groff(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual groff(7)
Name
groff - GNU roff language reference
Description
groff is short for GNU roff, a free reimplementation of the AT&T
device-independent troff typesetting system. See roff(7) for a survey
of and background on roff systems.
This document is intended as a reference. The primary groff manual,
Groff: The GNU Implementation of troff, by Trent A. Fisher and Werner
Lemberg, is a better resource for learners, containing many examples
and much discussion. It is written in Texinfo; you can browse it
interactively with "info groff". Additional formats, including plain
text, HTML, DVI, and PDF, may be available in
/opt/local/share/doc/groff-1.23.0.
groff is also a name for an extended dialect of the roff language. We
use "roff" to denote features that are universal, or nearly so, among
implementations of this family. We apply the term "groff" to the
language documented here, the GNU implementation of the overall system,
the project that develops that system, and the command of that name.
GNU troff, installed on this system as troff(1), is the formatter: a
program that reads device and font descriptions (groff_font(5)),
interprets the groff language expressed in text input files, and
translates that input into a device-independent output format
(groff_out(5)) that is usually then post-processed by an output driver
to produce PostScript, PDF, HTML, DVI, or terminal output.
Input format
Input to GNU troff is organized into lines separated by the Unix
newline character (U+000A), and must be in one of two character
encodings it can recognize: IBM code page 1047 on EBCDIC systems, and
ISO Latin-1 (8859-1) otherwise. Use of ISO 646-1991:IRV ("US-ASCII")
or (equivalently) the "Basic Latin" subset of ISO 10646 ("Unicode") is
recommended; see groff_char(7). The preconv(1) preprocessor transforms
other encodings, including UTF-8, to satisfy troff's requirements.
Syntax characters
Several input characters are syntactically significant to groff.
. A dot at the beginning of an input line marks it as a control line.
It can also follow the .el and .nop requests, and the condition in
.if, .ie, and .while requests. The control character invokes
requests and calls macros by the name that follows it. The .cc
request can change the control character.
' The neutral apostrophe is the no-break control character,
recognized where the control character is. It suppresses the
(first) break implied by the .bp, .cf, .fi, .fl, .in, .nf, .rj,
.sp, .ti, and .trf requests. The requested operation takes effect
at the next break. It makes .br nilpotent. The no-break control
character can be changed with the .c2 request. When formatted, "'"
may be typeset as a typographical quotation mark; use the \[aq]
special character escape sequence to format a neutral apostrophe
glyph.
" The neutral double quote can be used to enclose arguments to macros
and strings, and is required if those arguments contain space or
tab characters. In the .ds, .ds1, .as, and .as1 requests, an
initial neutral double quote in the second argument is stripped off
to allow embedding of leading spaces. To include a double quote
inside a quoted argument, use the \[dq] special character escape
sequence (which also serves to typeset the glyph in text).
\ A backslash introduces an escape sequence. The escape character
can be changed with the .ec request; .eo disables escape sequence
recognition. Use the \[rs] special character escape sequence to
format a backslash glyph, and \e to typeset the glyph of the
current escape character.
( An opening parenthesis is special only in certain escape sequences;
when recognized, it introduces an argument of exactly two
characters. groff offers the more flexible square bracket syntax.
[ An opening bracket is special only in certain escape sequences;
when recognized, it introduces an argument (list) of any length,
not including a closing bracket.
] A closing bracket is special only when an escape sequence using an
opening bracket as an argument delimiter is being interpreted. It
ends the argument (list).
Additionally, the Control+A character (U+0001) in text is interpreted
as a leader (see below).
Horizontal white space characters are significant to groff, but
trailing spaces on text lines are ignored.
space Space characters separate arguments in request invocations,
macro calls, and string interpolations. In text, they separate
words. Multiple adjacent space characters in text cause groff
to attempt end-of-sentence detection on the preceding word (and
trailing punctuation). The amount of space between words and
sentences is controlled by the .ss request. When filling is
enabled (the default), a line may be broken at a space. When
adjustment is enabled (the default), inter-word spaces are
expanded until the output line reaches the configured length.
An adjustable but non-breaking space is available with \~. To
get a space of fixed width, use one of the escape sequences
`\ ' (the escape character followed by a space), \0, \|, \^, or
\h; see section "Escape sequences" below.
newline In text, a newline puts an inter-word space onto the output
and, if filling is enabled, triggers end-of-sentence
recognition on the preceding text. See section "Line
continuation" below.
tab A tab character in text causes the drawing position to advance
to the next defined tab stop.
Tabs and leaders
The formatter interprets input horizontal tab characters ("tabs") and
Control+A characters ("leaders") into movements to the next tab stop.
Tabs simply move to the next tab stop; leaders place enough periods to
fill the space. Tab stops are by default located every half inch
measured from the drawing position corresponding to the beginning of
the input line; see section "Page geometry" of roff(7). Tabs and
leaders do not cause breaks and therefore do not interrupt filling.
Tab stops can be configured with the ta request, and tab and leader
glyphs with the tc and lc requests, respectively.
Line continuation
When filling is enabled, input and output line breaks generally do not
correspond. The roff language therefore distinguishes input and output
line continuation.
A backslash \ immediately followed by a newline, sometimes discussed as
\newline, suppresses the effects of that newline on the input. The
next input line thus retains the classification of its predecessor as a
control or text line. \newline is useful for managing line lengths in
the input during document maintenance; you can break an input line in
the middle of a request invocation, macro call, or escape sequence.
Input line continuation is invisible to the formatter, with two
exceptions: the | operator recognizes the new input line, and the input
line counter register .c is incremented.
The \c escape sequence continues an output line. Nothing on the input
line after it is formatted. In contrast to \newline, a line after \c
is treated as a new input line, so a control character is recognized at
its beginning. The visual results depend on whether filling is
enabled. An intervening control line that causes a break overrides \c,
flushing out the pending output line in the usual way. The register
.int contains a positive value if the last output line was continued
with \c; this datum is associated with the environment.
Colors
groff supports color output with a variety of color spaces and up to 16
bits per channel. Some devices, particularly terminals, may be more
limited. When color support is enabled, two colors are current at any
given time: the stroke color, with which glyphs, rules (lines), and
geometric objects like circles and polygons are drawn, and the fill
color, which can be used to paint the interior of a closed geometric
figure. The color, defcolor, gcolor, and fcolor requests; \m and \M
escape sequences; and .color, .m, and .M registers exercise color
support.
Each output device has a color named "default", which cannot be
redefined. A device's default stroke and fill colors are not
necessarily the same. For the dvi, html, pdf, ps, and xhtml output
devices, troff automatically loads a macro file defining many color
names at startup. By the same mechanism, the devices supported by
grotty(1) recognize the eight standard ISO 6429/ECMA-48 color names
(also known vulgarly as "ANSI colors").
Measurements
Numeric parameters that specify measurements are expressed as integers
or decimal fractions with an optional scaling unit suffixed. A scaling
unit is a letter that immediately follows the last digit of a number.
Digits after the decimal point are optional.
Measurements are scaled by the scaling unit and stored internally (with
any fractional part discarded) in basic units. The device resolution
can therefore be obtained by storing a value of "1i" to a register.
The only constraint on the basic unit is that it is at least as small
as any other unit.
u Basic unit.
i Inch; defined as 2.54 centimeters.
c Centimeter.
p Point; a typesetter's unit used for measuring type size. There
are 72 points to an inch.
P Pica; another typesetter's unit. There are 6 picas to an inch
and 12 points to a pica.
s, z Scaled points and multiplication by the output device's
sizescale parameter, respectively.
f Multiplication by 65,536; scales decimal fractions in the
interval [0, 1] to 16-bit unsigned integers.
The magnitudes of other scaling units depend on the text formatting
parameters in effect.
m Em; an em is equal to the current type size in points.
n En; an en is one-half em.
v Vee; distance between text baselines.
M Hundredth of an em.
Motion quanta
An output device's basic unit u is not necessarily its smallest
addressable length; u can be smaller to avoid problems with integer
roundoff. The minimum distances that a device can work with in the
horizontal and vertical directions are termed its motion quanta, stored
in the .H and .V registers, respectively. Measurements are rounded to
applicable motion quanta. Half-quantum fractions round toward zero.
Default units
A general-purpose register (one created or updated with the nr request;
see section "Registers" below) is implicitly dimensionless, or reckoned
in basic units if interpreted in a measurement context. But it is
convenient for many requests and escape sequences to infer a scaling
unit for an argument if none is specified. An explicit scaling unit
(not after a closing parenthesis) can override an undesirable default.
Effectively, the default unit is suffixed to the expression if a
scaling unit is not already present. GNU troff's use of integer
arithmetic should also be kept in mind; see below.
Numeric expressions
A numeric expression evaluates to an integer. The following operators
are recognized.
+ addition
- subtraction
* multiplication
/ truncating division
% modulus
--------------------------------------------
unary + assertion, motion, incrementation
unary - negation, motion, decrementation
--------------------------------------------
; scaling
>? maximum
<? minimum
--------------------------------------------
< less than
> greater than
<= less than or equal
>= greater than or equal
= equal
== equal
--------------------------------------------
& logical conjunction ("and")
: logical disjunction ("or")
! logical complementation ("not")
--------------------------------------------
( ) precedence
--------------------------------------------
| boundary-relative motion
troff provides a set of mathematical and logical operators familiar to
programmers--as well as some unusual ones--but supports only integer
arithmetic. (Provision is made for interpreting and reporting decimal
fractions in certain cases.) The internal data type used for computing
results is usually a 32-bit signed integer, which suffices to represent
magnitudes within a range of +-2 billion. (If that's not enough, see
groff_tmac(5) for the 62bit.tmac macro package.)
Arithmetic infix operators perform a function on the numeric
expressions to their left and right; they are + (addition), -
(subtraction), * (multiplication), / (truncating division), and %
(modulus). Truncating division rounds to the integer nearer to zero,
no matter how large the fractional portion. Overflow and division (or
modulus) by zero are errors and abort evaluation of a numeric
expression.
Arithmetic unary operators operate on the numeric expression to their
right; they are - (negation) and + (assertion--for completeness; it
does nothing). The unary minus must often be used with parentheses to
avoid confusion with the decrementation operator, discussed below.
The sign of the modulus of operands of mixed signs is determined by the
sign of the first. Division and modulus operators satisfy the
following property: given a dividend a and a divisor b, a quotient q
formed by "(a / b)" and a remainder r by "(a % b)", then qb + r = a.
GNU troff's scaling operator, used with parentheses as (c;e), evaluates
a numeric expression e using c as the default scaling unit. If c is
omitted, scaling units are ignored in the evaluation of e. GNU troff
also provides a pair of operators to compute the extrema of two
operands: >? (maximum) and <? (minimum).
Comparison operators comprise < (less than), > (greater than), <= (less
than or equal), >= (greater than or equal), and = (equal). == is a
synonym for =. When evaluated, a comparison is replaced with "0" if it
is false and "1" if true. In the roff language, positive values are
true, others false.
We can operate on truth values with the logical operators & (logical
conjunction or "and") and : (logical disjunction or "or"). They
evaluate as comparison operators do. A logical complementation ("not")
operator, !, works only within "if", "ie", and "while" requests.
