2.3 Macro Directories

All macro file names must be named name.tmac or tmac.name to make the -mname command line option work. The mso request doesn’t have this restriction; any file name can be used, and gtroff won’t try to append or prepend the ‘tmac’ string.

Macro files are kept in the tmac directories, all of which constitute the tmac path. The elements of the search path for macro files are (in that order):

• The directories specified with gtroff’s or groff’s -M command line option.
• The directories given in the GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable.
• The current directory (only if in unsafe mode using the -U command line switch).
• The home directory.
• A platform-dependent directory, a site-specific (platform-independent) directory, and the main tmac directory; the default locations are

  /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac
  /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac
  /usr/local/share/groff/1.22.3/tmac
  

  assuming that the version of groff is 1.22.3, and the installation prefix was /usr/local. It is possible to fine-tune those directories during the installation process.