GROFF_MAN(7)               OpenBSD Reference Manual               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 summary 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) creates 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 starting 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 positive.  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 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.

       -rPnnn Enumeration of pages 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' produces the following 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 is 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 is
              positioned in the middle of the footer line.  extra2 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).  extra3 is centered in the header line.

              For HTML output, headers and footers are completely suppressed.

              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
              indentation for the following text is reset to the default
              values.

       .TP [nnn]
              Set up an indented paragraph with label.  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 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 indentation 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 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 has default font settings.

              The TP macro is the macro used for the explanations you are just
              reading.

       .TQ    The TQ macro sets up header continuation for a .TP macro.  With
              it, you can stack up any number of labels (such as in a
              glossary, or list of commands) before beginning the indented
              paragraph.  For an example, look just past the next paragraph.

              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.

       .LP
       .PP
       .P     These macros are mutual aliases.  Any of them causes a line
              break at the current position, followed by a vertical space
              downwards by the amount specified by the PD macro.  The font
              size and shape are reset to the default value (normally 10pt
              Roman).  Finally, the current left margin and the indentation is
              reset to the default values.

       .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 indentation 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
              designator) are reset to its default values.

              To start an indented paragraph with a particular indentation but
              without a designator, use `""' (two doublequotes) 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 package 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 have been used yet).  Font
              size and face are reset to its default values.  The following
              paragraph illustrates the effect of this macro with hanging
              indentation 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.

              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.

       .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.

       .EX
       .EE    Example/End Example.  After EX, filling is disabled and the font
              is set to constant-width.  This is useful for formatting code,
              command, and configuration-file examples.  The EE macro restores
              the previous font.

              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.

       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, TQ, LP (PP, P), IP, and HP.  The macros RS, RE, EX,
       and EE 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

                     .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.

MACROS TO DESCRIBE HYPERLINKS AND EMAIL ADDRESSES
       The following 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.

       Using these macros helps ensure that you get hyperlinks when your
       manual page is rendered in a browser or other program that is Web-
       enabled.

       .UR URL
       .UE [punctuation]
              Wrap a World Wide Web hyperlink.  The argument to UR is the URL;
              thereafter, lines until UE are collected and used as the link
              text.  Any argument to the UE macro is pasted to the end of the
              text.  On a device that is not a browser,

                     this is a link to
                     .UR http://\:randomsite.org/\:fubar
                     some random site
                     .UE ,
                     given as an example

              usually displays like this: "this is a link to some random site
              <http://randomsite.org/fubar>, given as an example".

              The use of \: to insert hyphenless breakpoints is a groff
              extension and can be omitted.

       .MT address
       .ME [punctuation]
              Wrap an email address.  The argument of MT is the address; text
              following, until ME, is a name to be associated with the
              address.  Any argument to the ME macro is pasted to the end of
              the link text.  On a device that is not a browser,

                     contact
                     .UR fred.foonly@\:fubar.net
                     Fred Foonly
                     .UE
                     for more information

              usually displays like this: "contact Fred Foonly <fred.foonly@
              fubar.net> for more information".

              The use of \: to insert hyphenless breakpoints is a groff
              extension and can be omitted.

MACROS TO DESCRIBE COMMAND SYNOPSES
       The following 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.

       These macros are a convenience for authors.  They also assist automated
       translation tools and help browsers in recognizing command synopses and
       treating them differently from running text.

       .SY command
              Begin synopsis.  Takes a single argument, the name of a command.
              Text following, until closed by YS, is set with a hanging
              indentation with the width of command plus a space.  This
              produces the traditional look of a Unix command synopsis.

       .OP key value
              Describe an optional command argument.  The arguments of this
              macro are set surrounded by option braces in the default Roman
              font; the first argument is printed with a bold face, while the
              second argument is typeset as italic.

       .YS    This macro restores normal indentation at the end of a command
              synopsis.

       Here is a real 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
              .IR .\|.\|. ]
              .YS

       produces the following output:

              groff [-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 ...]

       If necessary, you might use br requests to control line breaking.  You
       can insert plain text as well; this looks like the traditional
       (unornamented) syntax for a required command argument or filename.

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.

              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(@MAN1DIR@) markup instead.

       .PD [nnn]
              Adjust the empty space before a new paragraph or section.  The
              optional argument gives the amount of space (default unit is
              `v'); without parameter, the value is 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.

              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.

       .AT [system [release]]
              Alter the footer for use with 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 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 tbl or eqn is needed, it has become common to
       make the first line of the man page look like this:

              '\" word

       Note the single space character after the double quote.  word consists
       of letters for the needed preprocessors: `e' for eqn, `r' for refer,
       and `t' for tbl.  Modern implementations of the man program read this
       first line and automatically call the right preprocessor(s).

PORTABILITY AND TROFF REQUESTS
       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.

       Note, however, that using raw troff requests is likely to make your
       page render poorly on the (increasingly common) class of viewers that
       render it to HTML.  Troff requests make implicit assumptions about
       things like character and page sizes that may break in an HTML
       environment; also, many of these viewers don't interpret the full troff
       vocabulary, a problem which can lead to portions of your text being
       silently dropped.

       For portability to modern viewers, it is best to write your page
       entirely in the requests described on this page.  Further, it is best
       to completely avoid those we have described as `presentation-level'
       (HP, PD, and DT).

       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 onto your page.

FILES
       man.tmac
       an.tmac
              These are wrapper files to call andoc.tmac.

       andoc.tmac
              Use this file in case you don't know whether the man macros or
              the mdoc package should be used.  Multiple man pages (in either
              format) can be handled.

       an-old.tmac
              Most man macros are contained in this file.

       an-ext.tmac
              The extension macro definitions for .SY, .OP, .YS, .TQ, .EX/.EE,
              .UR/.UE, and .MT/.ME are contained in this file.  It is written
              in classic troff, and released for free re-use, and not
              copylefted; manual page authors concerned about portability to
              legacy Unix systems are encouraged to copy these definitions
              into their pages, and maintainers of troff or its workalikes are
              encouraged to re-use them.

       man.local
              Local changes and customizations should be put into this file.

SEE ALSO
       tbl(1), eqn(1), refer(1), man(1), man(7), groff_mdoc(7)

AUTHORS
       This manual page was originally written for the Debian GNU/Linux system
       by Susan G. Kleinmann <sgk@debian.org>.  It was corrected and updated
       by Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.  The extension macros were documented
       (and partly designed) by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>; he also
       wrote the portability advice.



Groff Version 1.21             31 December 2010                   GROFF_MAN(7)
