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groff_man(7)        Miscellaneous Information Manual        groff_man(7)

Name         top

       groff_man - compose manual pages with GNU roff

Synopsis         top

       groff -man [option ...] [file ...]

       groff -m man [option ...] [file ...]

Description         top

       The GNU implementation of the man macro package is part of the
       groff document formatting system.  It is used to compose manual
       pages (“man pages”) like the one you are reading.  This document
       presents the macros thematically; for those needing only a quick
       reference, the following table lists them alphabetically, with
       cross references to appropriate subsections below.

       Readers who are not already experienced groff users should
       consult groff_man_style(7), an expanded version of this document,
       for additional explanations and advice.  It covers only those
       concepts required for man page document maintenance, and not the
       full breadth of the groff typesetting system.

       Macro   Meaning                      Subsection
       ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       .B      Bold                         Font style macros
       .BI     Bold, italic alternating     Font style macros
       .BR     Bold, roman alternating      Font style macros
       .EE     Example end                  Document structure macros
       .EX     Example begin                Document structure macros
       .I      Italic                       Font style macros
       .IB     Italic, bold alternating     Font style macros
       .IP     Indented paragraph           Paragraphing macros
       .IR     Italic, roman alternating    Font style macros
       .LP     Begin paragraph              Paragraphing macros
       .ME     Mail-to end                  Hyperlink macros
       .MR     Man page cross reference     Hyperlink macros
       .MT     Mail-to start                Hyperlink macros
       .P      Begin paragraph              Paragraphing macros
       .PP     Begin paragraph              Paragraphing macros
       .RB     Roman, bold alternating      Font style macros
       .RE     Relative inset end           Document structure macros
       .RI     Roman, italic alternating    Font style macros
       .RS     Relative inset start         Document structure macros
       .SH     Section heading              Document structure macros
       .SM     Small                        Font style macros
       .SS     Subsection heading           Document structure macros
       .SY     Synopsis start               Synopsis macros
       .TH     Title heading                Document structure macros
       .TP     Tagged paragraph             Paragraphing macros
       .TQ     Supplemental paragraph tag   Paragraphing macros
       .UE     URI end                      Hyperlink macros
       .UR     URI start                    Hyperlink macros
       .YS     Synopsis end                 Synopsis macros

       We discuss other macros (.AT, .DT, .HP, .OP, .PD, .SB, and .UC)
       in subsection “Deprecated features” below.

       Throughout Unix documentation, a manual entry is referred to
       simply as a “man page”, regardless of its length, without
       gendered implication, and irrespective of the macro package
       selected for its composition.

   Macro reference preliminaries
       A tagged paragraph describes each macro.  We present coupled
       pairs together, as with .EX and .EE.  An empty macro argument can
       be specified with a pair of double-quotes (""), but the man
       package is designed such that this should seldom be necessary.
       Most macro arguments will be formatted as text in the output;
       exceptions are noted.

   Document structure macros
       Document structure macros organize a man page's content.  All of
       them break the output line.  .TH (title heading) identifies the
       document as a man page and configures the page headers and
       footers.  Section headings (.SH), one of which is mandatory and
       many of which are conventionally expected, facilitate location of
       material by the reader and aid the man page writer to discuss all
       essential aspects of the subject.  Subsection headings (.SS) are
       optional and permit sections that grow long to develop in a
       controlled way.  Many technical discussions benefit from
       examples; lengthy ones, especially those reflecting multiple
       lines of input to or output from the system, are usefully
       bracketed by .EX and .EE.  When none of the foregoing meets a
       structural demand, use .RS/.RE to inset a region within a
       (sub)section.

       .TH identifier section [footer-middle [footer-inside [header-
       middle]]]
              Populate the page header and footer.  Together, identifier
              and the section of the manual to which it belongs can
              uniquely identify a man document on the system.  See
              man(1) or intro(1) for the manual sectioning applicable to
              your system.  identifier and section are positioned at the
              left and right in the header; the latter is set after the
              former, in parentheses and without space.  footer-middle
              is centered in the footer.  The arrangement of the rest of
              the footer depends on whether double-sided layout is
              enabled with the option -rD1.  When disabled (the
              default), footer-inside is positioned at the bottom left.
              Otherwise, footer-inside appears at the bottom left on
              recto (odd-numbered) pages, and at the bottom right on
              verso (even-numbered) pages.  The outside footer is the
              page number, except in the continuous-rendering mode
              enabled by the option -rcR=1, in which case it is the
              identifier and section, as in the header.  header-middle
              is centered in the header.  If section is an integer
              between 1 and 9 (inclusive), there is no need to specify
              header-middle; an.tmac will supply text for it.  This
              package may abbreviate identifier and footer-inside with
              ellipses if they would overrun the space available in the
              header and footer, respectively.  In HTML output, headers
              and footers are suppressed.