Furthermore, ! is recognized only at the beginning of a numeric
expression not contained by another numeric expression. In other
words, it must be the "outermost" operator. Including it elsewhere in
the expression produces a warning in the "number" category (see
troff(1)), and its expression evaluates false. This unfortunate
limitation maintains compatibility with AT&T troff. Test a numeric
expression for falsity by comparing it to a false value.
The roff language has no operator precedence: expressions are evaluated
strictly from left to right, in contrast to schoolhouse arithmetic.
Use parentheses ( ) to impose a desired precedence upon subexpressions.
For many requests and escape sequences that cause motion on the page,
the unary operators + and - work differently when leading a numeric
expression. They then indicate a motion relative to the drawing
position: positive is down in vertical contexts, right in horizontal
ones.
+ and - are also treated differently by the following requests and
escape sequences: bp, in, ll, pl, pn, po, ps, pvs, rt, ti, \H, \R, and
\s. Here, leading plus and minus signs serve as incrementation and
decrementation operators, respectively. To negate an expression,
subtract it from zero or include the unary minus in parentheses with
its argument.
A leading | operator indicates a motion relative not to the drawing
position but to a boundary. For horizontal motions, the measurement
specifies a distance relative to a drawing position corresponding to
the beginning of the input line. By default, tab stops reckon
movements in this way. Most escape sequences do not; | tells them to
do so. For vertical motions, the | operator specifies a distance from
the first text baseline on the page or in the current diversion, using
the current vertical spacing.
The \B escape sequence tests its argument for validity as a numeric
expression.
A register interpolated as an operand in a numeric expression must have
an Arabic format; luckily, this is the default.
Due to the way arguments are parsed, spaces are not allowed in numeric
expressions unless the (sub)expression containing them is surrounded by
parentheses.
Identifiers
An identifier labels a GNU troff datum such as a register, name (macro,
string, or diversion), typeface, color, special character, character
class, environment, or stream. Valid identifiers consist of one or
more ordinary characters. An ordinary character is an input character
that is not the escape character, a leader, tab, newline, or invalid as
GNU troff input.
Invalid input characters are subset of control characters (from the
sets "C0 Controls" and "C1 Controls" as Unicode describes them). When
troff encounters one in an identifier, it produces a warning in
category "input" (see section "Warnings" in troff(1)). They are
removed during interpretation: an identifier "foo", followed by an
invalid character and then "bar", is processed as "foobar".
On a machine using the ISO 646, 8859, or 10646 character encodings,
invalid input characters are 0x00, 0x08, 0x0B, 0x0D-0x1F, and
0x80-0x9F. On an EBCDIC host, they are 0x00-0x01, 0x08, 0x09, 0x0B,
0x0D-0x14, 0x17-0x1F, and 0x30-0x3F. Some of these code points are
used by troff internally, making it non-trivial to extend the program
to accept UTF-8 or other encodings that use characters from these
ranges.
An identifier with a closing bracket ("]") in its name can't be
accessed with bracket-form escape sequences that expect an identifier
as a parameter. Similarly, the identifier "(" can't be interpolated
except with bracket forms.
If you begin a macro, string, or diversion name with either of the
characters "[" or "]", you foreclose use of the refer(1) preprocessor,
which recognizes ".[" and ".]" as bibliographic reference delimiters.
The escape sequence \A tests its argument for validity as an
identifier.
How GNU troff handles the interpretation of an undefined identifier
depends on the context. There is no way to invoke an undefined
request; such syntax is interpreted as a macro call instead. If the
identifier is interpreted as a string, macro, or diversion, troff emits
a warning in category "mac", defines it as empty, and interpolates
nothing. If the identifier is interpreted as a register, troff emits a
warning in category "reg", initializes it to zero, and interpolates
that value. See section "Warnings" in troff(1), and subsection
"Interpolating registers" and section "Strings" below. Attempting to
use an undefined typeface, style, special character, color, character
class, environment, or stream generally provokes an error diagnostic.
Identifiers for requests, macros, strings, and diversions share one
name space; special characters and character classes another. No other
object types do.
Control characters
Control characters are recognized only at the beginning of an input
line, or at the beginning of the branch of a control structure request;
see section "Control structures" below.
A few requests cause a break implicitly; use the no-break control
character to prevent the break. Break suppression is its sole
behavioral distinction. Employing the no-break control character to
invoke requests that don't cause breaks is harmless but poor style.
The control character "." and the no-break control character "'" can be
changed with the cc and c2 requests, respectively. Within a macro
definition, register .br indicates the control character used to call
it.
Invoking requests
A control character is optionally followed by tabs and/or spaces and
then an identifier naming a request or macro. The invocation of an
unrecognized request is interpreted as a macro call. Defining a macro
with the same name as a request replaces the request. Deleting a
request name with the rm request makes it unavailable. The als request
can alias requests, permitting them to be wrapped or non-destructively
replaced. See section "Strings" below.
There is no inherent limit on argument length or quantity. Most
requests take one or more arguments, and ignore any they do not expect.
A request may be separated from its arguments by tabs or spaces, but
only spaces can separate an argument from its successor. Only one
between arguments is necessary; any excess is ignored. GNU troff does
not allow tabs for argument separation.
Generally, a space within a request argument is not relevant, not
meaningful, or is supported by bespoke provisions, as with the tl
request's delimiters. Some requests, like ds, interpret the remainder
of the control line as a single argument. See section "Strings" below.
Spaces and tabs immediately after a control character are ignored.
Commonly, authors structure the source of documents or macro files with
them.
Calling macros
If a macro of the desired name does not exist when called, it is
created, assigned an empty definition, and a warning in category "mac"
is emitted. Calling an undefined macro does end a macro definition
naming it as its end macro (see section "Writing macros" below).
To embed spaces within a macro argument, enclose the argument in
neutral double quotes `"'. Horizontal motion escape sequences are
sometimes a better choice for arguments to be formatted as text.
The foregoing raises the question of how to embed neutral double quotes
or backslashes in macro arguments when those characters are desired as
literals. In GNU troff, the special character escape sequence \[rs]
produces a backslash and \[dq] a neutral double quote.
In GNU troff's AT&T compatibility mode, these characters remain
available as \(rs and \(dq, respectively. AT&T troff did not
consistently define these special characters, but its descendants can
be made to support them. See groff_font(5). If even that is not
feasible, see the "Calling Macros" section of the groff Texinfo manual
for the complex macro argument quoting rules of AT&T troff.
Using escape sequences
Whereas requests must occur on control lines, escape sequences can
occur intermixed with text and may appear in arguments to requests,
macros, and other escape sequences. An escape sequence is introduced
by the escape character, a backslash \. The next character selects the
escape's function.
Escape sequences vary in length. Some take an argument, and of those,
some have different syntactical forms for a one-character, two-
character, or arbitrary-length argument. Others accept only an
arbitrary-length argument. In the former scheme, a one-character
argument follows the function character immediately, an opening
parenthesis "(" introduces a two-character argument (no closing
parenthesis is used), and an argument of arbitrary length is enclosed
in brackets "[]". In the latter scheme, the user selects a delimiter
character. A few escape sequences are idiosyncratic, and support both
of the foregoing conventions (\s), designate their own termination
sequence (\?), consume input until the next newline (\!, \", \#), or
support an additional modifier character (\s again, and \n).
If an escape character is followed by a character that does not
identify a defined operation, the escape character is ignored
(producing a diagnostic of the "escape" warning category, which is not
enabled by default) and the following character is processed normally.
Escape sequence interpolation is of higher precedence than escape
sequence argument interpretation. This rule affords flexibility in
using escape sequences to construct parameters to other escape
sequences.
The escape character can be interpolated (\e). Requests permit the
escape mechanism to be deactivated (eo) and restored, or the escape
character changed (ec), and to save and restore it (ecs and ecr).
Delimiters
Some escape sequences that require parameters use delimiters. The
neutral apostrophe ' is a popular choice and shown in this document.
The neutral double quote " is also commonly seen. Letters, numerals,
and leaders can be used. Punctuation characters are likely better
choices, except for those defined as infix operators in numeric
expressions; see below.
The following escape sequences don't take arguments and thus are
allowed as delimiters: \space, \%, \|, \^, \{, \}, \', \`, \-, \_, \!,
\?, \), \/, \,, \&, \:, \~, \0, \a, \c, \d, \e, \E, \p, \r, \t, and \u.
However, using them this way is discouraged; they can make the input
confusing to read.
A few escape sequences, \A, \b, \o, \w, \X, and \Z, accept a newline as
a delimiter. Newlines that serve as delimiters continue to be
recognized as input line terminators. Use of newlines as delimiters in
escape sequences is also discouraged.
Finally, the escape sequences \D, \h, \H, \l, \L, \N, \R, \s, \S, \v,
and \x prohibit many delimiters.
o the numerals 0-9 and the decimal point "."
o the (single-character) operators +-/*%<>=&:()
o any escape sequences other than \%, \:, \{, \}, \', \`, \-,
\_, \!, \/, \c, \e, and \p
Delimiter syntax is complex and flexible primarily for historical
reasons; the foregoing restrictions need be kept in mind mainly when
using groff in AT&T compatibility mode. GNU troff keeps track of the
nesting depth of escape sequence interpolations, so the only characters
you need to avoid using as delimiters are those that appear in the
arguments you input, not any that result from interpolation.
Typically, ' works fine. See section "Implementation differences" in
groff_diff(7).
Dummy characters
As discussed in roff(7), the first character on an input line is
treated specially. Further, formatting a glyph has many consequences
on formatter state (see section "Environments" below). Occasionally,
we want to escape this context or embrace some of those consequences
without actually rendering a glyph to the output. \& interpolates a
dummy character, which is constitutive of output but invisible. Its
presence alters the interpretation context of a subsequent input
character, and enjoys several applications: preventing the insertion of
extra space after an end-of-sentence character, preventing
interpretation of a control character at the beginning of an input
line, preventing kerning between two glyphs, and permitting the tr
request to remap a character to "nothing". \) works as \& does, except
that it does not cancel a pending end-of-sentence state.
Control structures
groff has "if" and "while" control structures like other languages.
However, the syntax for grouping multiple input lines in the branches
or bodies of these structures is unusual.
They have a common form: the request name is (except for .el "else")
followed by a conditional expression cond-expr; the remainder of the
line, anything, is interpreted as if it were an input line. Any
quantity of spaces between arguments to requests serves only to
separate them; leading spaces in anything are therefore not seen.
anything effectively cannot be omitted; if cond-expr is true and
anything is empty, the newline at the end of the control line is
interpreted as a blank line (and therefore a blank text line).
It is frequently desirable for a control structure to govern more than
one request, macro call, or text line, or a combination of the
foregoing. The opening and closing brace escape sequences \{ and \}
perform such grouping. Brace escape sequences outside of control
structures have no meaning and produce no output.
\{ should appear (after optional spaces and tabs) immediately
subsequent to the request's conditional expression. \} should appear
on a line with other occurrences of itself as necessary to match \{
sequences. It can be preceded by a control character, spaces, and
tabs. Input after any quantity of \} sequences on the same line is
processed only if all the preceding conditions to which they correspond
are true. Furthermore, a \} closing the body of a .while request must
be the last such escape sequence on an input line.
