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groff_man(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual groff_man(7)
groff_man - compose manual pages with GNU roff
groff -man [option ...] [file ...]
groff -m man [option ...] [file ...]
The GNU implementation of the man macro package is part of the
groff document formatting system. It is used to compose manual
pages (“man pages”) like the one you are reading. This document
presents the macros thematically; for those needing only a quick
reference, the following table lists them alphabetically, with
references to appropriate subsections below.
Readers who are not already experienced groff users should consult
groff_man_style(7), an expanded version of this document, for
additional explanations and advice. It covers only those concepts
required for man page document maintenance, and not the full
breadth of the groff typesetting system.
Macro Meaning Subsection
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
.B Bold Font style macros
.BI Bold, italic alternating Font style macros
.BR Bold, roman alternating Font style macros
.EE Example end Document structure macros
.EX Example begin Document structure macros
.HP Begin paragraph with hanging indent Paragraphing macros
.I Italic Font style macros
.IB Italic, bold alternating Font style macros
.IP Indented paragraph Paragraphing macros
.IR Italic, roman alternating Font style macros
.LP Begin paragraph Paragraphing macros
.ME Mail-to end Hyperlink macros
.MR Man page cross reference Hyperlink macros
.MT Mail-to start Hyperlink macros
.P Begin paragraph Paragraphing macros
.PP Begin paragraph Paragraphing macros
.RB Roman, bold alternating Font style macros
.RE Relative inset end Document structure macros
.RI Roman, italic alternating Font style macros
.RS Relative inset start Document structure macros
.SH Section heading Document structure macros
.SM Small Font style macros
.SS Subsection heading Document structure macros
.SY Synopsis start Synopsis macros
.TH Title heading Document structure macros
.TP Tagged paragraph Paragraphing macros
.TQ Supplemental paragraph tag Paragraphing macros
.UE URI end Hyperlink macros
.UR URI start Hyperlink macros
.YS Synopsis end Synopsis macros
We discuss other macros (AT, DT, OP, PD, SB, and UC) in subsection
“Deprecated features” below.
Throughout Unix documentation, a manual entry is referred to
simply as a “man page”, regardless of its length, without gendered
implication, and irrespective of the macro package selected for
its composition.
Macro reference preliminaries
A tagged paragraph describes each macro. We present coupled pairs
together, as with EX and EE. If you require an empty macro
argument, specify it as a pair of neutral double quotes ("").
Most macro arguments are formatted as text in the output;
exceptions are noted.
Document structure macros
Document structure macros organize a man page's content. All of
them break the output line. TH (title heading) identifies the
document as a man page and configures the page headers and
footers. Section headings (SH), one of which is mandatory and
many of which are conventionally expected, facilitate location of
material by the reader and aid the man page writer to discuss all
essential aspects of the topics presented. Subsection headings
(SS) are optional and permit sections that grow long to develop in
a controlled way. Many technical discussions benefit from
examples; lengthy ones, especially those reflecting multiple lines
of input to or output from the system, are usefully bracketed by
EX and EE. When none of the foregoing meets a structural demand,
use RS/RE to inset a region within a (sub)section.
.TH identifier section [footer-middle [footer-inside [header-
middle]]]
Populate the page header and footer. Together, identifier
and the section of the manual to which it belongs can
uniquely identify a man document on the system. See man(1)
or intro(1) for the manual sectioning applicable to your
system. identifier and section are positioned at the left
and right in the header; the latter is set after the
former, in parentheses and without space. footer-middle is
centered in the footer. By default, footer-inside is
positioned at the bottom left. Use of the double-sided
layout option -rD1 places footer-inside at the bottom left
on recto (odd-numbered) pages, and the bottom right on
verso (even-numbered) pages. By default, the outside
footer is the page number. Use of the continuous-rendering
option -rcR=1 replaces it with identifier and section, as
in the header. header-middle is centered in the header.
