Re: [Groff] Moving the footer up in ms

[Larry Kollar]

Timothy Groves wrote:

> Is there a way to move the footer up within the footer margin when using ms?  
> By default, groff+ms places the footer halfway down the footer margin, which 
> is not what I want, but any attempt to move it up by inserting a .sp -x in 
> .BT either results in an error [ fatal error: input stack limit exceeded 
> (probable infinite loop) ]  or else produces a smear of footers.  This leads 
> me to think that the .sp order is causing the footer macro to re-issue.  Any 
> suggestions?

You're correct: the infinite loop occurs because you're moving up above the 
pg*footer trap. Since pg*footer calls .BT, and you're spacing up, it gets 
called again (and again, and again…). So redefining .BT isn't sufficient. You 
have to adjust the traps.

Footer placement is governed by two vertical traps in s.tmac:

.wh -\n[FM]u address@hidden
.wh -\n[FM]u/2u pg*footer

So it should be possible to pull the footer up by changing the pg*footer trap 
(untested):

.ch pg*footer -\n[FM]u/4u*3u\" place the footer 1/4 of the way down in the 
margin

Note that .ch reverses the order of the parameters from .wh — and that should 
do what you need.

-- Larry