GROFF_MAN
Section: Environments, Tables, and Troff Macros (7)
Updated: 7 March 2023
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NAME
groff_man - GNU roff macro package for formatting man pages
SYNOPSIS
[option
...]
[input-file
...]
[option
...]
[input-file
...]
DESCRIPTION
The
man
macro package for
groff
is used to produce manual pages
("man~pages")
like the one you are reading.
GNU
roff's
implementation was written by James Clark.
This document presents the macros thematically to aid learners;
for those needing only a quick reference,
the following table lists them alphabetically,
with cross-references to appropriate subsections below.
Macro | Meaning | Subsection
|
|
.B | Bold | Font style macros
|
.BI | Bold, italic alternating | Font style macros
|
.BR | Bold, roman alternating | Font style macros
|
.EE | Example end | Document structure macros
|
.EX | Example begin | Document structure macros
|
.I | Italic | Font style macros
|
.IB | Italic, bold alternating | Font style macros
|
.IP | Indented paragraph | Paragraph macros
|
.IR | Italic, roman alternating | Font style macros
|
.LP | (Left) paragraph | Paragraph macros
|
.ME | Mail-to end | Hyperlink and email macros
|
.MT | Mail-to start | Hyperlink and email macros
|
.OP | (Command-line) option | Command synopsis macros
|
.P | Paragraph | Paragraph macros
|
.PP | Paragraph | Paragraph macros
|
.RB | Roman, bold alternating | Font style macros
|
.RE | Relative-indent end | Document structure macros
|
.RI | Roman, italic alternating | Font style macros
|
.RS | Relative-indent start | Document structure macros
|
.SB | Small bold | Font style macros
|
.SH | Section heading | Document structure macros
|
.SM | Small | Font style macros
|
.SS | Subection heading | Document structure macros
|
.SY | Synopsis start | Command synopsis macros
|
.TH | Title heading | Document structure macros
|
.TP | Tagged paragraph | Paragraph macros
|
.TQ | Tagged paragraph continuation | Paragraph macros
|
.UE | URL end | Hyperlink and email macros
|
.UR | URL start | Hyperlink and email macros
|
.YS | Synopsis end | Command synopsis macros
|
Macros whose use we discourage
(.AT,
.BT,
.DT,
.HP,
.PD,
.PT,
and
.UC)
are described in subsection "Deprecated features", below.
Macro reference preliminaries
Each macro is described in a tagged paragraph.
Closely related macros,
such as
.EX
and
.EE,
are grouped together.
Optional macro arguments are indicated by surrounding them with square
brackets.
If a macro accepts multiple arguments,
arguments containing whitespace must be double-quoted ("one two"),
to be interpreted correctly.
Most macro arguments are strings that will be output as text;
exceptions are noted.
Bear in mind that
groff
is fundamentally a programming system for typesetting.
Consequently,
the verb "to set" is frequently used below in the sense "to
typeset".
Document structure macros
The highest level of organization of a man page is determined by this
group of macros.
.TH
(title heading) identifies the document as a man page and defines
information enabling its indexing by
mandb(8)
or a similar tool.
Sections
(.SH),
one of which is mandatory and many of which are standardized,
facilitate quick location of relevant material by the reader and aid
the man page writer to discuss all essential aspects of the topic.
Subsections
(.SS)
are optional and permit sections that grow long to develop in a
controlled way.
Many technical discussions require examples;
lengthy ones,
especially those reflecting multiple lines of input to or output from
the system,
are usefully bracketed by
.EX
and
.EE.
When none of the foregoing meets a structural demand,
a section of the discussion can be manually indented within
.RS
and
.RE
macros.
- .TH title section
-
[footer-middle] [footer-outside] [header-middle]
Define the title of the man page as
title
and the section as
section.
See
man(1)
for details on the section numbers and suffixes applicable to your
system.
title
and
section
are positioned together at the left and right in the header line
(with
section
in parentheses immediately appended to
title).
footer-middle
is centered in the footer line.
footer-outside
is positioned at the left in the footer line (or at the left on
even pages and at the right on odd pages if double-sided printing is
active).
header-middle
is centered in the header line.
If
section
is a simple integer between 1 and~9 (inclusive),
or is exactly "3p",
there is no need to specify
header-middle;
the macro package will supply text for it.
-
For HTML output, headers and footers are completely suppressed.
-
Additionally, this macro starts a new page; the page number is reset
to~1
(unless the
-rC1
option is given on the command line).
This feature is intended only for formatting multiple man pages.
-
A man page should contain exactly one
.TH
call at or near the beginning of the file,
prior to any other macro calls.
-
By convention,
footer-middle
is the most recent modification date of the man page source document,
and
footer-outside
is the name and version or release of the project providing it.
- .SH [
-
heading-text]
Set
heading-text
as a section heading flush left.