Conditional expressions
The .if, .ie, and .while requests test the truth values of numeric
expressions. They also support several additional Boolean operators;
the members of this expanded class are termed conditional expressions;
their truth values are as shown below.
cond-expr... ...is true if...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
' s1 ' s2 ' s1 produces the same formatted output as s2 .
c g a glyph g is available.
d m a string, macro, diversion, or request m is defined.
e the current page number is even.
F f a font named f is available.
m c a color named c is defined.
n the formatter is in nroff mode.
o the current page number is odd.
r n a register named n is defined.
S s a font style named s is available.
t the formatter is in troff mode.
v n/a (historical artifact; always false).
If the first argument to an .if, .ie, or .while request begins with a
non-alphanumeric character apart from ! (see below); it performs an
output comparison test. Shown first in the table above, the output
comparison operator interpolates a true value if formatting its
comparands s1 and s2 produces the same output commands. Other
delimiters can be used in place of the neutral apostrophes. troff
formats s1 and s2 in separate environments; after the comparison, the
resulting data are discarded. The resulting glyph properties,
including font family, style, size, and slant, must match, but not
necessarily the requests and/or escape sequences used to obtain them.
Motions must match in orientation and magnitude to within the
applicable horizontal or vertical motion quantum of the device, after
rounding.
Surround the comparands with \? to avoid formatting them; this causes
them to be compared character by character, as with string comparisons
in other programming languages. Since comparands protected with \? are
read in copy mode, they need not even be valid groff syntax. The
escape character is still lexically recognized, however, and consumes
the next character.
The above operators can't be combined with most others, but a leading
"!", not followed immediately by spaces or tabs, complements an
expression. Spaces and tabs are optional immediately after the "c",
"d", "F", "m", "r", and "S" operators, but right after "!", they end
the predicate and the conditional evaluates true. (This bizarre
behavior maintains compatibility with AT&T troff.)
Syntax reference conventions
In the following request and escape sequence specifications, most
argument names were chosen to be descriptive. A few denotations may
require introduction.
c denotes a single input character.
font a font either specified as a font name or a numeric
mounting position.
anything all characters up to the end of the line, to the
ending delimiter for the escape sequence, or within \{
and \}. Escape sequences may generally be used freely
in anything, except when it is read in copy mode.
message is a character sequence to be emitted on the standard
error stream. Special character escape sequences are
not interpreted.
n is a numeric expression that evaluates to a non-
negative integer.
npl is a numeric expression constituting a count of
subsequent productive input lines; that is, those that
directly produce formatted output. Text lines produce
output, as do control lines containing requests like
.tl or escape sequences like \D. Macro calls are not
themselves productive, but their interpolated contents
can be.
+-N is a numeric expression with a meaning dependent on
its sign.
If a numeric expression presented as +-N starts with a `+' sign, an
increment in the amount of of N is applied to the value applicable to
the request or escape sequence. If it starts with a `-' sign, a
decrement of magnitude N is applied instead. Without a sign, N
replaces any existing value. A leading minus sign in N is always
interpreted as a decrementation operator, not an algebraic sign. To
assign a register a negative value or the negated value of another
register, enclose it with its operand in parentheses or subtract it
from zero. If a prior value does not exist (the register was
undefined), an increment or decrement is applied as if to 0.
Request short reference
Not all details of request behavior are outlined here. See the groff
Texinfo manual or, for features new to GNU troff, groff_diff(7).
.ab Abort processing; exit with failure status.
.ab message
Abort processing; write message to the standard error stream
and exit with failure status.
.ad Enable output line alignment and adjustment using the mode
stored in \n[.j].
.ad c Enable output line alignment and adjustment in mode c
(c=b,c,l,n,r). Sets \n[.j].
.af register c
Assign format c to register, where c is "i", "I", "a", "A",
or a sequence of decimal digits whose quantity denotes the
minimum width in digits to be used when the register is
interpolated. "i" and "a" indicate Roman numerals and basic
Latin alphabetics, respectively, in the lettercase specified.
The default is 0.
.aln new old
Create alias (additional name) new for existing register
named old.
.als new old
Create alias (additional name) new for existing request,
string, macro, or diversion old.
.am macro Append to macro until .. is encountered.
.am macro end
Append to macro until .end is called.
.am1 macro
Same as .am but with compatibility mode switched off during
macro expansion.
.am1 macro end
Same as .am but with compatibility mode switched off during
macro expansion.
.ami macro
Append to a macro whose name is contained in the string macro
until .. is encountered.
.ami macro end
Append to a macro indirectly. macro and end are strings
whose contents are interpolated for the macro name and the
end macro, respectively.
.ami1 macro
Same as .ami but with compatibility mode switched off during
macro expansion.
.ami1 macro end
Same as .ami but with compatibility mode switched off during
macro expansion.
.as name Create string name with empty contents; no operation if name
already exists.
.as name contents
Append contents to string name.
.as1 string
.as1 string contents
As .as, but with compatibility mode disabled when contents
interpolated.
.asciify diversion
Unformat ASCII characters, spaces, and some escape sequences
in diversion.
.backtrace
Write the state of the input stack to the standard error
stream. See the groff(7).
.bd font Stop emboldening font font.
.bd font n
Embolden font by overstriking its glyphs offset by n-1 units.
See register .b.
.bd special-font font
Stop emboldening special-font when font is selected.
.bd special-font font n
Embolden special-font, overstriking its glyphs offset by n-1
units when font is selected. See register .b.
.blm Unset blank line macro (trap). Restore default handling of
blank lines.
.blm name Set blank line macro (trap) to name.
.box Stop directing output to current diversion; any pending
output line is discarded.
.box name Direct output to diversion name, omitting a partially
collected line.
.boxa Stop appending output to current diversion; any pending
output line is discarded.
.boxa name
Append output to diversion name, omitting a partially
collected line.
.bp Break page and start a new one.
.bp +-N Break page, starting a new one numbered +-N.
.br Break output line.
.brp Break output line; adjust if applicable.
.break Break out of a while loop.
.c2 Reset no-break control character to "'".
.c2 o Recognize ordinary character o as no-break control character.
.cc Reset control character to `.'.
.cc o Recognize ordinary character o as the control character.
.ce Break, center the output of the next productive input line
without filling, and break again.
.ce npl Break, center the output of the next npl productive input
lines without filling, then break again. If npl <= 0, stop
centering.
.cf file Copy contents of file without formatting to the (top-level)
diversion.
.cflags n c1 c2 ...
Assign properties encoded by n to characters c1, c2, and so
on.
.ch name Unplant page location trap name.
.ch name vpos
Change page location trap name planted by .wh by moving its
location to vpos (default scaling unit v).
.char c contents
Define ordinary or special character c as contents.
.chop object
Remove the last character from the macro, string, or
diversion named object.
.class name c1 c2 ...
Define a (character) class name comprising the characters or
range expressions c1, c2, and so on.
.close stream
Close the stream.
.color Enable output of color-related device-independent output
commands.
.color n If n is zero, disable output of color-related device-
independent output commands; otherwise, enable them.
.composite from to
Map glyph name from to glyph name to while constructing a
composite glyph name.
.continue Finish the current iteration of a while loop.
.cp Enable compatibility mode.
.cp n If n is zero, disable compatibility mode, otherwise enable
it.
.cs font n m
Set constant character width mode for font to n/36 ems with
em m.
.cu Continuously underline the output of the next productive
input line.
.cu npl Continuously underline the output of the next npl productive
input lines. If npl=0, stop continuously underlining.
.da Stop appending output to current diversion.
.da name Append output to diversion name.
.de macro Define or redefine macro until ".." occurs at the start of a
control line in the current conditional block.
.de macro end
Define or redefine macro until end is invoked or called at
the start of a control line in the current conditional block.
.de1 macro
As .de, but disable compatibility mode during macro
expansion.
.de1 macro end
As ".de macro end", but disable compatibility mode during
macro expansion.
.defcolor ident scheme color-component ...
Define a color named ident. scheme identifies a color space
and determines the number of required color-components; it
must be one of "rgb" (three components), "cmy" (three),
"cmyk" (four), or "gray" (one). "grey" is accepted as a
synonym of "gray". The color components can be encoded as a
single hexadecimal value starting with # or ##. The former
indicates that each component is in the range 0-255 (0-FF),
the latter the range 0-65,535 (0-FFFF). Alternatively, each
color component can be specified as a decimal fraction in the
range 0-1, interpreted using a default scaling unit of "f",
which multiplies its value by 65,536 (but clamps it at
65,535). Each output device has a color named "default",
which cannot be redefined. A device's default stroke and
fill colors are not necessarily the same.
.dei macro
Define macro indirectly. As .de, but use interpolation of
string macro as the name of the defined macro.
.dei macro end
Define macro indirectly. As .de, but use interpolations of
strings macro and end as the names of the defined and end
macros.
.dei1 macro
As .dei, but disable compatibility mode during macro
expansion.
.dei1 macro end
As .dei macro end, but disable compatibility mode during
macro expansion.
.device anything
Write anything, read in copy mode, to troff output as a
device control command. An initial neutral double quote is
stripped to allow embedding of leading spaces.
.devicem name
Write contents of macro or string name to troff output as a
device control command.
.di Stop directing output to current diversion.
.di name Direct output to diversion name.
.do name ...
Interpret the string, request, diversion, or macro name
(along with any arguments) with compatibility mode disabled.
Compatibility mode is restored (only if it was active) when
the expansion of name is interpreted.
.ds name Create empty string name.
.ds name contents
Create a string name containing contents.
.ds1 name
.ds1 name contents
As .ds, but with compatibility mode disabled when contents
interpolated.
.dt Clear diversion trap.
.dt vertical-position name
Set the diversion trap to macro name at vertical-position
(default scaling unit v).
.ec Recognize \ as the escape character.
.ec o Recognize ordinary character o as the escape character.
.ecr Restore escape character saved with .ecs.
.ecs Save the escape character.
.el anything
Interpret anything as if it were an input line if the
conditional expression of the corresponding .ie request was
false.
.em name Call macro name after the end of input.
.eo Disable the escape mechanism in interpretation mode.
.ev Pop environment stack, returning to previous one.
.ev env Push current environment onto stack and switch to env.
.evc env Copy environment env to the current one.
.ex Exit with successful status.
.fam Set default font family to previous value.
.fam name Set default font family to name.
.fc Disable field mechanism.
.fc a Set field delimiter to a and pad glyph to space.
.fc a b Set field delimiter to a and pad glyph to b.
.fchar c contents
Define fallback character (or glyph) c as contents.
.fcolor Restore previous fill color.
.fcolor c Set fill color to c.
.fi Enable filling of output lines; a pending output line is
broken. Sets \n[.u].
.fl Flush output buffer.
.fp pos id
Mount font with font description file name id at non-negative
position n.
.fp pos id font-description-file-name
Mount font with font-description-file-name as name id at non-
negative position n.
.fschar f c anything
Define fallback character (or glyph) c for font f as string
anything.
