Manual Pages for UNIX Operating System command usage for man groff_man
Device and Network Interfaces GROFF_MAN(7)
NAME
groff_man - groff `man' macros to support generation of man
pages
SYNOPSIS
groff -man [ options... ] [ files... ]
groff -m man [ options... ] [ files... ]
DESCRIPTION
The man macros used to generate man~pages with groff were
written by James Clark. This document provides a brief sum-
mary of the use of each macro in that package.
OPTIONS
The man macros understand the following command line options
(which define various registers).
-rcR=1
This option (the default if in nroff mode) will create
a single, very long page instead of multiple pages.
Say -rcR=0 to disable it.
-rC1 If more than one manual page is given on the command
line, number the pages continuously, rather than start-
ing each at 1.
-rD1 Double-sided printing. Footers for even and odd pages
are formatted differently.
-rFT=dist
Set distance of the footer relative to the bottom of
the page if negative or relative to the top if posi-
tive. The default is -0.5i.
-rHY=flags
Set hyphenation flags. Possible values are 1 to
hyphenate without restrictions, 2 to not hyphenate the
last word on a page, 4 to not hyphenate the last two
characters of a word, and 8 to not hyphenate the first
two characters of a word. These values are additive;
the default is 14.
-rIN=width
Set body text indentation to width. The default is 7n
for nroff, 7.2n for troff. For nroff, this value
should always be an integer multiple of unit `n' to get
consistent indentation.
-rLL=line-length
Set line length. If this option is not given, the line
length is set to respect any value set by a prior `.ll'
request, (which must be in effect when the `.TH' macro
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is invoked), if this differs from the built-in default
for the formatter; otherwise it defaults to 78n in
nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
Note that the use of a `.ll' request to initialize the
line length is supported for backward compatibility
with some versions of the man program; direct initiali-
zation of the `LL' register should always be preferred
to the use of such a request. In particular, note that
a `.ll 65n' request will not preserve the normal nroff
default line length, (the man default initialization to
78n will prevail), whereas, the `-rLL=65n' option, or
an equivalent `.nr LL 65n' request preceding the use of
the `TH' macro, will set a line length of 65n.
-rLT=title-length
Set title length. If this option is not given, the
title length defaults to the line length.
-rPnnn
Enumeration of pages will start with nnn rather than
with 1.
-rSxx
Base document font size is xx points (xx can be 10, 11,
or 12) rather than 10 points.
-rSN=width
Set sub-subheading indentation to width. The default
is 3n.
-rXnnn
After page nnn, number pages as nnna, nnnb, nnnc, etc.
For example, the option `-rX2' will produce the follow-
ing page numbers: 1, 2, 2a, 2b, 2c, etc.
USAGE
This section describes the available macros for manual
pages. For further customization, put additional macros and
requests into the file man.local which will be loaded
immediately after the man package.
.TH title section [extra1] [extra2] [extra3]
Set the title of the man~page to title and the section
to section, which must take on a value between 1 and 8.
The value section may also have a string appended, e.g.
`.pm', to indicate a specific subsection of the -
man~pages. Both title and section are positioned at
the left and right in the header line (with section in
parentheses immediately appended to title. extra1 will
be positioned in the middle of the footer line. extra2
will be positioned at the left in the footer line (or
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at the left on even pages and at the right on odd pages
if double-sided printing is active). extra3 is cen-
tered in the header line.
For HTML output, headers and footers are completely
supressed.
Additionally, this macro starts a new page; the new
line number is 1 again (except if the `-rC1' option is
given on the command line) -- this feature is intended
only for formatting multiple man~pages; a single -
man~page should contain exactly one TH macro at the
beginning of the file.
.SH [text for a heading]
Set up an unnumbered section heading sticking out to
the left. Prints out all the text following SH up to
the end of the line (or the text in the next input line
if there is no argument to SH) in bold face (or the
font specified by the string HF), one size larger than
the base document size. Additionally, the left margin
and the indentation for the following text is reset to
the default values.
.SS [text for a heading]
Set up a secondary, unnumbered section heading. Prints
out all the text following SS up to the end of the line
(or the text in the next input line if there is no
argument to SS) in bold face (or the font specified by
the string HF), at the same size as the base document
size. Additionally, the left margin and the indenta-
tion for the following text is reset to the default
values.
.TP [nnn]
Set up an indented paragraph with label. The indenta-
tion is set to nnn if that argument is supplied (the
default unit is `n' if omitted), otherwise it is set to
the previous indentation value specified with TP, IP,
or HP (or to the default value if none of them have
been used yet).
The first input line of text following this macro is
interpreted as a string to be printed flush-left, as it
is appropriate for a label. It is not interpreted as
part of a paragraph, so there is no attempt to fill the
first line with text from the following input lines.
Nevertheless, if the label is not as wide as the inden-
tation the paragraph starts at the same line (but
indented), continuing on the following lines. If the
label is wider than the indentation the descriptive
part of the paragraph begins on the line following the
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label, entirely indented. Note that neither font shape
nor font size of the label is set to a default value;
on the other hand, the rest of the text will have
default font settings.
The TP macro is the macro used for the explanations you
are just reading.
.LP
.PP
.P These macros are mutual aliases. Any of them causes a
line break at the current position, followed by a vert-
ical space downwards by the amount specified by the PD
macro. The font size and shape are reset to the
default value (10pt resp. Roman). Finally, the current
left margin and the indentation are restored.
.IP [designator] [nnn]
Set up an indented paragraph, using designator as a tag
to mark its beginning. The indentation is set to nnn
if that argument is supplied (the default unit is `n'
if omitted), otherwise it is set to the previous inden-
tation value specified with TP, IP, or HP (or to the
default value if none of them have been used yet).
Font size and face of the paragraph (but not the desig-
nator) are reset to its default values.