If section is an integer between 1 and 9 (inclusive), there
is no need to specify header-middle; an.tmac supplies text
for it. If identifier or footer-inside would overrun the
space available in the header and/or footer, this package
may abbreviate them with ellipses. In HTML output, headers
and footers are suppressed.
Additionally, this macro breaks the page, resetting the
number to 1 (unless the -rC1 option is given). This
feature is intended only for formatting multiple man
documents in sequence.
A valid man document calls TH only once, early in the file,
prior to any other macro calls.
.SH [heading-text]
Set heading-text as a section heading. Given no argument,
SH plants a one-line input trap; text on the next line
becomes heading-text. The heading text is set in bold (or
the font specified by the string HF), and, on typesetters,
slightly larger than the base type size. If the heading
font \*[HF] is bold, use of an italic style in heading-text
is mapped to the bold-italic style if available in the font
family. The inset level is reset to 1; see subsection
“Horizontal and vertical spacing” below. Text lines after
the call are set as an ordinary paragraph (P).
The content of heading-text and ordering of sections
follows a set of common practices, as does much of the
layout of material within sections. For example, a section
called “Name” or “NAME” must exist, must be the first
section after the TH call, and must contain only text of
the form
topic[, another-topic]... \- summary-description
for tools like makewhatis(8) or mandb(8) to index them.
.SS [subheading-text]
Set subheading-text as a subsection heading indented
between a section heading and an ordinary paragraph (P).
Given no argument, SS plants a one-line input trap; text on
the next line becomes subheading-text. The subheading text
is set in bold (or the font specified by the string HF).
If the heading font \*[HF] is bold, use of an italic style
in subheading-text is mapped to the bold-italic style if
available in the font family. The inset level is reset to
1; see subsection “Horizontal and vertical spacing” below.
Text lines after the call are set as an ordinary paragraph
(P).
.EX
.EE Begin and end example. After EX, filling is disabled (and,
on typesetters, a monospaced font family is selected).
Calling EE enables filling (and restores the previous
family).
Ninth Edition Unix introduced the EX and EE extensions.
Documenter's Workbench (DWB), Heirloom Doctools, and Plan 9
troffs, and mandoc (since 1.12.2) support them. Solaris 10
troff does not.
.RS [inset-amount]
Start new relative inset. man saves any current inset
amount and moves right by: inset-amount, if specified; the
indentation amount of the preceding IP, TP, or HP macro
call if no (sub-)sectioning or ordinary paragraphing macro
has intervened; or the amount of the IN register. RS calls
can nest; each increments by 1 the level used by RE. The
level prior to any RS call is 1.
.RE [inset-level]
End a relative inset, restoring the inset amount of inset-
level, or 1 if none is specified.
Paragraphing macros
These macros break the output line. An ordinary paragraph (P)
indents all output lines by the same amount. A hanging paragraph
(HP) is a cosmetic variant of P with a hanging indent. Definition
lists frequently occur in man pages; these can be set as tagged
paragraphs, which have one (TP) or more (TQ) leading tags followed
by a paragraph that has an additional indentation. The indented
paragraph (IP) macro is useful to continue the indented content of
a narrative started with TP, or to present an itemized or ordered
list. If paragraph macro has been called since SH or SS, all
except for TQ follow the break with vertical space (in an amount
configured by the deprecated PD macro); see subsection “Horizontal
and vertical spacing” below. Except for TQ, these macros reset
the type size and font style to defaults, and restore the
configured hyphenation mode.
.P
.LP
.PP Begin a new paragraph; these macros are synonymous. Any
indentation from use of IP, TP, or HP is cleared. The
inset amount, as affected by RS and RE, is not.
.HP [indentation]
Set a paragraph with a hanging indentation. Text on output
lines after the first is indented by indentation, if
specified, and by the amount of the IN register otherwise.
Caution: A hanging indentation cannot be expressed
naturally in (pure) HTML, a hanging paragraph is not
distinguishable from an ordinary one if it formats on only
one output line, and non-roff-based man page interpreters
may treat HP as an ordinary paragraph anyway. Thus,
information or distinctions you mean to express with
indentation may be lost.