.fspecial font
Reset list of special fonts for font to be empty.
.fspecial font s1 s2 ...
When the current font is font, then the fonts s1, s2, ... are
special.
.ft
.ft P Select previous font mounting position (abstract style or
font); same as \f[] or \fP.
.ft font Select typeface font, which can be a mounting position,
abstract style, or font name; same as \f[font] escape
sequence. font cannot be P.
.ftr font1 font2
Translate font1 to font2.
.fzoom font
.fzoom font 0
Stop magnifying font.
.fzoom font z
Set zoom factor for font to z (in thousandths; default:
1000).
.gcolor Restore previous stroke color.
.gcolor c Set stroke color to c.
.hc Reset the hyphenation character to \% (the default).
.hc char Change the hyphenation character to char.
.hcode c1 code1 [c2 code2] ...
Set the hyphenation code of character c1 to code1, that of c2
to code2, and so on.
.hla lang Set the hyphenation language to lang.
.hlm n Set the maximum quantity of consecutive hyphenated lines to
n.
.hpf pattern-file
Read hyphenation patterns from pattern-file.
.hpfa pattern-file
Append hyphenation patterns from pattern-file.
.hpfcode a b [c d] ...
Define mappings for character codes in hyphenation pattern
files read with .hpf and .hpfa.
.hw word ...
Define hyphenation overrides for each word; a hyphen "-"
indicates a hyphenation point.
.hy Set automatic hyphenation mode to 1.
.hy 0 Disable automatic hyphenation; same as .nh.
.hy mode Set automatic hyphenation mode to mode; see section
"Hyphenation" below.
.hym Set the (right) hyphenation margin to 0 (the default).
.hym length
Set the (right) hyphenation margin to length (default scaling
unit m).
.hys Set the hyphenation space to 0 (the default).
.hys hyphenation-space
Suppress automatic hyphenation in adjustment modes "b" or "n"
if the line can be justified with the addition of up to
hyphenation-space to each inter-word space (default scaling
unit m).
.ie cond-expr anything
If cond-expr is true, interpret anything as if it were an
input line, otherwise skip to a corresponding .el request.
.if cond-expr anything
If cond-expr is true, then interpret anything as if it were
an input line.
.ig Ignore input (except for side effects of \R on auto-
incrementing registers) until ".." occurs at the start of a
control line in the current conditional block.
.ig end Ignore input (except for side effects of \R on auto-
incrementing registers) until .end is called at the start of
a control line in the current conditional block.
.in Set indentation amount to previous value.
.in +-N Set indentation to +-N (default scaling unit m).
.it Cancel any pending input line trap.
.it npl name
Set (or replace) an input line trap in the environment,
calling macro name, after the next npl productive input lines
have been read. Lines interrupted with the \c escape
sequence are counted separately.
.itc Cancel any pending input line trap.
.itc npl name
As .it, except that input lines interrupted with the \c
escape sequence are not counted.
.kern Enable pairwise kerning.
.kern n If n is zero, disable pairwise kerning, otherwise enable it.
.lc Unset leader repetition character.
.lc c Set leader repetition character to c (default: ".").
.length reg anything
Compute the number of characters of anything and store the
count in the register reg.
.linetabs Enable line-tabs mode (calculate tab positions relative to
beginning of output line).
.linetabs 0
Disable line-tabs mode.
.lf n Set number of next input line to n.
.lf n file
Set number of next input line to n and input file name to
file.
.lg m Set ligature mode to m (0 = disable, 1 = enable, 2 = enable
for two-letter ligatures only).
.ll Set line length to previous value. Does not affect a pending
output line.
.ll +-N Set line length to +-N (default length 6.5i, default scaling
unit m). Does not affect a pending output line.
.lsm Unset the leading space macro (trap). Restore default
handling of lines with leading spaces.
.lsm name Set the leading space macro (trap) to name.
.ls Change to the previous value of additional intra-line skip.
.ls n Set additional intra-line skip value to n, i.e., n-1 blank
lines are inserted after each text output line.
.lt Set length of title lines to previous value.
.lt +-N Set length of title lines (default length 6.5i, default
scaling unit m).
.mc Cease writing margin character.
.mc c Begin writing margin character c to the right of each output
line.
.mc c d Begin writing margin character c on each output line at
distance d to the right of the right margin (default distance
10p, default scaling unit m).
.mk Mark vertical drawing position in an internal register; see
.rt.
.mk register
Mark vertical drawing position in register.
.mso file As .so, except that file is sought in the tmac directories.
.msoquiet file
As .mso, but no warning is emitted if file does not exist.
.na Disable output line adjustment.
.ne Break page if distance to next page location trap is less
than one vee.
.ne d Break page if distance to next page location trap is less
than distance d (default scaling unit v).
.nf Disable filling of output lines; a pending output line is
broken. Clears \n[.u].
.nh Disable automatic hyphenation; same as ".hy 0".
.nm Deactivate output line numbering.
.nm +-N
.nm +-N m
.nm +-N m s
.nm +-N m s i
Activate output line numbering: number the next output line
+-N, writing numbers every m lines, with s numeral widths
(\0) between the line number and the output (default 1), and
indenting the line number by i numeral widths (default 0).
.nn Suppress numbering of the next output line to be numbered
with nm.
.nn n Suppress numbering of the next n output lines to be numbered
with nm. If n=0, cancel suppression.
.nop anything
Interpret anything as if it were an input line.
.nr reg +-N
Define or update register reg with value N.
.nr reg +-N I
Define or update register reg with value N and auto-increment
I.
.nroff Make the conditional expressions n true and t false.
.ns Enable no-space mode, ignoring .sp requests until a glyph or
\D primitive is output. See .rs.
.nx Immediately jump to end of current file.
.nx file Stop formatting current file and begin reading file.
.open stream file
Open file for writing and associate the stream named stream
with it. Unsafe request; disabled by default.
.opena stream file
As .open, but append to file. Unsafe request; disabled by
default.
.os Output vertical distance that was saved by the .sv request.
.output contents
Emit contents directly to intermediate output, allowing
leading whitespace if string starts with " (which is stripped
off).
.pc Reset page number character to `%'.
.pc c Page number character.
.pev Report the state of the current environment followed by that
of all other environments to the standard error stream.
.pi program
Pipe output to program (nroff only). Unsafe request;
disabled by default.
.pl Set page length to default 11i. The current page length is
stored in register .p.
.pl +-N Change page length to +-N (default scaling unit v).
.pm Report, to the standard error stream, the names and sizes in
bytes of defined macros, strings, and diversions.
.pn +-N Next page number N.
.pnr Write the names and contents of all defined registers to the
standard error stream.
.po Change to previous page offset. The current page offset is
available in register .o.
.po +-N Page offset N.
.ps Return to previous type size.
.ps +-N Set/increase/decrease the type size to/by N scaled points (a
non-positive resulting type size is set to 1 u); also see
\s[+-N].
.psbb file
Retrieve the bounding box of the PostScript image found in
file, which must conform to Adobe's Document Structuring
Conventions (DSC). See registers llx, lly, urx, ury.
.pso command-line
Execute command-line with popen(3) and interpolate its
output. Unsafe request; disabled by default.
.ptr Report names and positions of all page location traps to the
standard error stream.
.pvs Change to previous post-vertical line spacing.
.pvs +-N Change post-vertical line spacing according to +-N (default
scaling unit p).
.rchar c1 c2 ...
Remove definition of each ordinary or special character c1,
c2, ... defined by a .char, .fchar, or .schar request.
.rd prompt
Read insertion.
.return Return from a macro.
.return anything
Return twice, namely from the macro at the current level and
from the macro one level higher.
.rfschar f c1 c2 ...
Remove the font-specific definitions of glyphs c1, c2, ...
for font f.
.rj npl Break, right-align the output of the next productive input
line without filling, then break again.
.rj npl Break, right-align the output of the next npl productive
input lines without filling, then break again. If npl <= 0,
stop right-aligning.
.rm name Remove request, macro, diversion, or string name.
.rn old new
Rename request, macro, diversion, or string old to new.
.rnn reg1 reg2
Rename register reg1 to reg2.
.rr ident Remove register ident.
.rs Restore spacing; disable no-space mode. See .ns.
.rt Return (upward only) to vertical position marked by .mk on
the current page.
.rt N Return (upward only) to vertical position N (default scaling
unit v).
.schar c contents
Define global fallback character (or glyph) c as contents.
.shc Reset the soft hyphen character to \[hy].
.shc c Set the soft hyphen character to c.
.shift n In a macro definition, left-shift arguments by n positions.
.sizes s1 s2 ... sn [0]
Set available type sizes similarly to the sizes directive in
a DESC file. Each si is interpreted in units of scaled
points (z).
.so file Replace the request's control line with the contents of file,
"sourcing" it.
.soquiet file
As .so, but no warning is emitted if file does not exist.
.sp Break and move the next text baseline down by one vee, or
until springing a page location trap.
.sp dist Break and move the next text baseline down by dist, or until
springing a page location trap (default scaling unit v). A
negative dist will not reduce the position of the text
baseline below zero. Prefixing dist with the | operator
moves to a position relative to the page top for positive N,
and the bottom if N is negative; in all cases, one line
height (vee) is added to dist. dist is ignored inside a
diversion.
.special Reset global list of special fonts to be empty.
.special s1 s2 ...
Fonts s1, s2, etc. are special and are searched for glyphs
not in the current font.
.spreadwarn
Toggle the spread warning on and off (the default) without
changing its value.
.spreadwarn N
Emit a break warning if the additional space inserted for
each space between words in an adjusted output line is
greater than or equal to N. A negative N is treated as 0.
The default scaling unit is m. At startup, .spreadwarn is
inactive and N is 3 m.
.ss n Set minimal inter-word spacing to n 12ths of current font's
space width.
.ss n m As ".ss n", and set additional inter-sentence space to
m 12ths of current font's space width.
.stringdown stringvar
Replace each byte in the string named stringvar with its
lowercase version.
.stringup stringvar
Replace each byte in the string named stringvar with its
uppercase version.
.sty n style
Associate abstract style with font position n.
.substring str start [end]
Replace the string named str with its substring bounded by
the indices start and end, inclusive. Negative indices count
backwards from the end of the string.
.sv As .ne, but save 1 v for output with .os request.
.sv d As .ne, but save distance d for later output with .os request
(default scaling unit v).
.sy command-line
Execute command-line with system(3). Unsafe request;
disabled by default.
.ta n1 n2 ... nn T r1 r2 ... rn
Set tabs at positions n1, n2, ..., nn, then set tabs at
nn+mxrn+r1 through nn+mxrn+rn, where m increments from 0, 1,
2, ... to the output line length. Each n argument can be
prefixed with a "+" to place the tab stop ni at a distance
relative to the previous, n(i-1). Each argument ni or ri can
be suffixed with a letter to align text within the tab column
bounded by tab stops i and i+1; "L" for left-aligned (the
default), "C" for centered, and "R" for right-aligned.
.tag
.taga Reserved for internal use.
.tc Unset tab repetition character.
.tc c Set tab repetition character to c (default: none).
.ti +-N Temporarily indent next output line (default scaling unit m).
