groff_ms(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual groff_ms(7)
Name
groff_ms - GNU roff manuscript macro package for formatting documents
Synopsis
groff -ms [option ...] [file ...]
groff -m ms [option ...] [file ...]
Description
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 consistently
formatted bibliographic citations.
groff ms is mostly compatible with the documented interface and
behavior of AT&T Unix Version 7 ms. It recreates most extensions from
4.2BSD (Berkeley) and Research Tenth Edition Unix.
Document structure
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.
A macro call at the end of the document emits the collected
entries. This material necessarily follows the rest of the text
since GNU troff is a single-pass formatter; it 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 next paragraph 0.3v (1v)
(spacing)
\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. ms recognizes no as a synonym
of no-repeat-info to maintain AT&T compatibility. Options other
than no are GNU extensions.
.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 disables automatic hyphenation. 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, groff 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 [mark [width]]
Set a paragraph with a left indentation. The optional mark is
not indented, is useful in the construction of lists, and is
empty by default. width overrides the indentation amount in
\n[PI]; its default unit is "n". Once specified, width applies
to further IP calls until specified again or a heading or
different paragraphing macro is called.
.QP Set a paragraph indented from both left and right margins by
\n[QI].
.QS
.QE Begin (QS) and end (QE) a region where each paragraph is
indented from both margins by \n[QI]. The text between QS and
QE can be structured further by use of other paragraphing
macros.
.XP Set an "exdented" paragraph--one with a left indentation of
\n[PI] on every line except the first (also known as a hanging
indent). This is a Berkeley extension.
Headings
Use headings to create a hierarchical structure for your document. The
ms macros print headings in bold using the same font family and, by
default, type size as the body text. Headings are available with and
without automatic numbering. Text on input lines following the macro
call becomes the heading's title. Call a paragraphing macro to end the
heading text and start the section's content.
.NH [depth]
Set an automatically numbered heading. ms produces a numbered
heading in the form a.b.c..., to any level desired, with the
numbering of each depth increasing automatically and being reset
to zero when a more significant depth is increased. "1" is the
most significant or coarsest division of the document. Only
non-zero values are output. If depth is omitted, ms assumes
"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.
In groff ms, the NH and SH macros consult the HORPHANS register to
prevent the output 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, groff 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. ms draws box lines close 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. The formatter 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 tbl "allbox" option is used.
Footnotes
A footnote is typically anchored to a place in the text with a mark,
which is a small integer, a symbol, or arbitrary user-specified text.
\** Place an automatic number, an automatically generated numeric
footnote mark, 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 [mark]
Begin a footnote. The FS-MARK hook (see below) is called with
any supplied mark argument, which is then also placed at the
beginning of the footnote text. If mark 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 mark argument,
at the bottom of a column or page as follows.
0 Set an automatic number, or a specified FS mark 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 mark 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 mark 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, Spanish,
French, Italian, Polish, Russian, 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 is designed to permit the redefinition
of the macros that are called when formatter traps that ordinarily
cause the headers and footers to be output 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
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.
o The internals of groff ms differ from those 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).
o The error-handling policy of groff ms is to detect and report
errors, rather than to ignore them silently.
o Research Tenth Edition Unix supported P1/P2 macros to bracket code
examples; groff ms does not.
o 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.
o Multiple line spacing is not supported. Use a larger vertical
spacing instead.
o 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).
o 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.
o 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.
o AT&T ms's AU macro supported arguments whose values were used with
some non-RP document types; that of groff ms does not.
o 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.
o 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.
o 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 %.)
o 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.
o The AT&T ms manual did not document the QI register; Berkeley and
groff ms do.
o 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 unimplemented 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
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
External names available to documents that use the groff ms macros
contain only uppercase letters and digits. The package reserves for
internal use the following identifiers:
o those containing the characters *, @, and :; and
o those containing only uppercase letters and digits.
When selecting a name for your document's own macros, strings, and
registers, avoid those reserved by groff ms and those defined by GNU
troff. See groff(7) for complete lists thereof.
groff ms organizes most of its internal names into modules. The naming
convenion is as follows.
o Names used only within one module are of the form module*name.
o Names used outside the module in which they are defined are of the
form module@name.
o Names associated with a particular environment are of the form
environment:name; these are used only within the par module.
o name does not have a module prefix.
o Names constructed to implement arrays are of the form array!index.
Files
/opt/local/share/groff/1.24.1/tmac/s.tmac
implements the package.
/opt/local/share/groff/1.24.1/tmac/refer-ms.tmac
implements refer(1) support for ms.
/opt/local/share/groff/1.24.1/tmac/ms.tmac
is a wrapper enabling the package to be loaded with the option
"-m ms".
Authors
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
A manual is available in source and rendered form. On your system, it
may be compressed and/or available in additional formats.
/opt/local/share/doc/groff-1.24.1/ms.ms
/opt/local/share/doc/groff-1.24.1/ms.ps
"Using groff with the ms Macro Package"; Larry Kollar and
G. Branden Robinson.
/opt/local/share/doc/groff-1.24.1/msboxes.ms
/opt/local/share/doc/groff-1.24.1/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)
groff 1.24.1 2026-05-15 groff_ms(7)
groff 1.24.1 - Generated Mon May 18 16:32:43 CDT 2026