# groff_tmac - macro files in the GNU roff typesetting system - man(5) - [phpMan] [_groff_tmac_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/grofftmac/5/markdown) File Formats Manual [_groff_tmac_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/grofftmac/5/markdown) ## Name groff_tmac - macro files in the GNU _roff_ typesetting system ## Description Definitions of macros, strings, and registers for use in a [_roff_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/roff/7/markdown) document can be collected into _macro_ _files_, _roff_ input files designed to produce no output themselves but instead ease the preparation of other _roff_ documents. There is no syntactical difference between a macro file and any other _roff_ document; only its purpose distinguishes it. When a macro file is installed at a standard location, named according to a certain convention, and suitable for use by a general audience, it is termed a _macro_ _package_. Macro packages can be loaded by supplying the **-m **option to [_troff_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/troff/1/markdown) or a _groff_ front end. Each macro package stores its macro, string, and register definitions in one or more _tmac_ files. This name originated in early Unix culture as an abbreviation of “_troff_ macros”. A macro file must have a name in the form name_.tmac_ (or _tmac._name) and be placed in a “_tmac_ directory” to be loadable with the **-m_**name_ option. Section “Environment” of [_troff_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/troff/1/markdown) lists these directories. Alternatively, a _groff_ document requiring a macro file can load it with the **mso **(“macro source”) request. Like any other _roff_ document, a macro file can use the “**so**” request (“source”) to load fur‐ ther files relative to its own location. Macro files are named for their most noteworthy application, but a macro file need not define any macros. It can restrict itself to defining registers and strings or invoking other _groff_ requests. It can even be empty. ## Macro packages Macro packages come in two varieties; those which assume responsibility for page layout and other critical functions (“major” or “full-service”) and those which do not (“supplemental” or “auxiliary”). GNU _roff_ provides most major macro packages found in AT&T and BSD Unix sys‐ tems, an additional full-service package, and many supplemental packages. Multiple full-ser‐ vice macro packages cannot be used by the same document. Auxiliary packages can generally be freely combined, though attention to their use of the _groff_ language name spaces for identi‐ fiers (particularly registers, macros, strings, and diversions) should be paid. Name space management was a significant challenge in AT&T _troff_; _groff_'s support for arbitrarily long identifiers affords few excuses for name collisions, apart from attempts at compatibility with the demands of historical documents. ### Man pages _an_ _man_ _an_ is used to compose man pages in the format originating in Version 7 Unix (1979). It has a small macro interface and is widely used; see [_groff_man_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groffman/7/markdown). _doc_ _mdoc_ _doc_ is used to compose man pages in the format originating in 4.3BSD-Reno (1990). It provides many more features than _an_, but is also larger, more complex, and not as widely adopted; see [_groff_mdoc_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groffmdoc/7/markdown). Because readers of man pages often do not know in advance which macros are used to format a given document, a wrapper is available. _andoc_ _mandoc_ This macro file, specific to _groff_, recognizes whether a document uses _man_ or _mdoc_ format and loads the corresponding macro package. Multiple man pages, in either for‐ mat, can be handled; _andoc_ reloads each macro package as necessary. ### Full-service packages The packages in this section provide a complete set of macros for writing documents of any kind, up to whole books. They are similar in functionality; it is a matter of taste which one to use. _me_ The classical _me_ macro package; see [_groff_me_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groffme/7/markdown). _mm_ The semi-classical _mm_ macro package; see [_groff_mm_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groffmm/7/markdown). _mom_ The _mom_ macro package, only available in groff. As this was not based on other pack‐ ages, it was freely designed as quite a nice, modern macro package. See [_groff_mom_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groffmom/7/markdown). _ms_ The classical _ms_ macro package; see [_groff_ms_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groffms/7/markdown). ### Localization