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Name | Synopsis | Description | Usage | Differences from AT&T ms | Legacy features | Naming conventions | Files | Authors | See also | COLOPHON |
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groff_ms(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual groff_ms(7)
groff_ms - GNU roff manuscript macro package for formatting
documents
groff -ms [option ...] [file ...]
groff -m ms [option ...] [file ...]
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.
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 tbl “allbox” 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.
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.
[1mUnix 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).
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.
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.
/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”.
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⟩.
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)
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
man-pages@man7.org
groff 1.23.0.1273-9d53-dirty 6 June 2024 groff_ms(7)
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