groff_ms(7) — Linux manual page

Name | Synopsis | Description | Usage | Differences from AT&T ms | Legacy features | Naming conventions | Files | Authors | See also | COLOPHON

groff_ms(7)         Miscellaneous Information Manual         groff_ms(7)

Name         top

       groff_ms - GNU roff manuscript macro package for formatting
       documents

Synopsis         top

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

Description         top

       The GNU implementation of the ms macro package is part of the
       groff document formatting system.  The ms package is suitable for
       the composition of letters, memoranda, reports, and books.

       These groff macros support cover page and table of contents
       generation, automatically numbered headings, several paragraph
       styles, a variety of text styling options, footnotes, and multi-
       column page layouts.  ms supports the tbl(1), eqn(1), pic(1), and
       refer(1) preprocessors for inclusion of tables, mathematical
       equations, diagrams, and standardized bibliographic citations.

       This implementation is mostly compatible with the documented
       interface and behavior of AT&T Unix Version 7 ms.  Many
       extensions from 4.2BSD (Berkeley) and Research Tenth Edition Unix
       have been recreated.

Usage         top

       The ms macro package expects a certain amount of structure: a
       well-formed document contains at least one paragraphing or
       heading macro call.  To compose a simple document from scratch,
       begin it by calling .LP or .PP.  Longer documents have a
       structure as follows.

       Document type
              Calling the RP macro at the beginning of your document
              puts the document description (see below) on a cover page.
              Otherwise, ms places this information on the first page,
              followed immediately by the body text.  Some document
              types found in other ms implementations are specific to
              AT&T or Berkeley, and are not supported in groff ms.

       Format and layout
              By setting registers and strings, you can configure your
              document's typeface, margins, spacing, headers and
              footers, and footnote arrangement.  See subsection
              “Document control settings” below.

       Document description
              A document description consists of any of: a title, one or
              more authors' names and affiliated institutions, an
              abstract, and a date or other identifier.  See subsection
              “Document description macros” below.

       Body text
              The main matter of your document follows its description
              (if any).  ms supports highly structured text consisting
              of paragraphs interspersed with multi-level headings
              (chapters, sections, subsections, and so forth) and
              augmented by lists, footnotes, tables, diagrams, and
              similar material.  The preponderance of subsections below
              covers these matters.

       Table of contents
              Macros enable the collection of entries for a table of
              contents (or index) as the material they discuss appears
              in the document.  You then call a macro to emit the table
              of contents at the end of your document.  The table of
              contents must necessarily follow the rest of the text
              since GNU troff is a single-pass formatter; it thus cannot
              determine the page number of a division of the text until
              it has been set and output.  Since ms output was designed
              for the production of hard copy, the traditional procedure
              was to manually relocate the pages containing the table of
              contents between the cover page and the body text.  Today,
              page resequencing is more often done in the digital
              domain.  An index works similarly, but because it
              typically needs to be sorted after collection, its
              preparation requires separate processing.

   Document control settings
       The following tables list the document control registers,
       strings, and special characters.  For any parameter whose default
       is unsatisfactory, define it before calling any ms macro other
       than RP.

                                 Margin settings
       Parameter          Definition             Effective       Default
       ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       \n[PO]      Page offset (left margin)   next page        1i (0)
       \n[LL]      Line length                 next paragraph   6.5i (65n)
       \n[LT]      Title line length           next paragraph   6.5i (65n)
       \n[HM]      Top (header) margin         next page        1i
       \n[FM]      Bottom (footer) margin      next page        1i
       ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

                           Titles (headers, footers)
       Parameter            Definition              Effective    Default
       ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       \*[LH]      Left header text                next header   empty
       \*[CH]      Center header text              next header   -\n[%]-
       \*[RH]      Right header text               next header   empty
       \*[LF]      Left footer text                next footer   empty
       \*[CF]      Center footer text              next footer   empty
       \*[RF]      Right footer text               next footer   empty
       ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

                                 Text settings
       Parameter           Definition             Effective      Default
       ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       \n[PS]      Point (type) size            next paragraph   10p
       \n[VS]      Vertical spacing (leading)   next paragraph   12p
       \n[HY]      Hyphenation mode             next paragraph   6
       \*[FAM]     Font family                  next paragraph   T
       ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

                                 Paragraph settings
        Parameter             Definition              Effective       Default
       ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       \n[PI]        Indentation                    next paragraph   5n
       \n[PD]        Paragraph distance (spacing)   next paragraph   0.3v (1v)
       \n[QI]        Quotation indentation          next paragraph   5n
       \n[PORPHANS]  # of initial lines kept        next paragraph   1
       ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

                                  Heading settings
        Parameter             Definition             Effective      Default
       ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       \n[PSINCR]     Point (type) size increment   next heading   1p
       \n[GROWPS]     Size increase depth limit     next heading   0
       \n[HORPHANS]   # of following lines kept     next heading   1
       \*[SN-STYLE]   Numbering style (alias)       next heading   \*[SN-DOT]
       ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

       \*[SN-STYLE] can alternatively be made an alias of \*[SN-NO-DOT]
       with the als request.

