GROFF_MS(7)                OpenBSD Reference Manual                GROFF_MS(7)



NAME
       groff_ms - groff ms macros

SYNOPSIS
       groff -ms [ options... ] [ files... ]
       groff -m ms [ options... ] [ files... ]

DESCRIPTION
       This manual page describes the GNU version of the ms macros, part of
       the groff typesetting system.  The ms macros are mostly compatible with
       the documented behavior of the 4.3 BSD Unix ms macros (see Differences
       from troff ms below for details).  The ms macros are suitable for
       reports, letters, books, and technical documentation.

USAGE
       The ms macro package expects files to have a certain amount of
       structure.  The simplest documents can begin with a paragraph macro and
       consist of text separated by paragraph macros or even blank lines.
       Longer documents have a structure as follows:

       Document type
              If you use the RP (report) macro at the beginning of the
              document, groff prints the cover page information on its own
              page; otherwise it prints the information on the first page with
              your document text immediately following.  Other document
              formats found in AT&T troff are specific to AT&T or Berkeley,
              and are not supported in groff ms.

       Format and layout
              By setting number registers, you can change your document's type
              (font and size), margins, spacing, headers and footers, and
              footnotes.  See Document control registers below for more
              details.

       Cover page
              A cover page consists of a title, and optionally the author's
              name and institution, an abstract, and the date.  See Cover page
              macros below for more details.

       Body   Following the cover page is your document.  It consists of
              paragraphs, headings, and lists.

       Table of contents
              Longer documents usually include a table of contents, which you
              can add by placing the TC macro at the end of your document.

   Document control registers
       The following table lists the document control number registers.  For
       the sake of consistency, set registers related to margins at the
       beginning of your document, or just after the RP macro.

       Margin settings

              Reg.          Definition             Effective      Default
              ------------------------------------------------------------
              PO     Page offset (left margin)   next page        1i
              LL     Line length                 next paragraph   6i
              LT     Header/footer length        next paragraph   6i
              HM     Top (header) margin         next page        1i
              FM     Bottom (footer) margin      next page        1i
              ------------------------------------------------------------

       Text settings

               Reg.             Definition              Effective      Default
              -----------------------------------------------------------------
              PS       Point size                     next paragraph   10p
              VS       Line spacing (leading)         next paragraph   12p
              PSINCR   Point size increment for       next heading     1p
                       section headings of
                       increasing importance
              GROWPS   Heading level beyond which     next heading     0
                       PSINCR is ignored
              -----------------------------------------------------------------

       Paragraph settings

                Reg.             Definition             Effective      Default
              -----------------------------------------------------------------
              PI         Initial indent               next paragraph   5n
              PD         Space between paragraphs     next paragraph   0.3v
              QI         Quoted paragraph indent      next paragraph   5n
              PORPHANS   Number of initial lines to   next paragraph   1
                         be kept together
              HORPHANS   Number of initial lines to   next heading     1
                         be kept with heading
              -----------------------------------------------------------------

       Footnote settings

              Reg.     Definition        Effective      Default
              ----------------------------------------------------
              FL     Footnote length   next footnote   \n[LL]*5/6
              FI     Footnote indent   next footnote   2n
              FF     Footnote format   next footnote   0
              FPS    Point size        next footnote   \n[PS]-2
              FVS    Vert. spacing     next footnote   \n[FPS]+2
              FPD    Para. spacing     next footnote   \n[PD]/2
              ----------------------------------------------------

       Other settings

              Reg.               Definition              Effective    Default
              ----------------------------------------------------------------
              DD      Display, table, eqn, pic spacing   next para.   0.5v
              MINGW   Minimum width between columns      next page    2n
              ----------------------------------------------------------------

   Cover page macros
       Use the following macros to create a cover page for your document in
       the order shown.

       .RP [no]
              Specifies the report format for your document.  The report
              format creates a separate cover page.  With no RP macro, groff
              prints a subset of the cover page on page 1 of your document.