.TP [indentation]
Set an indented paragraph with a leading unindented tag.
The macro plants a one-line input trap that honors the \c
escape sequence; text on the next line becomes the tag, set
without indentation. Text on subsequent lines is indented
by indentation, if specified, and by the amount of the IN
register otherwise. If the tag, plus the “tag spacing”
stored in the TS register (see section “Options” below) is
wider than the indentation, the package breaks the line
after the tag.
.TQ Set an additional tag for a paragraph tagged with TP,
planting a one-line input trap as with TP.
TQ is a GNU extension supported by Heirloom Doctools troff
(since Git snapshot 151220) and mandoc (since 1.14.5) but
not by DWB, Plan 9, or Solaris 10 troffs.
The description of P, LP, and PP above was written using TP
and TQ.
.IP [mark [indentation]]
Set an indented paragraph with an optional mark.
Arguments, if present, are handled as with TP, except that
the mark argument to IP cannot include a macro call, and
the tag separation amount stored in the TS register is not
enforced.
Synopsis macros
Use SY and YS to summarize syntax using familiar Unix conventions.
Heirloom Doctools troff and mandoc (since 1.14.5) support these
GNU extensions; DWB, Plan 9, or Solaris 10 troffs do not.
.SY keyword [suffix]
Begin synopsis. Adjustment and automatic hyphenation are
disabled. If SY has already been called without a
corresponding YS, a break is performed. keyword and any
suffix are set in bold. When suffix is present, groff man
sets the next word after it without intervening space. If
a break is required in subsequent text (up to a
paragraphing, sectioning, or YS macro call), lines after
the first are indented. Unless the previous synopsis's
indentation is reused (see YS below), output lines after
the first indent by the width of the pending output line up
to the end of keyword plus a space, if keyword is the only
argument, and up to the end of suffix otherwise.
.YS [reuse-indentation]
End synopsis, breaking the line and restoring indentation,
adjustment, and hyphenation to their previous states. If
an argument is given, the indentation corresponding to the
previous SY call is reused by the next SY call instead of
being computed.
Hyperlink macros
Man page cross references are best presented with MR. Mark email
addresses with MT/ME and other sorts of URI with UR/UE. To
hyperlink text, terminals and pager programs must support ECMA-48
OSC 8 escape sequences (see grotty(1)). When device support is
unavailable or disabled with the U register (see section “Options”
below), groff man renders these URIs between angle brackets (⟨ ⟩)
after the linked text.
MT, ME, UR, and UE are GNU extensions supported by Heirloom
Doctools and mandoc (UR/UE since 1.12.3; MT/ME since 1.14.2) but
not by DWB, Plan 9 (original), or Solaris 10 troffs. Plan 9 from
User Space's troff implements MR.
Prepare arguments to MR, MT, and UR for typesetting; they can
appear in the output. Use special character escape sequences to
encode Unicode basic Latin characters where necessary,
particularly the hyphen-minus.
.MR topic [manual-section [trailing-text]]
(since groff 1.23) Set a man page cross reference as
“topic(manual-section)”. If manual-section is absent, the
package omits the surrounding parentheses. If trailing-
text (typically punctuation) is specified, it follows the
closing parenthesis without intervening space. Hyphenation
is disabled while the cross reference is set. topic is set
in the font specified by the MF string. If manual-section
is present, the cross reference hyperlinks to a URI of the
form “man:topic(manual-section)”.
.MT address
.ME [trailing-text]
Identify address as an RFC 6068 addr-spec for a “mailto:”
URI with the text between the two macro calls as the link
text. An argument to ME is placed after the link text
without intervening space. address may not be visible in
the rendered document if hyperlinks are enabled and
supported by the output driver. If they are not, address
is set in angle brackets after the link text and before
trailing-text. If hyperlinking is enabled but there is no
link text, address is formatted and hyperlinked without
angle brackets.
.UR uri
.UE [trailing-text]
Identify uri as an RFC 3986 URI hyperlink with the text
between the two macro calls as the link text. An argument
to UE is placed after the link text without intervening
space. uri may not be visible in the rendered document if
hyperlinks are enabled and supported by the output driver.