                                 Footnote settings
       Parameter            Definition              Effective      Default
       ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       \n[FI]      Indentation                    next footnote   2n
       \n[FF]      Format                         next footnote   0
       \n[FPS]     Point (type) size              next footnote   \n[PS]-2p
       \n[FVS]     Vertical spacing (leading)     next footnote   \n[FPS]+2p
       \n[FPD]     Paragraph distance (spacing)   next footnote   \n[PD]/2
       \*[FR]      Line length ratio              special         11/12
       ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

                               Display settings
       Parameter            Definition             Effective    Default
       ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       \n[DD]      Display distance (spacing)      special     0.5v (1v)
       \n[DI]      Display indentation             special     0.5i
       ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

                                  Other settings
         Parameter              Definition             Effective     Default
       ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       \n[MINGW]       Minimum gutter width           next page      2n
       \n[TC-MARGIN]   TOC page number margin width   next PX call   \w'000'
       \[TC-LEADER]    TOC leader character           next PX call   .\h'1m'
       ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

       For entries marked “special” in the “Effective” column, see the
       discussion in the applicable section below.  The PO, LL, and LT
       register defaults vary by output device and paper format; the
       values shown are for typesetters using U.S. letter paper, and
       then terminals.  See section “Paper format” of groff(1).  The PD
       and DD registers use the larger value if the vertical motion
       quantum of the output device is too coarse for the smaller one;
       usually, this is the case only for output to terminals.  The
       “gutter” affected by \n[MINGW] is the gap between columns in
       multiple-column page arrangements.  The TC-MARGIN register and
       TC-LEADER special character affect the formatting of tables of
       contents assembled by the XS, XA, and XE macros.

   Document description macros
       Define information describing the document by calling the macros
       below in the order shown; .DA or .ND can be called to set the
       document date (or other identifier) at any time before (a) the
       abstract, if present, or (b) its information is required in a
       header or footer.  Use of these macros is optional, except that
       .TL is mandatory if any of .RP, .AU, .AI, or .AB is called, and
       .AE is mandatory if .AB is called.

       .RP [no-repeat-info] [no-renumber]
              Use the “report” (AT&T: “released paper”) format for your
              document, creating a separate cover page.  The default
              arrangement is to place most of the document description
              (title, author names and institutions, and abstract, but
              not the date) at the top of the first page.  If the
              optional no-repeat-info argument is given, ms produces a
              cover page but does not repeat any of its information
              subsequently (but see the DA macro below regarding the
              date).  Normally, .RP sets the page number following the
              cover page to 1.  Specifying the optional no-renumber
              argument suppresses this alteration.  Optional arguments
              can occur in any order.  “no” is recognized as a synonym
              of no-repeat-info for AT&T compatibility.

       .TL    Specify the document title.  ms collects text on input
              lines following this call into the title until reaching
              .AU, .AB, or a heading or paragraphing macro call.

       .AU    Specify an author's name.  ms collects text on input lines
              following this call into the author's name until reaching
              .AI, .AB, another .AU, or a heading or paragraphing macro
              call.  Call it repeatedly to specify multiple authors.

       .AI    Specify the preceding author's institutional affiliation.
              An .AU call is usefully followed by at most one .AI call;
              if there are more, the last .AI call controls.  ms
              collects text on input lines following this call into the
              author's institution until reaching .AU, .AB, or a heading
              or paragraphing macro call.

       .DA [x ...]
              Typeset the current date, or any arguments x, in the
              center footer, and, if .RP is also called, left-aligned at
              the end of the document description on the cover page.

       .ND [x ...]
              Typeset the current date, or any arguments x, if .RP is
              also called, left-aligned at the end of the document
              description on the cover page.  This is groff ms's
              default.

       .AB [no]
              Begin the abstract.  ms collects text on input lines
              following this call into the abstract until reaching an
              .AE call.  By default, ms places the word “ABSTRACT”
              centered and in italics above the text of the abstract.
              The optional argument “no” suppresses this heading.

       .AE    End the abstract.

   Text settings
       The FAM string, a GNU extension, sets the font family for body
       text; the default is “T”.  The PS and VS registers set the type
       size and vertical spacing (distance between text baselines),
       respectively.  The font family and type size are ignored on
       terminals.  Set these parameters before the first call of a
       heading, paragraphing, or (non-date) document description macro
       to apply them to headers, footers, and (for FAM) footnotes.

       The HY register defines the automatic hyphenation mode used with
       the hy request.  Setting \n[HY] to 0 is equivalent to using the
       nh request.  This is a Research Tenth Edition Unix extension.

   Typographical symbols
       ms provides a few strings to obtain typographical symbols not
       easily entered with the keyboard.  These and many others are
       available as special character escape sequences—see
       groff_char(7).