The text following
.SH
up to the end of the line,
or the text on the next input line if
.SH
is given no arguments,
is set in bold
(or the font specified by the string register
HF)
slightly larger than the base font size.
Additionally,
the left margin and indentation affecting subsequent text are reset to
their default values.
Text on input lines after
heading-text
is set as a normal paragraph
(.PP).
-
The content of
heading-text
and ordering of sections has been standardized by common practice,
as has much of the layout of material within sections.
For example,
a section called "Name" or "NAME" must exist,
must be the first section after the
.TH
call,
and must contain only a line of the form
-
" Invisibly move left margin to current .IP indent.
-
" Now indent further, visibly.
page-topic[, ...]
\- summary-description
for a man page to be properly indexed.
See
man(7)
for the conventions prevailing on your system.
- .SS [
-
subheading-text]
Set
subheading-text
as a subsection heading indented (by default) partway between a section
heading and a normally-indented paragraph
(.PP).
The text following
.SS
up to the end of the line,
or the text on the next input line if
.SS
is given no arguments,
is set in bold
(or the font specified by the string register
HF)
at the base font size.
Additionally,
the left margin and indentation affecting subsequent text are reset to
their default values.
Text on input lines after
subheading-text
is set as a normal paragraph
(.PP).
- .EX
-
.EE
Begin and end example.
After
.EX,
filling and hyphenation are disabled and a constant-width (monospaced)
font is selected.
Calling
.EE
enables filling and restores the previous hyphenation setting and font.
-
Example regions are useful for formatting code,
shell sessions,
and text file contents.
-
These macros are defined on many (but not all) legacy Unix systems
running classic
troff.
To be certain your page will be portable to those systems, copy
their definitions from the
an-ext.tmac
file of a
groff
installation.
- .RS [
-
indent]
Move the left margin to the right by the value
indent,
if specified,
and by a default amount otherwise;
see subsection "Horizontal and vertical spacing" below.
Calls to
.RS
can be nested;
each call increments by~1 the indentation level used by
.RE.
The indentation level prior to any
.RS
calls is~1.
- .RE [
-
level]
Move the left margin back to that corresponding to indentation level
level.
If no argument is given, move the left margin one level back.
Paragraph macros
A typical paragraph
(.PP)
is set at the current left margin,
which by default is indented from the left margin of the output device.
In man pages and other technical literature,
definition lists are frequently encountered;
these can be set as "tagged paragraphs"
(.TP
and
.TQ),
which have one or more leading tags followed by a paragraph that has an
additional left indent.
The indented paragraph
(.IP)
macro is useful to continue the indented content of a narrative started
with
.TP,
or to present an itemized or ordered list.
- .LP
-
.PP
.P
Begin a new paragraph;
these macros are synonymous.
They break the output line at the current position,
followed by a vertical space downward by a default amount
(which can be changed by the deprecated
.PD
macro).
The font size and style are reset to defaults;
see subsection "Font style macros" below.
Finally, the left margin and indentation are reset to default values.
- .TP [
-
indent]
Set a tagged, indented paragraph.
The input line following this macro,
known as the
tag,
is printed at the current left margin.
Subsequent text is indented by
indent,
if specified,
and by a default amount otherwise;
see subsection "Horizontal and vertical spacing" below.
-
If the tag is not as wide as the indentation,
the paragraph starts on the same line as the tag,
at the applicable indentation,
and continues on the following lines.
Otherwise,
the descriptive part of the paragraph begins on the line following the
tag,
entirely indented.
The line containing the tag can include a macro call,
for instance to set the tag in bold with
.B.
-
.TP
was used to write the first paragraph of this description of
.TP,
and
.IP
the subsequent ones.
- .TQ
-
Set an additional tag for a paragraph tagged with
.TP.
The pending output line is broken.
The tag on the input line following this macro and subsequent lines are
handled as with
.TP.
-
This macro is not defined on legacy Unix systems running classic
troff.
To be certain your page will be portable to those systems,
copy its definition from the
an-ext.tmac
file of a
groff
installation.
-
The descriptions of
.LP,
.PP,
and
.P
above were written using
.TP
and
.TQ.
- .IP [
-
tag] [indent]
Set an indented paragraph with an optional tag.
The
tag
and
indent
arguments,
if present,
are handled as with
.TP,
with the exception that the
tag
argument to
.IP
cannot include a macro call.
-
Two convenient use cases for
.IP
are
-
" Invisibly move left margin to current .IP indent.
-
" Now indent further, visibly.
- (1)
-
to start a new paragraph with the same indentation as the previous
.IP
or
.TP
paragraph,
if no
indent
argument is given;
and
- (2)
-
to set a paragraph with a short
tag
that is not semantically important,
such as a bullet (•)---obtained with the '\(bu' character
escape---or list enumerator,
as seen in this very paragraph.
Command synopsis macros
Command synopses are a staple of section~1 and~8 man pages.
