ADC Home > Reference Library > Reference > Mac OS X > Mac OS X Man Pages

 

This document is a Mac OS X manual page. Manual pages are a command-line technology for providing documentation. You can view these manual pages locally using the man(1) command. These manual pages come from many different sources, and thus, have a variety of writing styles.

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



GROFF_MS(7)                                                                                      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 --------------------------------------------------------PO
               PO     Page offset (left margin)   next page    1i
               LL     Line length                 next para.   6i
               LT     Header/footer length        next para.   6i
               HM     Top (header) margin         next page    1i
               FM     Bottom (footer) margin      next page    1i
              ---------------------------------------------------------Text --------------------------------------------------------Text

       Text settings

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

       Paragraph settings

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

       Footnote settings

              Reg.      Definition        Effective      Default
              -----------------------------------------------------FL ----------------------------------------------------FL
               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 ----------------------------------------------------Other

       Other settings

               Reg.              Definition             Effective   Default
              --------------------------------------------------------------MINGW -------------------------------------------------------------MINGW
               MINGW    Minimum width between columns   next page   2n
              --------------------------------------------------------------Cover -------------------------------------------------------------Cover

   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 mar-gin, margin,
       gin, 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 regis-ters, registers,
       ters, 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 lev-els levels
              els 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. Sec-ond Second
              ond 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.

              After invoking .NH, the assigned heading number is available in the strings SN-DOT (exactly as
              it  appears  in  the  formatted  heading), and SN-NO-DOT (with its final 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:

                     .ds SN-NO-DOT
                     .als SN SN-NO-DOT

              before the first use of .NH, or simply:

                     .als SN SN-NO-DOT

              after the first use of .NH.

       .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 punc-tuation punctuation
              tuation 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 exam-ple, example,
              ple,

                     .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 oth-erwise. otherwise.
              erwise.

       .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 other-wise. otherwise.
              wise.

       .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 spa-ces, spaces,
              ces, 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-incre-menting auto-incrementing
              menting 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 fill-ing, filling,
       ing,  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 ------------------------------------------------------------------.DS
              .DS L            .LD       Left-justified.
              .DS I [indent]   .ID       Indented (default indent in the DI reg-ister). register).
                                         ister).
              .DS B            .BD       Block-centered (left-justified, longest
                                         line centered).
              .DS C            .CD       Centered.
              .DS R            .RD       Right-justified.
              -------------------------------------------------------------------Use ------------------------------------------------------------------Use

       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 charac-ter) character)
       ter) 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  fol-lows: follows:
       lows:

              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 corre-sponding corresponding
       sponding occurrences of \**.

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

         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.

         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.

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

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

       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.   How-ever, However,
       ever, 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:

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

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

         Bell Labs localisms are not implemented.

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

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

         There is no support for typewriter-like devices.

         Groff ms does not provide cut marks.

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

         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.

         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.

         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.

         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
                                          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 --------------------------------The

       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 initializa-tion initialization
       tion 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:

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

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

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

         name does not have a module prefix.

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

       Thus the groff ms macros reserve the following names:

         Names containing the characters *, @, and :.

         Names containing only uppercase letters and digits.

FILES
       /usr/share/groff/1.19.2/tmac/ms.tmac (a wrapper file for s.tmac)
       /usr/share/groff/1.19.2/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 1.19.2                          4 September 2005                                   GROFF_MS(7)

Did this document help you?
Yes: Tell us what works for you.
It’s good, but: Report typos, inaccuracies, and so forth.
It wasn’t helpful: Tell us what would have helped.