       \*[-]  Interpolate an em dash.

       \*[Q]
       \*[U]  Interpolate typographer's quotation marks where available,
              and neutral double quotes otherwise.  \*[Q] is the left
              quote and \*[U] the right.

   Paragraphs
       Paragraphing macros break, or terminate, any pending output line
       so that a new paragraph can begin.  Several paragraph types are
       available, differing in how indentation applies to them: to left,
       right, or both margins; to the first output line of the
       paragraph, all output lines, or all but the first.  These calls
       insert vertical space in the amount stored in the PD register,
       except at page or column breaks, or adjacent to displays.

       The PORPHANS register defines the minimum number of initial lines
       of any paragraph that must be kept together to avoid isolated
       lines at the bottom of a page.  If a new paragraph is started
       close to the bottom of a page, and there is insufficient space to
       accommodate \n[PORPHANS] lines before an automatic page break,
       then a page break is forced before the start of the paragraph.
       This is a GNU extension.

       .LP    Set a paragraph without any (additional) indentation.

       .PP    Set a paragraph with a first-line left indentation in the
              amount stored in the PI register.

       .IP [marker [width]]
              Set a paragraph with a left indentation.  The optional
              marker is not indented and is empty by default.  width
              overrides the indentation amount in \n[PI]; its default
              unit is “n”.  Once specified, width applies to further .IP
              calls until specified again or a heading or different
              paragraphing macro is called.

       .QP    Set a paragraph indented from both left and right margins
              by \n[QI].

       .QS
       .QE    Begin (QS) and end (QE) a region where each paragraph is
              indented from both margins by \n[QI].  The text between
              .QS and .QE can be structured further by use of other
              paragraphing macros.

       .XP    Set an “exdented” paragraph—one with a left indentation of
              \n[PI] on every line except the first (also known as a
              hanging indent).  This is a Berkeley extension.

   Headings
       Use headings to create a hierarchical structure for your
       document.  The ms macros print headings in bold using the same
       font family and, by default, type size as the body text.
       Headings are available with and without automatic numbering.
       Text on input lines following the macro call becomes the
       heading's title.  Call a paragraphing macro to end the heading
       text and start the section's content.

       .NH [depth]
              Set an automatically numbered heading.  ms produces a
              numbered heading in the form a.b.c..., to any level
              desired, with the numbering of each depth increasing
              automatically and being reset to zero when a more
              significant depth is increased.  “1” is the most
              significant or coarsest division of the document.  Only
              non-zero values are output.  If depth is omitted, it is
              taken to be 1.  If you specify depth such that an
              ascending gap occurs relative to the previous NH call—that
              is, you “skip a depth”, as by “.NH 1” and then “.NH 3”,
              groff ms emits a warning on the standard error stream.

       .NH S heading-depth-index ...
              Alternatively, you can give NH a first argument of “S”,
              followed by integers to number the heading depths
              explicitly.  Further automatic numbering, if used, resumes
              using the specified indices as their predecessors.  This
              feature is a Berkeley extension.

       After .NH is called, the assigned number is made available in the
       strings SN-DOT (as it appears in a printed heading with default
       formatting, followed by a terminating period) and SN-NO-DOT (with
       the terminating period omitted).  These, and SN-STYLE, are GNU
       extensions.

       You can control the style used to print numbered headings by
       defining an appropriate alias for the string SN-STYLE.  By
       default, \*[SN-STYLE] is aliased to \*[SN-DOT].  If you prefer to
       omit the terminating period from numbers appearing in numbered
       headings, you may alias it to \*[SN-NO-DOT].  Any such change in
       numbering style becomes effective from the next use of .NH
       following redefinition of the alias for \*[SN-STYLE].  The
       formatted number of the current heading is available in \*[SN] (a
       feature first documented by Berkeley); this string facilitates
       its inclusion in, for example, table captions, equation labels,
       and .XS/.XA/.XE table of contents entries.

       .SH [depth]
              Set an unnumbered heading.  The optional depth argument is
              a GNU extension indicating the heading depth corresponding
              to the depth argument of .NH.  It matches the type size at
              which the heading is set to that of a numbered heading at
              the same depth when the \n[GROWPS] and \n[PSINCR] heading
              size adjustment mechanism is in effect.

       The PSINCR register defines an increment in type size to be
       applied to a heading at a lesser depth than that specified in
       \n[GROWPS].  The value of \n[PSINCR] should be specified in
       points with the “p” scaling unit and may include a fractional
       component.

       The GROWPS register defines the heading depth above which the
       type size increment set by \n[PSINCR] becomes effective.  For
       each heading depth less than the value of \n[GROWPS], the type
       size is increased by \n[PSINCR].  Setting \n[GROWPS] to a value
       less than 2 disables the incremental heading size feature.