packages For Western languages, the localization file sets the hyphenation mode and loads hyphenation patterns and exceptions. Localization files can also adjust the date format and provide translations of strings used by some of the full-service macro packages; alter the input en‐ coding (see the next section); and change the amount of additional inter-sentence space. For Eastern languages, the localization file defines character classes and sets flags on them. By default, _troffrc_ loads the localization file for English. _trans_ loads localized strings used by various macro packages after their localized forms have been prepared by a localization macro file. _groff_ provides the following localization files. _cs_ Czech; localizes _man_, _me_, _mm_, _mom_, and _ms_. Sets the input encoding to Latin-2 by loading _latin2.tmac_. _de_ _den_ German; localizes _man_, _me_, _mm_, _mom_, and _ms_. Sets the input encoding to Latin-1 by loading _latin1.tmac_. _de.tmac_ selects hyphenation patterns for traditional orthography, and _den.tmac_ does the same for the new orthography (“Rechtschreibreform”). _en_ English. _fr_ French; localizes _man_, _me_, _mm_, _mom_, and _ms_. Sets the input encoding to Latin-9 by loading _latin9.tmac_. _it_ Italian; localizes _man_, _me_, _mm_, _mom_, and _ms_. _ja_ Japanese. _sv_ Swedish; localizes _man_, _me_, _mm_, _mom_, and _ms_. Sets the input encoding to Latin-1 by loading _latin1.tmac_. Some of the localization of the _mm_ package is handled sepa‐ rately; see [_groff_mmse_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groffmmse/7/markdown) (only in Swedish locales). _zh_ Chinese. ### Input encodings _latin1_ _latin2_ _latin5_ _latin9_ are various ISO 8859 input encodings supported by _groff_. On systems using ISO charac‐ ter encodings, _groff_ loads _latin1.tmac_ automatically at startup. A document that uses Latin-2, Latin-5, or Latin-9 can specify one of these alternative encodings. _cp1047_ provides support for EBCDIC-based systems. On those platforms, _groff_ loads _cp1047.tmac_ automatically at startup. Because different input character codes constitute valid GNU _troff_ input on ISO and EBCDIC systems, the _latin_ macro files cannot be used on EBCDIC systems, and _cp1047_ cannot be used on ISO systems. ### Auxiliary packages The macro packages in this section are not intended for stand-alone use, but can add func‐ tionality to any other macro package or to plain (“raw”) _groff_ documents. _62bit_ provides macros for addition, multiplication, and division of 62-bit integers (allow‐ ing safe multiplication of signed 31-bit integers, for example). _hdtbl_ allows the generation of tables using a syntax similar to the HTML table model. This Heidelberger table macro package is not a preprocessor, which can be useful if the contents of table entries are determined by macro calls or string interpolations. Compare to [_tbl_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/tbl/1/markdown). It works only with the **ps **and **pdf **output devices. See [_groff_hdtbl_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groffhdtbl/7/markdown). _papersize_ enables the paper format to be set on the command line by giving a “**-d paper=_**format_” option to _troff_. Possible values for _format_ are the ISO and DIN formats “**A0**–**A6**”, “**B0**–**B6**”, “**C0**–**C6**”, and “**D0**–**D6**”; the U.S. formats “**letter**”, “**legal**”, “**tabloid**”, “**ledger**”, “**statement**”, and “**executive**”; and the envelope formats “**com10**”, “**monarch**”, and “**DL**”. All formats, even those for envelopes, are in portrait orientation: the length measurement is vertical. Appending “l” (ell) to any of these denotes landscape orientation instead. This macro file assumes one-inch horizontal margins, and sets registers recognized by the _groff_ _man_, _mdoc_, _mm_, _mom_, and _ms_ packages to configure them accordingly. If you want different margins, you will need to use those packages' facilities, or _troff_ **ll **and/or **po **requests to adjust them. An output device typically requires command-line options **-p **and **-l **to override the paper dimensions and orienta‐ tion, respectively, defined in its _DESC_ file; see subsection “Paper format” of [_groff_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groff/1/markdown). This macro file is normally loaded at startup by the _troffrc_ file when for‐ matting for a typesetting device (but not a terminal). _pdfpic_ provides a single macro, **PDFPIC**, to include a PDF graphic in a document using features of the **pdf **output driver. For other output devices, **PDFPIC **calls **PSPIC**, with which it shares an interface (see