.tkf font s1 n1 s2 n2
Enable track kerning for font.
.tl 'left'center'right'
Format three-part title.
.tm message
Write message, followed by a newline, to the standard error
stream.
.tm1 message
As .tm, but an initial neutral double quote in message is
removed, allowing it to contain leading spaces.
.tmc message
As .tm1, without emitting a newline.
.tr abcd...
Translate ordinary or special characters a to b, c to d, and
so on prior to output.
.trf file Transparently output the contents of file. Unlike .cf,
invalid input characters in file are rejected.
.trin abcd...
As .tr, except that .asciify ignores the translation when a
diversion is interpolated.
.trnt abcd...
As .tr, except that translations are suppressed in the
argument to \!.
.troff Make the conditional expressions t true and n false.
.uf font Set underline font used by .ul to font.
.ul Underline (italicize in troff mode) the output of the next
productive input line.
.ul npl Underline (italicize in troff mode) the output of the next
npl productive input line. If npl=0, stop underlining.
.unformat diversion
Unformat space characters and tabs in diversion, preserving
font information.
.vpt Enable vertical position traps.
.vpt 0 Disable vertical position traps.
.vs Change to previous vertical spacing.
.vs +-N Set vertical spacing to +-N (default scaling unit p).
.warn Enable all warning categories.
.warn 0 Disable all warning categories.
.warn n Enable warnings in categories whose codes sum to n; see
troff(1).
.warnscale su
Set scaling unit used in certain warnings to su (one of u, i,
c, p, or P; default: i).
.wh vpos Remove visible page location trap at vpos (default scaling
unit v).
.wh vpos name
Plant macro name as page location trap at vpos (default
scaling unit v), removing any visible trap already there.
.while cond-expr anything
Repeatedly execute anything unless and until cond-expr
evaluates false.
.write stream anything
Write anything to the stream named stream.
.writec stream anything
Similar to .write without emitting a final newline.
.writem stream xx
Write contents of macro or string xx to the stream named
stream.
Escape sequence short reference
The escape sequences \", \#, \$, \*, \?, \a, \e, \n, \t, \g, \V, and
\newline are interpreted even in copy mode.
\" Comment. Everything up to the end of the line is ignored.
\# Comment. Everything up to and including the next newline is
ignored.
\*s Interpolate string with one-character name s.
\*(st Interpolate string with two-character name st.
\*[string]
Interpolate string with name string (of arbitrary length).
\*[string arg ...]
Interpolate string with name string (of arbitrary length),
taking arg ... as arguments.
\$0 Interpolate name by which currently executing macro was invoked.
\$n Interpolate macro or string parameter numbered n (1<=n<=9).
\$(nn Interpolate macro or string parameter numbered nn (01<=nn<=99).
\$[nnn]
Interpolate macro or string parameter numbered nnn (nnn>=1).
\$* Interpolate concatenation of all macro or string parameters,
separated by spaces.
\$@ Interpolate concatenation of all macro or string parameters,
with each surrounded by double quotes and separated by spaces.
\$^ Interpolate concatenation of all macro or string parameters as
if they were arguments to the .ds request.
\' is a synonym for \[aa], the acute accent special character.
\` is a synonym for \[ga], the grave accent special character.
\- is a synonym for \[-], the minus sign special character.
\_ is a synonym for \[ul], the underrule special character.
\% Control hyphenation.
\! Transparent line. The remainder of the input line is
interpreted (1) when the current diversion is read; or (2) if in
the top-level diversion, by the postprocessor (if any).
\?anything\?
Transparently embed anything, read in copy mode, in a diversion,
or unformatted as an output comparand in a conditional
expression.
\space Move right one word space.
\~ Insert an unbreakable, adjustable space.
\0 Move right by the width of a numeral in the current font.
\| Move one-sixth em to the right on typesetters.
\^ Move one-twelfth em to the right on typesetters.
\& Interpolate a dummy character.
\) Interpolate a dummy character that is transparent to end-of-
sentence recognition.
\/ Apply italic correction. Use between an immediately adjacent
oblique glyph on the left and an upright glyph on the right.
\, Apply left italic correction. Use between an immediately
adjacent upright glyph on the left and an oblique glyph on the
right.
\: Non-printing break point (similar to \%, but never produces a
hyphen glyph).
\newline
Continue current input line on the next.
\{ Begin conditional input.
\} End conditional input.
\(gl Interpolate glyph with two-character name gl.
\[glyph]
Interpolate glyph with name glyph (of arbitrary length).
\[base-char comp ...]
Interpolate composite glyph constructed from base-char and each
component comp.
\[charnnn]
Interpolate glyph of eight-bit encoded character nnn, where
0<=nnn<=255.
\[unnnn[n[n]]]
Interpolate glyph of Unicode character with code point
nnnn[n[n]] in uppercase hexadecimal.
\[ubase-char[_combining-component]...]
Interpolate composite glyph from Unicode character base-char and
combining-components.
\a Interpolate a leader in copy mode.
\A'anything'
Interpolate 1 if anything is a valid identifier, and 0
otherwise.
\b'string'
Build bracket: pile a sequence of glyphs corresponding to each
character in string vertically, and center it vertically on the
output line.
\B'anything'
Interpolate 1 if anything is a valid numeric expression, and 0
otherwise.
\c Continue output line at next input line.
\C'glyph'
As \[glyph], but compatible with other troff implementations.
\d Move downward 1/2 em on typesetters.
\D'drawing-command'
See subsection "Drawing commands" below.
\e Interpolate the escape character.
\E As \e, but not interpreted in copy mode.
\fP Select previous font mounting position (abstract style or font);
same as ".ft" or ".ft P".
\fF Select font mounting position, abstract style, or font with one-
character name or one-digit position F. F cannot be P.
\f(ft Select font mounting position, abstract style, or font with two-
character name or two-digit position ft.
\f[font]
Select font mounting position, abstract style, or font with
arbitrarily long name or position font. font cannot be P.
\f[] Select previous font mounting position (abstract style or font).
\Ff Set default font family to that with one-character name f.
\F(fm Set default font family to that with two-character name fm.
\F[fam]
Set default font family to that with arbitrarily long name fam.
\F[] Set default font family to previous value.
\gr Interpolate format of register with one-character name r.
\g(rg Interpolate format of register with two-character name rg.
\g[reg]
Interpolate format of register with arbitrarily long name reg.
\h'N' Horizontally move the drawing position by N ems (or specified
units); | may be used. Positive motion is rightward.
\H'N' Set height of current font to N scaled points (or specified
units).
\kr Mark horizontal position in one-character register name r.
\k(rg Mark horizontal position in two-character register name rg.
\k[reg]
Mark horizontal position in register with arbitrarily long
name reg.
\l'N[c]'
Draw horizontal line of length N with character c (default:
\[ru]; default scaling unit m).
\L'N[c]'
Draw vertical line of length N with character c (default: \[br];
default scaling unit v).
\mc Set stroke color to that with one-character name c.
\m(cl Set stroke color to that with two-character name cl.
\m[color]
Set stroke color to that with arbitrarily long name color.
\m[] Restore previous stroke color.
\Mc Set fill color to that with one-character name c.
\M(cl Set fill color to that with two-character name cl.
\M[color]
Set fill color to that with arbitrarily long name color.
\M[] Restore previous fill color.
\nr Interpolate contents of register with one-character name r.
\n(rg Interpolate contents of register with two-character name rg.
\n[reg]
Interpolate contents of register with arbitrarily long name reg.
\N'n' Interpolate glyph with index n in the current font.
\o'abc...'
Overstrike centered glyphs of characters a, b, c, and so on.
\O0 At the outermost suppression level, disable emission of glyphs
and geometric objects to the output driver.
\O1 At the outermost suppression level, enable emission of glyphs
and geometric objects to the output driver.
\O2 At the outermost suppression level, enable glyph and geometric
primitive emission to the output driver and write to the
standard error stream the page number, four bounding box
registers enclosing glyphs written since the previous \O escape
sequence, the page offset, line length, image file name (if
any), horizontal and vertical device motion quanta, and input
file name.
\O3 Begin a nested suppression level.
\O4 End a nested suppression level.
\O[5Pfile]
At the outermost suppression level, write the name file to the
standard error stream at position P, which must be one of l, r,
c, or i.
\p Break output line at next word boundary; adjust if applicable.
\r Move "in reverse" (upward) 1 em.
\R'name +-N'
Set, increment, or decrement register name by N.
\s+-N Set/increase/decrease the type size to/by N scaled points. N
must be a single digit; 0 restores the previous type size. (In
compatibility mode only, a non-zero N must be in the range
4-39.) Otherwise, as .ps request.
\s(+-N
\s+-(N Set/increase/decrease the type size to/by N scaled points; N is
a two-digit number >=1. As .ps request.
\s[+-N]
\s+-[N]
\s'+-N'
\s+-'N'
Set/increase/decrease the type size to/by N scaled points. As
.ps request.
\S'N' Slant output glyphs by N degrees; the direction of text flow is
positive.
\t Interpolate a tab in copy mode.
\u Move upward 1/2 em on typesetters.
\v'N' Vertically move the drawing position by N vees (or specified
units); | may be used. Positive motion is downward.
\Ve Interpolate contents of environment variable with one-character
name e.
\V(ev Interpolate contents of environment variable with two-character
name ev.
\V[env]
Interpolate contents of environment variable with arbitrarily
long name env.
\w'anything'
Interpolate width of anything, formatted in a dummy environment.
\x'N' Increase vertical spacing of pending output line by N vees (or
specified units; negative before, positive after).
\X'anything'
Write anything to troff output as a device control command.
Within anything, the escape sequences \&, \), \%, and \: are
ignored; \space and \~ are converted to single space characters;
and \\ has its escape character stripped. So that the basic
Latin subset of the Unicode character set can be reliably
encoded in anything, the special character escape sequences \-,
\[aq], \[dq], \[ga], \[ha], \[rs], and \[ti] are mapped to basic
Latin characters; see groff_char(7). For this transformation,
character translations and special character definitions are
ignored.
\Yn Write contents of macro or string n to troff output as a device
control command.
\Y(nm Write contents of macro or string nm to troff output as a device
control command.
\Y[name]
Write contents of macro or string name to troff output as a
device control command.
\zc Format character c with zero width--without advancing the
drawing position.
\Z'anything'
Save the drawing position, format anything, then restore it.
Drawing commands
Drawing commands direct the output device to render geometrical objects
rather than glyphs. Specific devices may support only a subset, or may
feature additional ones; consult the man page for the output driver in
use. Terminal devices in particular implement almost none.
Rendering starts at the drawing position; when finished, the drawing
position is left at the rightmost point of the object, even for closed
figures, except where noted. GNU troff draws stroked (outlined)
objects with the stroke color, and shades filled ones with the fill
color. See section "Colors" above. Coordinates h and v are horizontal
and vertical motions relative to the drawing position or previous point
in the command. The default scaling unit for horizontal measurements
(and diameters of circles) is m; for vertical ones, v.
Circles, ellipses, and polygons can be drawn stroked or filled. These
are independent properties; if you want a filled, stroked figure, you
must draw the same figure twice using each drawing command. A filled
figure is always smaller than an outlined one because the former is
drawn only within its defined area, whereas strokes have a line
thickness (set with \D't').
