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groff_tmac(5)

NAME

       groff_tmac - macro files in the roff typesetting system

DESCRIPTION

       The  roff(7) type-setting system provides a set of macro packages suit-
       able for special kinds of documents.  Each  macro  package  stores  its
       macros  and  definitions in a file called the package's tmac file.  The
       name is deduced from `TroffMACros'.

       The tmac files are normal roff source documents, except that they  usu-
       ally  contain  only  definitions  and setup commands, but no text.  All
       tmac files are kept in a single or a small number of  directories,  the
       tmac directories.

GROFF MACRO PACKAGES

       groff  provides	all classical macro packages, some more full packages,
       and some secondary packages for special purposes.  Note that it is  not
       possible  to use multiple primary macro packages at the same time; say-
       ing e.g.

	      sh# groff -m man -m ms foo

       or

	      sh# groff -m man foo -m ms bar

       will fail.

   Man Pages
       man    This is the  classical  macro  package  for  UNIX  manual  pages
	      (man   pages);   it   is	quite  handy  and  easy  to  use;  see
	      groff_man(7).

       doc
       mdoc   An alternative macro package for man pages mainly  used  in  BSD
	      systems;	it provides many new features, but it is not the stan-
	      dard for man pages; see groff_mdoc(7).

   Full Packages
       The packages in this section provide a complete set of macros for writ-
       ing  documents  of  any	kind,  up to whole books.  They are similar in
       functionality; it is a matter of taste which one to use.

       me     The classical me macro package; see groff_me(7).

       mm     The semi-classical mm macro package; see groff_mm(7).

       mom    The new mom macro package, only available in groff.  As this  is
	      not  based  on other packages, it can be freely designed.  So it
	      is expected to become quite a nice, modern macro	package.   See
	      groff_mom(7).

       ms     The classical ms macro package; see groff_ms(7).

   Special Packages
	      -dpaper=size.  Possible values for size are the same as the pre-
	      defined  papersize  values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see
	      groff_font(5) for more) except a7-d7.  An appended l (ell) char-
	      acter  denotes  landscape  orientation.  Examples: a4, c3l, let-
	      terl.

	      Most output drivers need additional command line switches -p and
	      -l  to  override the default paper length and orientation as set
	      in the driver specific DESC file.  For example, use the  follow-
	      ing for PS output on A4 paper in landscape orientation:

	      sh# groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps

       pspic  A  single  macro	is  provided in this file, PSPIC, to include a
	      PostScript graphic in a document.  It makes only sense for  out-
	      put  devices  which support inclusion of PS images: -Tps, -Tdvi,
	      and -Thtml; the file is then loaded automatically.  Syntax:

		     .PSPIC [-L|-R|-I n] file [width [height]]

	      file is the name of the file containing the illustration;  width
	      and  height  give  the  desired width and height of the graphic.
	      The width and height arguments may have scaling  indicators  at-
	      tached;  the  default  scaling  indicator is i.  This macro will
	      scale the graphic uniformly in the x and y directions so that it
	      is  no  more  than  width wide and height high.  By default, the
	      graphic will be horizontally centered.  The -L  and  -R  options
	      cause  the graphic to be left-aligned and right-aligned, respec-
	      tively.  The -I option causes the graphic to be  indented  by  n
	      (default scaling indicator is m).

       tty-char
	      Overrides  the  definition of standard troff characters and some
	      groff characters for tty devices.  The optical appearance is in-
	      tentionally  inferior  compared to that of normal tty formatting
	      to allow processing with critical equipment.

       www    Additions of elements known from the html format, as being  used
	      in  the internet (World Wide Web) pages; this includes URL links
	      and mail addresses; see groff_www(7).

NAMING

       In classical roff systems, there was a funny naming  scheme  for  macro
       packages, due to a simplistic design in option parsing.	Macro packages
       were always included by option -m; when this option was	directly  fol-
       lowed  by its argument without an intervening space, this looked like a
       long option preceded by a single minus -- a sensation in  the  computer
       stone age.  To make this optically working for macro package names, all
       classical macro packages choose a name that  started  with  the	letter
       `m', which was omitted in the naming of the macro file.

       For  example, the macro package for the man pages was called man, while
       its macro file tmac.an.	So it could be activated by the argument an to
       option -m, or -man for short.

