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groff_man(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual groff_man(7)
groff_man - compose manual pages with GNU roff
groff -man [option ...] [file ...]
groff -m man [option ...] [file ...]
The GNU implementation of the man macro package is part of the
groff document formatting system. 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 advice. It
covers only those concepts required for man page document
maintenance, and not the full breadth of the groff typesetting
system.
Macro Meaning Subsection
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
.B Bold Font style macros
.BI Bold, italic alternating Font style macros
.BR Bold, roman alternating Font style macros
.EE Example end Document structure macros
.EX Example begin Document structure macros
.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 features” below.
Throughout Unix documentation, a manual entry is referred to
simply as a “man page”, regardless of its length, without gendered
implication, and irrespective of the macro package selected for
its composition.
Macro reference preliminaries
A tagged paragraph describes each macro. We present coupled pairs
together, as with .EX and .EE.
An empty macro argument can be specified with a pair of double-
quotes (""), but the man package is designed such that this should
seldom be necessary. Most macro arguments will be formatted as
text in the output; exceptions are noted.
Document structure macros
Document structure macros organize a man page's content. All of
them break the output line. .TH (title heading) identifies the
document as a man page and configures the page headers and
footers. Section headings (.SH), one of which is mandatory and
many of which are conventionally expected, facilitate location of
material by the reader and aid the man page writer to discuss all
essential aspects of the topic. Subsection headings (.SS) are
optional and permit sections that grow long to develop in a
controlled way. Many technical discussions benefit from examples;
lengthy ones, especially those reflecting multiple lines of input
to or output from the system, are usefully bracketed by .EX and
.EE. When none of the foregoing meets a structural demand, use
.RS/.RE to inset a region within a (sub)section.
.TH 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 enabled 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 ordinary paragraph (.P).
The content of heading-text and ordering of sections
follows a set of common practices, 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 (monospaced) font is selected. Calling
.EE enables filling and restores the previous font.
These macros are extensions introduced in Ninth Edition
Research Unix. Systems running 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 otherwise.
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 margin. In man pages and other technical
literature, definition lists are frequently encountered; 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 applicable
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 cannot
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. Adjustment
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 addresses 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 sequences (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 Solaris troff; see an-ext.tmac in section
“Files” below. Plan 9 from User Space's troff implements .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
characters where necessary, particularly the hyphen-minus. The
formatter removes \: escape sequences 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, address
is set in angle brackets after the link text and before
trailing-text. If hyperlinking is enabled but there is no
link text, address is formatted and hyperlinked without
angle brackets.
.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 attempted, the hyperlink will be typeset at
the beginning of the indented paragraph even on hyperlink-
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 often 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, respectively, 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 appropriate.
.BI bold-text italic-text ...
Set each argument in bold and italics, alternately.
.BR bold-text roman-text ...
Set each argument in bold and roman, alternately.
.IB italic-text bold-text ...
Set each argument in italics and bold, alternately.
.IR italic-text roman-text ...
Set each argument in italics and roman, alternately.
.RB roman-text bold-text ...
Set each argument in roman and bold, alternately.
.RI roman-text italic-text ...
Set each argument in roman and italics, alternately.
Horizontal and vertical spacing
The indentation argument accepted by .IP, .TP, and the deprecated
.HP is a number plus an optional 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 deprecated .HP. The default inter-section
and inter-paragraph spacing is is 1v for terminal devices 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 contemporary man page; see
groff_man_style(7). Others are supported for configuration of
rendering parameters; see section “Options” below.
\*R interpolates a special character escape sequence for the
“registered sign” glyph, \(rg, if available, and “(Reg.)”
otherwise.
\*S interpolates an escape sequence setting the type size to
the document default.
\*(lq
\*(rq interpolate special character escape sequences for left and
right double-quotation marks, \(lq and \(rq, respectively.
\*(Tm interpolates a special character escape sequence for the
“trade mark sign” glyph, \(tm, if available, and “(TM)”
otherwise.