              If you use the optional no argument, groff prints a title page
              but does not repeat any of the title page information (title,
              author, abstract, etc.) on page 1 of the document.

       .P1    (P-one) Prints the header on page 1.  The default is to suppress
              the header.

       .DA [xxx]
              (optional) Print the current date, or the arguments to the macro
              if any, on the title page (if specified) and in the footers.
              This is the default for nroff.

       .ND [xxx]
              (optional) Print the current date, or the arguments to the macro
              if any, on the title page (if specified) but not in the footers.
              This is the default for troff.

       .TL    Specifies the document title.  Groff collects text following the
              TL macro into the title, until reaching the author name or
              abstract.

       .AU    Specifies the author's name.  You can specify multiple authors
              by using an AU macro for each author.

       .AI    Specifies the author's institution.  You can specify multiple
              institutions.

       .AB [no]
              Begins the abstract.  The default is to print the word ABSTRACT,
              centered and in italics, above the text of the abstract.  The
              option no suppresses this heading.

       .AE    End the abstract.

   Paragraphs
       Use the PP macro to create indented paragraphs, and the LP macro to
       create paragraphs with no initial indent.

       The QP macro indents all text at both left and right margins.  The
       effect is identical to the HTML <BLOCKQUOTE> element.  The next
       paragraph or heading returns margins to normal.

       The XP macro produces an exdented paragraph.  The first line of the
       paragraph begins at the left margin, and subsequent lines are indented
       (the opposite of PP).

       For each of the above paragraph types, and also for any list entry
       introduced by the IP macro (described later), the document control
       register PORPHANS, sets the minimum number of lines which must be
       printed, after the start of the paragraph, and before any page break
       occurs.  If there is insufficient space remaining on the current page
       to accommodate this number of lines, then a page break is forced before
       the first line of the paragraph is printed.

       Similarly, when a section heading (see subsection Headings below)
       preceeds any of these paragraph types, the HORPHANS document control
       register specifies the minimum number of lines of the paragraph which
       must be kept on the same page as the heading.  If insufficient space
       remains on the current page to accommodate the heading and this number
       of lines of paragraph text, then a page break is forced before the
       heading is printed.

   Headings
       Use headings to create a hierarchical structure for your document.  By
       default, the ms macros print headings in bold using the same font
       family and point size as the body text.  For output devices which
       support scalable fonts, this behaviour may be modified, by defining the
       document control registers, GROWPS and PSINCR.

       The following heading macros are available:

       .NH xx Numbered heading.  The argument xx is either a numeric argument
              to indicate the level of the heading, or S xx xx "..."  to set
              the section number explicitly.  If you specify heading levels
              out of sequence, such as invoking .NH 3 after .NH 1, groff
              prints a warning on standard error.

              If the GROWPS register is set to a value greater than the level
              of the heading, then the point size of the heading will be
              increased by PSINCR units over the text size specified by the PS
              register, for each level by which the heading level is less than
              the value of GROWPS.  For example, the sequence:

                     .nr PS 10
                     .nr GROWPS 3
                     .nr PSINCR 1.5p
                     .
                     .NH 1
                     Top Level Heading
                     .
                     .NH 2
                     Second Level Heading
                     .
                     .NH 3
                     Third Level Heading

              will cause "1. Top Level Heading" to be printed in 13pt bold
              text, followed by "1.1. Second Level Heading" in 11.5pt bold
              text, while "1.1.1. Third Level Heading", and all more deeply
              nested heading levels, will remain in the 10pt bold text which
              is specified by the PS register.

              Note that the value stored in PSINCR is interpreted in groff
              basic units; the p scaling factor should be employed, when
              assigning a value specified in points.

              The style used to represent the section number, within a
              numbered heading, is controlled by the SN-STYLE string; this may
              be set to either the SN-DOT or the SN-NO-DOT style, (described
              below), by aliasing SN-STYLE accordingly.  By default, SN-STYLE
              is initialised by defining the alias

                     .als SN-STYLE SN-DOT

              it may be changed to the SN-NO-DOT style, if preferred, by
              defining the alternative alias

                     .als SN-STYLE SN-NO-DOT

              Any such change becomes effective with the first use of .NH,
              after the new alias is defined.

