man > MAN(7)

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 sys‐
       tem.  It is used to produce 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 cross references to appropriate subsections
       below.

       Man page authors and maintainers who are not already experienced groff users  should  consult
       groff_man_style(7), an expanded version of this document, for additional explanations and ad‐
       vice.   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
       .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
       .SB     Small bold                   Font style macros
       .SH     Section heading              Document structure macros
       .SM     Small                        Font style macros
       .SS     Subsection heading           Document structure macros
       .SY     Synopsis start               Command 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                 Command synopsis macros

       We discuss other macros (.AT, .DT, .HP, .OP, .PD, and .UC)  in  subsection  “Deprecated  fea‐
       tures” below.

       Throughout  Unix documentation, a manual entry is referred to simply as a “man page”, regard‐
       less of its length, without gendered implication, and irrespective of the macro  package  se‐
       lected for its composition.

   Macro reference preliminaries
       A  tagged paragraph describes each macro.  We present coupled pairs together, as with .EX and
       .EE.

       An empty macro argument can be specified with a pair of double-quotes (""), but the man pack‐
       age is designed such that this should seldom be necessary.  Most macro arguments will be for‐
       matted 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 convention‐
       ally  expected,  facilitate location of material by the reader and aid the man page writer to
       discuss all essential aspects of the topic.  Subsection headings (.SS) are optional and  per‐
       mit sections that grow long to develop in a controlled way.  Many technical discussions bene‐
       fit  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 topic section [footer-middle] [footer-inside] [header-middle]
              Determine  the contents of the page header and footer.  The subject of the man page is
              topic and the section of the manual to which it belongs is  section.   See  man(1)  or
              intro(1)  for  the manual sectioning applicable to your system.  topic and section are
              positioned together at the left and right in the header (with section  in  parentheses
              immediately  appended  to  topic).   footer-middle  is  centered  in  the footer.  The
              arrangement of the rest of the footer depends on whether double-sided  layout  is  en‐
              abled  with the option -rD1.  When disabled (the default), footer-inside is positioned
              at the bottom left.  Otherwise, footer-inside appears at  the  bottom  left  on  recto
              (odd-numbered)  pages,  and  at  the bottom right on verso (even-numbered) pages.  The
              outside footer is the page number, except in the continuous-rendering mode enabled  by
              the  option  -rcR=1,  in  which  case  it  is the topic 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 will supply text for
              it.  The macro package may also abbreviate topic and footer-inside  with  ellipses  if
              they  would  overrun  the space available in the header and footer, respectively.  For
              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  once, early in the file, prior to any other macro
              calls.

       .SH [heading-text]
              Set heading-text as a section heading.  If no argument is given, a one-line input trap
              is planted; text on the next line becomes heading-text.  The left margin is  reset  to
              zero to set the heading text in bold (or the font specified by the string HF), and, on
              typesetting  devices,  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, setting the
              left margin to the value of the IN register.  Text after heading-text is set as an or‐
              dinary paragraph (.P).

              The content of heading-text and ordering of sections follows a  set  of  common  prac‐
              tices,  as has 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  a  man  page  to be properly indexed.  See groff_man_style(7) for suggestions and
              man(7) for the conventions prevailing on your system.

       .SS [subheading-text]
              Set subheading-text as a subsection heading indented between a section heading and  an
              ordinary  paragraph  (.P).  If no argument is given, a one-line input trap is planted;
              text on the next line becomes subheading-text.  The left margin is reset to the  value
              of  the  SN  register  to  set  the heading text 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, setting the left margin to the value of the IN register.  Text
              after subheading-text is set as an ordinary paragraph (.P).

       .EX
       .EE    Begin and end example.  After .EX, filling is disabled  and  a  constant-width  (mono‐
              spaced) font is selected.  Calling .EE enables filling and restores the previous font.

              These  macros  are extensions introduced in Ninth Edition Research Unix.  Systems run‐
              ning that troff, or those from Documenter's Workbench, Heirloom Doctools,  or  Plan  9
              troff  support them.  To be certain your page will be portable to systems that do not,
              copy their definitions from the an-ext.tmac file of a groff installation.

       .RS [inset-amount]
              Start a new relative inset level.  The position of the  left  margin  is  saved,  then
              moved right by inset-amount, if specified, and by the amount of the IN register other‐
              wise.   Calls  to .RS can be nested; each increments by 1 the inset level used by .RE.
              The level prior to any .RS calls is 1.

       .RE [level]
              End a relative inset.  The left margin corresponding to inset level level is restored.
              If no argument is given, the inset level is reduced by 1.