These macros aid you to construct one that has the classical Unix
appearance.
Furthermore,
some tools are able to interpret these macros semantically and treat
them appropriately for localization and/or presentation.
A command synopsis is wrapped in
.SY/.YS
calls,
with command-line options of some formats indicated by
.OP.
These macros are not defined on legacy Unix systems running classic
troff.
To be certain your page will be portable to those systems, copy
their definitions from the
an-ext.tmac
file of a
groff
installation.
- .SY command
-
Begin synopsis.
Hyphenation is turned off.
The
command
argument is set in bold.
The output line is filled as normal,
but if a break is required,
subsequent output lines are indented by the width of
command
plus a space.
- .OP option-name/
-
[option-argument]
Indicate an optional command parameter called
option-name,
which is set in bold.
If the option takes an argument, specify
option-argument
using a noun, abbreviation, or hyphenated noun phrase.
If present,
option-argument
is preceded by a space and set in italics.
Square brackets (in roman) surround both arguments.
- .YS
-
End synopsis.
Restore indentation and hyphenation to previous values.
Multiple
.SY/.YS
blocks can be specified,
for instance to distinguish differing modes of operation of a complex
command like
tar(1);
each will be separated by a paragraph space.
.SY
can also be repeated multiple times before a closing
.YS,
which is useful to indicate synonymous ways of invoking a particular
mode of operation.
For example,
-
.SY groff
.OP \-abcegiklpstzCEGNRSUVXZ
.OP \-d cs
.OP \-f fam
.OP \-F dir
.OP \-I dir
.OP \-K arg
.OP \-L arg
.OP \-m name
.OP \-M dir
.OP \-n num
.OP \-o list
.OP \-P arg
.OP \-r cn
.OP \-T dev
.OP \-w name
.OP \-W name
.RI [ file
\&.\|.\|.\&]
.YS
.
.SY groff
.B \-h
.SY groff
.B \-\-help
.YS
-
produces the following output.
-
[ -abcegiklpstzCEGNRSUVXZ ]
[ -d cs ]
[ -f fam ]
[ -F dir ]
[ -I dir ]
[ -K arg ]
[ -L arg ]
[ -m name ]
[ -M dir ]
[ -n num ]
[ -o list ]
[ -P arg ]
[ -r cn ]
[ -T dev ]
[ -w name ]
[ -W name ]
[file
...]
-h
--help
Several features of the above example are of note.
- •
-
The empty request (.),
which does nothing,
is used for vertical spacing in the input file for readability by the
document maintainer.
Do not put empty lines in a
roff
source document.
- •
-
The command and option names are presented in
bold
to cue the user that they should be input literally.
- •
-
Option dashes are specified with the '\-' escape sequence;
this is an important practice to make them clearly visible and to
facilitate cut-and-paste from the rendered man page to a shell prompt or
text file.
- •
-
Option arguments and command operands are presented in
italics
(underlined on some output devices, such as terminals and emulators),
to cue the user that they must be replaced with appropriate text.
- •
-
Symbols that are neither to be typed literally nor simply replaced
appear in the roman style;
brackets surround optional arguments,
and an ellipsis indicates that the previous syntactical element may be
repeated arbitrarily.
-
Some man pages use a brace-and-pipe notation such as
"{--diff|--compare}"
to indicate that one and only one of the '|'-separated items
within the braces must be input.
If this braced construct is furthermore surrounded by square brackets,
it means that at most one of the items is accepted.
-
Authors of man pages should note the use of the zero-width space
escape sequence '\&' on both sides of the ellipsis;
this is a good practice to avoid surprises in the event the ellipsis
gets refilled in your text editor.
See "Portability", below.
The morbidly curious may consult
groff(7)
regarding the narrow-space escape sequence '\|'.
Hyperlink and email macros
Email addresses are bracketed with
.MT/.ME
and URL hyperlinks with
.UR/.UE.
These macros are not defined on legacy Unix systems running classic
troff.
To be certain your page will be portable to those systems, copy
their definitions from the
an-ext.tmac
file of a
groff
installation.
- .MT address
-
.ME [punctuation]
Identify
address
as an RFC 6068
addr-spec
for a "mailto:" URI with the text between the two macro
calls as the link text.
A
punctuation
argument to
.ME
is placed at the end of the link text without intervening space.
Note that
address
may not be visible in the output text,
particularly if the man page is being viewed as HTML.
On a device that is not a browser,
address
is set in angle brackets after the link text and before
punctuation.
-
When rendered by
groff
to a TTY or PostScript output device,
-
-
Contact
.MT fred.foonly@\:fubar.net
Fred Foonly
.ME
for more information.
-
displays as: "Contact Fred Foonly
<fred.foonly@fubar.net> for more information.".
-
The use of '\:' to insert hyphenless discretionary breaks is a
groff
extension and can be omitted.
