NAME¶
groff - front-end for the groff document formatting system
SYNOPSIS¶
[
-abcegijklpstzCEGNRSUVXZ]
[
-d cs] [
-D
arg] [
-f fam]
[
-F dir] [
-I
dir] [
-K arg]
[
-L arg] [
-m
name] [
-M dir]
[
-n num] [
-o
list] [
-P arg]
[
-r cn] [
-T
dev] [
-w name]
[
-W name] [
file ...]
-h |
--help -v |
--version
[
option ...]
DESCRIPTION¶
This document describes the
groff program, the main front-end for the
groff document formatting system. The
groff program and macro
suite is the implementation of a
roff(7) system within the free
software collection
GNU
The
groff system has all features of the classical
roff, but
adds many extensions.
The
groff program allows to control the whole
groff system by
command line options. This is a great simplification in comparison to the
classical case (which uses pipes only).
OPTIONS¶
The command line is parsed according to the usual GNU convention. The whitespace
between a command line option and its argument is optional. Options can be
grouped behind a single `-' (minus character). A filename of
- (minus
character) denotes the standard input.
As
groff is a wrapper program for
troff both programs share a set
of options. But the
groff program has some additional, native options
and gives a new meaning to some
troff options. On the other hand, not
all
troff options can be fed into
groff.
Native groff Options¶
The following options either do not exist for
troff or are differently
interpreted by
groff.
- -D arg
- Set default input encoding used by preconv to arg. Implies
-k.
- -e
- Preprocess with eqn.
- -g
- Preprocess with grn.
- -G
- Preprocess with grap. Implies -p.
- -h
- --help Print a help message.
- -I dir
- This option may be used to specify a directory to search for files (both
those on the command line and those named in .psbb and .so
requests, and \X'ps: import' and \X'ps: file' escapes). The
current directory is always searched first. This option may be specified
more than once; the directories are searched in the order specified. No
directory search is performed for files specified using an absolute path.
This option implies the -s option.
- -j
- Preprocess with chem. Implies -p.
- -k
- Preprocess with preconv. This is run before any other preprocessor.
Please refer to preconv's manual page for its behaviour if no
-K (or -D) option is specified.
- -K arg
- Set input encoding used by preconv to arg. Implies
-k.
- -l
- Send the output to a spooler program for printing. The command that should
be used for this is specified by the print command in the device
description file, see groff_font(5). If this command is not
present, the output is piped into the lpr(1) program by default.
See options -L and -X.
- -L arg
- Pass arg to the spooler program. Several arguments should be passed
with a separate -L option each. Note that groff does not prepend
`-' (a minus sign) to arg before passing it to the spooler
program.
- -N
- Don't allow newlines within eqn delimiters. This is the same as the
-N option in eqn.
- -p
- Preprocess with pic.
- -P -option
- -P -option -P arg Pass
-option or -option arg to the postprocessor. The
option must be specified with the necessary preceding minus sign(s)
‘-’ or ‘--’ because groff does not
prepend any dashes before passing it to the postprocessor. For example, to
pass a title to the gxditview postprocessor, the shell command
-
groff -X -P -title -P 'groff it' foo
- is equivalent to
-
groff -X -Z foo | gxditview -title 'groff it' -
- -R
- Preprocess with refer. No mechanism is provided for passing
arguments to refer because most refer options have
equivalent language elements that can be specified within the document.
See refer(1) for more details.
- -s
- Preprocess with soelim.
- -S
- Safer mode. Pass the -S option to pic and disable the
following troff requests: .open, .opena, .pso,
.sy, and .pi. For security reasons, safer mode is enabled by
default.
- -t
- Preprocess with tbl.
- -T dev
- Set output device to dev. For this device, troff generates
the intermediate output; see groff_out(5). Then
groff calls a postprocessor to convert troff's
intermediate output to its final format. Real devices in
groff are
- dvi
- TeX DVI format (postprocessor is grodvi).
- html
- xhtml HTML and XHTML output (preprocessors are soelim and
pre-grohtml, postprocessor is post-grohtml).
- lbp
- Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser printers; postprocessor
is grolbp).
- lj4
- HP LaserJet4 compatible (or other PCL5 compatible) printers (postprocessor
is grolj4).
- ps
- PostScript output (postprocessor is grops).
- pdf
- Portable Document Format (PDF) output (postprocessor is
gropdf).
- For the following TTY output devices (postprocessor is always
grotty), -T selects the output encoding:
- ascii
- 7bit ASCII.
- cp1047
- Latin-1 character set for EBCDIC hosts.
- latin1
- ISO 8859-1.
- utf8
- Unicode character set in UTF-8 encoding.