   Paragraphing macros
       An ordinary paragraph (.P) is set without a first-line indentation at the current  left  mar‐
       gin.   In  man  pages and other technical literature, definition lists are frequently encoun‐
       tered; 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.  All of these macros break the output line.  If  another
       paragraph  macro has occurred since the previous .SH or .SS, they (except for .TQ) follow the
       break with a default amount of vertical space, which can be changed  by  the  deprecated  .PD
       macro; see subsection “Horizontal and vertical spacing” below.  They also reset the type size
       and font style to defaults (.TQ again excepted); see subsection “Font style macros” below.

       .P
       .LP
       .PP    Begin  a  new paragraph; these macros are synonymous.  The indentation is reset to the
              default value; the left margin, as affected by .RS and .RE, is not.

       .TP [indentation]
              Set a paragraph with a leading tag, and the remainder of the  paragraph  indented.   A
              one-line  input  trap is planted; text on the next line, which can be formatted with a
              macro, becomes the tag, which is placed at the current left margin.  The  tag  can  be
              extended  with the \c escape sequence.  Subsequent text is indented by indentation, if
              specified, and by the amount of the IN register otherwise.  If the tag is not as  wide
              as  the indentation, the paragraph starts on the same line as the tag, at the applica‐
              ble indentation, and continues on the following  lines.   Otherwise,  the  descriptive
              part of the paragraph begins on the line following the tag.

       .TQ    Set  an  additional  tag for a paragraph tagged with .TP.  An input trap is planted as
              with .TP.

              This macro is a GNU extension not defined on systems running AT&T, Plan 9, or  Solaris
              troff; see an-ext.tmac in section “Files” below.

       .IP [tag] [indentation]
              Set an indented paragraph with an optional tag.  The tag and indentation arguments, if
              present, are handled as with .TP, with the exception that the tag argument to .IP can‐
              not include a macro call.

   Command synopsis macros
       .SY  and  .YS aid you to construct a command synopsis that has the classical Unix appearance.
       They break the output line.

       These macros are GNU extensions not defined on systems  running  AT&T,  Plan  9,  or  Solaris
       troff; see an-ext.tmac in section “Files” below.

       .SY command
              Begin synopsis.  A new paragraph begins at the left margin unless .SY has already been
              called  without a corresponding .YS, in which case only a break is performed.  Adjust‐
              ment and automatic hyphenation are disabled.  command is set in bold.  If a  break  is
              required, lines after the first are indented by the width of command plus a space.

       .YS    End synopsis.  Indentation, adjustment, and hyphenation are restored to their previous
              states.

   Hyperlink macros
       Man  page cross references are best presented with .MR.  Text may be hyperlinked to email ad‐
       dresses with .MT/.ME or other URIs with .UR/.UE.  Hyperlinked text is supported on  HTML  and
       terminal  output  devices; terminals and pager programs must support ECMA-48 OSC 8 escape se‐
       quences (see grotty(1)).  When device support is unavailable or disabled with the U  register
       (see section “Options” below), .MT and .UR URIs are rendered between angle brackets after the
       linked text.

       .MT, .ME, .UR, and .UE are GNU extensions not defined on systems running AT&T, Plan 9, or So‐
       laris troff; see an-ext.tmac in section “Files” below.  Plan 9 from User Space's troff imple‐
       ments .MR.

       The  arguments  to .MR, .MT, and .UR should be prepared for typesetting since they can appear
       in the output.  Use special character escape sequences to encode Unicode basic Latin  charac‐
       ters  where  necessary,  particularly  the hyphen-minus.  The formatter removes \: escape se‐
       quences from hyperlinks when supplying device control commands to output drivers.

       .MR topic manual-section [trailing-text]
              (since groff 1.23) Set a man page  cross  reference  as  “topic(manual-section)”.   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.  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,  ad‐
              dress  is  set in angle brackets after the link text and before trailing-text.  If hy‐
              perlinking 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.

       The  hyperlinking of .TP paragraph tags with .UR/.UE and .MT/.ME is not yet supported; if at‐
       tempted, the hyperlink will be typeset at the beginning of the indented paragraph even on hy‐
       perlink-supporting devices.

   Font style macros
       The man macro package is limited in its  font  styling  options,  offering  only  bold  (.B),
       italic  (.I), and roman.  Italic text is usually set underscored instead on terminal devices.
       The .SM and .SB macros set text in roman or bold, respectively, at a smaller type size; these
       differ visually from regular-sized roman or bold text only on typesetting devices.  It is of‐
       ten necessary to set text in different styles without intervening  space.   The  macros  .BI,
       .BR,  .IB,  .IR,  .RB, and .RI, where “B”, “I”, and “R” indicate bold, italic, and roman, re‐
       spectively, set their odd- and even-numbered arguments in alternating styles, with  no  space
       separating them.

