-

ed macro packages; one with a leading `m', the other one without it.

So in groff, the man macro package may be specified as on of the fol-

lowing four methods:

sh# groff -m man

sh# groff -man

sh# groff -mman

sh# groff -m an

Recent packages that do not start with `m' do not use an additional `m'

in the documentation. For example, the www macro package may be speci-

fied only as one of the two methods:

sh# groff -m www

sh# groff -mwww

Obviously, variants like -mmwww would not make much sense.

A second strange feature of classical troff was to name macro files ac-

cording to ttmmaacc..name. In modern operating systems, the type of a file is specified as postfix, the file name extension. Again, groff copes with this situation by searching both anything..ttmmaacc and ttmmaacc..anything if only anything is specified. The easiest way to find out which macro packages are available on a system is to check the man page ggrrooffff(1), or the contents of the tmac directories. In groff, most macro packages are described in man pages called ggrrooffffname(7), with a leading `m' for the classical packages. IINNCCLLUUSSIIOONN

There are several ways to use a macro package in a document. The clas-

sical way is to specify the troff/groff option -mm name at run-time;

this makes the contents of the macro package name available. In groff, the file name..ttmmaacc is searched within the tmac path; if not found, ttmmaacc..name will be searched for instead. Alternatively, it is also possible to include a macro file by adding the request .ssoo filename into the document; the argument must be the full file name of an existing file, possibly with the directory where it is kept. In groff, this was improved by the similar request .mmssoo

package, which added searching in the tmac path, just like option -mm

does.

Note that in order to resolve the .ssoo and .mmssoo requests, the roff pre-

processor ssooeelliimm(1) must be called if the files to be included need preprocessing. This can be done either directly by a pipeline on the

command line or by using the troff/groff option -ss. man calls soelim

automatically. For example, suppose a macro file is stored as /usr/share/groff/1.19.1/tmac/macros.tmac and is used in some document called docu.roff.

At run-time, the formatter call for this is

sh# groff -m macrofile document.roff

To include the macro file directly in the document either .mso macrofile.tmac is used or .so /usr/share/groff/1.19.1/tmac/macros.tmac In both cases, the formatter is called with

sh# groff -s docu.roff

If you want to write your own groff macro file, call it whatever..ttmmaacc n pt t n oe ietr o te mc ah se eto FILES. hn

documents can include it with the .mmssoo request or the option -mm.

WWRRIITTIINNGG MMAACCRROOSS

A rrooffff(7) document is a text file that is enriched by predefined for-

matting constructs, such as requests, escape sequences, strings, numer-

ic registers, and macros from a macro package. These elements are de-

scribed in rrooffff(7). To give a document a personal style, it is most useful to extend the existing elements by defining some macros for repeating tasks; the best place for this is near the beginning of the document or in a separate file. Macros without arguments are just like strings. But the full power of macros reveals when arguments are passed with a macro call. Within the macro definition, the arguments are available as the escape sequences

$$11, ..., $$99, $$[[...]], $$**, and $$@@, the name under which the macro was

called is in $$00, and the number of arguments is in register 00; see

ggrrooffff(7).

CCooppyy-iinn MMooddee

The phase when groff reads a macro is called copy-in mode in roff-talk.

This is comparable to the C preprocessing phase during the development of a program written in the C language. In this phase, groff interprets all backslashes; that means that all escape sequences in the macro body are interpreted and replaced by their value. For constant expression, this is wanted, but strings and

registers that might change between calls of the macro must be protect-

ed from being evaluated. This is most easily done by doubling the backslash that introduces the escape sequence. This doubling is most

important for the positional parameters. For example, to print infor-

mation on the arguments that were passed to the macro to the terminal, define a macro named `.printargs', say. .ds midpart was called with .de printargs

. tm \f[I]\\$0\f[] \\*[midpart] \\n[.$] arguments:

. tm \\$*

.. When calling this macro by .printargs arg1 arg2 the following text is printed to the terminal: printargs was called with the following 2 arguments: arg1 arg2

Let's analyze each backslash in the macro definition. As the position-

al parameters and the number of arguments will change with each call of the macro their leading backslash must be doubled, which results in

\\$* and \\[.$]. The same applies to the macro name because it could

be called with an alias name, so \\$0.