Hooks
Two macros, both GNU extensions, are called internally by the
groff man package to format page headers and footers and can be
redefined by the administrator in a site's man.local file (see
section “Files” below). The presentation of .TH above describes
the default headers and footers. Because these macros are hooks
for groff man internals, man pages have no reason to call them.
Such hook definitions will likely consist of “.sp” and “.tl”
requests. They must also increase the page length with “.pl”
requests in continuous rendering mode; .PT furthermore has the
responsibility of emitting a PDF bookmark after writing the first
page header in a document. Consult the existing implementations
in an.tmac when drafting replacements.
.BT Set the page footer text (“bottom trap”).
.PT Set the page header text (“page trap”).
To remove a page header or footer entirely, define the appropriate
macro as empty rather than deleting it.
Deprecated features
Use of the following in man pages for public distribution is
discouraged.
.AT [system [release]]
Alter the footer for use with legacy AT&T man pages,
overriding any definition of the footer-inside argument to
.TH. This macro exists only to render man pages from
historical systems.
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 Release 3”.
.DT Reset tab stops to the default (every 0.5i).
Use of this presentation-oriented macro is deprecated. It
translates poorly to HTML, under which exact space control
and tabulation are not readily available. Thus,
information or distinctions that you use tab stops to
express are likely to be lost. If you feel tempted to
change the tab stops such that calling this macro later is
desirable 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 argument, the spacing is reset to its default
value; see subsection “Horizontal and vertical spacing”
above.
Use of this presentation-oriented macro is deprecated. It
translates poorly to HTML, under which exact control of
inter-paragraph spacing is not readily available. Thus,
information or distinctions that you use .PD to express are
likely to be lost.
.UC [version]
Alter the footer for use with legacy BSD man pages,
overriding any definition of the footer-inside argument to
.TH. This macro exists only to render man pages from
historical systems.
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 ⟨m.douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu⟩ designed,
implemented, and documented the AT&T man macros for Unix Version 7
(1979) and employed them to edit the first volume of its
Programmer's Manual, a compilation 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) introduced .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.
The following groff options set registers (with -r) and strings
(with -d) recognized and used by the man macro package. To ensure
rendering consistent with output device capabilities and reader
preferences, man pages should never manipulate them.
-dAD=adjustment-mode
Set line adjustment to adjustment-mode, which is typically
“b” for adjustment to both margins (the default), or “l”
for left alignment (ragged right margin). Any valid
argument to groff's “.ad” request may be used. See
groff(7) for less-common choices.
-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 resetting 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 devices, 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 devices.
-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)).
/usr/local/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/local/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/local/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 compatible with AT&T troff and permissively
licensed—not copylefted. To reduce the risk of name space
collisions, string and register names begin only with “m”.
We encourage man page authors who are concerned about
portability to legacy Unix systems to copy these
definitions into their pages, and maintainers of troff
implementations or work-alike systems that format man pages
to re-use them.
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
implementations 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/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/man.tmac
This is a wrapper that loads an.tmac.
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/mandoc.tmac
This is a wrapper that loads andoc.tmac.
/usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac/man.local
Put site-local changes and customizations into this file.
The initial GNU implementation of the man macro package was
written by James Clark. Later, Werner Lemberg ⟨wl@gnu.org⟩
supplied the S, LT, and cR registers, the last a 4.3BSD-Reno
mdoc(7) feature. Larry Kollar ⟨kollar@alltel.net⟩ added the FT,
HY, and SN registers; the HF string; and the PT and BT macros. G.
Branden Robinson ⟨g.branden.robinson@gmail.com⟩ 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 ⟨esr@thyrsus.com⟩, and Robinson.
This document was originally written for the Debian GNU/Linux
system by Susan G. Kleinmann ⟨sgk@debian.org⟩. It was corrected
and updated by Lemberg and Robinson. The extension macros were
documented by Raymond and Robinson.
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)
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 tarball groff-1.23.0.tar.gz fetched
from ⟨https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/groff/⟩ on 2026-01-16. 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 16 January 2026 groff_man(7)
Pages that refer to this page: dh_installman(1), man(1), man-pages(7), uri(7)
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