       In other words, if the value of GROWPS register is greater than
       the depth argument to a .NH or .SH call, the type size of a
       heading produced by these macros increases by \n[PSINCR] units
       over \n[PS] multiplied by the difference of \n[GROWPS] and depth.
       GROWPS and PSINCR are GNU extensions.

       The \n[HORPHANS] register operates in conjunction with the NH and
       SH macros to inhibit the printing of isolated headings at the
       bottom of a page; it specifies the minimum number of lines of the
       subsequent paragraph that 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, a page break is forced before the heading is printed.  Any
       display macro call or tbl, pic, or eqn region between the heading
       and the subsequent paragraph suppresses this grouping.  This is a
       GNU extension.

   Typeface and decoration
       The ms macros provide a variety of ways to style text.  Attend
       closely to the ordering of arguments labeled pre and post, which
       is not intuitive.  Support for pre arguments is a GNU extension.

       .B [text [post [pre]]]
              Style text in bold, followed by post in the previous font
              style without intervening space, and preceded by pre
              similarly.  Without arguments, ms styles subsequent text
              in bold until the next paragraphing, heading, or no-
              argument typeface macro call.

       .R [text [post [pre]]]
              As .B, but use the roman style (upright text of normal
              weight) instead of bold.  Argument recognition is a GNU
              extension.

       .I [text [post [pre]]]
              As .B, but use an italic or oblique style instead of bold.

       .BI [text [post [pre]]]
              As .B, but use a bold italic or bold oblique style instead
              of upright bold.  This is a Research Tenth Edition Unix
              extension.

       .CW [text [post [pre]]]
              As .B, but use a constant-width (monospaced) roman
              typeface instead of bold.  This is a Research Tenth
              Edition Unix extension.

       .BX [text]
              Typeset text and draw a box around it.  On terminals,
              reverse video is used instead.  If you want text to
              contain space, use unbreakable space or horizontal motion
              escape sequences (\~, \space, \^, \|, \0, or \h).

       .UL [text [post]]
              Typeset text with an underline.  On terminals, text is
              bracketed with underscores (“_”).  post, if present, is
              set after text with no intervening space.

       .LG    Set subsequent text in larger type (2 points larger than
              the current size) until the next type size, paragraphing,
              or heading macro call.  Call the macro multiple times to
              enlarge the type size further.

       .SM    Set subsequent text in smaller type (2 points smaller than
              the current size) until the next type size, paragraphing,
              or heading macro call.  Call the macro multiple times to
              reduce the type size further.

       .NL    Set subsequent text at the normal type size (\n[PS]).

       When pre is used, a hyphenation control escape sequence \% that
       would ordinarily start text must start pre instead.

       groff ms also offers strings to begin and end super- and
       subscripting.  These are GNU extensions.

       \*{
       \*}    Begin and end superscripting, respectively.

       \*<
       \*>    Begin and end subscripting, respectively.

   Indented regions
       You can indent a region of text while otherwise formatting it
       normally.  Such indented regions can be nested.

       .RS    Begin a region where headings, paragraphs, and displays
              are indented (further) by \n[PI].

       .RE    End the (next) most recent indented region.

   Keeps, boxed keeps, and displays
       On occasion, you may want to keep several lines of text, or a
       region of a document, together on a single page, preventing an
       automatic page break within certain boundaries.  This can cause a
       page break to occur earlier than it normally would.

       You can alternatively specify a floating keep: if a keep cannot
       fit on the current page, ms holds it, allowing text following the
       keep (in the source document) to fill in the remainder of the
       current page.  When the page breaks by reaching its bottom or by
       bp request, ms puts the floating keep at the beginning of the
       next page.

       .KS    Begin a keep.

       .KF    Begin a floating keep.

       .KE    End (floating) keep.

       As an alternative to the keep mechanism, the ne request forces a
       page break if there is not at least the amount of vertical space
       specified in its argument remaining on the page.

       A boxed keep has a frame drawn around it.

       .B1    Begin a keep with a box drawn around it.

       .B2    End boxed keep.

       Boxed keep macros cause breaks; to box words within a line,
       recall .BX in section “Highlighting” above.  Box lines are drawn
       as close as possible to the text they enclose so that they are
       usable within paragraphs.  When boxing entire paragraphs thus,
       you may improve their appearance by calling .B1 after the first
       paragraphing macro, and invoking the sp request before calling
       .B2 .

       If you want a boxed keep to float, enclose the .B1 and .B2 calls
       within a pair of .KF and .KE calls.

       Displays turn off filling; lines of verse or program code are
       shown with their lines broken as in the source document without
       requiring br requests between lines.  Displays can be kept on a
       single page or allowed to break across pages.  The DS macro
       begins a kept display of the layout specified in its first
       argument; non-kept displays are begun with dedicated macros
       corresponding to their layout.

       .DS L
       .LD    Begin (DS: kept) left-aligned display.

       .DS [I [indent]]
       .ID [indent]
              Begin (DS: kept) display indented by indent if specified,
              \n[DI] otherwise.