              Additionally, this macro breaks the page, resetting the
              number to 1 (unless the -rC1 option is given).  This
              feature is intended only for formatting multiple man
              documents in sequence.

              A valid man document calls .TH only once, early in the
              file, prior to any other macro calls.

       .SH [heading-text]
              Set heading-text as a section heading.  If no argument is
              given, the macro plants a one-line input trap; text on the
              next line becomes heading-text.  The heading text is set
              in bold (or the font specified by the string HF), and, on
              typesetters, slightly larger than the base type size.  If
              the heading font \*[HF] is bold, use of an italic style in
              heading-text is mapped to the bold-italic style if
              available in the font family.  The inset level is reset to
              1; see subsection “Horizontal and vertical spacing” below.
              Text after heading-text is set as an ordinary paragraph
              (.P).

              The content of heading-text and ordering of sections
              follows a set of common practices, as has much of the
              layout of material within sections.  For example, a
              section called “Name” or “NAME” must exist, must be the
              first section after the .TH call, and must contain only
              text of the form
                     topic[, another-topic]... \- summary-description
              for a man page in English to be properly indexed.

       .SS [subheading-text]
              Set subheading-text as a subsection heading indented
              between a section heading and an ordinary paragraph (.P).
              If no argument is given, the macro plants a one-line input
              trap; text on the next line becomes subheading-text.  The
              subheading text is set in bold (or the font specified by
              the string HF).  If the heading font \*[HF] is bold, use
              of an italic style in subheading-text is mapped to the
              bold-italic style if available in the font family.  The
              inset level is reset to 1; see subsection “Horizontal and
              vertical spacing” below.  Text after subheading-text is
              set as an ordinary paragraph (.P).

       .EX
       .EE    Begin and end example.  After .EX, filling is disabled and
              a constant-width (monospaced) font is selected.  Calling
              .EE enables filling and restores the previous font.

              .EX and .EE are extensions introduced in Ninth Edition
              Unix.  Documenter's Workbench, Heirloom Doctools, and
              Plan 9 troffs, and mandoc (since 1.12.2) also support
              them.  Solaris troff does not.  See subsection “Use of
              extensions” in groff_man_style(7).

       .RS [inset-amount]
              Start a new relative inset level.  The current inset
              amount is saved, then moved right by inset-amount, if
              specified, by the indentation amount of the preceding .IP,
              .TP, or (deprecated) .HP macro call if no (sub-)sectioning
              or ordinary paragraphing macro has intervened, and by the
              amount of the IN register otherwise.  Calls to .RS can be
              nested; each increments by 1 the inset level used by .RE.
              The level prior to any .RS calls is 1.

       .RE [inset-level]
              End a relative inset.  The inset amount corresponding to
              inset-level is restored.  If no argument is given, the
              inset level is reduced by 1.

   Paragraphing macros
       An ordinary paragraph (.P) indents all output lines by the same
       amount.  Definition lists frequently occur in man pages; these
       can be set as tagged paragraphs, which have one (.TP) or more
       (.TQ) leading tags followed by a paragraph that has an additional
       indentation.  The indented paragraph (.IP) macro is useful to
       continue the indented content of a narrative started with .TP, or
       to present an itemized or ordered list.  All of these macros
       break the output line.  If another paragraph macro has occurred
       since the previous .SH or .SS, they (except for .TQ) follow the
       break with a default amount of vertical space, which can be
       changed by the deprecated .PD macro; see subsection “Horizontal
       and vertical spacing” below.  They also reset the type size and
       font style to defaults (.TQ again excepted); see subsection “Font
       style macros” below.

       .P
       .LP
       .PP    Begin a new paragraph; these macros are synonymous.  Any
              indentation from use of .IP, .TP, or the deprecated .HP is
              cleared.  The inset amount, as affected by .RS and .RE, is
              not.