       For  similar reasons, macro packages that did not start with an `m' had
       a leading `m' added in the documentation and in talking;  for  example,
       the package corresponding to tmac.doc was called mdoc in the documenta-
       lowing four methods:

	      sh# groff -m man
	      sh# groff -man
	      sh# groff -mman
	      sh# groff -m an

       Recent packages that do not start with `m' do not use an additional `m'
       in the documentation.  For example, the www macro package may be speci-
       fied only as one of the two methods:

	      sh# groff -m www
	      sh# groff -mwww

       Obviously, variants like -mmwww would not make much sense.

       A second strange feature of classical troff was to name macro files ac-
       cording	to tmac.name.  In modern operating systems, the type of a file
       is specified as postfix, the file name extension.  Again,  groff  copes
       with  this  situation by searching both anything.tmac and tmac.anything
       if only anything is specified.

       The easiest way to find out which macro packages  are  available  on  a
       system  is  to check the man page groff(1), or the contents of the tmac
       directories.

       In groff, most  macro  packages	are  described	in  man  pages	called
       groff_name(7), with a leading `m' for the classical packages.

INCLUSION

       There are several ways to use a macro package in a document.  The clas-
       sical way is to specify the troff/groff option  -m  name  at  run-time;
       this makes the contents of the macro package name available.  In groff,
       the file name.tmac is searched within the  tmac	path;  if  not	found,
       tmac.name will be searched for instead.

       Alternatively,  it  is  also possible to include a macro file by adding
       the request .so filename into the document; the argument  must  be  the
       full  file  name of an existing file, possibly with the directory where
       it is kept.  In groff, this was improved by the	similar  request  .mso
       package,  which	added  searching in the tmac path, just like option -m
       does.

       Note that in order to resolve the .so and .mso requests, the roff  pre-
       processor  soelim(1)  must  be  called if the files to be included need
       preprocessing.  This can be done either directly by a pipeline  on  the
       command	line  or by using the troff/groff option -s.  man calls soelim
       automatically.

       For    example,	  suppose    a	  macro    file    is	 stored     as
       /usr/share/tmac/macros.tmac   and  is  used  in	some  document	called
       docu.roff.

       At run-time, the formatter call for this is

	      sh# groff -m macrofile document.roff

       To include the macro file directly in the document either

	      sh# groff -s docu.roff

       If you want to write your own groff macro file, call  it  whatever.tmac
       and put it in some directory of the tmac path, see section FILES.  Then
       documents can include it with the .mso request or the option -m.

WRITING MACROS

       A roff(7) document is a text file that is enriched by  predefined  for-
       matting constructs, such as requests, escape sequences, strings, numer-
       ic registers, and macros from a macro package.  These elements are  de-
       scribed in roff(7).

       To  give  a  document a personal style, it is most useful to extend the
       existing elements by defining some macros for repeating tasks; the best
       place  for  this is near the beginning of the document or in a separate
       file.

       Macros without arguments are just like strings.	But the full power  of
       macros reveals when arguments are passed with a macro call.  Within the
       macro definition, the arguments are available as the  escape  sequences
       $1,  ...,  $9,  $[...],	$*, and $@, the name under which the macro was
       called is in $0, and the number of arguments  is  in  register  0;  see
       groff(7).

   Copy-in Mode
       The phase when groff reads a macro is called copy-in mode in roff-talk.
       This is comparable to the C preprocessing phase during the  development
       of a program written in the C language.

       In  this  phase,  groff interprets all backslashes; that means that all
       escape sequences in the macro body  are	interpreted  and  replaced  by
       their  value.  For constant expression, this is wanted, but strings and
       registers that might change between calls of the macro must be protect-
       ed  from  being	evaluated.   This  is most easily done by doubling the
       backslash that introduces the escape sequence.  This doubling  is  most
       important  for the positional parameters.  For example, to print infor-
       mation on the arguments that were passed to the macro to the  terminal,
       define a macro named `.print_args', say.

	      .ds midpart was called with
	      .de print_args
	      .  tm \f[I]\\$0\f[] \\*[midpart] \\n[.$] arguments:
	      .  tm \\$*
	      ..