              After invoking .NH, the assigned heading number is available in
              the strings SN-DOT (as it appears in the default formatting
              style for numbered headings, with a terminating period following
              the number), and SN-NO-DOT (with this terminating period
              omitted).  The string SN is also defined, as an alias for SN-
              DOT; if preferred, the user may redefine it as an alias for SN-
              NO-DOT, by including the initialisation:

                     .als SN SN-NO-DOT

              at any time; the change becomes effective with the next use of
              .NH, after the new alias is defined.

       .SH [xx]
              Unnumbered subheading.  The use of the optional xx argument is a
              GNU extension, which adjusts the point size of the unnumbered
              subheading to match that of a numbered heading, introduced using
              .NH xx with the same value of xx.  For example, given the same
              settings for PS, GROWPS and PSINCR, as used in the preceeding
              .NH example, the sequence:

                     .SH 2
                     An Unnumbered Subheading

              will print "An Unnumbered Subheading" in 11.5pt bold text.

   Highlighting
       The ms macros provide a variety of methods to highlight or emphasize
       text:

       .B [txt [post [pre]]]
              Sets its first argument in bold type.  If you specify a second
              argument, groff prints it in the previous font after the bold
              text, with no intervening space (this allows you to set
              punctuation after the highlighted text without highlighting the
              punctuation).  Similarly, it prints the third argument (if any)
              in the previous font before the first argument.  For example,

                     .B foo ) (

              prints (foo).

              If you give this macro no arguments, groff prints all text
              following in bold until the next highlighting, paragraph, or
              heading macro.

       .R [txt [post [pre]]]
              Sets its first argument in roman (or regular) type.  It operates
              similarly to the B macro otherwise.

       .I [txt [post [pre]]]
              Sets its first argument in italic type.  It operates similarly
              to the B macro otherwise.

       .CW [txt [post [pre]]]
              Sets its first argument in a constant width face.  It operates
              similarly to the B macro otherwise.

       .BI [txt [post [pre]]]
              Sets its first argument in bold italic type.  It operates
              similarly to the B macro otherwise.

       .BX [txt]
              Prints its argument and draws a box around it.  If you want to
              box a string that contains spaces, use a digit-width space (\0).

       .UL [txt [post]]
              Prints its first argument with an underline.  If you specify a
              second argument, groff prints it in the previous font after the
              underlined text, with no intervening space.

       .LG    Prints all text following in larger type (2 points larger than
              the current point size) until the next font size, highlighting,
              paragraph, or heading macro.  You can specify this macro
              multiple times to enlarge the point size as needed.

       .SM    Prints all text following in smaller type (2 points smaller than
              the current point size) until the next type size, highlighting,
              paragraph, or heading macro.  You can specify this macro
              multiple times to reduce the point size as needed.

       .NL    Prints all text following in the normal point size (that is, the
              value of the PS register).

       \*{text\*}
              Print the enclosed text as a superscript.

   Indents
       You may need to indent sections of text.  A typical use for indents is
       to create nested lists and sublists.

       Use the RS and RE macros to start and end a section of indented text,
       respectively.  The PI register controls the amount of indent.

       You can nest indented sections as deeply as needed by using multiple,
       nested pairs of RS and RE.

   Lists
       The IP macro handles duties for all lists.  Its syntax is as follows:

       .IP [marker [width]]

              The marker is usually a bullet character \(bu for unordered
              lists, a number (or auto-incrementing number register) for
              numbered lists, or a word or phrase for indented (glossary-
              style) lists.

              The width specifies the indent for the body of each list item.
              Once specified, the indent remains the same for all list items
              in the document until specified again.

   Tab stops
       Use the ta request to set tab stops as needed.  Use the TA macro to
       reset tabs to the default (every 5n).  You can redefine the TA macro to
       create a different set of default tab stops.