On the other hand, midpart is a constant string, it will not change, so no doubling for \*[midpart]. The \f escape sequences are predefined groff elements for setting the font within the text. Of course, this behavior will not change, so no doubling with \f[I] and \f[]. DDrraafftt MMooddee Writing groff macros is easy when the escaping mechanism is temporarily disabled. In groff, this is done by enclosing the macro definition(s)

into a pair of ..eeoo and ..eecc requests. Then the body in the macro defi-

nition is just like a normal part of the document - text enhanced by

calls of requests, macros, strings, registers, etc. For example, the code above can be written in a simpler way by .eo .ds midpart was called with .de printargs

. tm \f[I]\$0\f[] \*[midpart] \n[.$] arguments:

. tm \$*

.. .ec Unfortunately, draft mode cannot be used universally. Although it is

good enough for defining normal macros, draft mode will fail with ad-

vanced applications, such as indirectly defined strings, registers, etc. An optimal way is to define and test all macros in draft mode and then do the backslash doubling as a final step; do not forget to remove the .eo request. TTiippss ffoorr MMaaccrroo DDeeffiinniittiioonnss +o Start every line with a dot, for example, by using the groff request ..nnoopp for text lines, or write your own macro that handles also text lines with a leading dot. .de Text

. if (\\n[.$] == 0) \

. return

. nop \)\\$*[rs]

+o Write a comment macro that works both for copy-in and draft mode; for

as escaping is off in draft mode, trouble might occur when normal comments are used. For example, the following macro just ignores its arguments, so it acts like a comment line: .de c .. .c This is like a comment line. +o In long macro definitions, make ample use of comment lines or empty lines for a better structuring.

+o To increase readability, use groff's indentation facility for re-

quests and macro calls (arbitrary whitespace after the leading dot). DDiivveerrssiioonnss

Diversions can be used to realize quite advanced programming con-

structs. They are comparable to pointers to large data structures in the C programming language, but their usage is quite different.

In their simplest form, diversions are multi-line strings, but they get

their power when diversions are used dynamically within macros. The

information stored in a diversion can be retrieved by calling the di-

version just like a macro. Most of the problems arising with diversions can be avoided if you are conscious about the fact that diversions always deal with complete lines. If diversions are used when the line buffer has not been flashed, strange results are produced; not knowing this, many people get desperate about diversions. To ensure that a diversion works, line breaks should be added at the right places. To be on the secure side, enclose everything that has to do with diversions into a pair of line breaks; for example, by amply using ..bbrr requests. This rule should be applied to diversion definition, both inside and outside, and to all calls of diversions. This is a bit of overkill, but it works nicely. [If you really need diversions which should ignore the current partial line, use environments to save the current partial line and/or use the ..bbooxx request.] The most powerful feature using diversions is to start a diversion

within a macro definition and end it within another macro. Then every-

thing between each call of this macro pair is stored within the diver-

sion and can be manipulated from within the macros. FILES

All macro names must be named name..ttmmaacc to fully use the tmac mecha-

nism. ttmmaacc..name as with classical packages is possible as well, but deprecated. The macro files are kept in the tmac directories; a colon separated list of these constitutes the tmac path. The search sequence for macro files is (in that order):

+o the directories specified with troff/groff's -MM command line option

+o the directories given in the $$GGRROOFFFFTTMMAACCPPAATTHH environment variable

+o the current directory (only if in unsafe mode, which is enabled by

the -UU command line switch)

+o the home directory

+o a platform-specific directory, being //uussrr//lliibb//ggrrooffff//ssiittee-ttmmaacc in this

installation

+o a site-specific (platform-independent) directory, being

//uussrr//sshhaarree//ggrrooffff//ssiittee-ttmmaacc in this installation

+o the main tmac directory, being //uussrr//sshhaarree//ggrrooffff//11..1199..11//ttmmaacc in this installation ENVIRONMENT

$$GGRROOFFFFTTMMAACCPPAATTHH

A colon separated list of additional tmac directories in which

to search for macro files. See the previous section for a de-

This document is distributed under the terms of the FDL (GNU Free Docu-

mentation License) version 1.1 or later. You should have received a

copy of the FDL on your system, it is also available on-line at the GGNNUU

ccooppyylleefftt ssiittee . This document is part of groff, the GNU roff distribution. It was written by BBeerrnndd WWaarrkkeenn ; it is maintained by WWeerrnneerr LLeemmbbeerrgg .