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Name | Description | groff Macro Packages | Naming | Inclusion | Writing Macros | Files | Environment | Authors | See also | COLOPHON |
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groff_tmac(5) File Formats Manual groff_tmac(5)
groff_tmac - macro files in the GNU roff typesetting system
The roff(7) type-setting system provides a set of macro packages
suitable for special kinds of documents. Each macro package
stores its macros and definitions in a file called the package's
tmac file. The name is deduced from ‘TroffMACros’.
The tmac files are normal roff source documents, except that they
usually contain only definitions and setup commands, but no text.
All tmac files are kept in a single or a small number of
directories, the tmac directories.
groff provides all classical macro packages, some more full
packages, and some secondary packages for special purposes. Note
that it is not possible to use multiple primary macro packages at
the same time; saying e.g.,
sh# groff -m man -m ms foo
or
sh# groff -m man foo -m ms bar
fails. Exception to this is the use of man pages written with
either the mdoc or the man macro package. See below the
description of the andoc.tmac file.
Man pages
man This is the classical macro package for Unix manual pages
(man pages); it is quite handy and easy to use; see
groff_man(7).
doc
mdoc An alternative macro package for man pages mainly used in
BSD systems; it provides many new features, but it is not
the standard for man pages; see groff_mdoc(7).
andoc
mandoc Use this file in case you don't know whether the man
macros or the mdoc package should be used. Multiple man
pages (in either format) can be handled.
Full 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).
mm The semi-classical mm macro package; see groff_mm(7).
mom The new mom macro package, only available in groff. As
this is not based on other packages, it can be freely
designed. So it is expected to become quite a nice,
modern macro package. See groff_mom(7).
ms The classical ms macro package; see groff_ms(7).
Language-specific packages
cs This file adds support for Czech localization, including
the main macro packages (me, mom, mm, and ms).
Note that cs.tmac sets the input encoding to latin-2.
de
den German localization support, including the main macro
packages (me, mom, mm, and ms).
de.tmac selects hyphenation patterns for traditional
orthography, and den.tmac does the same for the new
orthography (‘Rechtschreibreform’). It should be used as
the last macro package on the command line.
fr This file adds support for French localization, including
the main macro packages (me, mom, mm, and ms). Example:
sh# groff -ms -mfr foo.ms > foo.ps
Note that fr.tmac sets the input encoding to latin-9 to
get proper support of the ‘oe’ ligature.
sv Swedish localization support, including the me, mom, and
ms macro packages. Note that Swedish for the mm macros is
handled separately; see groff_mmse(7). It should be used
as the last macro package on the command line.
Input encodings
latin1
latin2
latin5
latin9 Various input encodings supported directly by groff.
Normally, this macro is loaded at the very beginning of a
document or specified as the first macro argument on the
command line. groff loads latin1 by default at start-up.
Note that these macro packages don't work on EBCDIC hosts.
cp1047 Encoding support for EBCDIC. On those platforms it is
loaded automatically at start-up. Due to different
character ranges used in groff it doesn't work on
architectures which are based on ASCII.
Note that it can happen that some input encoding characters are
not available for a particular output device. For example,
saying
groff -Tlatin1 -mlatin9 ...
fails if you use the Euro character in the input. Usually, this
limitation is present only for devices which have a limited set
of output glyphs (-Tascii, -Tlatin1); for other devices it is
usually sufficient to install proper fonts which contain the
necessary glyphs.
Special packages
The macro packages in this section are not intended for stand-
alone usage, but can be used to add special functionality to any
other macro package or to plain groff.
62bit Provides macros for addition, multiplication, and division
of 62-bit integers (allowing safe multiplication of 31-bit
integers, for example).
ec Switch to the EC and TC font families. To be used with
grodvi(1) – this man page also gives more details of how
to use it.
hdtbl The Heidelberger table macros, contributed by Joachim
Walsdorff, allow the generation of tables through a syntax
similar to the HTML table model. Note that hdtbl is a
macro package, not a preprocessor like tbl(1). hdtbl
works only with the -Tps and -Tpdf output devices. See
groff_hdtbl(7).
papersize
This macro file is already loaded at start-up by troff so
it isn't necessary to call it explicitly. It provides an
interface to set the paper size on the command line with
the option -dpaper=size. Possible values for size are the
same as the predefined papersize values in the DESC file
(only lowercase; see groff_font(5) for more) except a7–d7.
An appended l (ell) character denotes landscape
orientation. Examples: a4, c3l, letterl.