If they are not, uri is set in angle brackets after the
link text and before trailing-text. If hyperlinking is
enabled but there is no link text, uri is formatted and
hyperlinked without angle brackets.
If a UR/UE or MT/ME pair occurs in a TP tag and hyperlinking is
unavailable, groff man sets the link target at the beginning of
the indented paragraph, not as part of the tag.
Font style macros
The man macro package is limited in its font styling options,
offering only bold (B), italic (I), and roman. Italic text may
instead render underscored on terminals. SM sets text at a
smaller type size, which differs visually from regular-sized text
only on typesetters. The macros BI, BR, IB, IR, RB, and RI set
their odd- and even-numbered arguments as text in the alternating
styles their names indicate, with no space separating them.
The default type size and family for typesetters is 10-point
Times, except on the X75-12 and X100-12 devices where the type
size is 12 points. The default style is roman.
.B [text]
Set text in bold. Given no argument, B plants a one-line
input trap; text on the next line, which can be further
formatted with a macro, is set in bold.
.I [text]
Set text in an italic or oblique face. Given no argument,
I plants a one-line input trap; text on the next line,
which can be further formatted with a macro, is set in an
italic or oblique face.
.SM [text]
Set text one point smaller than the default type size on
typesetters. Given no argument, SM plants a one-line input
trap; text on the next line, which can be further formatted
with a macro, is set smaller.
Unlike the above font style macros, the font style alternation
macros below set no input traps; they must be given arguments to
have effect. They apply italic corrections as appropriate.
.BI bold-text italic-text ...
Set each argument in bold and italics, alternately.
.BR bold-text roman-text ...
Set each argument in bold and roman, alternately.
.IB italic-text bold-text ...
Set each argument in italics and bold, alternately.
.IR italic-text roman-text ...
Set each argument in italics and roman, alternately.
.RB roman-text bold-text ...
Set each argument in roman and bold, alternately.
.RI roman-text italic-text ...
Set each argument in roman and italics, alternately.
Horizontal and vertical spacing
The package sets all text inboard of the left edge of the output
medium by the amount of the page offset; see register PO in
section “Options” below. Headers, footers (both set with TH), and
section headings (SH) lie at the page offset. groff man indents
subsection headings (SS) by the amount in the SN register.
Ordinary paragraphs not within an RS/RE inset region are inset by
the amount stored in the BP register; see section “Options” below.
The IN register configures the default indentation amount used by
RS (as the inset-amount), IP, TP, and HP; an overriding argument
is a number plus an optional scaling unit. If no scaling unit is
given, the man package assumes “n”. An indentation specified in a
call to IP, TP, or HP persists until (1) another of these macros
is called with an indentation argument, or (2) SH, SS, or P or its
synonyms is called; these clear the indentation entirely.
Several macros insert vertical space: SH, SS, TP, P (and its
synonyms), IP, and HP. The default inter-section and inter-
paragraph spacing is 1v for terminals and 0.4v for typesetters.
(The deprecated macro PD can change this vertical spacing, but we
discourage its use.) Between EX and EE calls, the inter-paragraph
spacing is 1v regardless of output device.
Registers
Registers are described in section “Options” below. They can be
set not only on the command line but in the site man.local file as
well; see section “Files” below.
Strings
The following strings are defined for use in man pages. None of
these is necessary in a contemporary man page; see
groff_man_style(7). groff man supports others for configuration
of rendering parameters; see section “Options” below.
\*R interpolates a special character escape sequence for the
“registered sign” glyph, \(rg, if available, and “(Reg.)”
otherwise.
\*S interpolates an escape sequence setting the type size to
the document default.
\*(lq
\*(rq interpolate special character escape sequences for left and
right double-quotation marks, \(lq and \(rq, respectively.
\*(Tm interpolates a special character escape sequence for the
“trade mark sign” glyph, \(tm, if available, and “(TM)”
otherwise.