       .TP [indentation]
              Set a paragraph with a leading tag, and the remainder of
              the paragraph indented.  The macro plants a one-line input
              trap that honors the \c escape sequence; text on the next
              line becomes the tag, set without indentation.  Text on
              subsequent lines is indented by indentation, if specified,
              and by the amount of the IN register otherwise.  If the
              tag, plus the “tag spacing” stored in the TS register (see
              section “Options” below) is wider than the indentation,
              the line is broken after the tag.

       .TQ    Set an additional tag for a paragraph tagged with .TP,
              planting a one-line input trap as with .TP.

              .TQ is a GNU extension supported by Heirloom Doctools
              troff and mandoc (since 1.14.5) but not by Documenter's
              Workbench, Plan 9, or Solaris troffs.  See subsection “Use
              of extensions” in groff_man_style(7).

       .IP [mark [indentation]]
              Set an indented paragraph with an optional mark.
              Arguments, if present, are handled as with .TP, except
              that the mark argument to .IP cannot include a macro call,
              and the tag separation amount stored in the TS register is
              not enforced.

   Synopsis macros
       Use .SY and .YS to summarize syntax using familiar Unix
       conventions.  Heirloom Doctools troff and mandoc (since 1.14.5)
       support these GNU extensions; Documenter's Workbench, Plan 9, and
       Solaris troffs do not.  See subsection “Use of extensions” in
       groff_man_style(7).

       .SY keyword [suffix]
              Begin synopsis.  Adjustment and automatic hyphenation are
              disabled.  If .SY has already been called without a
              corresponding .YS, a break is performed.  keyword and
              suffix (if any) are set in bold.  If a break is required
              in subsequent text (up to another paragraphing,
              sectioning, or synopsis macro call), lines after the first
              are indented.  The indentation amount is the width of
              keyword plus a space, if that is the only argument, and by
              the sum of the widths of keyword and suffix otherwise.

       .YS [reuse-indentation]
              End synopsis, breaking the line and restoring indentation,
              adjustment, and hyphenation to their previous states.  If
              an argument is given, the indentation corresponding to the
              previous .SY call is reused by the next .SY call instead
              of being computed.

   Hyperlink macros
       Man page cross references are best presented with .MR.  Text may
       be hyperlinked to email addresses with .MT/.ME or other URIs with
       .UR/.UE.  Not all output devices support hyperlinking of text;
       terminals and pager programs must support ECMA-48 OSC 8 escape
       sequences (see grotty(1)).  When device support is unavailable or
       disabled with the U register (see section “Options” below), .MT
       and .UR URIs are rendered between angle brackets after the linked
       text.

       .MT, .ME, .UR, and .UE are GNU extensions supported by Heirloom
       Doctools and mandoc (.UR/.UE since 1.12.3; .MT/.ME since 1.14.2)
       but not by Documenter's Workbench, Plan 9, or Solaris troffs.
       Plan 9 from User Space's troff implements .MR.  See subsection
       “Use of extensions” in groff_man_style(7).

       The arguments to .MR, .MT, and .UR should be prepared for
       typesetting since they can appear in the output.  Use special
       character escape sequences to encode Unicode basic Latin
       characters where necessary, particularly the hyphen-minus.  The
       formatter removes \: escape sequences from hyperlinks when
       supplying device control commands to output drivers.

       .MR topic [manual-section [trailing-text]]
              (since groff 1.23) Set a man page cross reference as
              “topic(manual-section)”.  If manual-section is absent, the
              package omits the surrounding parentheses.  If trailing-
              text (typically punctuation) is specified, it follows the
              closing parenthesis without intervening space.
              Hyphenation is disabled while the cross reference is set.
              topic is set in the font specified by the MF string.  If
              manual-section is present, the cross reference hyperlinks
              to a URI of the form “man:topic(manual-section)”.

       .MT address
       .ME [trailing-text]
              Identify address as an RFC 6068 addr-spec for a “mailto:”
              URI with the text between the two macro calls as the link
              text.  An argument to .ME is placed after the link text
              without intervening space.  address may not be visible in
              the rendered document if hyperlinks are enabled and
              supported by the output driver.  If they are not, address
              is set in angle brackets after the link text and before
              trailing-text.  If hyperlinking is enabled but there is no
              link text, address is formatted and hyperlinked without
              angle brackets.

