NAME
groff_filenames — filename extensions for roff and groff
DESCRIPTION
Since the evolution of roff in the 1970s, a whole bunch of filename extensions for roff files were used.
The roff extensions refer to preprocessors or macro packages. These extensions are fixed in all Unix−like operating systems.
Later on, groff added some more extensions. We will now write a man−page about these filename extensions.
COMPRESSION OF ROFF FILES
Each roff file can be optionally compressed. That means that the total filename ends with a compressor name. So the whole filename has the structure <name>.<extension>[.<compression>].
Mostly known are the compressor extensions .Z, .gz, and .bzip2. Relatively new is .xz.
From now on, we will ignore the compressions and only comment the structure <name>.<extension>.
MAN−PAGES
The Unix manual pages are shortly named man−pages. The man−page style is the best known part of the roff language.
The extensions for man should be better documented. So this is documented here.
Files written in the man language use the following extension: *.<section>[<group>].
Man-page
Sections
The traditional man−page <section> is a
digit from 1 to 8.
<name>.1
<name>.2
<name>.3
<name>.4
<name>.5
<name>.6
<name>.7
<name>.8
Classic man−page sections.
Linux added the
section number 9 for kernel man−pages.
<name>.9
Linux kernel man-pages
In older
commercial Unix systems, the 3 characters l,
n, and o were also used as section
names. This is today deprecated, but there are still
documents in this format.
<name>.l
<name>.n
<name>.o
Deprecated old man−page sections.
Man−page
Group Extensions
The <group> extension in
.<section>[<group>] is optional,
but it can be any string of word characters. Usually
programmers use a group name that is already used, e.g.
x for X Window System documents or tk
to refer to the tk programming language.
Examples:
groff.1
is the man-page for groff in section 1 without a group
xargs.1posix.gz
is the man−page for the program xargs in section 1 and group posix; moreover it is compressed with gz (gzip).
config.5ssl
OpenSSL CONF library configuration files from section 5 with group ssl.
dpkg-reconfigure.8cdebconf
man−page for the program dpkg−reconfigure in section 8 and group cdebconf.
Source of
Man−pages
There are 2 roff languages for writing
man−pages: man and mdoc.
The names of
these 2 styles are taken as extensions for the source
code files of man−pages in the groff package.
<name>.man
traditional Unix−like man−page format within groff source files.
<name>.n
A temporary man-page file produced from a name.man man−page by a run of make within the groff source package.
<name>.mdoc
Man-page format in BSD.
<name>.1b
Man-page format in heirloom roff .
<name>.mandoc
Files using this extension recognize both man−page formats in groff and other processors.
TRADITIONAL TROFF EXTENSIONS
Files Using
Macro Packages
The classical roff languages were interpreted by the
traditional troff and nroff programs.
There were
several roff languages, each represented by a
macro-package. Each of these provided a suitable file
name extension:
<name>.me
roff file using the me macro package.
<name>.mm
roff file using the mm macro package
<name>.ms
roff file using the ms macro package
All of these classical roff languages and their extensions are still very active in groff.
Source Code
for Macro Packages (TMAC Files)
In traditional roff the source code for the macro
packages was stored in TMAC files. Their file names
have the form:
tmac.<package>,
<package> is the name of the macro package without the leading m character, which is reintegrated by the option -m.
For example, tmac.an is the source for the man macro package.
In the groff source, more suitable file names were integrated, see later on.
Preprocessors
Moreover, the following preprocessors were used as
filename extension:
<name>.chem
for the integration of chemical formulas
<name>.eqn
for the mathematical use of equations
<name>.pic
graphical tool
<name>.tbl
for tables with tbl
<name>.ref
for files using the prefer preprocessor
Classical
Roff Files
<name>.t
<name>.tr
for files using the roff language of any kind
NEW GROFF EXTENSIONS
GNU roff
groff is the actual roff standard, both for
classical roff and new extensions. So even the used
new extensions in the source code should be regarded as
actual standard. The following extensions are used instead
of classical .t or .tr:
<name>.groff
<name>.roff
general ending for files using the groff language
Source Code
for Macro Packages (TMAC Files)
As the classical form
tmac.<package_without_m>, of the
TMAC file names is quite strange, groff added
the following structures:
<package_without_m>.tmac
m<package>.tmac
groff_m<package>.tmac
Files Using
new Macro Packages
Groff uses the following new macro packages:
<name>.mmse
file with swedish mm macros for groff
<name>.mom
files written in the groff macro package mom
<name>.www
files written in HTML−like groff macros.
Preprocessors
and Postprocessors
<name>.hdtbl
a new tbl format. See groff_hdtbl(7).
<name>.grap
files written for the graphical grap processor.
<name>.grn
for including gremlin(1), pictures, see grn(1).
<name>.pdfroff
transform this file with pdfroff of the groff system
SEE ALSO
History and future
roff(7), man−pages(7), groff_diff(7), groff(7)
Compression
uncompress(1posix), gzip2(1), bzip2(1), xz(1)
A man-page of the naming form name(n) can be read in text mode by
man n name
or in graphical mode (PDF) by
groffer n name
https://github.com/n-t-roff/heirloom-doctools">Gunnar Ritter's Heirloom roff project. You can get this package with the shell command:
$ git clone https://github.com/n-t-roff/heirloom-doctools
COPYING
Copyright © 2013-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This file is part of groff, a free software project. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 (GPL2) as published by the Free Software Foundation (FSF).
The license text can be found in the internet at http://www.gnu.org/licenses">http://www.gnu.org/licenses.
AUTHORS
This file was written by groff-bernd.warken-72 [AT] web.de">Bernd Warken.