GROFF_MAN(7)GROFF_MAN(7)NAMEgroff_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) will
create a single, very long page instead of multiple
pages. Say -rcR=0 to disable it.
-rC1 If more than one manual page is given on the com
mand line, number the pages continuously, rather
than starting each at 1.
-rD1 Double-sided printing. Footers for even and odd
pages are formatted differently.
-rPnnn Enumeration of pages will start with nnn rather
than with 1.
-rSxx Base document font size is xx points (xx can be 10,
11, or 12) rather than 10 points.
-rXnnn After page nnn, number pages as nnna, nnnb, nnnc,
etc. For example, the option `-rX2' will produce
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 will be loaded
immediately after the man package.
.TH title section [extra1] [extra2] [extra3]
Sets 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 sec_
tion are positioned at the left and right in the
header line (with section in parentheses immedi
ately appended to title. extra1 will be positioned
in the middle of the footer line. extra2 will be
positioned at the left in the footer line (resp. 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
supressed.
Additionally, this macro starts a new page; the new
line number is 1 again (except if the `-rC1' option
is given on the command line) -- this feature is
intended only for formatting multiple man pages; a
single man page should contain exactly one TH macro
at the beginning of the file.
.SH [text for a heading]
Sets up an unnumbered section heading sticking out
to the left. Prints out all the text following SH
up to the end of the line (resp. the text in the
next line if there is no argument to SH) in bold
face, one size larger than the base document size.
Additionally, the left margin for the following
text is reset to its default value.
.SS [text for a heading]
Sets up an secondary, unnumbered section heading.
Prints out all the text following SS up to the end
of the line (resp. the text in the next line if
there is no argument to SS) in bold face, at the
same size as the base document size. Additionally,
the left margin for the following text is reset to
its default value.
.TP [nnn]
Sets up an indented paragraph with label. The
indentation is set to nnn if that argument is sup
plied (the default unit is `n' if omitted), other
wise it is set to the default indentation value.
The first 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 inter
preted 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, then the para
graph starts at the same line (but indented), con
tinuing on the following lines. If the label is
wider than the indentation, then 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 will have default font settings. The TP macro
is the macro used for the explanations you are just
reading.
.LP
.PP
.P These macros are mutual aliases. Any of them
causes a line break at the current position, fol
lowed by a vertical space downwards by the amount
specified by the PD macro. The font size and shape
are reset to the default value (10pt resp. Roman).
Finally, the current left margin is restored.
.IP [designator] [nnn]
Sets up an indented paragraph, using designator as
a tag to mark its beginning. The indentation is
set to nnn if that argument is supplied (default
unit is `n'), otherwise the default indentation
value is used. Font size and face of the paragraph
(but not the designator) are reset to its default
values. To start an indented paragraph with a par
ticular 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':
IP is one of the three macros used in the man
package to format lists.
HP is another. This macro produces a paragraph
with a left hanging indentation.
TP is another. This macro produces an unin
dented label followed by an indented paragraph.
.HP [nnn]
Sets up a paragraph with hanging left indentation.
The indentation is set to nnn if that argument is
supplied (default unit is `n'), otherwise the
default indentation value is used. Font size and
face are reset to its default values. The follow
ing paragraph illustrates the effect of this macro
with hanging indentation set to 4:
This is a paragraph following an invocation of the
HP macro. As you can see, it produces a para
graph where all lines but the first are
indented.
.RS [nnn]
This macro moves the left margin to the right by
the value nnn if specified (default unit is `n');
otherwise the default indentation value is used.
Calls to the RS macro can be nested.
.RE [nnn]
This macro moves the left margin back to level nnn;
if no argument is given, it moves one level back.
The first level (i.e., no call to RS yet) has num
ber 1, and each call to RS increases the level
by 1.
To summarize, the following macros cause a line break with
the insertion of vertical space (which amount can be
changed with the PD macro): SH, SS, TP, LP (PP, P), IP,
and HP. The macros RS and RE also cause a break but no
insertion of vertical space.
MACROS TO SET FONTS
The standard font is Roman; the default text size is
10 point.
.SM [text]
Causes the text on the same line or the text on the
next 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 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.
.R [text]
Causes text to appear in roman font. If no text is
present on the line where the macro is called, then
the text of the next line appears in roman. This
is the default font to which text is returned at
the end of processing of the other macros.
.B [text]
Causes text to appear in bold face. If no text is
present on the line where the macro is called, then
the text of the next 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, then
the text of the next line appears in italic.
MISCELLANEOUS
The default indentation is 7.2n for all output devices
except for grohtml which ignores indentation.
.DT Sets tabs every 0.5 inches. Since this macro is
always called during a TH request, it makes sense
to call it only if the tab positions have been
changed.
.PD [nnn]
Adjusts the empty space before a new paragraph
(resp. section). The optional argument gives the
amount of space (default units are `v'); without
parameter, the value is reset to its default value
(1 line for tty devices, 0.4v otherwise). This
affects the macros SH, SS, TP, LP (resp. PP and P),
IP, and HP.
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.
If a preprocessor like tbl or eqn is needed, it has become
usage 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 implemen
tations of the man program read this first line and auto
matically call the right preprocessor(s).
FILES
man.tmac
an.tmac
These are wrapper files to call andoc.tmac.
andoc.tmac
This file checks whether the man macros or the mdoc
package should be used.
an-old.tmac
All man macros are contained in this file.
man.local
Local changes and customizations should be put into
this file.
SEE ALSO
Since the man macros consist of groups of groff requests,
one can, in principle, supplement the functionality of the
man macros with individual groff requests where necessary.
A complete list of these requests is available on the WWW
at
http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~trent/gnu/groff/groff_toc.html
tbl(1), eqn(1), refer(1), man(1)AUTHOR
This manual page was originally written for the Debian
GNU/Linux system by Susan G. Kleinmann <sgk@debian.org>,
corrected and updated by Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>, and
is now part of the GNU troff distribution.
Groff Version 1.17.2 27 June 2001 GROFF_MAN(7)