- The following arguments select gxditview as the `postprocessor' (it
is rather a viewing program):
- X75
- 75dpi resolution, 10pt document base font.
- X75-12
- 75dpi resolution, 12pt document base font.
- X100
- 100dpi resolution, 10pt document base font.
- X100-12
- 100dpi resolution, 12pt document base font.
- The default device is ps.
- -U
- Unsafe mode. Reverts to the (old) unsafe behaviour; see option
-S.
- -v
- --version Output version information of groff and of all
programs that are run by it; that is, the given command line is parsed in
the usual way, passing -v to all subprograms.
- -V
- Output the pipeline that would be run by groff (as a wrapper
program) on the standard output, but do not execute it. If given more than
once, the commands are both printed on the standard error and run.
- -X
- Use gxditview instead of using the usual postprocessor to (pre)view
a document. The printing spooler behavior as outlined with options
-l and -L is carried over to gxditview(1) by
determining an argument for the -printCommand option of
gxditview(1). This sets the default Print action and the
corresponding menu entry to that value. -X only produces good
results with -Tps, -TX75, -TX75-12, -TX100,
and -TX100-12. The default resolution for previewing -Tps
output is 75dpi; this can be changed by passing the -resolution
option to gxditview, for example
-
groff -X -P-resolution -P100 -man foo.1
- -z
- Suppress output generated by troff. Only error messages are
printed.
- -Z
- Do not automatically postprocess groff intermediate output in the
usual manner. This will cause the troff output to appear on
standard output, replacing the usual postprocessor output; see
groff_out(5).
Transparent Options¶
The following options are transparently handed over to the formatter program
troff that is called by
groff subsequently. These options are
described in more detail in
troff(1).
- -a
- ASCII approximation of output.
- -b
- Backtrace on error or warning.
- -c
- Disable color output. Please consult the grotty(1) man page for
more details.
- -C
- Enable compatibility mode.
- -d cs
- -d name=s Define string.
- -E
- Disable troff error messages.
- -f fam
- Set default font family.
- -F dir
- Set path for font DESC files.
- -i
- Process standard input after the specified input files.
- -m name
- Include macro file name.tmac (or tmac.name);
see also groff_tmac(5).
- -M dir
- Path for macro files.
- -n num
- Number the first page num.
- -o list
- Output only pages in list.
- -r cn
- -r name=n Set number register.
- -w name
- Enable warning name. See troff(1) for names.
- -W name
- disable warning name. See troff(1) for names.
USING GROFF¶
The
groff system implements the infrastructure of classical roff; see
roff(7) for a survey on how a
roff system works in general. Due
to the front-end programs available within the
groff system, using
groff is much easier than
classical roff. This section gives an
overview of the parts that constitute the
groff system. It complements
roff(7) with
groff-specific features. This section can be
regarded as a guide to the documentation around the
groff system.
Paper Size¶
The
virtual paper size used by
troff to format the input is
controlled globally with the requests
.po,
.pl, and
.ll.
See
groff_tmac(5) for the `papersize' macro package which provides a
convenient interface.
The
physical paper size, giving the actual dimensions of the paper
sheets, is controlled by output devices like
grops with the command
line options
-p and
-l. See
groff_font(5) and the man
pages of the output devices for more details.
groff uses the command
line option
-P to pass options to output devices; for example, the
following selects A4 paper in landscape orientation for the PS device:
-
groff -Tps -P-pa4 -P-l ...
Front-ends¶
The
groff program is a wrapper around the
troff(1) program. It
allows to specify the preprocessors by command line options and automatically
runs the postprocessor that is appropriate for the selected device. Doing so,
the sometimes tedious piping mechanism of classical
roff(7) can be
avoided.
The
grog(1) program can be used for guessing the correct
groff
command line to format a file.
The
groffer(1) program is an allround-viewer for
groff files and
man pages.
Preprocessors¶
The
groff preprocessors are reimplementations of the classical
preprocessors with moderate extensions. The standard preprocessors distributed
with the
groff package are
- eqn(1)
- for mathematical formulæ,
- grn(1)
- for including gremlin(1) pictures,
- pic(1)
- for drawing diagrams,
- chem(1)
- for chemical structure diagrams,
- refer(1)
- for bibliographic references,
- soelim(1)
- for including macro files from standard locations,
and
- tbl(1)
- for tables.
A new preprocessor not available in classical
troff is
preconv(1)
which converts various input encodings to something
groff can
understand. It is always run first before any other preprocessor.
Besides these, there are some internal preprocessors that are automatically run
with some devices. These aren't visible to the user.
Macro Packages¶
Macro packages can be included by option
-m. The
groff system
implements and extends all classical macro packages in a compatible way and
adds some packages of its own. Actually, the following macro packages come
with
groff:
- man
- The traditional man page format; see groff_man(7). It can be
specified on the command line as -man or -m man.