Most output drivers need additional command-line switches
-p and -l to override the default paper length and
orientation as set in the driver-specific DESC file. For
example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in
landscape orientation:
sh# groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
pdfpic A single macro is provided in this file, PSPIC, to include
a PDF graphic in a document, i.e., under the output device
-Tpdf. For all other devices, pspic is used. So pdfpic
is an extension of pspic. By that you can now even
replace all PSPIC by PDFPIC, nothing gets lost by that.
The options of PDFPIC are identical to the PSDIF options.
pic This file provides proper definitions for the macros PS
and PE, needed for the pic(1) preprocessor. They center
each picture. Use it only if your macro package doesn't
provide proper definitions for those two macros (actually,
most of them already do).
pspic A single macro is provided in this file, PSPIC, to include
a PostScript graphic in a document. The following output
devices support inclusion of PS images: -Tps, -Tdvi,
-Thtml, and -Txhtml; for all other devices the image is
replaced with a hollow rectangle of the same size. This
macro file is already loaded at start-up by troff so it
isn't necessary to call it explicitly.
Syntax:
.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
image'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 indicators attached; the default scaling
indicator is i. This macro scales the graphic uniformly
in the x and y directions so that it is no more than width
wide and height high. Option -C centers the graphic
horizontally, which is the default. The -L and -R options
cause the graphic to be left-aligned and right-aligned,
respectively. The -I option causes the graphic to be
indented by n (default scaling indicator is m).
For use of .PSPIC within a diversion it is recommended to
extend 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
..
ptx A single macro is provided in this file, xx, for
formatting permuted index entries as produced by the GNU
ptx(1) program. In case you need a different formatting,
copy the macro into your document and adapt it to your
needs.
trace Use this for tracing macro calls. It is only useful for
debugging. See groff_trace(7).
tty-char
Defines fallback definitions of roff special characters
for terminal devices. These definitions more poorly
optically approximate typeset output compared to those of
the tty file in favor of communicating more semantic
information, which can allow easier processing with
critical equipment.
www Additions of elements known from the HTML format, as used
in the internet (World Wide Web) pages; this includes URL
links and mail addresses; see groff_www(7).
Classical roff systems were designed before the conventions of
the modern C getopt(3) call evolved, and used a naming scheme for
macro packages that looks odd to modern eyes. Macro packages
were always included with the option -m; when this option was
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. To make this invocation
form work, classical troff macro packages used names that started
with the letter ‘m’, which was omitted in the naming of the macro
file.
For example, the macro package for the man pages was called man,
while its macro file tmac.an. So it could be activated by the
argument an to option -m, or -man for short.
For similar reasons, macro packages that did not start with an
‘m’ had a leading ‘m’ added in the documentation and in speech;
for example, the package corresponding to tmac.doc was called
mdoc in the documentation, although a more suitable name would be
doc. For, when omitting the space between the option and its
argument, the command-line option for activating this package
reads -mdoc.
To cope with all situations, actual versions of groff(1) are
smart about both naming schemes by providing two macro files for
the inflicted macro packages; one with a leading ‘m’ the other
one without it. So in groff, the man macro package may be
specified as one of the following four methods:
sh# groff -m man
sh# groff -man
sh# groff -mman
sh# groff -m an
Recent packages that do not start with ‘m’ do not use an
additional ‘m’ in the documentation. For example, the www macro
package may be specified only as one of the two methods:
sh# groff -m www
sh# groff -mwww
Obviously, variants like -mmwww would not make much sense.
A second strange feature of classical troff was to name macro
files in the form tmac.name. In modern operating systems, the
type of a file is specified as a postfix, the file name
extension. Again, groff copes with this situation by searching
both anything.tmac and tmac.anything if only anything is
specified.
The easiest way to find out which macro packages are available on
a system is to check the man page groff(1), or the contents of
the tmac directories.
In groff, most macro packages are described in man pages called
groff_name(7), with a leading ‘m’ for the classical packages.
There are several ways to use a macro package in a document. The
classical way is to specify the troff/groff option -m name at
run-time; this makes the contents of the macro package name
available. In groff, the file name.tmac is searched within the
tmac path; if not found, tmac.name is searched for instead.
Alternatively, it is also possible to include a macro file by
adding the request .so filename into the document; the argument
must be the full file name of an existing file, possibly with the
directory where it is kept. In groff, this was improved by the
similar request .mso package, which added searching in the tmac
path, just like option -m does.
Note that in order to resolve the .so and .mso requests, the roff
preprocessor soelim(1) must be called if the files to be included
need preprocessing. This can be done either directly by a
pipeline on the command line or by using the troff/groff option
-s. man calls soelim automatically.
For example, suppose a macro file is stored as
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/macros.tmac
and is used in some document called docu.roff.