Hooks
Two macros, both GNU extensions, are called internally by the
groff man package to format page headers and footers and can be
redefined by the administrator in a site's man.local file (see
section “Files” below). The presentation of TH above describes
the default headers and footers. Because these macros are hooks
for groff man internals, man pages have no reason to call them.
Such hook definitions typically consist of “sp” and “tl” requests.
PT furthermore has the responsibility of emitting a PDF bookmark
after writing the first page header in a document. Consult the
existing implementations in an.tmac when drafting replacements.
.BT Set the page footer text (“bottom trap”).
.PT Set the page header text (“page trap”).
To remove a page header or footer entirely, define the appropriate
macro as empty rather than deleting it.
Deprecated features
Use of the following in man pages for public distribution is
discouraged.
.AT [system [release]]
Alter the footer for use with legacy AT&T man pages,
overriding any definition of the footer-inside argument to
TH. This macro exists only to render man pages from
historical systems.
The inside footer is populated per the value of system.
3 7th edition (default)
4 System III
5 System V
The optional release argument specifies the release number,
as in “System V Release 3”.
.DT Reset tab stops to the default (every 0.5i).
Use of this presentation-oriented macro is deprecated. It
translates poorly to HTML, under which exact space control
and tabulation are not readily available. Thus,
information or distinctions that you use tab stops to
express are likely to be lost. If you feel tempted to
change the tab stops such that calling this macro later to
restore them is desirable, consider composing a table using
tbl(1) instead.
.OP option-name [option-argument]
Indicate an optional command parameter called option-name,
which is set in bold. If the option takes an argument,
specify option-argument using a noun, abbreviation, or
hyphenated noun phrase. If present, option-argument is
preceded by a space and set in italics. Square brackets in
roman surround both arguments.
Use of this quasi-semantic macro, an extension whose name
originated in DWB troff, is deprecated; groff's
implementation differs. Neither can easily be used to
annotate options that take optional arguments or options
whose arguments have internal structure (such as a mixture
of literal and variable components). One could work around
these limitations with font selection escape sequences, but
font style alternation macros are preferable; they are more
flexible and perform italic corrections on typesetters.
.PD [vertical-space]
Configure the amount of vertical space between paragraphs
or (sub)sections. The optional argument vertical-space
specifies the amount; the default scaling unit is “v”.
Without an argument, inter-paragraph spacing resets to its
default value; see subsection “Horizontal and vertical
spacing” above.
Use of this presentation-oriented macro is deprecated. It
translates poorly to HTML, under which exact control of
inter-paragraph spacing is not readily available. Thus,
information or distinctions that you use PD to express are
likely to be lost.
.SB [text]
Set text in bold and (on typesetters) one point smaller
than the default type size. Given no argument, SB plants a
one-line input trap; text on the next line, which can be
further formatted with a macro, is set smaller and in bold.
Use of this macro, an extension originating in SunOS 4.0
troff, is deprecated. SM without an argument, followed
immediately by “B text”, produces the same output more
portably. The macros' order is interchangeable; put text
with the latter.
.UC [version]
Alter the footer for use with legacy BSD man pages,
overriding any definition of the footer-inside argument to
TH. This macro exists only to render man pages from
historical systems.
The inside footer is populated per the value of version.
3 3rd Berkeley Distribution (default)
4 4th Berkeley Distribution
5 4.2 Berkeley Distribution
6 4.3 Berkeley Distribution
7 4.4 Berkeley Distribution
History
M. Douglas McIlroy ⟨m.douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu⟩ designed,
implemented, and documented the AT&T man macros for Unix Version 7
(1979) and employed them to edit Volume 1 of its Programmer's
Manual, a compilation of all man pages supplied by the system.
The package supported the macros listed in this page not described
as extensions, except P and the deprecated AT and UC. It
documented no registers and defined only R and S strings.