\D'~ h1 v1 ... hn vn'
Draw B-spline to each point in sequence, leaving drawing
position at (hn, vn).
\D'a hc vc h v'
Draw circular arc centered at (hc, vc) counterclockwise from the
drawing position to a point (h, v) relative to the center.
(hc, vc) is adjusted to the point nearest the perpendicular
bisector of the arc's chord.
\D'c d'
Draw circle of diameter d with its leftmost point at the drawing
position.
\D'C d'
As \D'C', but the circle is filled.
\D'e h v'
Draw ellipse of width h and height v with its leftmost point at
the drawing position.
\D'E h v'
As \D'e', but the ellipse is filled.
\D'l h v'
Draw line from the drawing position to (h, v).
\D'p h1 v1 ... hn vn'
Draw polygon with vertices at drawing position and each point in
sequence. GNU troff closes the polygon by drawing a line from
(hn, vn) back to the initial drawing position. Afterward, the
drawing position is left at (hn, vn).
\D'P h1 v1 ... hn vn'
As \D'p', but the polygon is filled.
\D't n'
Set stroke thickness of geometric objects to to n basic units.
A zero n selects the minimal supported thickness. A negative n
selects a thickness proportional to the type size; this is the
default.
Device control commands
The .device and .devicem requests, and \X and \Y escape sequences,
enable documents to pass information directly to a postprocessor.
These are useful for exercising device-specific capabilities that the
groff language does not abstract or generalize; such functions include
the embedding of hyperlinks and image files. Device-specific functions
are documented in each output driver's man page.
Strings
groff supports strings primarily for user convenience. Conventionally,
if one would define a macro only to interpolate a small amount of text,
without invoking requests or calling any other macros, one defines a
string instead. Only one string is predefined by the language.
\*[.T] Contains the name of the output device (for example, "utf8"
or "pdf").
The .ds request creates a string with a specified name and contents.
If the identifier named by .ds already exists as an alias, the target
of the alias is redefined. If .ds is called with only one argument,
the named string becomes empty. Otherwise, troff stores the remainder
of the control line in copy mode; see subsection "Copy mode" below.
The \* escape sequence dereferences a string's name, interpolating its
contents. If the name does not exist, it is defined as empty, nothing
is interpolated, and a warning in category "mac" is emitted. See
section "Warnings" in troff(1). The bracketed interpolation form
accepts arguments that are handled as macro arguments are; see section
"Calling macros" above. In contrast to macro calls, however, if a
closing bracket ] occurs in a string argument, that argument must be
enclosed in double quotes. \* is interpreted even in copy mode. When
defining strings, argument interpolations must be escaped if they are
to reference parameters from the calling context; see section
"Parameters" below.
An initial neutral double quote " in the string contents is stripped to
allow embedding of leading spaces. Any other " is interpreted
literally, but it is wise to use the special character escape sequence
\[dq] instead if the string might be interpolated as part of a macro
argument; see section "Calling macros" above. Strings are not limited
to a single input line of text. \newline works just as it does
elsewhere. The resulting string is stored without the newlines. Care
is therefore required when interpolating strings while filling is
disabled. It is not possible to embed a newline in a string that will
be interpreted as such when the string is interpolated. To achieve
that effect, use \* to interpolate a macro instead.
The .as request is similar to .ds but appends to a string instead of
redefining it. If .as is called with only one argument, no operation
is performed (beyond dereferencing the string).
Because strings are similar to macros, they too can be defined to
suppress AT&T troff compatibility mode enablement when interpolated;
see section "Compatibility mode" below. The .ds1 request defines a
string that suspends compatibility mode when the string is later
interpolated. .as1 is likewise similar to .as, with compatibility mode
suspended when the appended portion of the string is later
interpolated.
Caution: Unlike other requests, the second argument to these requests
consumes the remainder of the input line, including trailing spaces.
Ending string definitions (and appendments) with a comment, even an
empty one, prevents unwanted space from creeping into them during
source document maintenance.
Several requests exist to perform rudimentary string operations.
Strings can be queried (.length) and modified (.chop, .substring,
.stringup, .stringdown), and their names can be manipulated through
renaming, removal, and aliasing (.rn, .rm, .als).
When a request, macro, string, or diversion is aliased, redefinitions
and appendments "write through" alias names. To replace an alias with
a separately defined object, you must use the rm request on its name
first.
Registers
In the roff language, numbers can be stored in registers. Many built-
in registers exist, supplying anything from the date to details of
formatting parameters. You can also define your own. See section
"Identifiers" above for information on constructing a valid name for a
register.
Define registers and update their values with the nr request or the \R
escape sequence.
Registers can also be incremented or decremented by a configured amount
at the time they are interpolated. The value of the increment is
specified with a third argument to the .nr request, and a special
interpolation syntax, \n+- is used to alter and then retrieve the
register's value. Together, these features are called auto-increment.
(A negative auto-increment can be considered an "auto-decrement".)
Many predefined registers are available. In the following
presentation, the register interpolation syntax \n[name] is used to
refer to a register name to clearly distinguish it from a string or
request name. The register name space is separate from that used for
requests, macros, strings, and diversions. Bear in mind that the
symbols \n[] are not part of the register name.
Read-only registers
Predefined registers whose identifiers start with a dot are read-only.
Many are Boolean-valued. Some are string-valued, meaning that they
interpolate text. A register name (without the dot) is often
associated with a request of the same name; exceptions are noted.
\n[.$] Count of arguments passed to currently interpolated
macro or string.
\n[.a] Amount of extra post-vertical line space; see \x.
\n[.A] Approximate output is being formatted (Boolean-valued);
see troff -a option.
\n[.b] Font emboldening offset; see .bd.
\n[.br] The normal control character was used to call the
currently interpolated macro (Boolean-valued).
\n[.c] Input line number; see .lf and register "c.".
\n[.C] Compatibility mode is enabled (Boolean-valued); see .cp.
Always false when processing .do; see register .cp.
\n[.cdp] Depth of last glyph formatted in the environment;
positive if glyph extends below the baseline.
\n[.ce] Count of output lines remaining to be centered.
\n[.cht] Height of last glyph formatted in the environment;
positive if glyph extends above the baseline.
\n[.color] Color output is enabled (Boolean-valued).
\n[.cp] Within .do, the saved value of compatibility mode; see
register .C.
\n[.csk] Skew of the last glyph formatted in the environment;
skew is how far to the right of the center of a glyph
the center of an accent over that glyph should be
placed.
\n[.d] Vertical drawing position in diversion.
\n[.ev] Name of environment (string-valued).
\n[.f] Mounting position of selected font; see .ft and \f.
\n[.F] Name of input file (string-valued); see .lf.
\n[.fam] Name of default font family (string-valued).
\n[.fn] Resolved name of selected font (string-valued); see .ft
and \f.
\n[.fp] Next non-zero free font mounting position index.
\n[.g] Always true in GNU troff (Boolean-valued).
\n[.h] Text baseline high-water mark on page or in diversion.
\n[.H] Horizontal motion quantum of output device in basic
units.
\n[.height] Font height; see \H.
\n[.hla] Hyphenation language in environment (string-valued).
\n[.hlc] Count of immediately preceding consecutive hyphenated
lines in environment.
\n[.hlm] Maximum quantity of consecutive hyphenated lines allowed
in environment.
\n[.hy] Automatic hyphenation mode in environment.
\n[.hym] Hyphenation margin in environment.
\n[.hys] Hyphenation space adjustment threshold in environment.
\n[.i] Indentation amount; see .in.
\n[.in] Indentation amount applicable to the pending output
line; see .ti.
\n[.int] Previous output line was "interrupted" or continued with
\c (Boolean-valued).
\n[.j] Adjustment mode encoded as an integer; see .ad and .na.
Do not interpret or perform arithmetic on its value.
\n[.k] Horizontal drawing position relative to indentation.
\n[.kern] Pairwise kerning is enabled (Boolean-valued).
\n[.l] Line length; see .ll.
\n[.L] Line spacing; see .ls.
\n[.lg] Ligature mode.
\n[.linetabs] Line-tabs mode is enabled (Boolean-valued).
\n[.ll] Line length applicable to the pending output line.
\n[.lt] Title length.
\n[.m] Stroke color (string-valued); see .gcolor and \m. Empty
if the stroke color is the default.
\n[.M] Fill color (string-valued); see .fcolor and \M. Empty
if the fill color is the default.
\n[.n] Length of formatted output on previous output line.
\n[.ne] Amount of vertical space required by last .ne that
caused a trap to be sprung; also see register .trunc.
\n[.nm] Output line numbering is enabled (Boolean-valued).
\n[.nn] Count of output lines remaining to have numbering
suppressed.
\n[.ns] No-space mode is enabled (Boolean-valued).
\n[.o] Page offset; see .po.
\n[.O] Output suppression nesting level; see \O.
\n[.p] Page length; see .pl.
\n[.P] The page is selected for output (Boolean-valued); see
troff -o option.
\n[.pe] Page ejection is in progress (Boolean-valued).
\n[.pn] Number of the next page.
\n[.ps] Type size in scaled points.
\n[.psr] Most recently requested type size in scaled points; see
.ps and \s.
\n[.pvs] Post-vertical line spacing.
\n[.R] Count of available unused registers; always 10,000 in
GNU troff.
\n[.rj] Count of lines remaining to be right-aligned.
\n[.s] Type size in points as a decimal fraction (string-
valued); see .ps and \s.
\n[.slant] Slant of font in degrees; see \S.
\n[.sr] Most recently requested type size in points as a decimal
fraction (string-valued); see .ps and \s.
\n[.ss] Size of minimal inter-word space in twelfths of the
space width of the selected font.
\n[.sss] Size of additional inter-sentence space in twelfths of
the space width of the selected font.
\n[.sty] Selected abstract style (string-valued); see .ft and \f.
\n[.t] Distance to next vertical position trap; see .wh and
.ch.
\n[.T] An output device was explicitly selected (Boolean-
valued); see troff -T option.
\n[.tabs] Representation of tab settings suitable for use as
argument to .ta (string-valued).
\n[.trunc] Amount of vertical space truncated by the most recently
sprung vertical position trap, or, if the trap was
sprung by an .ne, minus the amount of vertical motion
produced by .ne; also see register .ne.
\n[.u] Filling is enabled (Boolean-valued); see .fi and .nf.
\n[.U] Unsafe mode is enabled (Boolean-valued); see troff -U
option.
\n[.v] Vertical line spacing; see .vs.
\n[.V] Vertical motion quantum of the output device in basic
units.
\n[.vpt] Vertical position traps are enabled (Boolean-valued).
\n[.w] Width of previous glyph formatted in the environment.
\n[.warn] Sum of the numeric codes of enabled warning categories.
\n[.x] Major version number of the running troff formatter.
\n[.y] Minor version number of the running troff formatter.
\n[.Y] Revision number of the running troff formatter.
\n[.z] Name of diversion (string-valued). Empty if output is
directed to the top-level diversion.