To start an indented paragraph with a particular inden-
tation but without a designator, use `""' (two double-
quotes) as the second argument.
For example, the following paragraphs were all set up
with bullets as the designator, using `.IP \(bu 4'.
The whole block has been enclosed with `.RS' and `.RE'
to set the left margin temporarily to the current
indentation value.
+o IP is one of the three macros used in the man pack-
age to format lists.
+o HP is another. This macro produces a paragraph
with a left hanging indentation.
+o TP is another. This macro produces an unindented
label followed by an indented paragraph.
.HP [nnn]
Set up a paragraph with hanging left indentation. The
indentation is set to nnn if that argument is supplied
(the default unit is `n' if omitted), otherwise it is
set to the previous indentation value specified with
TP, IP, or HP (or to the default value if none of them
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have been used yet). Font size and face are reset to
its default values. The following paragraph illus-
trates the effect of this macro with hanging indenta-
tion set to 4 (enclosed by .RS and .RE to set the left
margin temporarily to the current indentation):
This is a paragraph following an invocation of the HP
macro. As you can see, it produces a paragraph
where all lines but the first are indented.
.RS [nnn]
This macro moves the left margin to the right by the
value nnn if specified (default unit is `n'); otherwise
it is set to the previous indentation value specified
with TP, IP, or HP (or to the default value if none of
them have been used yet). The indentation value is
then set to the default.
Calls to the RS macro can be nested.
.RE [nnn]
This macro moves the left margin back to level nnn,
restoring the previous left margin. If no argument is
given, it moves one level back. The first level (i.e.,
no call to RS yet) has number 1, and each call to RS
increases the level by 1.
To summarize, the following macros cause a line break with
the insertion of vertical space (which amount can be changed
with the PD macro): SH, SS, TP, LP (PP, P), IP, and HP.
The macros RS and RE also cause a break but no insertion of
vertical space.
MACROS TO SET FONTS
The standard font is Roman; the default text size is
10 point.
.SM [text]
Causes the text on the same line or the text on the
next input line to appear in a font that is one point
size smaller than the default font.
.SB [text]
Causes the text on the same line or the text on the
next input line to appear in boldface font, one point
size smaller than the default font.
.BI text
Causes text on the same line to appear alternately in
bold face and italic. The text must be on the same
line as the macro call. Thus
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.BI this "word and" that
would cause `this' and `that' to appear in bold face,
while `word and' appears in italics.
.IB text
Causes text to appear alternately in italic and bold
face. The text must be on the same line as the macro
call.
.RI text
Causes text on the same line to appear alternately in
roman and italic. The text must be on the same line as
the macro call.
.IR text
Causes text on the same line to appear alternately in
italic and roman. The text must be on the same line as
the macro call.
.BR text
Causes text on the same line to appear alternately in
bold face and roman. The text must be on the same line
as the macro call.
.RB text
Causes text on the same line to appear alternately in
roman and bold face. The text must be on the same line
as the macro call.
.B [text]
Causes text to appear in bold face. If no text is
present on the line where the macro is called the text
of the next input line appears in bold face.
.I [text]
Causes text to appear in italic. If no text is present
on the line where the macro is called the text of the
next input line appears in italic.
MISCELLANEOUS
The default indentation is 7.2n in troff mode and 7n in
nroff mode except for grohtml which ignores indentation.
.DT Set tabs every 0.5 inches. Since this macro is always
called during a TH request, it makes sense to call it
only if the tab positions have been changed.
.PD [nnn]
Adjust the empty space before a new paragraph or sec-
tion. The optional argument gives the amount of space
(default unit is `v'); without parameter, the value is
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reset to its default value (1 line in nroff mode,
0.4v otherwise). This affects the macros SH, SS, TP,
LP (resp. PP and P), IP, and HP.
.AT [system [release]]
Alter the footer for use with CR]AT&T] man~pages. This
command exists only for compatibility; don't use it.
See the groff info manual for more.
.UC [version]
Alter the footer for use with CR]BSD] man~pages. This
command exists only for compatibility; don't use it.
See the groff info manual for more.
.PT Print the header string. Redefine this macro to get
control of the header.
.BT Print the footer string. Redefine this macro to get
control of the footer.
The following strings are defined:
\*S Switch back to the default font size.
\*R The `registered' sign.
\*(Tm
The `trademark' sign.
\*(lq
\*(rq
Left and right quote. This is equal to `\(lq' and
`\(rq', respectively.
\*(HF
The typeface used to print headings and subheadings.
The default is `B'.
If a preprocessor like gtbl or geqn is needed, it has become
usage to make the first line of the man~page look like this:
" .ds ]F " .}S 3 2 ".\ " " "word"" "" "" "" ""
Note the single space character after the double quote.
word consists of letters for the needed preprocessors: `e'
for geqn, `r' for grefer, and `t' for gtbl. Modern imple-
mentations of the man program read this first line and
automatically call the right preprocessor(s).
FILES
man.tmac
an.tmac
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These are wrapper files to call andoc.tmac.
andoc.tmac
This file checks whether the man macros or the mdoc
package should be used.
an-old.tmac
All man macros are contained in this file.
man.local
Local changes and customizations should be put into
this file.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:
____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Availability | SUNWgroff |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Interface stability | Uncommitted |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
SEE ALSO
Since the man macros consist of groups of groff requests,
one can, in principle, supplement the functionality of the
man macros with individual groff requests where necessary.
See the groff info pages for a complete reference of all
requests.
gtbl(1), geqn(1), grefer(1), man(1), man(7),
AUTHOR
This manual page was originally written for the Debian
GNU/Linux system by Susan G. Kleinmann ,
corrected and updated by Werner Lemberg , and is
now part of the GNU troff distribution.
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