UC appeared in 3BSD (1980). Unix System III (1980) introduced P
and exposed the registers IN and LL, which had been internal to
Seventh Edition Unix man. PWB/Unix 2.0 (1980) added the Tm
string. 4BSD (1980) added lq and rq strings. SunOS 2.0 (1985)
recognized C, D, P, and X registers. 4.3BSD (1986) added AT and
P. Ninth Edition Unix (1986) introduced EX and EE. SunOS 4.0
(1988) added SB.
Except for EX/EE, James Clark implemented the foregoing features
in early versions of groff. Later, groff 1.20 (2009) resurrected
EX/EE and originated SY/YS, TQ, MT/ME, and UR/UE. Plan 9 from
User Space's troff introduced MR in 2020.
The following groff options set registers (with -r) and strings
(with -d) recognized and used by the man macro package. To ensure
rendering consistent with output device capabilities and reader
preferences, man pages should never manipulate them.
-dAD=adjustment-mode
Set line adjustment to adjustment-mode, which is typically
“b” for adjustment to both margins (the default), or “l”
for left alignment (ragged right margin). Any valid
argument to groff's “ad” request may be used. See groff(7)
for less-common choices.
-rBP=base-paragraph-inset
Set the inset amount for ordinary paragraphs not within an
RS/RE inset. The default is 5n.
-rcR=1 Enable continuous rendering. Output is not paginated;
instead, one (potentially very long) page is produced.
This is the default for terminal and HTML devices. Use
-rcR=0 to disable it on terminals; on HTML devices, it
cannot be disabled.
-rC1 Number output pages consecutively, in strictly increasing
sequence, rather than resetting the page number to 1 (or
the value of register P) with each new man document.
-rCHECKSTYLE=n
Report problems with usage of this macro package exhibited
by the input at verbosity level n, where n is an integer in
the range 0–3, inclusive; 0 disables the messages and is
the default. This feature is a development and debugging
aid for man page maintainers; the problems diagnosed, and
range and meanings of the supported levels, are subject to
change.
-rCS=1 Set section headings (the argument(s) to SH) in full
capitals. This transformation is off by default because it
discards lettercase distinctions.
-rCT=1 Set the man page identifier (the first argument to TH) in
full capitals in headers and footers. This transformation
is off by default because it discards lettercase
distinctions.
-rD1 Enable double-sided layout, formatting footers for even and
odd pages differently; see the description of TH in
subsection “Document structure macros” above.
-rFT=footer-distance
Set distance of the footer relative to the bottom of the
page to footer-distance; this amount is always negative.
At one half-inch above this location, the page text is
broken before writing the footer. Ignored if continuous
rendering is enabled. The default is “-0.5i - 1v”.
-dHF=heading-font
Select the font used for section and subsection headings;
the default is “B” (bold style of the default family). Any
valid argument to groff's “ft” request may be used. See
groff(7).
-rHY=0 Disable automatic hyphenation. Normally, it is
enabled (1). The hyphenation mode is determined by the
groff locale; see section “Localization“ of groff(7).
-rIN=standard-indentation
Set the default indentation amount used by IP, TP, and HP,
and the inset amount used by RS. The default is 7n on
terminals and 7.2n on typesetters. Use only integer
multiples of unit “n” on terminals for consistent
indentation.
-rLL=line-length
Set line length; the default is 80n on terminals and 6.5i
on typesetters.
-rLT=title-length
Set the line length for titles. By default, it is set to
the line length (see -rLL above).
-dMF=man-page-topic-font
Select the font used for man page identifiers in TH calls
and topics named in MR calls; the default is “I” (italic
style of the default family). Any valid argument to
groff's “ft” request may be used. If the MF string ends in
“I”, the package assumes it to be an oblique typeface, and
applies italic corrections before and after man page topics
and identifiers.
-rPn Start enumeration of pages at n. The default is 1.
-rPO=page-offset
Set page offset; the default is 0 on terminals and 1i on
typesetters.
-rStype-size
Use type-size for the document's body text; acceptable
values are 10, 11, or 12 points. See subsection “Font
style macros” above for the default.
-rSN=subsection-indentation
Set indentation of subsection headings to subsection-
indentation. The default is 3n.