- .UR URL
-
.UE [punctuation]
Identify
URL
as an RFC 3986 URI hyperlink with the text between the two macro calls
as the link text.
A
punctuation
argument to
.UE
is placed at the end of the link text without intervening space.
Note that
URL
may not be visible in the output text,
particularly if the man page is being viewed as HTML.
On a device that is not a browser,
URL
is set in angle brackets after the link text and before
punctuation.
-
When rendered by
groff
to a TTY or PostScript output device,
-
-
The GNU Project of the Free Software Foundation hosts the
.UR https://\:www.gnu.org/\:software/\:groff/
Groff home page
.UE .
-
displays as: "The GNU Project of the Free Software Foundation hosts
the Groff home page
<https://www.gnu.org/software/groff/>.".
-
The use of '\:' to insert hyphenless discretionary breaks is a
groff
extension and can be omitted.
Font style macros
The
man
macro package is limited in its font styling options,
offering only
bold~(.B),
italic~(.I),
and roman (the default).
Italic text is usually set underscored instead on terminals and other
classical
nroff-style
output devices.
The
.SM
and
.SB
macros set text in roman or bold, respectively, at a smaller point size;
these differ visually from regular-sized roman or bold text only on
troff-style
output devices.
The foregoing macros cause word breaks before and after their arguments,
but it is often necessary to set text in different styles without
intervening whitespace.
The macros
.BI,
.BR,
.IB,
.IR,
.RB,
and
.RI,
where 'B', 'I', and 'R' indicate bold, italic, and
roman, respectively,
set their odd- and even-numbered arguments in alternating styles,
with no whitespace separating them.
Because font styles are presentational rather than semantic,
conflicting traditions have arisen regarding which font styles should be
used to mark file or path names,
environment variables,
in-line literals,
and even man page cross-references.
The default font size and family (for
troff
output devices)
is 10-point Times.
The default style is roman.
- .B~[
-
text]
Set
text
in bold.
If the macro is given no arguments,
the text of the next input line is set in bold.
-
Use bold
for literal portions of syntax synopses,
for command-line options in running text,
and for literals that are major topics of the subject under discussion;
for example,
this page uses bold for macro and register names.
In
.EX/.EE
examples of interactive I/O (such as a shell session),
set only the user-typed input in bold.
- .I~[
-
text]
Set
text
in italics.
If the macro is given no arguments,
the text of the next input line is set in italics.
-
Use italics
for file and path names,
for environment variables,
for enumeration or preprocessor constants in C,
for variable (user-determined) portions of syntax synopses,
for the first occurrence only of a technical concept being introduced,
for names of works of software
(including commands and functions,
but excluding names of operating systems or their kernels),
and anywhere a parameter requiring replacement by the user is
encountered.
An exception involves variable text in a context that is already marked
up in italics,
such as file or path names with variable components;
in such cases,
follow the convention of mathematical typography:
set the file or path name in italics as usual
(see
.IR
below),
but use roman for the variable part,
and italics again in running roman text when referring to the variable
material.
- .SM~[
-
text]
Set
text
one point size smaller than the default size.
If the macro is given no arguments,
the text of the next input line is set smaller.
-
Note:
nroff-style
output devices,
such as terminals,
will render
text
at the normal font size instead.
Do not rely upon
.SM
to communicate semantic information distinct from using roman style at
the normal size;
it will be hidden from readers using such devices.
- .SB~[
-
text]
Set
text
in bold,
one point size smaller than the default size.
If the macro is given no arguments,
the text of the next input line is set smaller and in bold.
-
Note:
nroff-style
output devices,
such as terminals,
will render
text
in bold at the normal font size instead.
Do not rely upon
.SB
to communicate semantic information distinct from using bold style at
the normal size;
it will be hidden from readers using such devices.
Note what is
not
prescribed for setting in bold or italics above:
elements of "synopsis language" such as ellipses and brackets
around options;
proper names and adjectives;
titles of anything other than works of literature or software;
identifiers for standards documents or technical reports such as
CSTR~#54,
RFC~1918,
Unicode~11.0,
or
POSIX.1-2017;
acronyms;
and occurrences after the first of a technical term or piece of jargon.
Again,
the names of operating systems and their kernels are,
by practically universal convention,
set in roman.
Be frugal with the use of italics for emphasis,
and particularly with the use of bold.
Brief runs of literal text,
such as references to individual characters or short strings,
including section and subsection headings of man pages,
are suitable objects for quotation;
see the
'\(lq',
'\(rq',
'\(oq',
and
'\(cq'
escapes in subsection "Portability" below.
Unlike the above font style macros,
the font alternation macros below accept only arguments on the same
line as the macro call.
If whitespace is required within one of the arguments,
first consider whether the same result could be achieved with as much
clarity by using the single-style macros on separate input lines.
When it cannot,
double-quote an argument with one or more embedded space characters.
