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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.

Document structure         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.  Organize longer documents 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 starts close to
       the bottom of a page, and there is insufficient space to
       accommodate \n[PORPHANS] lines before an automatic page break, ms
       forces a page break before formatting 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; it is
              useful in the construction of lists.  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, ms forces a page break before setting the heading.  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
       ms often sees use with the tbl, pic, eqn, and refer preprocessors.
       groff ms applies the \n[DD] distance 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.  Preprocessors match
       these tokens only at the start of an input line.  troff interprets
       them as macro calls.

       .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 marks the start of a pic(1) preprocessor diagram;
              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 mathematics to be processed by the eqn
              preprocessor.  ms centers the equation by default; align
              can be C, L, or I to (explicitly) center, left-align, or
              indent it by \n[DI], respectively.  ms right-aligns any
              label.  See eqn(1).

       .[
       .]     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 whose values were used
          with some non-RP document types; that of 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.

       •  groff ms sets the register GS to 1; the AT&T ms package does
          not use it.  A document can test its value to determine whether
          it is being formatted with groff ms or another implementation.

   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 identifiers:

       •  those containing the characters *, @, and :, and

       •  those 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 2025-02-02.  (At
       that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in
       the repository was 2025-01-28.)  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 1.23.0.2722-658f-dirty    2025-01-02                    groff_ms(7)