       The  default  type  size  and family for typesetting devices 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.  If no argument is given, a one-line input trap is planted; 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.  If no argument is given, a one-line input trap
              is planted; 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 typesetting devices.  If no
              argument is given, a one-line input trap is planted; text on the next line, which  can
              be further formatted with a macro, is set smaller.

       .SB [text]
              Set  text in bold and (on typesetting devices) one point smaller than the default type
              size.  If no argument is given, a one-line input trap is planted;  text  on  the  next
              line,  which  can be further formatted with a macro, is set smaller and in bold.  This
              macro is an extension introduced in SunOS 4.0.

       Unlike the above font style macros, the font style alternation  macros  below  set  no  input
       traps; they must be given arguments to have effect.  Italic corrections are applied as appro‐
       priate.

       .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 indentation argument accepted by .IP, .TP, and the deprecated .HP is a number plus an op‐
       tional  scaling unit, as is .RS's inset-amount.  If no scaling unit is given, the man package
       assumes “n”.  An indentation specified in a call to .IP, .TP, or the deprecated .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.

       The  left  margin  used  by  ordinary paragraphs set with .P (and its synonyms) not within an
       .RS/.RE relative inset is 7.2n for typesetting devices and 7n for terminal devices  (but  see
       the  -rIN  option).  Headers, footers (both set with .TH), and section headings (.SH) are set
       at the page offset (see groff(7)) and subsection headings (.SS) indented from it by  3n  (but
       see the -rSN option).

       Several macros insert vertical space: .SH, .SS, .TP, .P (and its synonyms), .IP, and the dep‐
       recated .HP.  The default inter-section and inter-paragraph spacing is is 1v for terminal de‐
       vices  and  0.4v for typesetting devices.  (The deprecated macro .PD can change this vertical
       spacing, but its use is discouraged.)  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 con‐
       temporary  man  page; see groff_man_style(7).  Others are supported for configuration of ren‐
       dering 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 will likely consist of “.sp” and “.tl” requests.  They must
       also increase the page length with “.pl” requests in continuous rendering mode; .PT  further‐
       more 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  his‐
              torical systems.

              system can be any of the following.

                     3      7th edition (default)

                     4      System III

                     5      System V

              The  optional  release  argument  specifies  the  release  number, as in “System V Re‐
              lease 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, in‐
              formation 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 is  desir‐
              able to restore them, you should probably be composing a table using tbl(1) instead.

       .HP [indentation]
              Set  up  a  paragraph  with  a hanging left indentation.  The indentation argument, if
              present, is handled as with .TP.

              Use of this presentation-oriented macro is deprecated.  A hanging  indentation  cannot
              be  expressed naturally under HTML, and non-roff-based man page interpreters may treat
              .HP as an ordinary paragraph.  Thus, information or distinctions you mean  to  express
              with indentation may be lost.

       .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 originating in Documenter's Workbench
              troff, is deprecated.  It cannot 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 it is preferable to use font style alternation macros,
              which afford greater flexibility.

       .PD [vertical-space]
              Define the vertical space between paragraphs or (sub)sections.  The optional  argument
              vertical-space  specifies the amount; the default scaling unit is “v”.  Without an ar‐
              gument, the spacing is reset to its default value; see subsection “Horizontal and ver‐
              tical 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.

       .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 his‐
              torical systems.

              version can be any of the following.

                     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 designed, implemented, and documented the AT&T man macros  for  Unix  Ver‐
       sion 7 (1979) and employed them to edit the first volume of its Programmer's Manual, a compi‐
       lation of all man pages supplied by the system.  That man supported the macros listed in this
       page not described as extensions, except .P and the deprecated .AT and .UC.  The only strings
       defined were R and S; no registers were documented.

       .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 Research Unix (1986)  intro‐
       duced .EX and .EE.  SunOS 4.0 (1988) added .SB.

       The  foregoing features were what James Clark implemented in early versions of groff.  Later,
       groff 1.20 (2009) originated .SY/.YS, .TQ, .MT/.ME, and .UR/.UE.  Plan 9  from  User  Space's
       troff introduced .MR in 2020.

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 ar‐
              gument to groff's “.ad” request may be used.  See groff(7) for less-common choices.

       -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 terminal devices; on HTML devices, it cannot be disabled.

       -rC1   Number output pages consecutively, in strictly increasing sequence, rather than reset‐
              ting the page number to 1 (or the value of register P) with each new man document.