Setting all three different styles within one whitespace-delimited word
presents challenges;
it is possible with the '\c' and/or '\f' escapes,
but see subsection "Portability" below for caveats.
- .BI bold-text italic-text
-
~...
Set each argument in bold and italics, alternately.
-
-
.BI \-r name = n
- .BR bold-text roman-text
-
~...
Set each argument in bold and roman, alternately.
-
-
Any such change becomes effective with the first use of
.BR .NH ,
.I after
the new alias is defined.
- .IB italic-text bold-text
-
~...
Set each argument in italics and bold, alternately.
-
-
All macro package files must be named
.IB name .tmac
to fully use the
.I tmac
mechanism.
- .IR italic-text roman-text
-
~...
Set each argument in italics and roman, alternately.
-
-
This is the first command of the
.IR prologue .
- .RB roman-text bold-text
-
~...
Set each argument in roman and bold, alternately.
-
-
Also, the statement
.RB \(oq "delim on" \(cq
is not handled specially.
- .RI roman-text italic-text
-
~...
Set each argument in roman and italics, alternately.
-
-
.RI [ file
\&.\|.\|.\&]
Horizontal and vertical spacing
The
indent
argument accepted by
.RS,
.IP,
.TP,
and the deprecated
.HP
is a number plus an optional scaling indicator.
If no scaling indicator is given,
the
man
package assumes 'n';
that is,
the width of a letter "n" in the font current when the macro is
called.
See section "Numerical Expressions" in
groff(7)
for further details.
An indent specified in a call to
.IP,
.TP,
or the deprecated
.HP
persists until
(1) another of these macros is called with an explicit indent
argument,
or (2)
.SH,
.SS,
or
.PP
or its synonyms is called;
these clear the indent entirely.
Indents set by
.RS
move the left margin and persist until
.RS,
.RE,
.SH,
or
.SS
is called.
The default indentation,
exhibited by ordinary
.PP
paragraphs not within an
.RS/.RE
relative indent,
is 7.2n in
troff
mode and 7n in
nroff
mode.
The HTML output device is an exception;
it ignores indentation completely.
This same indentation is used again (additively) for the defaults of
.IP,
.TP,
.RS,
and the deprecated
.HP.
Section headings
(.SH)
are set flush with the left margin of the output device,
and subsection headings
(.SS)
are indented 3n.
Resist the temptation to mock up tabular or multi-column output with
ASCII tab characters or the indentation arguments to
.IP,
.TP,
.RS,
or the deprecated
.HP;
the result may not render comprehensibly on an output device you fail to
check,
or which is developed in the future.
The table preprocessor
tbl(1)
can likely meet your needs.
The following macros cause a line break with the
insertion of vertical space:
.SH,
.SS,
.TP,
.TQ,
.PP
(and its synonyms),
.IP,
and the deprecated
.HP.
The default inter-section and inter-paragraph spacing is 1~line in
nroff
mode,
and 0.4v in
troff
mode.
(The deprecated macro
.PD
can change this vertical spacing,
but its use is discouraged.)
The macros
.RS,
.RE,
.EX,
and
.EE
also cause a break but no insertion of vertical space.
Number registers
Number registers are described in section "Options" below.
String registers
The following strings are defined.
- \*R
-
expands to the character escape for the "registered sign" glyph,
'\(rg',
if available,
and "(Reg.)" otherwise.
- \*S
-
expands to an escape setting the font size to the document default.
- \*(HF
-
expands to the font identifier used to print headings and subheadings.
The default is 'B'.
- \*(lq
-
\*(rq
expand to the character escapes for left and right double-quotation
marks,
'\(lq' and '\(rq', respectively.
- \*(Tm
-
expands to the character escape for the "trade mark sign" glyph,
'\(tm',
if available,
and "(TM)" otherwise.
Interaction with preprocessors
When a preprocessor like
tbl
or
eqn
is needed,
a hint can be given to the man page formatter by making the first line
of a man page look like this:
-
'\" word
Note that the line starts with an apostrophe ('),
not a dot,
and that a single space character follows the double quote.
The
word
consists of one letter for each needed preprocessor:
'e' for
eqn,
'r' for
refer,
and
't' for
tbl.
Modern implementations of the
man
program interpret this first line and automatically call the right
preprocessor(s).
The usual
tbl
and
eqn
macros for table and equation inclusion,
.TS,
.T&,
.TE,
.EQ,
and
.EN,
may be used freely.
Note that
nroff
output devices are extremely limited in presentation of mathematical
equations.
Portability
The two major syntactical categories of
roff
languages are requests and escapes.
Since the
man
macros are implemented in terms of
groff
requests and escapes,
one can,
in principle,
supplement the functionality of
man
with these lower-level elements where necessary.
Note,
however,
that using raw
groff
requests is likely to make your page render poorly on the class of
viewers that transform it to HTML.