\n[.zoom] Zoom multiplier of current font (in thousandths; zero if
no magnification); see .fzoom.
Writable predefined registers
Several registers are predefined but also modifiable; some are updated
upon interpretation of certain requests or escape sequences. Date- and
time-related registers are set to the local time as determined by
localtime(3) when the formatter launches. This initialization can be
overridden by SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH and TZ; see section "Environment" of
groff(7).
\n[$$] Process ID of troff.
\n[%] Page number.
\n[c.] Input line number.
\n[ct] Union of character types of each glyph rendered into
dummy environment by \w.
\n[dl] Width of last closed diversion.
\n[dn] Height of last closed diversion.
\n[dw] Day of the week (1-7; 1 is Sunday).
\n[dy] Day of the month (1-31).
\n[hours] Count of hours elapsed since midnight (0-23).
\n[hp] Horizontal drawing position relative to start of input
line.
\n[llx] Lower-left x coordinate (in PostScript units) of
PostScript image; see .psbb.
\n[lly] Lower-left y coordinate (in PostScript units) of
PostScript image; see .psbb.
\n[ln] Output line number; see .nm.
\n[lsn] Count of leading spaces on input line.
\n[lss] Amount of horizontal space corresponding to leading
spaces on input line.
\n[minutes] Count of minutes elapsed in the hour (0-59).
\n[mo] Month of the year (1-12).
\n[nl] Vertical drawing position.
\n[opmaxx]
\n[opmaxy]
\n[opminx]
\n[opminy] These four registers mark the top left- and bottom
right-hand corners of a rectangle encompassing all
formatted output on the page. They are reset to -1 by
\O0 or \O1.
\n[rsb] As register sb, adding maximum glyph height to
measurement.
\n[rst] As register st, adding maximum glyph depth to
measurement.
\n[sb] Maximum displacement of text baseline below its original
position after rendering into dummy environment by \w.
\n[seconds] Count of seconds elapsed in the minute (0-60).
\n[skw] Skew of last glyph rendered into dummy environment by
\w.
\n[slimit] The maximum depth of troff's internal input stack. If
<=0, there is no limit: recursion can continue until
available memory is exhausted. The default is 1,000.
\n[ssc] Subscript correction of last glyph rendered into dummy
environment by \w.
\n[st] Maximum displacement of text baseline above its original
position after rendering into dummy environment by \w.
\n[systat] Return value of system() function; see .sy.
\n[urx] Upper-right x coordinate (in PostScript units) of
PostScript image; see .psbb.
\n[ury] Upper-right y coordinate (in PostScript units) of
PostScript image; see .psbb.
\n[year] Gregorian year.
\n[yr] Gregorian year minus 1900.
Using fonts
In digital typography, a font is a collection of characters in a
specific typeface that a device can render as glyphs at a desired size.
(Terminals and some output devices have fonts that render at only one
or two sizes. As examples of the latter, take the groff lj4 device's
Lineprinter, and lbp's Courier and Elite faces.) A roff formatter can
change typefaces at any point in the text. The basic faces are a set
of styles combining upright and slanted shapes with normal and heavy
stroke weights: "R", "I", "B", and "BI"--these stand for roman, bold,
italic, and bold-italic. For linguistic text, GNU troff groups
typefaces into families containing each of these styles. (Font
designers prepare families such that the styles share esthetic
properties.) A text font is thus often a family combined with a style,
but it need not be: consider the ps and pdf devices' ZCMI (Zapf
Chancery Medium italic)--often, no other style of Zapf Chancery Medium
is provided. On typesetting devices, at least one special font is
available, comprising unstyled glyphs for mathematical operators and
other purposes.
Like AT&T troff, GNU troff does not itself load or manipulate a digital
font file; instead it works with a font description file that
characterizes it, including its glyph repertoire and the metrics
(dimensions) of each glyph. This information permits the formatter to
accurately place glyphs with respect to each other. Before using a
font description, the formatter associates it with a mounting position,
a place in an ordered list of available typefaces. So that a document
need not be strongly coupled to a specific font family, in GNU troff an
output device can associate a style in the abstract sense with a
mounting position. Thus the default family can be combined with a
style dynamically, producing a resolved font name.
Fonts often have trademarked names, and even Free Software fonts can
require renaming upon modification. groff maintains a convention that
a device's serif font family is given the name T ("Times"), its sans-
serif family H ("Helvetica"), and its monospaced family C ("Courier").
Historical inertia has driven groff's font identifiers to short
uppercase abbreviations of font names, as with TR, TB, TI, TBI, and a
special font S.
The default family used with abstract styles can be changed at any
time; initially, it is T. Typically, abstract styles are arranged in
the first four mounting positions in the order shown above. The
default mounting position, and therefore style, is always 1 (R). By
issuing appropriate formatter instructions, you can override these
defaults before your document writes its first glyph.
Terminal output devices cannot change font families and lack special
fonts. They support style changes by overstriking, or by altering
ISO 6429/ECMA-48 graphic renditions (character cell attributes).
Hyphenation
When filling, groff hyphenates words as needed at user-specified and
automatically determined hyphenation points. Explicitly hyphenated
words such as "mother-in-law" are always eligible for breaking after
each of their hyphens. The hyphenation character \% and non-printing
break point \: escape sequences may be used to control the hyphenation
and breaking of individual words. The .hw request sets user-defined
hyphenation points for specified words at any subsequent occurrence.
Otherwise, groff determines hyphenation points automatically by
default.
Several requests influence automatic hyphenation. Because conventions
vary, a variety of hyphenation modes is available to the .hy request;
these determine whether hyphenation will apply to a word prior to
breaking a line at the end of a page (more or less; see below for
details), and at which positions within that word automatically
determined hyphenation points are permissible. The default is "1" for
historical reasons, but this is not an appropriate value for the
English hyphenation patterns used by groff; localization macro files
loaded by troffrc and macro packages often override it.
0 disables hyphenation.
1 enables hyphenation except after the first and before the last
character of a word.
The remaining values "imply" 1; that is, they enable hyphenation under
the same conditions as ".hy 1", and then apply or lift restrictions
relative to that basis.
2 disables hyphenation of the last word on a page. (Hyphenation
is prevented if the next page location trap is closer to the
vertical drawing position than the next text baseline would be.
See section "Traps" below.)
4 disables hyphenation before the last two characters of a word.
8 disables hyphenation after the first two characters of a word.
16 enables hyphenation before the last character of a word.
32 enables hyphenation after the first character of a word.
Apart from value 2, restrictions imposed by the hyphenation mode are
not respected for words whose hyphenations have been specified with the
hyphenation character ("\%" by default) or the .hw request.
Nonzero values are additive. For example, mode 12 causes groff to
hyphenate neither the last two nor the first two characters of a word.
Some values cannot be used together because they contradict; for
instance, values 4 and 16, and values 8 and 32. As noted, it is
superfluous to add 1 to any non-zero even mode.
The places within a word that are eligible for hyphenation are
determined by language-specific data (.hla, .hpf, and .hpfa) and
lettercase relationships (.hcode and .hpfcode). Furthermore,
hyphenation of a word might be suppressed due to a limit on consecutive
hyphenated lines (.hlm), a minimum line length threshold (.hym), or
because the line can instead be adjusted with additional inter-word
space (.hys).
Localization
The set of hyphenation patterns is associated with the hyphenation
language set by the .hla request. The .hpf request is usually invoked
by a localization file loaded by the troffrc file. groff provides
localization files for several languages; see groff_tmac(5).
Writing macros
The .de request defines a macro named for its argument. If that name
already exists as an alias, the target of the alias is redefined; see
section "Strings" above. troff enters "copy mode" (see below), storing
subsequent input lines as the definition. If the optional second
argument is not specified, the definition ends with the control line
".." (two dots). Alternatively, a second argument names a macro whose
call syntax ends the definition; this "end macro" is then called
normally. Spaces or tabs are permitted after the first control
character in the line containing this ending token, but a tab
immediately after the token prevents its recognition as the end of a
macro definition. Macro definitions can be nested if they use distinct
end macros or if their ending tokens are sufficiently escaped. An end
macro need not be defined until it is called. This fact enables a
nested macro definition to begin inside one macro and end inside
another.
Variants of .de disable compatibility mode and/or indirect the names of
the macros specified for definition or termination: these are .de1,
.dei, and .dei1. Append to macro definitions with .am, .am1, .ami, and
.ami1. The .als, .rm, and .rn requests create an alias of, remove, and
rename a macro, respectively. .return stops the execution of a macro
immediately, returning to the enclosing context.
Parameters
Macro call and string interpolation parameters can be accessed using
escape sequences starting with "\$". The \n[.$] read-only register
stores the count of parameters available to a macro or string; its
value can be changed by the .shift request, which dequeues parameters
from the current list. The \$0 escape sequence interpolates the name
by which a macro was called. Applying string interpolation to a macro
does not change this name.
Copy mode
When troff processes certain requests, most importantly those which
define or append to a macro or string, it does so in copy mode: it
copies the characters of the definition into a dedicated storage
region, interpolating the escape sequences \n, \g, \$, \*, \V, and \?
normally; interpreting \newline immediately; discarding comments \" and
\#; interpolating the current leader, escape, or tab character with \a,
\e, and \t, respectively; and storing all other escape sequences in an
encoded form. The complement of copy mode--a roff formatter's behavior
when not defining or appending to a macro, string, or diversion--where
all macros are interpolated, requests invoked, and valid escape
sequences processed immediately upon recognition, can be termed
interpretation mode.
The escape character, \ by default, can escape itself. This enables
you to control whether a given \n, \g, \$, \*, \V, or \? escape
sequence is interpreted at the time the macro containing it is defined,
or later when the macro is called.
You can think of \\ as a "delayed" backslash; it is the escape
character followed by a backslash from which the escape character has
removed its special meaning. Consequently, \\ is not an escape
sequence in the usual sense. In any escape sequence \X that troff does
not recognize, the escape character is ignored and X is output. An
unrecognized escape sequence causes a warning in category "escape",
with two exceptions, \\ being one. The other is \., which escapes the
control character. It is used to permit nested macro definitions to
end without a named macro call to conclude them. Without a syntax for
escaping the control character, this would not be possible. roff
documents should not use the \\ or \. character sequences outside of
copy mode; they serve only to obfuscate the input. Use \e to represent
the escape character, \[rs] to obtain a backslash glyph, and \& before
. and ' where troff expects them as control characters if you mean to
use them literally.
Macro definitions can be nested to arbitrary depth. In "\\", each
escape character is interpreted twice--once in copy mode, when the
macro is defined, and once in interpretation mode, when the macro is
called. This fact leads to exponential growth in the quantity of
escape characters required to delay interpolation of \n, \g, \$, \*,
\V, and \? at each nesting level. An alternative is to use \E, which
represents an escape character that is not interpreted in copy mode.
Because \. is not a true escape sequence, we can't use \E to keep ".."
from ending a macro definition prematurely. If the multiplicity of
backslashes complicates maintenance, use end macros.
Traps
Traps are locations in the output, or conditions on the input that,
when reached or fulfilled, call a specified macro. A vertical position
trap calls a macro when the formatter's vertical drawing position
reaches or passes, in the downward direction, a certain location on the
output page or in a diversion. Its applications include setting page
headers and footers, body text in multiple columns, and footnotes.