       .UR uri
       .UE [trailing-text]
              Identify uri as an RFC 3986 URI hyperlink with the text
              between the two macro calls as the link text.  An argument
              to .UE is placed after the link text without intervening
              space.  uri may not be visible in the rendered document if
              hyperlinks are enabled and supported by the output driver.
              If they are not, uri is set in angle brackets after the
              link text and before trailing-text.  If hyperlinking is
              enabled but there is no link text, uri is formatted and
              hyperlinked without angle brackets.

       If a .TP call is followed immediately by hyperlinking macros
       .UR/.UE or .MT/.ME, and the device doesn't support hyperlinking,
       the hyperlink is set at the beginning of the indented paragraph,
       not as part of the tag.

   Font style macros
       The man macro package is limited in its font styling options,
       offering only bold (.B), italic (.I), and roman.  Italic text is
       usually set underscored instead on terminals.  .SM sets text at a
       smaller type size, which differs visually from regular-sized text
       only on typesetters.  It is often necessary to set text in
       different styles without intervening space.  The macros .BI, .BR,
       .IB, .IR, .RB, and .RI, where “B”, “I”, and “R” indicate bold,
       italic, and roman, respectively, set their odd- and even-numbered
       arguments in alternating styles, with no space separating them.

       The default type size and family for typesetters is 10-point
       Times, except on the X75-12 and X100-12 devices where the type
       size is 12 points.  The default style is roman.

       .B [text]
              Set text in bold.  If no argument is given, the macro
              plants a one-line input trap; text on the next line, which
              can be further formatted with a macro, is set in bold.

       .I [text]
              Set text in an italic or oblique face.  If no argument is
              given, the macro plants a one-line input trap; text on the
              next line, which can be further formatted with a macro, is
              set in an italic or oblique face.

       .SM [text]
              Set text one point smaller than the default type size on
              typesetters.  If no argument is given, the macro plants a
              one-line input trap; text on the next line, which can be
              further formatted with a macro, is set smaller.

       Unlike the above font style macros, the font style alternation
       macros below set no input traps; they must be given arguments to
       have effect.  They apply italic corrections as appropriate.

       .BI bold-text italic-text ...
              Set each argument in bold and italics, alternately.

       .BR bold-text roman-text ...
              Set each argument in bold and roman, alternately.

       .IB italic-text bold-text ...
              Set each argument in italics and bold, alternately.

       .IR italic-text roman-text ...
              Set each argument in italics and roman, alternately.

       .RB roman-text bold-text ...
              Set each argument in roman and bold, alternately.

       .RI roman-text italic-text ...
              Set each argument in roman and italics, alternately.

   Horizontal and vertical spacing
       All text is rendered with respect to the page offset; see
       register PO in section “Options” below.  Headers, footers (both
       set with .TH), and section headings (.SH) are set with no further
       indentation.  Subsection headings (.SS) are indented by the
       amount in the SN register.

       Ordinary paragraphs not within an .RS/.RE inset region are inset
       by the amount stored in the BP register; see section “Options”
       below.  The IN register configures the default indentation amount
       used by .RS (as the inset-amount), .IP, .TP, and the deprecated
       .HP; an overriding argument is a number plus an optional scaling
       unit.  If no scaling unit is given, the man package assumes “n”.
       An indentation specified in a call to .IP, .TP, or the deprecated
       .HP persists until (1) another of these macros is called with an
       indentation argument, or (2) .SH, .SS, or .P or its synonyms is
       called; these clear the indentation entirely.

       Several macros insert vertical space: .SH, .SS, .TP, .P (and its
       synonyms), .IP, and the deprecated .HP.  The default inter-
       section and inter-paragraph spacing is 1v for terminals and 0.4v
       for typesetters.  (The deprecated macro .PD can change this
       vertical spacing, but we discourage its use.)  Between .EX and
       .EE calls, the inter-paragraph spacing is 1v regardless of output
       device.

   Registers
       Registers are described in section “Options” below.  They can be
       set not only on the command line but in the site man.local file
       as well; see section “Files” below.

   Strings
       The following strings are defined for use in man pages.  None of
       these is necessary in a contemporary man page; see
       groff_man_style(7).  Others are supported for configuration of
       rendering parameters; see section “Options” below.

       \*R    interpolates a special character escape sequence for the
              “registered sign” glyph, \(rg, if available, and “(Reg.)”
              otherwise.

       \*S    interpolates an escape sequence setting the type size to
              the document default.

       \*(lq
       \*(rq  interpolate special character escape sequences for left
              and right double-quotation marks, \(lq and \(rq,
              respectively.