Some requests make implicit assumptions about things like character
and page sizes that may not hold in an HTML environment;
also,
many of these viewers don't interpret the full
groff
vocabulary,
a problem that can lead to portions of your text being silently dropped.
For portability to modern viewers,
it is best to write your page entirely with the macros described in this
page
(except for the ones identified as deprecated,
which should be avoided).
The macros we have described as extensions
(.EX/.EE,
.SY/.OP/.YS,
.UR/.UE,
and
.MT/.ME)
should be used with caution, as they may not yet be built in to
some viewer that is important to your audience.
If in doubt, copy the implementation into your page---after the
.TH
call and the "Name" section,
to accommodate timid
mandb
implementations.
Similar caveats apply to escapes.
Some escape sequences are however required for correct typesetting
even in man pages and usually do not cause portability problems:
- \"
-
Comment.
Everything after the double-quote to the end of the input line is
ignored.
Whole-line comments are frequently placed immediately after the empty
request '.'.
- \newline
-
Join the next input line to the current one.
Except for the update of the input line counter (used for diagnostic
messages and related purposes),
a series of lines ending in backslash-newline is transparent to
groff.
Use this escape to break excessively input long lines for document
maintenance.
- \~
-
Adjustable, non-breaking space character.
Use this escape to prevent a break inside a short phrase or between a
numerical quantity and its corresponding unit(s).
-
-
Before starting the motor, set the output speed to\~1.
There are 1,024\~bytes in 1\~kiB.
CSTR\~#8 documents the B language.
- \&
-
Zero-width space.
Append to an input line to prevent an end-of-sentence punctuation
sequence from being recognized as such, or insert at the beginning of an
input line to prevent a dot or apostrophe from being interpreted as the
beginning of a
roff
request.
- \(aq
-
ASCII apostrophe.
Use for syntax elements of programming languages because some
output devices might replace unescaped apostrophes with right single
quotation marks.
- \(oq
-
Opening single quotation mark.
\(cq
Closing single quotation mark.
-
Use these for paired directional single quotes, 'like this'.
- \(dq
-
ASCII double-quote.
Sometimes needed after macro calls to prevent the interpretation of the
ASCII quotation mark character '"' as the beginning or end
of a macro argument.
- \(lq
-
Left double quotation mark.
\(rq
Right double quotation mark.
-
Use these for paired directional double quotes, "like this".
- \(em
-
Em-dash.
Use for an interruption in a sentence---such as this one.
- \(en
-
En-dash.
Use to separate the two ends of a range,
in particular between numbers,
for example: the digits 1-9.
- \(ga
-
ASCII grave accent.
Use for syntax elements of programming languages,
for example shell command substitutions,
because some output devices might replace unescaped grave accents with
left single quotation marks.
- \(ha
-
ASCII circumflex accent.
Use for syntax elements of programming languages because some output
devices might replace unescaped circumflex accents with non-ASCII glyphs
like the Unicode U+02C6 modifier letter circumflex.
- \(ti
-
ASCII tilde.
Use for syntax elements of programming languages because some output
devices might replace unescaped tildes with non-ASCII glyphs like the
Unicode U+02DC small tilde.
- \-
-
Minus sign.
Also use this to display syntax elements that require the ASCII
hyphen-minus character,
for example command-line options and C language operators.
The unescaped '-' input character is not appropriate for
these cases because it may render as a hyphen on some output devices.
- \c
-
If this escape sequence occurs at the end of an input line, no white
space is inserted between the last glyph on it and the first glyph
resulting from the next input line.
This is occasionally useful when three different fonts are needed
in a single word.
-
-
Normally, the final output file should be named
.IB file .pdf\c
\&.
-
Note that when using this trick with the
.BI
or
.RI
macros, you will need to manually add an italic correction escape
'\/' before the '\c' due to way macros expand their
arguments.
-
-
Files processed with
.B groff \-mom
(or
.BI "\-m " mom\/\c
) produce PostScript output by default.
-
Alternatively,
and perhaps with better portability,
the '\f' font escape sequence can be used;
see below.
Using '\c' to include the output from more than one input line
into the next-line argument of a
.TP
macro will render incorrectly with
groff
1.22.3,
mandoc
1.14.1,
older versions of these programs,
and perhaps with some other formatters.
- \e
-
Widely used in man pages to represent a backslash output glyph.
It works reliably as long as the
.ec
request is not used,
which should never happen in man pages,
and it is slightly more portable than the more exact '\(rs'
("reverse solidus") escape sequence.
- \fB, \fI, \fR, \fP
-
Switch to bold, italic, roman, or back to the previous font,
respectively.
Either these or '\c' is needed when three different fonts are
required in a single whitespace-delimited word.
-
-
.RB [ \-\-reference\-dictionary=\fI\,name\/\fP ]
-
.RB [ \-\-reference\-dictionary=\c
.IR name ]
-
Font escapes may be more portable than '\c'.
