unroff-html-ms(1)unroff-html-ms(1)NAMEunroff-html-ms - back-end to translate `ms' documents to HTML 2.0
SYNOPSIS
unroff [ -fhtml ] [ -ms ] [ file | option... ]
OVERVIEW
When called with the -fhtml and -ms options, the troff translator
unroff loads the back-end for converting “ms” documents to the Hyper‐
text Markup Language (HTML) version 2.0.
Please read unroff(1) first for an overview of the Scheme-based, pro‐
grammable troff translator and for a description of the generic options
that exist in addition to -f and -m. The translation of basic troff
requests, special characters, escape sequences, etc. as well as the
HTML-specific options are described in unroff-html(1). For information
about extending and programming unroff also refer to the Unroff Pro‐
grammer's Manual.
OPTIONS
The -ms extension provides a number of keyword/value options in addi‐
tion to those listed in unroff(1) and unroff-html(1):
signature (string)
If non-empty, the value of this option together with a <hr> tag
is appended to each HTML output file created. The substitute
Scheme primitive (as described in the Programmer's Manual) is
applied to the value of the option, so that date, time, environ‐
ment variables, etc. can be interpolated.
split (integer)
This option specifies whether to split the output document into
individual files for each major section. If a positive integer
level is assigned to the option, a new output file is opened for
each numbered header (.NH request) with a level equal to or
numerically less than level. Use of this feature requires that
the document option has bee set, as otherwise the HTML document
is sent to standard output. The default value is 0, i.e. all
sections will be written to a single file.
toc (boolean)
If true, a table of contents with a hypertext link for each sec‐
tion is generated automatically and inserted after the front
matter (title, author information, abstract) and before the
first section. Use of this feature requires a non-zero value
for the split option. The default is to produce a table of con‐
tents if split is non-zero.
toc-header (string)
This option defines the contents of the <h2> header element
prepended to an automatically generated table of contents. Its
value is subject to a call to substitute. The default is the
string “Table of Contents”.
pp-indent (integer)
The number of non-breakable spaces (as specified by the prede‐
fined Scheme variable nbsp) to generate for a paragraph created
by the .PP macro. The default is 3. This option, as well as
signature, is typically set in the user-preferences file
~/.unroff, or in a document-specific Scheme file or at the
beginning of the document proper.
footnotes-header (string)
The contents of the <h2> header element prepended to the foot‐
notes section that is appended to the document if any footnotes
were used, and that also appears in the automatically generated
table of contents. As with all string option listed in this
section, the substitute primitive is applied to the option's
value. The default is the string “Footnotes”.
footnote-reference (string)
This option controls the text generated by each use of the vari‐
able `\**', which produces a footnote (hypertext) reference.
Its value is passed to a call to substitute with the current
footnote number as another argument, so that the specifier “%1%”
can be used to interpolate the footnote number. The default is
the string “[note %1%]”.
footnote-anchor (string)
This options specifies the footnote reference that appears at
the beginning of each footnote proper if .FS was called without
an argument. The option's value is passed to a call to substi‐
tute with the footnote number generated by the last use of `\**'
as another argument. The default is “[%1%]”.
FILES
unroff reads and parses an ”ms“ document composed of one ore more input
files. As usual, the special file name `-' can be used to interpolate
standard input. If no file name is given in the command line, unroff
reads from standard input.
The resulting HTML document is sent to standard output, unless a file
name prefix is assigned to the document option. In the latter case,
the split option controls splitting of the output into separate files
at section boundaries as described under OPTIONS above. A number of
other features, such as footnotes, also require that the document
option is supplied, as separate output files are created for them
(regardless of the value of split). In any case, the name of each out‐
put file consists of the value of document, followed by an optional
suffix, followed by the extension “.html”.
EXAMPLE
To translate an “ms” document composed of several input files, unroff
could be invoked like this:
unroff -fhtml -ms document=thesis split=2\
intro.ms 1.ms 2.ms 3.ms app.ms
The names of all output files will have the prefix “thesis”, and the
resulting HTML document will be split into separate files at each level
1 section or level 2 section.
DESCRIPTION
The following -ms macros are translated (in addition to any user-
defined macros):
.AB .AE .AI .AU .B .B1 .B2
.BD .BX .CD .DE .DS .FA .FE
.FS .I .ID .IP .LD .LG .LP
.NH .PP .PX .QP .R .RE .RS
.RT .SH .SM .TL .UL .UX .XA
.XE .XS
These predefined strings and number registers are recognized:
\*- \*(DY \*(MO \*Q \*U \n(PN
In addition, a number of macros are either silently ignored or cause a
warning to be printed, because their function either cannot be mapped
to HTML 2.0 elements or assumes a page structure:
.AM .BT .CM .CT .DA .EF .EH
.HD .KE .KF .KS .ND .NL .OF
.OH .P1 .PT .TM .MC .1C .2C
The font switching macros are based on changes to the fonts `R', `I',
and `B', as explained under FONTS in unroff-html(1). Of course, this
fails if the fonts (which are mounted on startup) are unmounted by
explicit .fp requests.
Upper or lower case letters are accepted as section numbers by .NH when
the argument ``S'' is used to set new section numbers. This is useful
for appendices and similar constructs.
The translation rule for .IP employs a heuristic to determine whether
to generate a definition list or an unordered list: if the first in a
sequence of indented paragraph macros is called with a tag consisting
of one of the special character \(bu or \(sq, a definition list is
begun, otherwise an unordered list. Since exdented[sic] paragraphs
cannot be expressed in HTML 2.0, a warning message is printed when a
call to the macro .XP is encountered.
All footnotes are concatenated and placed in a separate output file,
and a corresponding section (with a user-defined header) holding the
footnotes is appended to the document automatically. Use of the string
`\**' generates a hypertext link to the beginning of the footnote cre‐
ated by the next call to .FS and .FE. The actual text generated by
using `\**' as well as the footnote reference that appears in the foot‐
note proper are controlled by two options as explained under OPTIONS
above. A warning message is printed on termination if `\**' has been
used but a corresponding footnote was not seen. As an alternative to
`\**', the new request .FA can be used to produce a footnote anchor
together with a hypertext link; the anchor is the argument to the macro
(however, `\**' itself must not be used in a call to .FA).
Likewise, a hypertext reference is created for each use of the table of
contents macros .XS and .XE (optionally accompanied by calls to .XA).
SEE ALSOunroff(1), unroff-html(1), troff(1), ms(5 or 7).
Unroff Programmer's Manual.
http://www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/~net/unroff
Berners-Lee, Connolly, et al., HyperText Markup Language Specifica‐
tion—2.0, Internet Draft, Internet Engineering Task Force.
BUGS
The macro .UL is currently mapped to a call to .I, as underlining is
not supported by the HTML back-end of unroff 1.0.
Footnote references and requests such as .sp that cause non-character-
level markup to be generated must not be used inside a numbered header.
When creating a hypertext anchor for .XS and .XE, there is nothing to
put inside the <a> element; therefore a non-breaking space is used.
Changing the number register format of `NH' to get roman or alphabetic
section numbers does not work, obviously.
1995/08/23 unroff-html-ms(1)