       .DS B
       .BD    Begin (DS: kept) block display: the entire display is
              left-aligned, but indented such that the longest line in
              the display is centered on the page.

       .DS C
       .CD    Begin (DS: kept) centered display: each line in the
              display is centered.

       .DS R
       .RD    Begin (DS: kept) right-aligned display.  This is a GNU
              extension.

       .DE    End any display.

       groff ms inserts the distance stored in \n[DD] before and after
       each pair of display macros; this is a Berkeley extension.  This
       distance replaces any adjacent inter-paragraph distance or
       subsequent spacing prior to a section heading.  The DI register
       is a GNU extension; its value is an indentation applied to
       displays created with .DS and .ID without arguments, to “.DS I”
       without an indentation argument, and to equations set with
       “.EQ I”.  Changes to either register take effect at the next
       display boundary.

   Tables, figures, equations, and references
       The ms package is often used with the tbl, pic, eqn, and refer
       preprocessors.  The \n[DD] distance is also applied to regions of
       the document preprocessed with eqn, pic, and tbl.  Mark text
       meant for preprocessors by enclosing it in pairs of tokens as
       follows, with nothing between the dot and the macro name.  The
       preprocessors match these tokens only at the start of an input
       line.

       .TS [H]
       .TE    Demarcate a table to be processed by the tbl preprocessor.
              The optional H argument instructs ms to repeat table rows
              (often column headings) at the top of each new page the
              table spans, if applicable; calling the TH macro marks the
              end of such rows.  tbl(1) provides a comprehensive
              reference to the preprocessor and offers examples of its
              use.

       .PS h v
       .PE
       .PF    .PS begins a picture to be processed by the pic
              preprocessor; either of .PE or .PF ends it, the latter
              with “flyback” to the vertical position at its top.  h and
              v are the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the
              picture; pic supplies them automatically.

       .EQ [align [label]]
       .EN    Demarcate an equation to be processed by the eqn
              preprocessor.  The equation is centered by default; align
              can be C, L, or I to (explicitly) center, left-align, or
              indent it by \n[DI], respectively.  If specified, label is
              set right-aligned.

       .[
       .]     Demarcate a bibliographic citation to be processed by the
              refer preprocessor.  refer(1) provides a comprehensive
              reference to the preprocessor and the format of its
              bibliographic database.

       When refer emits collected references (as might be done on a
       “Works Cited” page), it interpolates the string \*[REFERENCES] as
       an unnumbered heading (.SH).

       Attempting to place a multi-page table inside a keep can lead to
       unpleasant results, particularly if the tblallbox” option is
       used.

   Footnotes
       A footnote is typically anchored to a place in the text with a
       marker, which is a small integer, a symbol, or arbitrary user-
       specified text.

       \**    Place an automatic number, an automatically generated
              numeric footnote marker, in the text.  Each time this
              string is interpolated, the number it produces increments
              by one.  Automatic numbers start at 1.  This is a Berkeley
              extension.

       Enclose the footnote text in FS and FE macro calls to set it at
       the nearest available “foot”, or bottom, of a text column or
       page.

       .FS [marker]
              Begin a footnote.  The .FS-MARK hook (see below) is called
              with any supplied marker argument, which is then also
              placed at the beginning of the footnote text.  If marker
              is omitted, the next pending automatic number enqueued by
              interpolation of the * string is used, and if none exists,
              nothing is prefixed.

       .FE    End footnote text.

       groff ms provides a hook macro, FS-MARK, for user-determined
       operations to be performed when the FS macro is called.  It is
       passed the same arguments as .FS itself.  By default, this macro
       has an empty definition.  .FS-MARK is a GNU extension.

       Footnote text is formatted as paragraphs are, using analogous
       parameters.  The registers FI, FPD, FPS, and FVS correspond to
       PI, PD, PS, and VS, respectively; FPD, FPS, and FVS are GNU
       extensions.

       The FF register controls the formatting of automatically numbered
       footnote paragraphs, and those for which .FS is given a marker
       argument, at the bottom of a column or page as follows.

              0      Set an automatic number, or a specified FS marker
                     argument, as a superscript (on typesetters) or
                     surrounded by square brackets (on terminals).  The
                     footnote paragraph is indented as with .PP if there
                     is an .FS argument or an automatic number, and as
                     with .LP otherwise.  This is the default.

              1      As 0, but set the marker as regular text, and
                     follow an automatic number with a period.

              2      As 1, but without indentation (like .LP).

              3      As 1, but set the footnote paragraph with the
                     marker hanging (like .IP).

   Language and localization
       groff ms provides several strings that you can customize for your
       own purposes, or redefine to adapt the macro package to languages
       other than English.  It is already localized for Czech, German,
       French, Italian, and Swedish.  Load the desired localization
       macro package after ms; see groff_tmac(5).

