---
name: "groff_filenames"
section: "5"
platform: "linux"
package: "groff"
version: "1.22.4-10"
release: "Debian 12 (Bookworm)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/groff_filenames"
---

# groff\_filenames(5)

filename extensions for roff and groff

## 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. This *man page* is 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\>\[*.*\<compression\>\]*.

Best-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 widely called *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*.

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* man page sections, which stood for “local”, “new”, and “old”, respectively.

### 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 **tcl** to refer to the *Tcl* 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**

  Heidelberger tables, an alternative to the preprocessor *tbl*. See [**groff\_hdtbl**(7)](/groff_hdtbl/7.md).

- *\<name\>***.grap**

  files written for the graphical **grap** processor.

- *\<name\>***.grn**

  for including **gremlin**(1), pictures, see [**grn**(1)](/grn/1.md).

- *\<name\>***.pdfroff**

  transform this file with **pdfroff** of the *groff* system

## AUTHORS

This document was written by Bernd Warken ⟨groff\\-bernd.warken\\-72@\\:web.de⟩.

## SEE ALSO

- History and future

  [**roff**(7)](/roff/7.md), [**man-pages**(7)](/man-pages/7.md), [**groff\_diff**(7)](/groff_diff/7.md), [**groff**(7)](/groff/7.md)

- *Compression*

  **uncompress**(1posix), **gzip2**(1), [**bzip2**(1)](/bzip2/1.md), [**xz**(1)](/xz/1.md)

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
```

*Gunnar Ritter's Heirloom roff project* ⟨https://\\:github.com/\\:n\\-t\\-roff/\\:heirloom\\-doctools⟩. You can get this package with the shell command:

```
$ git clone https://github.com/n-t-roff/heirloom-doctools
```