       When calling this macro by

	      .print_args arg1 arg2

       the following text is printed to the terminal:

	      print_args was called with the following 2 arguments:
	      arg1 arg2

       Let's analyze each backslash in the macro definition.  As the position-
       al parameters and the number of arguments will change with each call of
       the  macro  their  leading  backslash must be doubled, which results in

   Draft Mode
       Writing groff macros is easy when the escaping mechanism is temporarily
       disabled.   In groff, this is done by enclosing the macro definition(s)
       into a pair of .eo and .ec requests.  Then the body in the macro  defi-
       nition  is  just like a normal part of the document -- text enhanced by
       calls of requests, macros, strings, registers, etc.  For  example,  the
       code above can be written in a simpler way by

	      .eo
	      .ds midpart was called with
	      .de print_args
	      .  tm \f[I]\$0\f[] \*[midpart] \n[.$] arguments:
	      .  tm \$*
	      ..
	      .ec

       Unfortunately,  draft  mode cannot be used universally.	Although it is
       good enough for defining normal macros, draft mode will fail  with  ad-
       vanced  applications,  such  as	indirectly defined strings, registers,
       etc.  An optimal way is to define and test all macros in draft mode and
       then do the backslash doubling as a final step; do not forget to remove
       the .eo request.

   Tips for Macro Definitions
       o Start every line with a dot, for example, by using the groff  request
	 .nop  for  text lines, or write your own macro that handles also text
	 lines with a leading dot.

	 .de Text
	 .  if (\\n[.$] == 0) \
	 .    return
	 . nop \)\\$*[rs]
	 ..

       o Write a comment macro that works both for copy-in and draft mode; for
	 as  escaping  is  off	in draft mode, trouble might occur when normal
	 comments are used.  For example, the following macro just ignores its
	 arguments, so it acts like a comment line:

	 .de c
	 ..
	 .c This is like a comment line.

       o In  long  macro definitions, make ample use of comment lines or empty
	 lines for a better structuring.

       o To increase readability, use groff's  indentation  facility  for  re-
	 quests  and macro calls (arbitrary whitespace after the leading dot).

   Diversions
       Diversions can be used  to  realize  quite  advanced  programming  con-
       structs.   They	are comparable to pointers to large data structures in
       the C programming language, but their usage is quite different.

       In their simplest form, diversions are multi-line strings, but they get
       their  power  when  diversions are used dynamically within macros.  The
       information stored in a diversion can be retrieved by calling  the  di-
       version just like a macro.
       breaks; for example, by amply using .br requests.  This rule should  be
       applied	to  diversion  definition, both inside and outside, and to all
       calls of diversions.  This is a bit of overkill, but it works nicely.

       [If you really need diversions which should ignore the current  partial
       line,  use environments to save the current partial line and/or use the
       .box request.]

       The most powerful feature using diversions  is  to  start  a  diversion
       within a macro definition and end it within another macro.  Then every-
       thing between each call of this macro pair is stored within the	diver-
       sion and can be manipulated from within the macros.

FILES

       All  macro  names  must be named name.tmac to fully use the tmac mecha-
       nism.  tmac.name as with classical packages is possible	as  well,  but
       deprecated.

       The  macro  files  are  kept in the tmac directories; a colon separated
       list of these constitutes the tmac path.

       The search sequence for macro files is (in that order):

       o the directories specified with troff/groff's -M command line option

       o the directories given in the $GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable

       o the current directory (only if in unsafe mode, which  is  enabled  by
	 the -U command line switch)

       o the home directory

       o a  platform-specific directory, being /usr/share/tmac in this instal-
	 lation

       o a    site-specific    (platform-independent)	  directory,	 being
	 /usr/share/tmac in this installation

       o the main tmac directory, being /usr/share/tmac in this installation

ENVIRONMENT

       $GROFF_TMAC_PATH
	      A  colon	separated list of additional tmac directories in which
	      to search for macro files.  See the previous section for	a  de-
	      tailed description.

AUTHOR

       Copyright (C) 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

       This document is distributed under the terms of the FDL (GNU Free Docu-
       mentation License) version 1.1 or later.  You should  have  received  a
       copy of the FDL on your system, it is also available on-line at the GNU
       copyleft site <http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html>.

       This document is part of groff, the  GNU  roff  distribution.   It  was
       written	by  Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>; it is maintained by Werner
       Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.

       groff_mdoc(7),
       groff_me(7),
       groff_mm(7),
       groff_mom(7),
       groff_ms(7),
       groff_www(7).
	      the groff tmac macro packages.

       groff(7)
	      the groff language.

       The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard is available at the FHS web site
       <http://www.pathname.com/fhs/>.

Groff Version 1.19		  1 May 2003			 GROFF_TMAC(5)

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