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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 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,  num‐
	      ber the pages continuously, rather than starting each at 1.

       -rD1   Double-sided  printing.  Footers for even and odd pages are for‐
	      matted 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 with‐
	      out  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 dif‐
	      fers  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 ver‐
	      sions of the man program; direct initialization of the `LL' reg‐
	      ister  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 initial‐
	      ization 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 fur‐
       ther  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  sec‐
	      tion,  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	 posi‐
	      tioned  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  val‐
	      ues.

       .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  follow‐
	      ing  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	 glos‐
	      sary,  or	 list of commands) before beginning the indented para‐
	      graph.  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 sys‐
	      tems, 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 designa‐
	      tor) 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  bul‐
	      lets as the designator, using `.IP \(bu 4'.  The whole block has
	      been enclosed with `.RS' and `.RE' to set the left margin tempo‐
	      rarily 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 fol‐
		  lowed by an indented paragraph.

       .HP [nnn]
	      Set up a paragraph with hanging left indentation.	 The  indenta‐
	      tion  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 para‐
	      graph illustrates the effect of this macro with hanging indenta‐
	      tion  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 indenta‐
	      tion cannot be expressed naturally under HTML,  and  many	 HTML-
	      based manual viewers simply interpret it as a starter for a nor‐
	      mal 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 num‐
	      ber 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
	      filling and restores the previous font.

	      These  macros are defined on many (but not all) legacy Unix sys‐
	      tems 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	inser‐
       tion 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  sys‐
       tems,  copy  their  definitions	from  the  an-ext.tmac file of a groff
       installation.

       Using these macros helps ensure that you get hyperlinks when your  man‐
       ual 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 exten‐
	      sion 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 exten‐
	      sion 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  sys‐
       tems,  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 inden‐
	      tation 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 (unorna‐
       mented) 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 trans‐
	      lates poorly to HTML, under which exact whitespace  control  and
	      tabbing  are  not	 readily available.  Thus, information or dis‐
	      tinctions 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(1) 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	trans‐
	      lates  poorly  to HTML, under which exact control of inter-para‐
	      graph 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 individ‐
       ual  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 environ‐
       ment; also, many of these viewers don't interpret the full troff vocab‐
       ulary, 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	 copy‐
	      lefted;  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.

	      Note that the definitions for these macros are  read  after  the
	      call  of TH, so they will replace macros of the same names given
	      at the beginning of your file.  If you must use your own defini‐
	      tions for these macros, they must be given after calling TH.

       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 1.22.2		7 February 2013			  GROFF_MAN(7)
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