As shown above,
it is up to you to account for italic corrections with '\/' and
'\,', which are themselves
groff
extensions,
if desired and if supported by your implementation.
-
Note that
'\fP' reliably returns to the style in use immediately preceding
the previous '\f' escape only if no
sectioning,
paragraph,
or font face macro calls have intervened.
-
As long as only two fonts are needed in any single whitespace-delimited
word,
font alternation macros like
.BI
usually result in more readable source code than '\f' escapes do.
For maximum portability, escape sequences and special characters
not listed above are better avoided in man pages.
Deprecated features
Use of the following is discouraged.
- .AT [
-
system [release]]
Alter the footer for use with AT&T man pages,
overriding any definition of the
footer-outside
argument to
.TH.
This macro exists only for compatibility; don't use it.
-
The first argument
system
can be:
-
" Invisibly move left margin to current .IP indent.
-
" Now indent further, visibly.
- 3
-
7th edition
(default)
- 4
-
System III
- 5
-
System V
-
The optional second argument
release
specifies the release number,
such as in "System V Release 3".
- .BT
-
Set the page footer.
Redefine this macro to get control of the footer.
- .DT
-
Set tabs every 0.5~inches.
Since this macro is always called during a
.TH
macro, it makes sense to call it only if the tab positions have been
changed.
-
Use of this presentation-level macro is deprecated.
It translates poorly to HTML, under which exact whitespace control
and tabbing are not readily available.
Thus, information or distinctions that you use
.DT
to express are likely to be lost.
If you feel tempted to use it, you should probably be composing a
table using
tbl(1)
markup instead.
- .HP [
-
indent]
Set up a paragraph with a hanging left indentation.
The
indent
argument,
if present,
is handled as with
.TP.
-
Use of this presentation-level macro is deprecated.
While it is universally portable to legacy Unix systems, a hanging
indentation cannot be expressed naturally under HTML, and many
HTML-based manual viewers simply interpret it as a starter for a
normal paragraph.
Thus, any information or distinction you tried to express with the
indentation may be lost.
- .PD [
-
vertical-space]
Define the vertical space between paragraphs or (sub)sections.
The optional argument
vertical-space
specifies the amount of space;
the default scaling is 'v').
Without an argument,
the spacing is reset to its default value;
see "Horizontal and vertical spacing" above.
-
Use of this presentation-level macro is deprecated.
It translates poorly to HTML, under which exact control of
inter-paragraph spacing is not readily available.
Thus, information or distinctions that you use
.PD
to express are likely to be lost.
- .PT
-
Set the page header.
Redefine this macro to get control of the header.
- .UC [
-
version]
Alter the footer for use with BSD man pages,
overriding any definition of the
footer-outside
argument to
.TH.
This macro exists only for compatibility; don't use it.
-
The argument
version
can be:
-
" Invisibly move left margin to current .IP indent.
-
" Now indent further, visibly.
- 3
-
3rd Berkeley Distribution
(default)
- 4
-
4th Berkeley Distribution
- 5
-
4.2 Berkeley Distribution
- 6
-
4.3 Berkeley Distribution
- 7
-
4.4 Berkeley Distribution
History
According to its own
man(7)
page,
Version 7 Unix (1979) supported all of the macros described in this page
not listed as GNU extensions,
except
.P,
.SB,
.SS,
and the deprecated
.AT,
.BT,
.PT,
and
.UC.
The only string registers defined were
R
and
S;
no number registers were documented.
OPTIONS
The following
groff
options set number registers recognized and used by the
man
macro package.
- -rcR=1
-
Continuous rendering.
Create a single,
very long page instead of multiple pages.
This is the default in
nroff
mode.
Use
-rcR=0
to disable it.
- -rC1
-
Number pages continuously.
If more than one man page is given on the command line, number the
pages continuously, rather than starting each at~1.
- -rD1
-
Enable double-sided printing.
Footers for even and odd pages are formatted differently;
see the description of
.TH
in "Document structure macros",
above.
- -rFT=footer-distance
-
Set distance of the footer,
relative to the bottom of the page if negative or relative to the top if
positive,
to
footer-distance.
The default is -0.5i.
- -rHY=flags
-
Set hyphenation flags.
Permissible values of
flags
are documented in section "Hyphenation" of
groff(7).
The default is~4 if continuous rendering is enabled
(-rcR=1
above),
and~6 otherwise.
- -rIN=indent
-
Set the body text indentation (for normal paragraphs) to
indent.
See "Horizontal and vertical spacing" above for the default
indentation value.
For
nroff,
indent
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 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 initialization of the
LL
register should
always
be preferred to the use of such a request.
In particular, note that a ".ll~65n" request does
not
preserve the normal
nroff
default line length
(the
man
default initialization to 78n prevails),
whereas the
-rLL=65n
option,
or an equivalent ".nr~LL~65n" request preceding the use of the
.TH
macro,
does
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.