                  String            Default
              ───────────────────────────────────
              \*[REFERENCES]   References
              \*[ABSTRACT]     \f[I]ABSTRACT\f[]
              \*[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 default for ABSTRACT includes font selection escape sequences
       to set the word in italics.

   Headers and footers
       There are multiple ways to produce headers and footers.  One is
       to define the strings LH, CH, and RH to set the left, center, and
       right headers, respectively; and LF, CF, and RF to set the left,
       center, and right footers.  This approach suffices for documents
       that do not distinguish odd- and even-numbered pages.

       Another method is to call macros that set headers or footers for
       odd- or even-numbered pages.  Each such macro takes a delimited
       argument separating the left, center, and right header or footer
       texts from each other.  You can replace the neutral apostrophes
       (') shown below with any character not appearing in the header or
       footer text.  These macros are Berkeley extensions.

       .OH 'left'center'right'
       .OF 'left'center'right'
       .EH 'left'center'right'
       .EF 'left'center'right'
              The OH and EH macros define headers for odd- (recto) and
              even-numbered (verso) pages, respectively; the OF and EF
              macros define footers for them.

       With either method, a percent sign % in header or footer text is
       replaced by the current page number.  By default, ms places no
       header on a page numbered “1” (regardless of its number format).

       .P1    Typeset the header even on page 1.  To be effective, this
              macro must be called before the header trap is sprung on
              any page numbered “1”.  This is a Berkeley extension.

       For even greater flexibility, ms permits redefinition of the
       macros called when the page header and footer traps are sprung.
       PT (“page trap”) is called by ms when the header is to be
       written, and BT (“bottom trap”) when the footer is to be.  The
       groff page location trap that ms sets up to format the header
       also calls the (normally undefined) HD macro after .PT; you can
       define .HD if you need additional processing after setting the
       header.  The HD hook is a Berkeley extension.  Any such macros
       you (re)define must implement any desired specialization for
       odd-, even-, or first numbered pages.

   Tab stops
       Use the ta request to set tab stops as needed.

       .TA    Reset the tab stops to the ms default (every 5 ens).
              Redefine this macro to create a different set of default
              tab stops.

   Margins
       Control margins using the registers summarized in the “Margins”
       portion of the table in section “Document control settings”
       above.  There is no setting for the right margin; the combination
       of page offset \n[PO] and line length \n[LL] determines it.

   Multiple columns
       ms can set text in as many columns as reasonably fit on the page.
       The following macros force a page break if a multi-column layout
       is active when they are called.  \n[MINGW] is the default minimum
       gutter width; it is a GNU extension.  When multiple columns are
       in use, keeps and the HORPHANS and PORPHANS registers work with
       respect to column breaks instead of page breaks.

       .1C    Arrange page text in a single column (the default).

       .2C    Arrange page text in two columns.

       .MC [column-width [gutter-width]]
              Arrange page text in multiple columns.  If you specify no
              arguments, it is equivalent to the 2C macro.  Otherwise,
              column-width is the width of each column and gutter-width
              is the minimum distance between columns.

   Creating a table of contents
       Define an entry to appear in the table of contents by bracketing
       its text between calls to the XS and XE macros.  A typical
       application is to call them immediately after NH or SH and repeat
       the heading text within them.  The XA macro, used within .XS/.XE
       pairs, supplements an entry—for instance, when it requires
       multiple output lines, whether because a heading is too long to
       fit or because style dictates that page numbers not be repeated.
       You may wish to indent the text thus wrapped to correspond to its
       heading depth; this can be done in the entry text by prefixing it
       with tabs or horizontal motion escape sequences, or by providing
       a second argument to the XA macro.  .XS and .XA automatically
       associate the page number where they are called with the text
       following them, but they accept arguments to override this
       behavior.  At the end of the document, call TC or PX to emit the
       table of contents; .TC resets the page number to i (Roman numeral
       one), and then calls PX.  All of these macros are Berkeley
       extensions.

       .XS [page-number]
       .XA [page-number [indentation]]
       .XE    Begin, supplement, and end a table of contents entry.
              Each entry is associated with page-number (otherwise the
              current page number); a page-number of “no” prevents a
              leader and page number from being emitted for that entry.
              Use of .XA within .XS/.XE is optional; it can be repeated.
              If indentation is present, a supplemental entry is
              indented by that amount; ens are assumed if no unit is
              indicated.  Text on input lines between .XS and .XE is
              stored for later recall by .PX.

       .PX [no]
              Switch to single-column layout.  Unless “no” is specified,
              center and interpolate \*[TOC] in bold and two points
              larger than the body text.  Emit the table of contents
              entries.

       .TC [no]
              Set the page number to 1, the page number format to
              lowercase Roman numerals, and call PX (with a “no”
              argument, if present).

       The remaining features in this subsection are GNU extensions.
       groff ms obviates the need to repeat heading text after .XS
       calls.  Call .XN and .XH after .NH and .SH, respectively.  Text
       to be appended to the formatted section heading, but not to
       appear in the table of contents entry, can follow these calls.