       -rCS=1 Set section headings (the argument(s) to .SH) in full capitals.   This  transformation
              is off by default because it discards case distinction information.

       -rCT=1 Set  the  man  page  topic (the first argument to .TH) in full capitals in headers and
              footers.  This transformation is off by default because it discards  case  distinction
              information.

       -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.

       -dHF=heading-font
              Set  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  amount of indentation used for ordinary paragraphs (.P and its synonyms) and
              the default indentation amount used by .IP, .RS, .TP, and  the  deprecated  .HP.   See
              subsection  “Horizontal and vertical spacing” above for the default.  For terminal de‐
              vices, standard-indentation should always be an integer multiple of unit  “n”  to  get
              consistent indentation.

       -rLL=line-length
              Set  line length; the default is 78n for terminal devices and 6.5i for typesetting de‐
              vices.

       -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
              Set  the  font used for man page topics named in .TH and .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”, it is assumed to be an oblique  typeface,  and
              italic corrections are applied before and after man page topics.

       -rPn   Start enumeration of pages at n.  The default is 1.

       -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.   See  subsection
              “Horizontal and vertical spacing” above for the default.

       -rU1   Enable generation of URI hyperlinks in the grohtml and grotty output drivers.  grohtml
              enables  them  by  default; grotty does not, pending more widespread pager support for
              OSC 8 escape sequences.  Use -rU0 to disable hyperlinks; this will make the  arguments
              to MT and UR calls visible in the document text produced by link-capable drivers.

       -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
       /usr/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/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/andoc.tmac
              This  brief  groff program detects whether the man or mdoc macro package is being 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 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.

       /usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/an-ext.tmac
              Except for .SB, definitions of macros described above as extensions 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  com‐
              patible  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.

              The definitions for these macros are read after a page calls .TH, so they will replace
              any macros of the same names preceding it in your file.  If you use your own implemen‐
              tations of these macros, they must be defined after .TH is called to have any  effect.
              Furthermore,  it is wise to define such page-local macros (if at all) after the “Name”
              section to accommodate timid makewhatis or mandb  implementations  that  may  give  up
              their scan for indexing material early.

       /usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/man.tmac
              This is a wrapper that loads an.tmac.

       /usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/mandoc.tmac
              This is a wrapper that loads andoc.tmac.

       /usr/share/groff/site-tmac/man.local
              Put site-local changes and customizations into this file.

Authors
       The  initial  GNU implementation of the man macro package was written by James Clark.  Later,
       Werner Lemberg supplied the S, LT, and cR registers, the last a 4.3BSD-Reno mdoc(7)  feature.
       Larry Kollar added the FT, HY, and SN registers; the HF string; and the PT and BT macros.  G.
       Branden Robinson  implemented  the  AD  and  MF  strings; CS, CT, and U registers; and the MR
       macro.  Except for .SB, the extension macros were written by  Lemberg,  Eric S. Raymond,  and
       Robinson.

       This  document  was originally written for the Debian GNU/Linux system by Susan G. Kleinmann.
       It was corrected and updated by Lemberg and Robinson.  The extension macros  were  documented
       by Raymond and Robinson.

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 the BSD-originated
       alternative macro package for man pages.

       groff_man_style(7), groff(7), groff_char(7), man(7)

groff 1.23.0                                31 March 2024                               groff_man(7)
MAN(7) □✕
Name Synopsis Description
Macro reference preliminaries Document structure macros .EX Paragraphing macros .LP Command synopsis macros Hyperlink macros Font style macros Horizontal and vertical spacing Registers Strings Hooks Deprecated features History
Options
-dAD=adjustment-mode -rcR=1 Enable continuous rendering. Output is not paginated; instead, one (potentially very -rC1 Number output pages consecutively, in strictly increasing sequence, rather than reset‐ -rCS=1 Set section headings (the argument(s) to .SH) in full capitals. This transformation -rCT=1 Set the man page topic (the first argument to .TH) in full capitals in headers and -rD1 Enable double-sided layout, formatting footers for even and odd pages differently; see -rFT=footer-distance -dHF=heading-font -rHY=0 Disable automatic hyphenation. Normally, it is enabled (1). The hyphenation mode is -rIN=standard-indentation -rLL=line-length -rLT=title-length -dMF=man-page-topic-font -rPn Start enumeration of pages at n. The default is 1. -rStype-size -rSN=subsection-indentation -rU1 Enable generation of URI hyperlinks in the grohtml and grotty output drivers. grohtml -rXp Number successors of page p as pa, pb, pc, and so forth. The register tracking the
Files Authors

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