       \*(Tm  interpolates a special character escape sequence for the
              “trade mark sign” glyph, \(tm, if available, and “(TM)”
              otherwise.

   Hooks
       Two macros, both GNU extensions, are called internally by the
       groff man package to format page headers and footers and can be
       redefined by the administrator in a site's man.local file (see
       section “Files” below).  The presentation of .TH above describes
       the default headers and footers.  Because these macros are hooks
       for groff man internals, man pages have no reason to call them.
       Such hook definitions will likely consist of “.sp” and “.tl”
       requests.  They must also increase the page length with “.pl”
       requests in continuous rendering mode; .PT furthermore has the
       responsibility of emitting a PDF bookmark after writing the first
       page header in a document.  Consult the existing implementations
       in an.tmac when drafting replacements.

       .BT    Set the page footer text (“bottom trap”).

       .PT    Set the page header text (“page trap”).

       To remove a page header or footer entirely, define the
       appropriate macro as empty rather than deleting it.

   Deprecated features
       Use of the following in man pages for public distribution is
       discouraged.

       .AT [system [release]]
              Alter the footer for use with legacy AT&T man pages,
              overriding any definition of the footer-inside argument to
              .TH.  This macro exists only to render man pages from
              historical systems.

              The inside footer is populated per the value of system.

                     3      7th edition (default)

                     4      System III

                     5      System V

              The optional release argument specifies the release
              number, as in “System V Release 3”.

       .DT    Reset tab stops to the default (every 0.5i).

              Use of this presentation-oriented macro is deprecated.  It
              translates poorly to HTML, under which exact space control
              and tabulation are not readily available.  Thus,
              information or distinctions that you use tab stops to
              express are likely to be lost.  If you feel tempted to
              change the tab stops such that calling this macro later to
              restore them is desirable, consider composing a table
              using tbl(1) instead.

       .HP [indentation]
              Set up a paragraph with a hanging left indentation.
              indentation, if present, is handled as with .TP.

              Use of this presentation-oriented macro is deprecated.  A
              hanging indentation cannot be expressed naturally in HTML,
              a hanging paragraph is not distinguishable from an
              ordinary one if it formats on only one output line, and
              non-roff-based man page interpreters may treat .HP as an
              ordinary paragraph.  Thus, information or distinctions you
              mean to express with indentation may be lost.

       .OP option-name [option-argument]
              Indicate an optional command parameter called option-name,
              which is set in bold.  If the option takes an argument,
              specify option-argument using a noun, abbreviation, or
              hyphenated noun phrase.  If present, option-argument is
              preceded by a space and set in italics.  Square brackets
              in roman surround both arguments.

              Use of this quasi-semantic macro, an extension originating
              in Documenter's Workbench troff, is deprecated.  It cannot
              easily be used to annotate options that take optional
              arguments or options whose arguments have internal
              structure (such as a mixture of literal and variable
              components).  One could work around these limitations with
              font selection escape sequences, but it is preferable to
              use font style alternation macros, which afford greater
              flexibility.

       .PD [vertical-space]
              Configure the amount of vertical space between paragraphs
              or (sub)sections.  The optional argument vertical-space
              specifies the amount; the default scaling unit is “v”.
              Without an argument, the spacing is reset to its default
              value; see subsection “Horizontal and vertical spacing”
              above.

              Use of this presentation-oriented 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.

       .SB [text]
              Set text in bold and (on typesetters) one point smaller
              than the default type size.  If no argument is given, the
              macro plants a one-line input trap; text on the next line,
              which can be further formatted with a macro, is set
              smaller and in bold.  Use of this macro, an extension
              originating in SunOS 4.0 troff, is deprecated.  .SM
              without an argument, followed immediately by “.B text”,
              produces the same output more portably.  The macros' order
              is interchangeable; put text with the latter.

       .UC [version]
              Alter the footer for use with legacy BSD man pages,
              overriding any definition of the footer-inside argument to
              .TH.  This macro exists only to render man pages from
              historical systems.

              The inside footer is populated per the value of version.