       .XN heading-text
              Format heading-text and create a corresponding table of
              contents entry; the indentation is computed from the depth
              argument of the preceding NH call.

       .XH depth heading-text
              As .XN, but use depth to determine the indentation.

       groff ms encourages customization of table of contents entry
       production.  (Re-)define any of the following macros as desired.

       .XN-REPLACEMENT heading-text
       .XH-REPLACEMENT depth heading-text
              These hook macros implement .XN and .XH, and call XN-INIT
              and XH-INIT, respectively, then call XH-UPDATE-TOC with
              the arguments given them.

       .XH-INIT
       .XN-INIT
              These hook macros do nothing by default.

       .XH-UPDATE-TOC depth heading-text
              Bracket heading-text with XS and XE calls, indenting it by
              2 ens per level of depth beyond the first.

       You can customize the style of the leader that bridges each table
       of contents entry with its page number; define the TC-LEADER
       special character by using the char request.  A typical leader
       combines the dot glyph “.” with a horizontal motion escape
       sequence to spread the dots.  The width of the page number field
       is stored in the TC-MARGIN register.

Differences from AT&T ms         top

       The groff ms macros are an independent reimplementation, using no
       AT&T code.  Since they take advantage of the extended features of
       groff, they cannot be used with AT&T troff.  groff ms supports
       features described above as Berkeley and Research Tenth Edition
       Unix extensions, and adds several of its own.

       •  The internals of groff ms differ from the internals of AT&T
          ms.  Documents that depend upon implementation details of AT&T
          ms may not format properly with groff ms.  Such details
          include macros whose function was not documented in the AT&T
          ms manual (“Typing Documents on the UNIX System: Using the -ms
          Macros with Troff and Nroff”, M. E. Lesk, Bell Laboratories,
          1978).

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

       •  Research Tenth Edition Unix supported P1/P2 macros to bracket
          code examples; groff ms does not.

       •  groff ms does not work in GNU troff's AT&T compatibility mode.
          If loaded when that mode is enabled, it aborts processing with
          a diagnostic message.

       •  Multiple line spacing is not supported.  Use a larger vertical
          spacing instead.

       •  groff ms uses the same header and footer defaults in both
          nroff and troff modes as AT&T ms does in troff mode; AT&T's
          default in nroff mode is to put the date, in U.S. traditional
          format (e.g., “January 1, 2021”), in the center footer (the CF
          string).

       •  Many groff ms macros, including those for paragraphs,
          headings, and displays, cause a reset of paragraph rendering
          parameters, and may change the indentation; they do so not by
          incrementing or decrementing it, but by setting it absolutely.
          This can cause problems for documents that define additional
          macros of their own that manipulate indentation.  Use .RS and
          .RE instead of the in request.

       •  AT&T ms interpreted the values of the registers PS and VS in
          points, and did not support the use of scaling units with
          them.  groff ms interprets values of the registers PS, VS,
          FPS, and FVS, equal to or larger than 1,000 (one thousand) as
          decimal fractions multiplied by 1,000.  (Register values are
          converted to and stored as basic units.  See “Measurements” in
          the groff Texinfo manual or in groff(7)).  This threshold
          makes use of a scaling unit with these parameters practical
          for high-resolution devices while preserving backward
          compatibility.  It also permits expression of non-integral
          type sizes.  For example, “groff -rPS=10.5p” at the shell
          prompt is equivalent to placing “.nr PS 10.5p” at the
          beginning of the document.

       •  AT&T ms's AU macro supported arguments used with some document
          types; groff ms does not.

       •  Right-aligned displays are available.  The AT&T ms manual
          observes that “it is tempting to assume that “.DS R” will
          right adjust lines, but it doesn't work”.  In groff ms, it
          does.

       •  To make groff ms use the default page offset (which also
          specifies the left margin), the PO register must stay
          undefined until the first ms macro is called.  This implies
          that \n[PO] should not be used early in the document, unless
          it is changed also: accessing an undefined register
          automatically defines it.

       •  groff ms supports the PN register, but it is not necessary;
          you can access the page number via the usual % register and
          invoke the af request to assign a different format to it if
          desired.  (If you redefine the ms PT macro and desire special
          treatment of certain page numbers—like “1”—you may need to
          handle a non-Arabic page number format, as groff ms's .PT
          does; see the macro package source.  groff ms aliases the PN
          register to %.)

       •  The AT&T ms manual documents registers CW and GW as setting
          the default column width and “intercolumn gap”, respectively,
          and which applied when .MC was called with fewer than two
          arguments.  groff ms instead treats .MC without arguments as
          synonymous with .2C; there is thus no occasion for a default
          column width register.  Further, the MINGW register and the
          second argument to .MC specify a minimum space between
          columns, not the fixed gutter width of AT&T ms.

       •  The AT&T ms manual did not document the QI register; Berkeley
          and groff ms do.

