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For more information about the manual page format, see the manual page for manpages(5).



GROFF_MAN(7)                                                                                    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 pro-vides provides
       vides 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 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' regis-ter register
              ter should always be preferred to the use of such a  request.   In  particular,  note  that  a
              `.ll 65n'  request  will  not  preserve the normal nroff default line length, (the man default
              initialization to 78n  will  prevail),  whereas,  the  `-rLL=65n'  option,  or  an  equivalent
              `.nr LL 65n' request preceding the use of the `TH' macro, will set a line length of 65n.

       -rLT=title-length
              Set  title length.  If this option is not given, the title length defaults to the line length.

       -rPnnn Enumeration of pages will start with nnn rather than with 1.

       -rSxx  Base document font size is xx points (xx can be 10, 11, or 12) rather than 10 points.

       -rSN=width
              Set sub-subheading indentation to width.  The default is 3n.

       -rXnnn After page nnn, number pages as nnna, nnnb, nnnc, etc.  For example, the  option  `-rX2'  will
              produce the following page numbers: 1, 2, 2a, 2b, 2c, etc.

USAGE
       This  section  describes the available macros for manual pages.  For further customization, put addi-tional additional
       tional macros and requests into the file man.local which will be loaded  immediately  after  the  man
       package.

       .TH title section [extra1] [extra2] [extra3]
              Set  the  title  of the n page to title and the section to section, which must take on a value
              between 1 and 8.  The value section may also have a string appended, e.g. `.pm', to indicate a
              specific  subsection  of the man pages.  Both title and section are positioned at the left and
              right in the header line (with section in parentheses immediately appended to  title.   extra1
              will be positioned in the middle of the footer line.  extra2 will be positioned at the left in
              the footer line (or 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]
              Set up an unnumbered section heading sticking out to the left.  Prints out all the  text  fol-lowing following
              lowing  SH  up to the end of the line (or the text in the next input line if there is no argu-ment argument
              ment 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.  Nev-ertheless, Nevertheless,
              ertheless, 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 inden-tation indentation
              tation 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,
              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 (10pt resp. Roman).  Finally, the current left margin
              and the indentation are restored.

       .IP [designator] [nnn]
              Set  up  an indented paragraph, using designator as a tag to mark its beginning.  The indenta-tion indentation
              tion is set to nnn if that argument is supplied (the default unit is `n' if  omitted),  other-wise otherwise
              wise  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.

                 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 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 argu-ment argument
              ment 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.

       .RS [nnn]
              This  macro  moves the left margin to the right by the value nnn if specified (default unit is
              `n'); otherwise it is set to the previous indentation value specified with TP, IP, or  HP  (or
              to  the  default value if none of them have been used yet).  The indentation value is then set
              to the default.

              Calls to the RS macro can be nested.

       .RE [nnn]
              This macro moves the left margin back to level nnn, restoring the previous left margin.  If no
              argument  is  given,  it  moves one level back.  The first level (i.e., no call to RS yet) has
              number 1, and each call to RS increases the level by 1.

       To summarize, the following macros cause a line break with the insertion  of  vertical  space  (which
       amount  can  be changed with the PD macro): SH, SS, TP, LP (PP, P), IP, and HP.  The macros RS and RE
       also cause a break but no insertion of vertical space.

MACROS TO SET FONTS
       The standard font is Roman; the default text size is 10 point.

       .SM [text]
              Causes the text on the same line or the text on the next input line to appear in a  font  that
              is one point size smaller than the default font.

       .SB [text]
              Causes  the  text  on  the  same line or the text on the next input line to appear in boldface
              font, one point size smaller than the default font.

       .BI text
              Causes text on the same line to appear alternately in bold face and italic.  The text must  be
              on the same line as the macro call.  Thus

                     .BI this "word and" that

              would cause `this' and `that' to appear in bold face, while `word and' appears in italics.

       .IB text
              Causes  text to appear alternately in italic and bold face.  The text must be on the same line
              as the macro call.

       .RI text
              Causes text on the same line to appear alternately in roman and italic.  The text must  be  on
              the same line as the macro call.

       .IR text
              Causes  text  on the same line to appear alternately in italic and roman.  The text must be on
              the same line as the macro call.

       .BR text
              Causes text on the same line to appear alternately in bold face and roman.  The text  must  be
              on the same line as the macro call.

       .RB text
              Causes  text  on the same line to appear alternately in roman and bold face.  The text must be
              on the same line as the macro call.

       .B [text]
              Causes text to appear in bold face.  If no text is present on the  line  where  the  macro  is
              called the text of the next input line appears in bold face.

       .I [text]
              Causes  text to appear in italic.  If no text is present on the line where the macro is called
              the text of the next input line appears in italic.

MISCELLANEOUS
       The default indentation is 7.2n in troff mode and 7n in nroff mode except for grohtml  which  ignores
       indentation.

       .DT    Set  tabs  every  0.5 inches.  Since this macro is always called during a TH request, it makes
              sense to call it only if the tab positions have been changed.

       .PD [nnn]
              Adjust the empty space before a new paragraph or 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.

       .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 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 pre-processors: preprocessors:
       processors:  `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).

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 func-tionality functionality
       tionality of the man macros with individual groff requests where necessary.  See the groff info pages
       for a complete reference of all requests.

       tbl(1), eqn(1), refer(1), man(1), man(7),

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 1.19.2                          1 September 2005                                  GROFF_MAN(7)

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