These traps can occur at a given location on the page (.wh, .ch); at a
given location in the current diversion (.dt)--together, these are
known as vertical position traps, which can be disabled and re-enabled
(.vpt).
A diversion is not formatted in the context of a page, so it lacks page
location traps; instead it can have a diversion trap. There can exist
at most one such vertical position trap per diversion.
Other kinds of trap can be planted at a blank line (.blm); at a line
with leading space characters (.lsm); after a certain number of
productive input lines (.it, .itc); or at the end of input (.em).
Macros called by traps are passed no arguments. Setting a trap is also
called planting one. It is said that a trap is sprung if its condition
is fulfilled.
Registers associated with trap management include vertical position
trap enablement status (\n[.vpt]), distance to the next trap (\n[.t]),
amount of needed (.ne-requested) space that caused the most recent
vertical position trap to be sprung (\n[.ne]), amount of needed space
truncated from the amount requested (\n[.trunc]), page ejection status
(\n[.pe]), and leading space count (\n[.lsn]) with its corresponding
amount of motion (\n[.lss]).
Page location traps
A page location trap is a vertical position trap that applies to the
page; that is, to undiverted output. Many can be present; manage them
with the wh and ch requests. Non-negative page locations given to
these requests set the trap relative to the top of the page; negative
values set the trap relative to the bottom of the page. It is not
possible to plant a trap less than one basic unit from the page bottom:
a location of "-0" is interpreted as "0", the top of the page. An
existing visible trap (see below) at the same location is removed; this
is .wh's sole function if its second argument is missing.
A trap is sprung only if it is visible, meaning that its location is
reachable on the page and it is not hidden by another trap at the same
location already planted there. (A trap planted at "20i" or "-30i"
will not be sprung on a page of length "11i".)
A trap above the top or at or below the bottom of the page can be made
visible by either moving it into the page area or increasing the page
length so that the trap is on the page. Negative trap values always
use the current page length; they are not converted to an absolute
vertical position. Use .ptr to dump page location traps to the
standard error stream; their positions are reported in basic units.
The implicit page trap
An implicit page trap always exists in the top-level diversion; it
works like a trap in some ways but not others. Its purpose is to eject
the current page and start the next one. It has no name, so it cannot
be moved or deleted with wh or ch requests. You cannot hide it by
placing another trap at its location, and can move it only by
redefining the page length with .pl. Its operation is suppressed when
vertical page traps are disabled with the vpt request.
Diversions
In roff systems it is possible to format text as if for output, but
instead of writing it immediately, one can divert the formatted text
into a named storage area. It is retrieved later by specifying its
name after a control character. The same name space is used for such
diversions as for strings and macros; see section "Identifiers" above.
Such text is sometimes said to be "stored in a macro", but this coinage
obscures the important distinction between macros and strings on one
hand and diversions on the other; the former store unformatted input
text, and the latter capture formatted output. Diversions also do not
interpret arguments. Applications of diversions include "keeps"
(preventing a page break from occurring at an inconvenient place by
forcing a set of output lines to be set as a group), footnotes, tables
of contents, and indices. For orthogonality it is said that GNU troff
is in the top-level diversion if no diversion is active (that is,
formatted output is being "diverted" immediately to the output device.
Dereferencing an undefined diversion will create an empty one of that
name and cause a warning in category mac to be emitted. (see section
"Warnings" in troff(1)). A diversion does not exist for the purpose of
testing with the d conditional operator until its initial definition
ends (see subsection "Conditional expressions" above).
The di request creates a diversion, including any partially collected
line. da appends to a diversion, creating one if it does not already
exist. If the diversion's name already exists as an alias, the target
of the alias is replaced or appended to; see section "Strings" above.
box and boxa works similarly, but ignore partially collected lines.
Call any of these macros again without an argument to end the
diversion.
Diversions can be nested. The registers .d, .z, dn, and dl report
information about the current (or last closed) diversion. .h is
meaningful in diversions, including the top level.
The \! and \? escape sequences and output request escape from a
diversion, the first two to the enclosing level and the last to the top
level. This facility is termed transparent embedding.
The asciify and unformat requests reprocess diversions.
Punning names
Macros, strings, and diversions share a name space; see section
"Identifiers" above. Internally, the same mechanism is used to store
them. You can thus call a macro with string interpolation syntax and
vice versa. Interpolating a string does not hide existing macro
arguments. The sequence \\ can be placed at the end of a line in a
macro definition or, within a macro definition, immediately after the
interpolation of a macro as a string to suppress the effect of a
newline.
Environments
Environments store most of the parameters that control text processing.
A default environment named "0" exists when troff starts up; it is
modified by formatting-related requests and escape sequences.
You can create new environments and switch among them. Only one is
current at any given time. Active environments are managed using a
stack, a data structure supporting "push" and "pop" operations. The
current environment is at the top of the stack. The same environment
name can be pushed onto the stack multiple times, possibly interleaved
with others. Popping the environment stack does not destroy the
current environment; it remains accessible by name and can be made
current again by pushing it at any time. Environments cannot be
renamed or deleted, and can only be modified when current. To inspect
the environment stack, use the pev request; see section "Debugging"
below.
Environments store the following information.
o a partially collected line, if any
o data about the most recently output glyph and line (registers .cdp,
.cht, .csk, .n, .w)
o typeface parameters (size, family, style, height and slant, inter-
word and inter-sentence space sizes)
o page parameters (line length, title length, vertical spacing, line
spacing, indentation, line numbering, centering, right-alignment,
underlining, hyphenation parameters)
o filling enablement; adjustment enablement and mode
o tab stops; tab, leader, escape, control, no-break control,
hyphenation, and margin characters
o input line traps
o stroke and fill colors
The ev request pushes to and pops from the environment stack, while evc
copies a named environment's contents to the current one.
Underlining
In RUNOFF (see roff(7)), underlining, even of lengthy passages, was
straightforward because only fixed-pitch printing devices were
targeted. Typesetter output posed a greater challenge. There exists a
groff request .ul (see above) that underlines subsequent source lines
on terminal devices, but on typesetters, it selects an italic font
style instead. The ms macro package (see groff_ms(7)) offers a macro
.UL, but it too produces the desired effect only on typesetters, and
has other limitations.
One could adapt ms's approach to the construction of a macro as
follows.
.de UNDERLINE
. ie n \\$1\f[I]\\$2\f[P]\\$3
. el \\$1\Z'\\$2'\v'.25m'\D'l \w'\\$2'u 0'\v'-.25m'\\$3
..
If doclifter(1) makes trouble, change the macro name UNDERLINE into
some 2-letter word, like Ul. Moreover, change the form of the font
selection escape sequence from \f[P] to \fP.
Underlining without macro definitions
If one does not want to use macro definitions, e.g., when doclifter
gets lost, use the following.
.ds u1 before
.ds u2 in
.ds u3 after
.ie n \*[u1]\f[I]\*[u2]\f[P]\*[u3]
.el \*[u1]\Z'\*[u2]'\v'.25m'\D'l \w'\*[u2]'u 0'\v'-.25m'\*[u3]
When using doclifter, it might be necessary to change syntax forms such
as \[xy] and \*[xy] to those supported by AT&T troff: \*(xy and \(xy,
and so on.
Then these lines could look like
.ds u1 before
.ds u2 in
.ds u3 after
.ie n \*[u1]\fI\*(u2\fP\*(u3
.el \*(u1\Z'\*(u2'\v'.25m'\D'l \w'\*(u2'u 0'\v'-.25m'\*(u3
The result looks like
before in after
Underlining by overstriking with \(ul
The \z escape sequence writes a glyph without advancing the drawing
position, enabling overstriking. Thus, \zc\(ul formats c with an
underrule glyph on top of it. Video terminals implement the underrule
by setting a character cell's underline attribute, so this technique
works in both nroff and troff modes.
Long words may then look intimidating in the input; a clarifying
approach might be to use the input line continuation escape sequence
\newline to place each underlined character on its own input line.
Thus,
.nf
\&\fB: ${\fIvar\fR\c
\zo\(ul\
\zp\(ul\c
\&\fIvalue\fB}
.fi
produces
: ${var__value}
as output.
Compatibility mode
The differences between the roff language recognized by GNU troff and
that of AT&T troff, as well as the device, font, and device-independent
intermediate output formats described by CSTR #54 are documented in
groff_diff(7). groff provides an AT&T compatibility mode. The .cp
request and registers .C and .cp set and test the enablement of this
mode.
Debugging
Preprocessors use the .lf request to preserve the identities of line
numbers and names of input files. groff emits a variety of error
diagnostics and supports several categories of warning; the output of
these can be selectively suppressed with .warn (and see the -E, -w, and
-W options of troff(1)). A trace of the formatter's input processing
stack can be emitted when errors or warnings occur by means of
troff(1)'s -b option, or produced on demand with the .backtrace
request. .tm, .tmc, and .tm1 can be used to emit customized diagnostic
messages or for instrumentation while troubleshooting. .ex and .ab
cause early termination with successful and error exit codes
respectively, to halt further processing when continuing would be
fruitless. Examine the state of the formatter with requests that write
lists of defined names--macros, strings, and diversions--(.pm);
environments (.pev), registers (.pnr), and page location traps (.ptr)
to the standard error stream.
Authors
This document was written by by Trent A. Fisher, Werner Lemberg, and G.
Branden Robinson <g.branden.robinson@gmail.com>. Section "Underlining"
was primarily written by Bernd Warken <groff-bernd.warken-72@web.de>.
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".
"Troff User's Manual" by Joseph F. Ossanna, 1976 (revised by Brian W.
Kernighan, 1992), AT&T Bell Laboratories Computing Science Technical
Report No. 54, widely called simply "CSTR #54", documents the language,
device and font description file formats, and device-independent output
format referred to collectively in groff documentation as "AT&T troff".
"A Typesetter-independent TROFF" by Brian W. Kernighan, 1982, AT&T Bell
Laboratories Computing Science Technical Report No. 97 (CSTR #97),
provides additional insights into the device and font description file
formats and device-independent output format.
groff(7)
is the preferred interface to the groff system; it manages the
pipeline that carries a source document through preprocessors,
the troff formatter, and an output driver to viewable or
printable form. It also exhaustively lists the man pages
provided with the GNU roff system.
groff_char(7)
discusses character encoding issues, escape sequences that
produce glyphs, and enumerates groff's predefined special
character escape sequences.
groff_diff(7)
covers differences between the GNU troff formatter, its device
and font description file formats, its device-independent output
format, and those of AT&T troff, whose design it reimplements.
groff_font(5)
describes the formats of the files that describe devices (DESC)
and fonts.
groff_tmac(5)
surveys macro packages provided with groff, describes how
documents can take advantage of them, offers guidance on writing
macro packages and using diversions, and includes historical
information on macro package naming conventions.
roff(7)
presents a detailed history of roff systems and summarizes
concepts common to them.
groff 1.23.0 2 July 2023 groff(7)
groff 1.23.0 - Generated Fri Dec 22 13:26:10 CST 2023