- mandoc
- The general package for man pages; it automatically recognizes whether the
documents uses the man or the mdoc format and branches to
the corresponding macro package. It can be specified on the command line
as -mandoc or -m mandoc.
- mdoc
- The BSD-style man page format; see groff_mdoc(7). It can be
specified on the command line as -mdoc or
-m mdoc.
- me
- The classical me document format; see groff_me(7). It can be
specified on the command line as -me or -m me.
- mm
- The classical mm document format; see groff_mm(7). It can be
specified on the command line as -mm or -m mm.
- ms
- The classical ms document format; see groff_ms(7). It can be
specified on the command line as -ms or -m ms.
- www
- HTML-like macros for inclusion in arbitrary groff documents; see
groff_www(7).
Details on the naming of macro files and their placement can be found in
groff_tmac(5); this man page also documents some other, minor auxiliary
macro packages not mentioned here.
Programming Language¶
General concepts common to all
roff programming languages are described
in
roff(7).
The
groff extensions to the classical
troff language are
documented in
groff_diff(7).
The
groff language as a whole is described in the (still incomplete)
groff info file; a short (but complete) reference can be found in
groff(7).
The central
roff formatter within the
groff system is
troff(1). It provides the features of both the classical
troff
and
nroff, as well as the
groff extensions. The command line
option
-C switches
troff into
compatibility mode which
tries to emulate classical
roff as much as possible.
There is a shell script
nroff(1) that emulates the behavior of classical
nroff. It tries to automatically select the proper output encoding,
according to the current locale.
The formatter program generates
intermediate output; see
groff_out(7).
Devices¶
In
roff, the output targets are called
devices. A device can be a
piece of hardware, e.g., a printer, or a software file format. A device is
specified by the option
-T. The
groff devices are as follows.
- ascii
- Text output using the ascii(7) character set.
- cp1047
- Text output using the EBCDIC code page IBM cp1047 (e.g., OS/390
Unix).
- dvi
- TeX DVI format.
- html
- HTML output.
- latin1
- Text output using the ISO Latin-1 (ISO 8859-1) character set; see
iso_8859_1(7).
- lbp
- Output for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
printers).
- lj4
- HP LaserJet4-compatible (or other PCL5-compatible) printers.
- ps
- PostScript output; suitable for printers and previewers like
gv(1).
- pdf
- PDF files; suitable for viewing with tools such as evince(1) and
okular(1).
- utf8
- Text output using the Unicode (ISO 10646) character set with UTF-8
encoding; see unicode(7).
- xhtml
- XHTML output.
- X75
- 75dpi X Window System output suitable for the previewers
xditview(1x) and gxditview(1). A variant for a 12pt document
base font is X75-12.
- X100
- 100dpi X Window System output suitable for the previewers
xditview(1x) and gxditview(1). A variant for a 12pt document
base font is X100-12.
The postprocessor to be used for a device is specified by the
postpro
command in the device description file; see
groff_font(5). This can be
overridden with the
-X option.
The default device is
ps.
Postprocessors¶
groff provides 3 hardware postprocessors:
- grolbp(1)
- for some Canon printers,
- grolj4(1)
- for printers compatible to the HP LaserJet 4 and PCL5,
- grotty(1)
- for text output using various encodings, e.g., on text-oriented terminals
or line-printers.
Today, most printing or drawing hardware is handled by the operating system, by
device drivers, or by software interfaces, usually accepting PostScript.
Consequently, there isn't an urgent need for more hardware device
postprocessors.
The
groff software devices for conversion into other document file
formats are
- grodvi(1)
- for the DVI format,
- grohtml(1)
- for HTML and XHTML formats,
- grops(1)
- for PostScript.
- gropdf(1)
- for PDF.
Combined with the many existing free conversion tools this should be sufficient
to convert a
troff document into virtually any existing data format.
Utilities¶
The following utility programs around
groff are available.
- addftinfo(1)
- Add information to troff font description files for use with
groff.
- afmtodit(1)
- Create font description files for PostScript device.
- eqn2graph(1)
- Convert an eqn image into a cropped image.
- gdiffmk(1)
- Mark differences between groff, nroff, or troff
files.
- grap2graph(1)
- Convert a grap diagram into a cropped bitmap image.
- groffer(1)
- General viewer program for groff files and man pages.
- gxditview(1)
- The groff X viewer, the GNU version of xditview.
- hpftodit(1)
- Create font description files for lj4 device.
- indxbib(1)
- Make inverted index for bibliographic databases.
- lkbib(1)
- Search bibliographic databases.