below). This macro file is normally loaded at startup by the _troffrc_ file. _pic_ supplies definitions of the macros **PS**, **PE**, and **PF**, usable with the [_pic_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/pic/1/markdown) preproces‐ sor. They center each picture. Use it if your document does not use a full-service macro package, or that package does not supply working _pic_ macro definitions. Except for _man_ and _mdoc_, those provided with _groff_ already do so (exception: _mm_ employs the name **PF **for a different purpose). _pspic_ provides a macro, **PSPIC**, that includes a PostScript graphic in a document. The **ps**, **dvi**, **html**, and **xhtml **output devices support such inclusions; for all other drivers, the image is replaced with a rectangular border of the same size. _pspic.tmac_ is loaded at startup by the _troffrc_ file. Its syntax is as follows. **.PSPIC **[**-L**|**-R**|**-C**|**-I _**n_] _file_ [_width_ [_height_]] _file_ is the name of the PostScript file; _width_ and _height_ give the desired width and height of the image. If neither a _width_ nor a _height_ argument is specified, the im‐ age's natural width (as given in the file's bounding box) or the current line length is used as the width, whatever is smaller. The _width_ and _height_ arguments may have scaling units attached; the default scaling unit is **i**. **PSPIC **scales the graphic uni‐ formly in the horizontal and vertical directions so that it is no more than _width_ wide and _height_ high. Option **-C **centers the graphic horizontally; this is the default. **-L** and **-R **left- and right-align the graphic, respectively. **-I **indents the graphic by _n_ (with a default scaling unit of **m**). To use **PSPIC **within a diversion, we recommend extending it with the following code, assuring that the diversion's width completely covers the image's width. .am PSPIC . vpt 0 \h'(\\n[ps-offset]u + \\n[ps-deswid]u)' . sp -1 . vpt 1 .. Failure to load **PSPIC**'s image argument is not an error. (The **psbb **request does issue an error diagnostic.) To make such a failure fatal, append to the **pspic*error-hook** macro. .am pspic*error-hook . ab .. _ptx_ provides a macro, **xx**, to format permuted index entries as produced by the GNU [_ptx_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ptx/1/markdown) program. If your formatting needs differ, copy the macro into your document and adapt it to your needs. _rfc1345_ defines special character escape sequences named for the glyph mnemonics specified in RFC 1345 and the digraph table of the Vim text editor. See [_groff_rfc1345_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groffrfc1345/7/markdown). _sboxes_ offers an interface to the “**pdf: background**” device control command supported by [_gropdf_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/gropdf/1/markdown). Using this package, _groff_ _ms_ documents can draw colored rectangles beneath any output. **.BOXSTART SHADED _**color_ **OUTLINED _**color_ **INDENT _**size_ **WEIGHT _**size_ begins a box, where the argument after **SHADED **gives the fill color and that af‐ ter **OUTLINED **the border color. Omit the former to get a borderless filled box and the latter for a border with no fill. The specified **WEIGHT **is used if the box is **OUTLINED**. **INDENT **precedes a value which leaves a gap between the border and the contents inside the box. Each _color_ must be a defined _groff_ color name, and each _size_ a valid _groff_ nu‐ meric expression. The keyword/value pairs can be specified in any order. Boxes can be stacked, so you can start a box within another box; usually the later boxes would be smaller than the containing box, but this is not enforced. When using **BOXSTART**, the left position is the current indent minus the **INDENT **in the command, and the right position is the left position (calculated above) plus the current line length and twice the indent. **.BOXSTOP** takes no parameters. It closes the most recently started box at the current vertical position after adding its **INDENT **spacing. Your _groff_ documents can conditionally exercise the _sboxes_ macros. The register **GSBOX** is defined if the package is loaded, and interpolates a true value if the **pdf **output device is in use. _sboxes_ furthermore hooks into the [_groff_ms_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groffms/7/markdown) package to receive notifications when footnotes are growing, so that it can close boxes on a page before footnotes are printed. When that condition obtains, _sboxes_ will close open boxes two points above the footnote separator and re-open them on the next page. (This amount probably will not match the box's **INDENT**.) See “Using PDF boxes with _groff_ and the _ms_ macros” for a demonstration. _trace_ aids the debugging of _groff_ documents by tracing macro calls. See [_groff_trace_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/grofftrace/7/markdown). _www_ defines macros corresponding to HTML elements. See [_groff_www_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groffwww/7/markdown). ## Naming AT&T _nroff_ and _troff_ were implemented before the conventions of the modern C [_getopt_(3)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/getopt/3/markdown) call evolved, and used a naming scheme for macro packages that looks odd to modern eyes. Macro packages were typically loaded using the **-m **option to the formatter; when directly followed by its argument without an intervening space, this looked like a long option preceded by a single minus—a sensation in the computer stone age. Macro packages therefore came to be known by names that started with the letter “m”, which was omitted from the name of the macro file as stored on disk. For example, the manuscript macro package was stored as _tmac.s_ and loaded with the option **-ms**. _groff_ commands permit space between an option and its argument. The syntax “**groff -m s**” makes the macro file name more clear but may surprise users familiar with the original con‐ vention, unaware that the package's “real” name was “s” all along. For such packages of long pedigree, _groff_ accommodates different users' expectations by supplying wrapper macro files that load the desired file with **mso **requests. Thus, all of “**groff -m s**”, “**groff -m ms**”, “**groff -ms**”, and “**groff -mms**” serve to load the manuscript macros. Wrappers are not provided for packages of more recent vintage, like _www.tmac_. As noted in passing above, AT&T _troff_ named macro files in the form _tmac._name. It has since become conventional in operating systems to use a suffixed file name extension to suggest a file type or format. ## Inclusion The traditional method of employing a macro package is to specify the **-m _**package_ option to the formatter, which then reads _package_'s macro file prior to any input files. Historically, _package_ was sought in a file named _tmac._package (that is, with a “**tmac.**” prefix). GNU _troff_ searches for package_.tmac_ in the macro path; if not found, it looks for _tmac._package instead, and vice versa. Alternatively, one could include a macro file by using the request “**.so _**file-name_” in the document; _file-name_ is resolved relative to the location of the input document. GNU _troff_ offers an improved feature in the similar request “**mso _**package-file-name_”, which searches the macro path for _package-file-name_. Because its argument is a file name, its “**.tmac**” component must be included for the file to be found; however, as a convenience, if opening it fails, **mso **strips any such suffix and tries again with a “**tmac.**” prefix, and vice versa. If a sourced file requires preprocessing, for example if it includes _tbl_ tables or _eqn_ equa‐ tions, the preprocessor [_soelim_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/soelim/1/markdown) must be used. This can be achieved with a pipeline or, in _groff_, by specifying the **-s **option to the formatter (or front end). [_man_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/man/1/markdown) librarian pro‐ grams generally call _soelim_ automatically. (Macro packages themselves generally do not re‐ quire preprocessing.) ## Writing macros A [_roff_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/roff/7/markdown) document is a text file that is enriched by predefined formatting constructs, such as requests, escape sequences, strings, numeric registers, and macros from a macro package. These elements are described in [_roff_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/roff/7/markdown). To give a document a personal style, it is most useful to extend the existing elements by defining some macros for repeating tasks; the best place for this is near the beginning of the document or in a separate file. Macros without arguments are just like strings. But the full power of macros occurs when ar‐ guments are passed with a macro call. Within the macro definition, the arguments are avail‐ able as the escape sequences **\$1**, ..., **\$9**, **\$[**...**]**, **\$***, and **\$@**, the name under which the macro was called is in **\$0**, and the number of arguments is in register **\n[.