At run-time, the formatter call for this is
sh# groff -m macros docu.roff
To include the macro file directly in the document either
.mso macros.tmac
is used or
.so /usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/macros.tmac
In both cases, the formatter should be called with option -s to
invoke soelim.
sh# groff -s docu.roff
If you want to write your own groff macro file, call it
whatever.tmac and put it in a directory in the tmac path; see
section “Files” below. Then documents can include it with the
.mso request or the option -m.
A roff(7) 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).
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 reveals when arguments are passed with a macro
call. Within the macro definition, the arguments are available
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).
Copy-in mode
The phase when groff reads a macro is called copy-in mode or copy
mode in roff-talk. This is comparable to the C preprocessing
phase during the development of a program written in the
C language.
In this phase, groff interprets all backslashes; that means that
all escape sequences in the macro body are interpreted and
replaced by their value. For constant expressions, this is
wanted, but strings and registers that might change between calls
of the macro must be protected from being evaluated. This is
most easily done by doubling the backslash that introduces the
escape sequence. This doubling is most important for the
positional parameters. For example, the following macro prints
information on its arguments:
.ds midpart was called with the following
.de print_args
\f[I]\\$0\f[] \*[midpart] \\n[.$] arguments:
\\$*
..
When calling this macro by
.print_args arg1 arg2
the following text is printed:
print_args was called with the following 2 arguments: arg1 arg2
Let's analyze each backslash in the macro definition. As the
positional parameters and the number of arguments change with
each call of the macro their leading backslash must be doubled,
which results in \\$* and \\[.$]. The same applies to the macro
name because it could be called with an alias name, so \\$0.
On the other hand, midpart is a constant string, it does not
change, so no doubling for \*[midpart]. The \f escape sequences
are predefined groff elements for setting the font within the
text. Of course, this behavior does not change, so no doubling
with \f[I] and \f[].
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) into a pair of .eo and .ec requests. Then
the body in the macro definition is just like a normal part of
the document — text enhanced 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[.$] arguments:
\$*
..
.ec
Unfortunately, draft mode cannot be used universally. Although
it is good enough for defining normal macros, draft mode fails
with advanced applications, such as indirectly defined strings,
registers, etc. An optimal way is to define and test all macros
in draft mode and then do the backslash doubling as a final step;
do not forget to remove the .eo request.
Tips for macro definitions
• Start every line with a dot, for example, by using the
groff request .nop for text lines, or write your own macro
that handles also text lines with a leading dot.
.de Text
. if (\\n[.$] == 0) \
. return
. nop \)\\$*\)
..
• Write a comment macro that works both for copy-in and
draft mode; for as escaping is off in draft mode, trouble
might occur when normal comments 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 comparable 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
they get their power when diversions are 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 remain aware of the fact that diversions always store
complete lines. If diversions are used when the line buffer has
not been flushed, strange results are produced; not knowing this,
many people get desperate about diversions. To ensure that a
diversion works, line breaks should be added at the right places.
To be on the secure side, enclose everything that has to do with
diversions into 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.
All macro package files must be named name.tmac to fully use the
tmac mechanism. tmac.name as with classical packages is possible
as well, but deprecated.
The macro files are kept in the tmac directories; a colon
separated list of these constitutes the tmac path.
The search sequence for macro files is (in that order):
• the directories specified with troff/groff's -M command-
line option
• the directories given in the GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment
variable
• the current directory (only if in unsafe mode, which is
enabled by the -U command-line switch)
• the home directory
• a platform-specific directory, being
/usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac
in this installation
• a site-specific (platform-independent) directory, being
/usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac
in this installation
• the main tmac directory, being
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac
in this installation
GROFF_TMAC_PATH
A colon-separated list of additional directories in which
to search for macro files. See the previous section for a
detailed description.
This document was written by Bernd Warken ⟨groff-bernd.warken-72@
web.de⟩ and Werner Lemberg ⟨wl@gnu.org⟩.
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
⟨https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/lsb/fhs⟩ is maintained by the
Linux Foundation.
groff(1)
is an overview of the groff system.
groff_man(7),
groff_mdoc(7),
groff_me(7),
groff_mm(7),
groff_mom(7),
groff_ms(7),
groff_trace(7),
and
groff_www(7)
are groff macro packages.
groff(7)
summarizes the language recognized by GNU troff.
This page is part of the groff (GNU troff) project. Information
about the project can be found at
⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/⟩. If you have a bug report
for this manual page, see ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/⟩.
This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/groff.git⟩ on 2020-12-18. (At
that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in
the repository was 2020-12-09.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org
groff 1.23.0.rc1.56-5346-dirt1y3 November 2020 groff_tmac(5)
Pages that refer to this page: glilypond(1), grodvi(1), groff(1), groffer(1), grops(1), groff(7), groff_trace(7), roff(7)
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