   Displays and keeps
       Use displays to show text-based examples or figures (such as code
       listings).  Displays turn off filling, so lines of code can be
       displayed as-is without inserting br requests in between each line.
       Displays can be kept on a single page, or allowed to break across
       pages.  The following table shows the display types available.

                   Display macro                    Type of display
                With keep      No keep
              -----------------------------------------------------------------
              .DS L            .LD       Left-justified.
              .DS I [indent]   .ID       Indented (default indent in the DI
                                         register).
              .DS B            .BD       Block-centered (left-justified,
                                         longest line centered).
              .DS C            .CD       Centered.
              .DS R            .RD       Right-justified.
              -----------------------------------------------------------------

       Use the DE macro to end any display type.  The macros Ds and De were
       formerly provided as aliases for DS and DE, respectively, but they have
       been removed, and should no longer be used.  X11 documents which
       actually use Ds and De always load a specific macro file from the X11
       distribution (macros.t) which provides proper definitions for the two
       macros.

       To keep text together on a page, such as a paragraph that refers to a
       table (or list, or other item) immediately following, use the KS and KE
       macros.  The KS macro begins a block of text to be kept on a single
       page, and the KE macro ends the block.

       You can specify a floating keep using the KF and KE macros.  If the
       keep cannot fit on the current page, groff holds the contents of the
       keep and allows text following the keep (in the source file) to fill in
       the remainder of the current page.  When the page breaks, whether by an
       explicit bp request or by reaching the end of the page, groff prints
       the floating keep at the top of the new page.  This is useful for
       printing large graphics or tables that do not need to appear exactly
       where specified.

       The macros B1 and B2 can be used to enclose a text within a box; .B1
       begins the box, and .B2 ends it.  Text in the box is automatically
       placed in a diversion (keep).

   Tables, figures, equations, and references
       The -ms macros support the standard groff preprocessors: tbl, pic, eqn,
       and refer.  Mark text meant for preprocessors by enclosing it in pairs
       of tags as follows:

       .TS [H] and .TE
              Denotes a table, to be processed by the tbl preprocessor.  The
              optional H argument instructs groff to create a running header
              with the information up to the TH macro.  Groff prints the
              header at the beginning of the table; if the table runs onto
              another page, groff prints the header on the next page as well.

       .PS and .PE
              Denotes a graphic, to be processed by the pic preprocessor.  You
              can create a pic file by hand, using the AT&T pic manual
              available on the Web as a reference, or by using a graphics
              program such as xfig.

       .EQ [align] and .EN
              Denotes an equation, to be processed by the eqn preprocessor.
              The optional align argument can be C, L, or I to center (the
              default), left-justify, or indent the equation.

       .[ and .]
              Denotes a reference, to be processed by the refer preprocessor.
              The GNU refer(1) manual page provides a comprehensive reference
              to the preprocessor and the format of the bibliographic
              database.

   Footnotes
       The ms macros provide a flexible footnote system.  You can specify a
       numbered footnote by using the \** escape, followed by the text of the
       footnote enclosed by FS and FE macros.

       You can specify symbolic footnotes by placing the mark character (such
       as \(dg for the dagger character) in the body text, followed by the
       text of the footnote enclosed by FS \(dg and FE macros.

       You can control how groff prints footnote numbers by changing the value
       of the FF register as follows:

              0      Prints the footnote number as a superscript; indents the
                     footnote (default).

              1      Prints the number followed by a period (like 1.) and
                     indents the footnote.

              2      Like 1, without an indent.

              3      Like 1, but prints the footnote number as a hanging
                     paragraph.

       You can use footnotes safely within keeps and displays, but avoid using
       numbered footnotes within floating keeps.  You can set a second \**
       between a \** and its corresponding .FS; as long as each .FS occurs
       after the corresponding \** and the occurrences of .FS are in the same
       order as the corresponding occurrences of \**.