- -rPn
-
Start enumeration of pages at
n
rather than~1.
- -rSpoint-size
-
Use
point-size
as the base document font size.
Acceptable values are 10, 11, or 12.
See subsection "Font style macros" above for the default.
- -rSN=subsection-indent
-
Set subsection indentation to
subsection-indent.
See "Horizontal and vertical spacing" above for the default
indentation value.
- -rXp
-
After
page p,
number pages as
pa,
pb,
pc,
and so forth.
For example, the option
-rX2
produces the following page
numbers: 1, 2, 2a, 2b, 2c, and so on.
FILES
- /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/man.tmac
-
/usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/an.tmac
These are wrapper files to call
andoc.tmac.
- /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/andoc.tmac
-
This brief
groff
program detects whether the
man
or
mdoc
macro package is being used by a document and loads the correct macro
definitions,
taking advantage of the fact that pages using them must call
.TH
or
.Dd,
respectively,
as their first macro.
Because the wrappers above load this file,
a
man
program or user typing,
for example,
"groff -man page.1",
need not know which package the file
page.1
uses.
Multiple man pages, in either format, can be handled.
- /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/an-old.tmac
-
Most
man
macros are contained in this file.
It also loads the GNU extensions from
an-ext.tmac
(see below).
- /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/an-ext.tmac
-
The extension macro definitions for
.SY,
.OP,
.YS,
.TQ,
.EX/.EE,
.UR/.UE,
and
.MT/.ME
are contained in this file,
which is written in classic
troff
and permissively licensed---not copylefted.
Man page authors concerned about portability to legacy Unix systems are
encouraged to copy these definitions into their pages,
and maintainers of
troff
implementations or work-alike systems that format man pages are
encouraged to re-use them.
-
Note that the definitions for these macros are read after the call of
.TH,
so they will replace any macros of the same names preceding it in your
file.
If you use your own implementations of these macros,
they must be defined after calling
.TH
to have any effect.
- /usr/share/groff/site-tmac/man.local
-
Local changes and customizations should be put into this file.
NOTES
Some tips on troubleshooting your man pages follow.
- • .RS doesn't indent relative to my indented paragraph
-
The
.RS
macro sets the indentation relative to the amount of a
normal
paragraph
(.PP
and its synonyms).
The same default indentation amount is used for
.RS,
.IP,
.TP,
and the deprecated
.HP.
If you need to start an indent relative to an indented paragraph,
call
.RS
repeatedly until an acceptable indentation is achieved,
or give
.RS
an indentation argument that is at least as much as the paragraph's
indentation amount relative to an adjacent
.PP
paragraph.
See "Horizontal and vertical spacing" above for the values.
- • .RE doesn't reset the indent to the expected level
-
• warning: scale indicator invalid in this context
• warning: number register 'an-saved-marginn' not defined
• warning: number register 'an-saved-prevailing-indentn' not defined
The
.RS
macro takes an indentation
amount
as an argument;
the
.RE
macro's argument is a specific indentation
level.
.RE~1
goes to the level before any
.RS
macros were called,
.RE~2
goes to the level of the first
.RS
call you made,
and so forth.
If you desire symmetry in your macro calls,
simply issue one
.RE
without an argument
for each
.RS
that precedes it.
-
After calls to the
.SH
and
.SS
sectioning macros,
all relative indents are cleared and calls to
.RE
have no effect.
AUTHORS
The GNU version of the
man
macro package was written by James Clark and contributors.
The extension macros were written by
Werner Lemberg
and
Eric S. Raymond
This document was originally written for the Debian GNU/Linux system by
Susan G. Kleinmann
It was corrected and updated by Werner Lemberg and G. Branden
Robinson.
The extension macros were documented by Eric S. Raymond;
he also originated the portability section,
to which Ingo Schwarze contributed most of the material on escape
sequences.
SEE ALSO
Groff: The GNU Implementation of troff,
by Trent A. Fisher and Werner Lemberg,
is the main
groff
documentation.
You can browse it interactively with "info groff".
tbl(1),
eqn(1),
and
refer(1)
are preprocessors used with man pages.
man(1)
describes the man page formatter on your system.
groff_mdoc(7)
describes the
groff
version of the BSD-originated alternative macro package for man pages.
groff(7),
groff_char(7),
man(7)
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- Macro reference preliminaries
-
- Document structure macros
-
- Paragraph macros
-
- Command synopsis macros
-
- Hyperlink and email macros
-
- Font style macros
-
- Horizontal and vertical spacing
-
- Number registers
-
- String registers
-
- Interaction with preprocessors
-
- Portability
-
- Deprecated features
-
- History
-
- OPTIONS
-
- FILES
-
- NOTES
-
- AUTHORS
-
- SEE ALSO
-
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Time: 10:41:43 GMT, April 25, 2024