                     3      3rd Berkeley Distribution (default)

                     4      4th Berkeley Distribution

                     5      4.2 Berkeley Distribution

                     6      4.3 Berkeley Distribution

                     7      4.4 Berkeley Distribution

   History
       M. Douglas McIlroy ⟨[email protected]⟩ designed,
       implemented, and documented the AT&T man macros for Unix
       Version 7 (1979) and employed them to edit the first volume of
       its Programmer's Manual, a compilation of all man pages supplied
       by the system.  That man supported the macros listed in this page
       not described as extensions, except .P and the deprecated .AT and
       .UC.  The only strings defined were R and S; no registers were
       documented.

       .UC appeared in 3BSD (1980).  Unix System III (1980) introduced
       .P and exposed the registers IN and LL, which had been internal
       to Seventh Edition Unix man.  PWB/UNIX 2.0 (1980) added the Tm
       string.  4BSD (1980) added lq and rq strings.  SunOS 2.0 (1985)
       recognized C, D, P, and X registers.  4.3BSD (1986) added .AT and
       .P.  Ninth Edition Unix (1986) introduced .EX and .EE.  SunOS 4.0
       (1988) added .SB.

       James Clark implemented the foregoing features in early versions
       of groff.  Later, groff 1.20 (2009) originated .SY/.YS, .TQ,
       .MT/.ME, and .UR/.UE.  Plan 9 from User Space's troff introduced
       .MR in 2020.

Options         top

       The following groff options set registers (with -r) and strings
       (with -d) recognized and used by the man macro package.  To
       ensure rendering consistent with output device capabilities and
       reader preferences, man pages should never manipulate them.

       -dAD=adjustment-mode
              Set line adjustment to adjustment-mode, which is typically
              “b” for adjustment to both margins (the default), or “l”
              for left alignment (ragged right margin).  Any valid
              argument to groff's “.ad” request may be used.  See
              groff(7) for less-common choices.

       -rBP=base-paragraph-inset
              Set the inset amount for ordinary paragraphs not within an
              .RS/.RE inset.  The default is 5n.

       -rcR=1 Enable continuous rendering.  Output is not paginated;
              instead, one (potentially very long) page is produced.
              This is the default for terminal and HTML devices.  Use
              -rcR=0 to disable it on terminals; on HTML devices, it
              cannot be disabled.

       -rC1   Number output pages consecutively, in strictly increasing
              sequence, rather than resetting the page number to 1 (or
              the value of register P) with each new man document.

       -rCS=1 Set section headings (the argument(s) to .SH) in full
              capitals.  This transformation is off by default because
              it discards case distinction information.

       -rCT=1 Set the man page identifier (the first argument to .TH) in
              full capitals in headers and footers.  This transformation
              is off by default because it discards case distinction
              information.

       -rD1   Enable double-sided layout, formatting footers for even
              and odd pages differently; see the description of .TH in
              subsection “Document structure macros” above.

       -rFT=footer-distance
              Set distance of the footer relative to the bottom of the
              page to footer-distance; this amount is always negative.
              At one half-inch above this location, the page text is
              broken before writing the footer.  Ignored if continuous
              rendering is enabled.  The default is “-0.5i - 1v”.

       -dHF=heading-font
              Select the font used for section and subsection headings;
              the default is “B” (bold style of the default family).
              Any valid argument to groff's “.ft” request may be used.
              See groff(7).

       -rHY=0 Disable automatic hyphenation.  Normally, it is
              enabled (1).  The hyphenation mode is determined by the
              groff locale; see section “Localization“ of groff(7).

       -rIN=standard-indentation
              Set the default indentation amount used by .IP, .TP, and
              the deprecated .HP, and the inset amount used by .RS.  The
              default is 7n on terminals and 7.2n on typesetters.  Use
              only integer multiples of unit “n” on terminals for
              consistent indentation.

       -rLL=line-length
              Set line length; the default is 80n on terminals and 6.5i
              on typesetters.

       -rLT=title-length
              Set the line length for titles.  By default, it is set to
              the line length (see -rLL above).

       -dMF=man-page-topic-font
              Select the font used for man page identifiers in .TH calls
              and topics named in .MR calls; the default is “I” (italic
              style of the default family).  Any valid argument to
              groff's “.ft” request may be used.  If the MF string ends
              in “I”, it is assumed to be an oblique typeface, and
              italic corrections are applied before and after man page
              topics and identifiers.

       -rPn   Start enumeration of pages at n.  The default is 1.

       -rPO=page-offset
              Set page offset; the default is 0 on terminals and 1i on
              typesetters.

       -rStype-size
              Use type-size for the document's body text; acceptable
              values are 10, 11, or 12 points.  See subsection “Font
              style macros” above for the default.