-rTS=separation
Require the given separation between a TP paragraph's tag
and its body. The default is 2n.
-rU0 Disable generation of URI hyperlinks in output drivers
capable of them, making the arguments to MT and UR calls
visible as formatted text. grohtml(1), gropdf(1), and
grotty(1) enable hyperlinks by default (the last only if
not in its legacy output mode).
-rXp Number successors of page p as pa, pb, pc, and so forth.
The register tracking the suffixed page letter uses format
“a” (see the “af” request in groff(7)).
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/an.tmac
Most man macros are defined in this file. It also loads
extensions from an-ext.tmac (see below).
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/andoc.tmac
This brief groff program detects whether the man or mdoc
macro package is used by a document and loads the correct
macro definitions, taking advantage of the fact that pages
using them must call TH or Dd, respectively, before any
other macros. A man program or a user typing, for example,
“groff -mandoc page.1”, need not know which package the
file page.1 uses. Multiple man pages, in either format,
can be handled; andoc reloads each macro package as
necessary. Page-local redefinitions of names used by the
man or mdoc packages prior to TH or Dd calls are
“clobbered” by the reloading process. If you want to
provide your own definition of an extension macro to ensure
its availability, the an-ext.tmac entry below offers
advice.
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/an-ext.tmac
Definitions of macros described above as extensions (and
not deprecated) are contained in this file; in some cases,
they are simpler versions of definitions appearing in
an.tmac, and are ignored if the formatter is GNU troff.
They are written to be compatible with AT&T troff and
permissively licensed—not copylefted. To reduce the risk
of name space collisions, string and register names begin
only with “m”. We encourage man page authors who are
concerned about portability to legacy Unix systems to copy
these definitions into their pages, and maintainers of
troff implementations or work-alike systems that format man
pages to re-use them. To ensure reliable rendering, define
them after your page calls TH; see the discussion of andoc
.tmac above. Further, it is wise to define such page-local
macros (if at all) after the “Name” section to accommodate
timid makewhatis(8) or mandb(8) implementations that easily
give up scanning for indexing material.
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/man.tmac
is a wrapper enabling the package to be loaded with the
option “-m man”.
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/mandoc.tmac
is a wrapper enabling andoc.tmac to be loaded with the
option “-m mandoc”.
/usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac/man.local
Put site-local changes and customizations into this file.
James Clark wrote the initial GNU implementation of the man macro
package. Later, Werner Lemberg ⟨wl@gnu.org⟩ supplied the S, LT,
and cR registers, the last a 4.3BSD-Reno mdoc(7) feature. Larry
Kollar ⟨kollar@alltel.net⟩ added the FT, HY, and SN registers; the
HF string; and the PT and BT macros in groff 1.19 (2003). Lemberg
and Eric S. Raymond ⟨esr@thyrsus.com⟩ contributed EX/EE, MT/ME,
UR/UE, TQ, and an early version of the SY/YS macros to groff 1.20
(2009). G. Branden Robinson ⟨g.branden.robinson@gmail.com⟩
implemented the AD and MF strings; CS, CT, and U registers; and
the MR macro for groff 1.23 (2023), and the BP, PO, and TS
registers and a revised implementation of the SY/YS macros for
groff 1.24 (2025).
This document was originally written for the Debian GNU/Linux
system by Susan G. Kleinmann ⟨sgk@debian.org⟩. It was corrected
and updated by Lemberg and Robinson. The extension macros were
documented by Raymond and Robinson.
tbl(1), eqn(1), and refer(1) are preprocessors used with man
pages. man(1) describes the man page librarian on your system.
groff_mdoc(7) details the groff version of BSD's alternative macro
package for man pages.
groff_man_style(7), groff(7), groff_char(7)
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 2025-08-11. (At
that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in
the repository was 2025-08-09.) 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 1.23.0.3821-a8b3f 2025-08-09 groff_man(7)
Pages that refer to this page: dh_installman(1), man(1), man-pages(7), uri(7)
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