       •  The register GS is set to 1 by the groff ms macros, but is not
          used by the AT&T ms package.  Documents that need to determine
          whether they are being formatted with groff ms or another
          implementation should test this register.

   Unix Version 7 macros not implemented by groff ms
       Several macros described in the Unix Version 7 ms documentation
       are unimplemented by groff ms because they are specific to the
       requirements of documents produced internally by Bell
       Laboratories, some of which also require a glyph for the Bell
       System logo that groff does not support.  These macros
       implemented several document type formats (EG, IM, MF, MR, TM,
       TR), were meaningful only in conjunction with the use of certain
       document types (AT, CS, CT, OK, SG), stored the postal addresses
       of Bell Labs sites (HO, IH, MH, PY, WH), or lacked a stable
       definition over time (UX).

Legacy features         top

       groff ms retains some legacy features solely to support
       formatting of historical documents; contemporary ones should not
       use them because they can render poorly.  See groff_char(7)
       instead.

   AT&T ms accent mark strings
       AT&T ms defined accent mark strings as follows.

       String   Description
       ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       \*[']    Apply acute accent to subsequent glyph.
       \*[`]    Apply grave accent to subsequent glyph.
       \*[:]    Apply dieresis (umlaut) to subsequent glyph.
       \*[^]    Apply circumflex accent to subsequent glyph.
       \*[~]    Apply tilde accent to subsequent glyph.
       \*[C]    Apply caron to subsequent glyph.
       \*[,]    Apply cedilla to subsequent glyph.

   Berkeley ms accent mark and glyph strings
       Berkeley ms offered an AM macro; calling it redefined the AT&T
       accent mark strings (except for \*C), applied them to the
       preceding glyph, and defined additional strings, some for spacing
       glyphs.

       .AM    Enable alternative accent mark and glyph-producing
              strings.

       String   Description
       ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       \*[']    Apply acute accent to preceding glyph.
       \*[`]    Apply grave accent to preceding glyph.
       \*[:]    Apply dieresis (umlaut) to preceding glyph.
       \*[^]    Apply circumflex accent to preceding glyph.
       \*[~]    Apply tilde accent to preceding glyph.
       \*[,]    Apply cedilla to preceding glyph.
       \*[/]    Apply stroke (slash) to preceding glyph.
       \*[v]    Apply caron to preceding glyph.
       \*[_]    Apply macron to preceding glyph.
       \*[.]    Apply underdot to preceding glyph.
       \*[o]    Apply ring accent to preceding glyph.
       ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       \*[?]    Interpolate inverted question mark.
       \*[!]    Interpolate inverted exclamation mark.
       \*[8]    Interpolate small letter sharp s.
       \*[q]    Interpolate small letter o with hook accent (ogonek).
       \*[3]    Interpolate small letter yogh.
       \*[d-]   Interpolate small letter eth.
       \*[D-]   Interpolate capital letter eth.
       \*[th]   Interpolate small letter thorn.
       \*[TH]   Interpolate capital letter thorn.
       \*[ae]   Interpolate small ae ligature.
       \*[AE]   Interpolate capital ae ligature.
       \*[oe]   Interpolate small oe ligature.
       \*[OE]   Interpolate capital oe ligature.

Naming conventions         top

       The following conventions are used for names of macros, strings,
       and 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.  Conventions for
       identifier names 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         top

       /usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/s.tmac
              implements the package.

       /usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/refer-ms.tmac
              implements refer(1) support for ms.

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

Authors         top

       The GNU version of the ms macro package was written by James
       Clark and contributors.  This document was written by Clark,
       Larry Kollar ⟨lkollar@despammed.com⟩, and G. Branden Robinson
       ⟨g.branden.robinson@gmail.com⟩.

See also         top

       A manual is available in source and rendered form.  On your
       system, it may be compressed and/or available in additional
       formats.

       /usr/local/share/doc/groff-1.23.0/ms.ms
       /usr/local/share/doc/groff-1.23.0/ms.ps
              “Using groff with the ms Macro Package”; Larry Kollar and
              G. Branden Robinson.

       /usr/local/share/doc/groff-1.23.0/msboxes.ms
       /usr/local/share/doc/groff-1.23.0/msboxes.pdf
              “Using PDF boxes with groff and the ms macros”; Deri
              James.  BOXSTART and BOXSTOP macros are available via the
              sboxes extension package, enabling colored, bordered boxes
              when the pdf output device is used.

       Groff: The GNU Implementation of troff, by Trent A. Fisher and
       Werner Lemberg, is the primary groff manual.  You can browse it
       interactively with “info groff”.

       groff(1), troff(1), tbl(1), pic(1), eqn(1), refer(1)

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 2023-12-22.  (At
       that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in
       the repository was 2023-12-08.)  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
       man-pages@man7.org

groff 1.23.0.453-330f9-d... 22 December 2023                 groff_ms(7)