       -rSN=subsection-indentation
              Set indentation of subsection headings to subsection-
              indentation.  The default is 3n.

       -rTS=separation
              Require the given separation between a TP paragraph's tag
              and its body.  The default is 2n.

       -rU0   Disable generation of URI hyperlinks in output drivers
              capable of them, making the arguments to MT and UR calls
              visible as formatted text.  grohtml(1), gropdf(1), and
              grotty(1) enable hyperlinks by default (the last only if
              not in legacy output mode).

       -rXp   Number successors of page p as pa, pb, pc, and so forth.
              The register tracking the suffixed page letter uses format
              “a” (see the “.af” request in groff(7)).

Files         top

       /usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/an.tmac
              Most man macros are defined in this file.  It also loads
              extensions from an-ext.tmac (see below).

       /usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/andoc.tmac
              This brief groff program detects whether the man or mdoc
              macro package is being used by a document and loads the
              correct macro definitions, taking advantage of the fact
              that pages using them must call .TH or .Dd, respectively,
              before any other macros.  A man program or a user typing,
              for example, “groff -mandoc page.1”, need not know which
              package the file page.1 uses.  Multiple man pages, in
              either format, can be handled; andoc reloads each macro
              package as necessary.  Page-local redefinitions of names
              used by the man or mdoc packages prior to .TH or .Dd calls
              will be “clobbered” by the reloading process.  If you want
              to provide your own definition of an extension macro to
              ensure its availability, the an-ext.tmac entry below
              offers advice.

       /usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/an-ext.tmac
              Definitions of macros described above as extensions (and
              not deprecated) are contained in this file; in some cases,
              they are simpler versions of definitions appearing in
              an.tmac, and are ignored if the formatter is GNU troff.
              They are written to be compatible with AT&T troff and
              permissively licensed—not copylefted.  To reduce the risk
              of name space collisions, string and register names begin
              only with “m.  We encourage man page authors who are
              concerned about portability to legacy Unix systems to copy
              these definitions into their pages, and maintainers of
              troff implementations or work-alike systems that format
              man pages to re-use them.  To ensure reliable rendering,
              define them after your page calls .TH; see the discussion
              of andoc.tmac above.  Further, it is wise to define such
              page-local macros (if at all) after the “Name” section to
              accommodate timid makewhatis(8) or mandb(8)
              implementations that easily give up scanning for indexing
              material.

       /usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/man.tmac
              is a wrapper enabling the package to be loaded with the
              option “-m man”.

       /usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/mandoc.tmac
              is a wrapper enabling andoc.tmac to be loaded with the
              option “-m mandoc”.

       /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac/man.local
              Put site-local changes and customizations into this file.

Authors         top

       The initial GNU implementation of the man macro package was
       written by James Clark.  Later, Werner Lemberg ⟨[email protected]⟩
       supplied the S, LT, and cR registers, the last a 4.3BSD-Reno
       mdoc(7) feature.  Larry Kollar ⟨[email protected]⟩ added the FT,
       HY, and SN registers; the HF string; and the PT and BT macros.
       G. Branden Robinson ⟨[email protected]⟩ implemented
       the AD and MF strings; BP, CS, CT, PO, TS, and U registers; and
       the MR macro.  Extension macros since groff 1.20 were written by
       Lemberg, Eric S. Raymond ⟨[email protected]⟩, and Robinson.

       This document was originally written for the Debian GNU/Linux
       system by Susan G. Kleinmann ⟨[email protected]⟩.  It was corrected
       and updated by Lemberg and Robinson.  The extension macros were
       documented by Raymond and Robinson.

See also         top

       tbl(1), eqn(1), and refer(1) are preprocessors used with man
       pages.  man(1) describes the man page librarian on your system.
       groff_mdoc(7) details the groff version of the BSD-originated
       alternative macro package for man pages.

       groff_man_style(7), groff(7), groff_char(7)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the groff (GNU troff) project.  Information
       about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/⟩.  If you have a bug report
       for this manual page, see ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/⟩.
       This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/groff.git⟩ on 2024-06-14.  (At
       that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in
       the repository was 2024-06-10.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
       is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       [email protected]

groff 1.23.0.1273-9d53-dirty   6 June 2024                  groff_man(7)

Pages that refer to this page: dh_installman(1)man(1)man-pages(7)uri(7)