groff_man(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual groff_man(7)
Name
groff_man - compose manual pages with GNU roff
Synopsis
groff -man [option ...] [file ...]
groff -m man [option ...] [file ...]
Description
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 hanging paragraph 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]]]
Break the page, reset the page number to 1 (unless the -rC1
option is given), and use the arguments to 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. groff man suppresses headers and footers in HTML
output.
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 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, reducing it to that of inset-level (or
by 1 if not specified) and restoring the corresponding inset
amount.
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
can continue the indented content of a narrative started with TP, or
present an itemized or ordered list. If a paragraphing macro has been
called since SH or SS, all except 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, hyphenation, and adjustment to
(configured) defaults, and the font style to roman.
.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 151218) and mandoc (since 1.14.5) but not by
DWB, Plan 9, or Solaris troffs.
.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 (since Git snapshot 151218) and mandoc (since
1.14.5) support these GNU extensions; DWB, Plan 9, and Solaris 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, the package 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
troff (since Git snapshot 151218) and mandoc (UR/UE since 1.12.3; MT/ME
since 1.14.2) but not by DWB, Plan 9 (original), or Solaris 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, except when address appears as a TP
paragraph tag.
.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,
except when uri appears as a TP paragraph tag.
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, unless there is no link
text.
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. They then enable no-space mode; see groff(7). 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 interface
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. Unix System V
(1988) incorporated the lq and rq strings.
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, and incorporated the lq and rq strings in
2025.
Options
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)).
Files
/opt/local/share/groff/1.24.1/tmac/an.tmac
Most man macros are defined in this file. It also loads
extensions from an-ext.tmac (see below).
/opt/local/share/groff/1.24.1/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.
/opt/local/share/groff/1.24.1/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.
/opt/local/share/groff/1.24.1/tmac/man.tmac
is a wrapper enabling the package to be loaded with the option
"-m man".
/opt/local/share/groff/1.24.1/tmac/mandoc.tmac
is a wrapper enabling andoc.tmac to be loaded with the option
"-m mandoc".
/opt/local/share/groff/site-tmac/man.local
Put site-local changes and customizations into this file.
Authors
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 (2026).
Susan G. Kleinmann <sgk@debian.org> wrote the initial version of this
document for the Debian GNU/Linux system. Lemberg imported it to
groff. He and Robinson revised and updated it. Raymond and Robinson
documented the extension macros.
See also
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)
groff 1.24.1 2026-05-15 groff_man(7)
groff 1.24.1 - Generated Mon May 18 16:04:31 CDT 2026