2.3 Macro Directories

A macro file must have a name in the form name.tmac or tmac.name and be placed in a tmac directory to be found by the -mname command-line option.⁵ Together, these directories constitute the tmac path. Each directory is searched in the following order until the desired macro file is found or the list is exhausted.

• Directories specified with GNU troff’s or groff’s -M command-line option.
• Directories listed in the GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable.
• The current working directory (only if in unsafe mode using the -U command-line option).
• The user’s home directory, HOME.
• A platform-dependent directory, a site-local (platform-independent) directory, and the main tmac directory. The locations corresponding to your installation are listed in section “Environment” of gtroff(1). If not otherwise configured, they are as follows.

  /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac
  /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac
  /usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac
  

  The foregoing assumes that the version of groff is 1.23.0, and that the installation prefix was /usr/local. It is possible to fine-tune these locations during the source configuration process.