   Headers and footers
       There are three ways to define headers and footers:

       o  Use the strings LH, CH, and RH to set the left, center, and right
          headers; use LF, CF, and RF to set the left, center, and right
          footers.  This works best for documents that do not distinguish
          between odd and even pages.

       o  Use the OH and EH macros to define headers for the odd and even
          pages; and OF and EF macros to define footers for the odd and even
          pages.  This is more flexible than defining the individual strings.
          The syntax for these macros is as follows:

                 .OH 'left'center'right'

          You can replace the quote (') marks with any character not appearing
          in the header or footer text.

       You can also redefine the PT and BT macros to change the behavior of
       the header and footer, respectively.  The header process also calls the
       (undefined) HD macro after PT ; you can define this macro if you need
       additional processing after printing the header (for example, to draw a
       line below the header).

   Margins
       You control margins using a set of number registers.  The following
       table lists the register names and defaults:

              Reg.          Definition             Effective      Default
              ------------------------------------------------------------
              PO     Page offset (left margin)   next page        1i
              LL     Line length                 next paragraph   6i
              LT     Header/footer length        next paragraph   6i
              HM     Top (header) margin         next page        1i
              FM     Bottom (footer) margin      next page        1i
              ------------------------------------------------------------

       Note that there is no right margin setting.  The combination of page
       offset and line length provide the information necessary to derive the
       right margin.

   Multiple columns
       The ms macros can set text in as many columns as will reasonably fit on
       the page.  The following macros are available.  All of them force a
       page break if a multi-column mode is already set.  However, if the
       current mode is single-column, starting a multi-column mode does not
       force a page break.

       .1C    Single-column mode.

       .2C    Two-column mode.

       .MC [width [gutter]]
              Multi-column mode.  If you specify no arguments, it is
              equivalent to the 2C macro.  Otherwise, width is the width of
              each column and gutter is the space between columns.  The MINGW
              number register is the default gutter width.

   Creating a table of contents
       Wrap text that you want to appear in the table of contents in XS and XE
       macros.  Use the TC macro to print the table of contents at the end of
       the document, resetting the page number to i (Roman numeral 1).

       You can manually create a table of contents by specifying a page number
       as the first argument to XS.  Add subsequent entries using the XA
       macro.  For example:

              .XS 1
              Introduction
              .XA 2
              A Brief History of the Universe
              .XA 729
              Details of Galactic Formation
              ...
              .XE

       Use the PX macro to print a manually-generated table of contents
       without resetting the page number.

       If you give the argument no to either PX or TC, groff suppresses
       printing the title specified by the \*[TOC] string.

   Fractional point sizes
       Traditionally, the ms macros only support integer values for the
       document's font size and vertical spacing.  To overcome this
       restriction, values larger than or equal to 1000 are taken as
       fractional values, multiplied by 1000.  For example, `.nr PS 10250'
       sets the font size to 10.25 points.

       The following four registers accept fractional point sizes: PS, VS,
       FPS, and FVS.

       Due to backwards compatibility, the value of VS must be smaller than
       40000 (this is 40.0 points).

DIFFERENCES FROM troff ms
       The groff ms macros are a complete re-implementation, using no original
       AT&T code.  Since they take advantage of the extended features in
       groff, they cannot be used with AT&T troff.  Other differences include:

       o  The internals of groff ms differ from the internals of Unix ms.
          Documents that depend upon implementation details of Unix ms may not
          format properly with groff ms.

       o  The error-handling policy of groff ms is to detect and report
          errors, rather than silently to ignore them.

       o  Some Bell Labs localisms are not implemented by default.  However,
          if you call the otherwise undocumented SC section-header macro, you
          will enable implementations of three other archaic Bell Labs macros:
          UC, P1, and P2.  These are not enabled by default because (a) they
          were not documented, in the original ms manual, and (b) the P1 and
          UC macros both collide with different macros in the Berkeley version
          of ms.