$]**; see [_groff_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groff/7/markdown). ### Draft mode Writing groff macros is easy when the escaping mechanism is temporarily disabled. In groff, this is done by enclosing the macro definition(s) within a pair of **.eo **and **.ec **requests. Then the body in the macro definition is just like a normal part of the document — text en‐ hanced by calls of requests, macros, strings, registers, etc. For example, the code above can be written in a simpler way by .eo .ds midpart was called with the following .de print_args \f[I]\$0\f[] \*[midpart] \n[.$] arguments: \$* .. .ec Unfortunately, draft mode cannot be used universally. Although it is good enough for defin‐ ing normal macros, draft mode fails with advanced applications, such as indirectly defined strings, registers, etc. An optimal way is to define and test all macros in draft mode and then do the backslash doubling as a final step; do not forget to remove the _.eo_ request. ### Tips for macro definitions • Start every line with a dot, for example, by using the groff request **.nop **for text lines, or write your own macro that handles also text lines with a leading dot. .de Text . if (\\n[.$] == 0) \ . return . nop \)\\$*\) .. • Write a comment macro that works both for copy and draft modes; since the escape char‐ acter is off in draft mode, trouble might occur when comment escape sequences are used. For example, the following macro just ignores its arguments, so it acts like a comment line: .de c .. .c This is like a comment line. • In long macro definitions, make ample use of comment lines or almost-empty lines (this is, lines which have a leading dot and nothing else) for a better structuring. • To increase readability, use groff's indentation facility for requests and macro calls (arbitrary whitespace after the leading dot). ### Diversions Diversions can be used to implement quite advanced programming constructs. They are compara‐ ble to pointers to large data structures in the C programming language, but their usage is quite different. In their simplest form, diversions are multi-line strings, but diversions get their power when used dynamically within macros. The (formatted) information stored in a diversion can be retrieved by calling the diversion just like a macro. Most of the problems arising with diversions can be avoided if you remember that diversions always store complete lines. Using diversions when the line buffer has not been flushed pro‐ duces strange results; not knowing this, many people get desperate about diversions. To en‐ sure that a diversion works, add line breaks at the right places. To be safe, enclose every‐ thing that has to do with diversions within a pair of line breaks; for example, by explicitly using **.br **requests. This rule should be applied to diversion definition, both inside and outside, and to all calls of diversions. This is a bit of overkill, but it works nicely. (If you really need diversions which should ignore the current partial line, use environments to save the current partial line and/or use the **.box **request.) The most powerful feature using diversions is to start a diversion within a macro definition and end it within another macro. Then everything between each call of this macro pair is stored within the diversion and can be manipulated from within the macros. ## Authors This document was written by [Bernd Warken](mailto:), [Werner Lemberg](mailto:), and [G. Branden Robinson](mailto:). **See also** _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”. The [Filesystem Hierarchy Standard]() is maintained by the Linux Foundation. [_groff_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groff/1/markdown) is an overview of the _groff_ system. [_groff_man_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groffman/7/markdown), [_groff_mdoc_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groffmdoc/7/markdown), [_groff_me_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groffme/7/markdown), [_groff_mm_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groffmm/7/markdown), [_groff_mom_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groffmom/7/markdown), [_groff_ms_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groffms/7/markdown), [_groff_rfc1345_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groffrfc1345/7/markdown), [_groff_trace_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/grofftrace/7/markdown), and [_groff_www_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groffwww/7/markdown) are _groff_ macro packages. [_groff_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groff/7/markdown) summarizes the language recognized by GNU _troff_. [_troff_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/troff/1/markdown) documents the default macro file search path. groff 1.23.0 31 March 2024 [_groff_tmac_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/grofftmac/5/markdown)