          These emulations are sufficient to give back the 1976 Kernighan &
          Cherry paper Typsetting Mathematics - User's Guide its section
          headings, and restore some text that had gone missing as arguments
          of undefined macros.  No warranty express or implied is given as to
          how well the typographic details these produce match the original
          Bell Labs macros.

       o  Berkeley localisms, in particular the TM and CT macros, are not
          implemented.

       o  Groff ms does not work in compatibility mode (e.g., with the -C
          option).

       o  There is no support for typewriter-like devices.

       o  Groff ms does not provide cut marks.

       o  Multiple line spacing is not supported (use a larger vertical
          spacing instead).

       o  Some Unix ms documentation says that the CW and GW number registers
          can be used to control the column width and gutter width,
          respectively.  These number registers are not used in groff ms.

       o  Macros that cause a reset (paragraphs, headings, etc.) may change
          the indent.  Macros that change the indent do not increment or
          decrement the indent, but rather set it absolutely.  This can cause
          problems for documents that define additional macros of their own.
          The solution is to use not the in request but instead the RS and RE
          macros.

       o  The number register GS is set to 1 by the groff ms macros, but is
          not used by the Unix ms macros.  Documents that need to determine
          whether they are being formatted with Unix ms or groff ms should use
          this number register.

       o  To make groff ms use the default page offset (which also specifies
          the left margin), the PO number register must stay undefined until
          the first ms macro is evaluated.  This implies that PO should not be
          used early in the document, unless it is changed also: Remember that
          accessing an undefined register automatically defines it.

   Strings
       You can redefine the following strings to adapt the groff ms macros to
       languages other than English:

                             String       Default Value
                           -------------------------------
                           REFERENCES   References
                           ABSTRACT     ABSTRACT
                           TOC          Table of Contents
                           MONTH1       January
                           MONTH2       February
                           MONTH3       March
                           MONTH4       April
                           MONTH5       May
                           MONTH6       June
                           MONTH7       July
                           MONTH8       August
                           MONTH9       September
                           MONTH10      October
                           MONTH11      November
                           MONTH12      December
                           -------------------------------

       The \*- string produces an em dash -- like this.

       Use \*Q and \*U to get a left and right typographer's quote,
       respectively, in troff (and plain quotes in nroff).


   Text Settings
       The FAM string sets the default font family.  If this string is
       undefined at initialization, it is set to Times.

       The point size, vertical spacing, and inter-paragraph spacing for
       footnotes are controlled by the number registers FPS, FVS, and FPD; at
       initialization these are set to \n(PS-2, \n[FPS]+2, and \n(PD/2,
       respectively.  If any of these registers are defined before
       initialization, the initialization macro does not change them.

       The hyphenation flags (as set by the hy request) are set from the HY
       register; the default is 14.

       Improved accent marks (as originally defined in Berkeley's ms version)
       are available by specifying the AM macro at the beginning of your
       document.  You can place an accent over most characters by specifying
       the string defining the accent directly after the character.  For
       example, n\*~ produces an n with a tilde over it.

NAMING CONVENTIONS
       The following conventions are used for names of macros, strings and
       number registers.  External names available to documents that use the
       groff ms macros contain only uppercase letters and digits.

       Internally the macros are divided into modules; naming conventions are
       as follows:

       o  Names used only within one module are of the form module*name.

       o  Names used outside the module in which they are defined are of the
          form module@name.

       o  Names associated with a particular environment are of the form
          environment:name; these are used only within the par module.

       o  name does not have a module prefix.

       o  Constructed names used to implement arrays are of the form
          array!index.

       Thus the groff ms macros reserve the following names:

       o  Names containing the characters *, @, and :.

       o  Names containing only uppercase letters and digits.

FILES
       /usr/local/share/groff/1.21/tmac/ms.tmac (a wrapper file for s.tmac)
       /usr/local/share/groff/1.21/tmac/s.tmac

SEE ALSO
       groff(1), troff(1), tbl(1), pic(1), eqn(1), refer(1), Groff: The GNU
       Implementation of troff by Trent Fisher and Werner Lemberg.

AUTHOR
       Original manual page by James Clark et al; rewritten by Larry Kollar
       (lkollar@despammed.com).



Groff Version 1.21             31 December 2010                    GROFF_MS(7)