- lookbib(1)
- Interactively search bibliographic databases.
- pdfroff(1)
- Create PDF documents using groff.
- pfbtops(1)
- Translate a PostScript font in .pfb format to ASCII.
- pic2graph(1)
- Convert a pic diagram into a cropped image.
- tfmtodit(1)
- Create font description files for TeX DVI device.
- xditview(1x)
- roff viewer distributed with X window.
- xtotroff(1)
- Convert X font metrics into GNU troff font metrics.
ENVIRONMENT¶
Normally, the path separator in the following environment variables is the
colon; this may vary depending on the operating system. For example, DOS and
Windows use a semicolon instead.
- GROFF_BIN_PATH
- This search path, followed by $PATH, is used for commands that are
executed by groff. If it is not set then the directory where the
groff binaries were installed is prepended to PATH.
- GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX
- When there is a need to run different roff implementations at the
same time groff provides the facility to prepend a prefix to most
of its programs that could provoke name clashings at run time (default is
to have none). Historically, this prefix was the character g, but
it can be anything. For example, gtroff stood for groff's
troff, gtbl for the groff version of tbl. By
setting GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX to different values, the different
roff installations can be addressed. More exactly, if it is set to
prefix xxx then groff as a wrapper program internally calls
xxxtroff instead of troff. This also applies to the
preprocessors eqn, grn, pic, refer,
tbl, soelim, and to the utilities indxbib and
lookbib. This feature does not apply to any programs different from
the ones above (most notably groff itself) since they are unique to
the groff package.
- GROFF_ENCODING
- The value of this environment value is passed to the preconv
preprocessor to select the encoding of input files. Setting this option
implies groff's command line option -k (this is,
groff actually always calls preconv). If set without a
value, groff calls preconv without arguments. An explicit
-K command line option overrides the value of
GROFF_ENCODING. See preconv(1) for details.
- GROFF_FONT_PATH
- A list of directories in which to search for the devname
directory in addition to the default ones. See troff(1) and
groff_font(5) for more details.
- GROFF_TMAC_PATH
- A list of directories in which to search for macro files in addition to
the default directories. See troff(1) and groff_tmac(5) for
more details.
- GROFF_TMPDIR
- The directory in which temporary files are created. If this is not set but
the environment variable TMPDIR instead, temporary files are
created in the directory $TMPDIR. On MS-DOS and Windows 32
platforms, the environment variables TMP and TEMP (in that
order) are searched also, after GROFF_TMPDIR and TMPDIR.
Otherwise, temporary files are created in /tmp. The
refer(1), groffer(1), grohtml(1), and grops(1)
commands use temporary files.
- GROFF_TYPESETTER
- Preset the default device. If this is not set the ps device is used
as default. This device name is overwritten by the option -T.
FILES¶
There are some directories in which
groff installs all of its data files.
Due to different installation habits on different operating systems, their
locations are not absolutely fixed, but their function is clearly defined and
coincides on all systems.
groff Macro Directory¶
This contains all information related to macro packages. Note that more than a
single directory is searched for those files as documented in
groff_tmac(5). For the
groff installation corresponding to this
document, it is located at
/usr/share/groff/1.22.2/tmac. The following
files contained in the
groff macro directory have a special meaning:
- troffrc
- Initialization file for troff. This is interpreted by troff
before reading the macro sets and any input.
- troffrc-end
- Final startup file for troff. It is parsed after all macro sets
have been read.
- name.tmac
- tmac.name Macro file for macro package name.
groff Font Directory¶
This contains all information related to output devices. Note that more than a
single directory is searched for those files; see
troff(1). For the
groff installation corresponding to this document, it is located at
/usr/share/groff/1.22.2/font. The following files contained in the
groff font directory have a special meaning:
- devname/DESC
- Device description file for device name, see
groff_font(5).
- devname/F
- Font file for font F of device name.
EXAMPLES¶
The following example illustrates the power of the
groff program as a
wrapper around
troff.
To process a
roff file using the preprocessors
tbl and
pic
and the
me macro set, classical
troff had to be called by
-
pic foo.me | tbl | troff -me -Tlatin1 | grotty
Using
groff, this pipe can be shortened to the equivalent command
-
groff -p -t -me -T latin1 foo.me
An even easier way to call this is to use
grog(1) to guess the
preprocessor and macro options and execute the generated command (by using
backquotes to specify shell command substitution)
-
`grog -Tlatin1 foo.me`
The simplest way is to view the contents in an automated way by calling
-
groffer foo.me
BUGS¶
On EBCDIC hosts (e.g., OS/390 Unix), output devices
ascii and
latin1 aren't available. Similarly, output for EBCDIC code page
cp1047 is not available on ASCII based operating systems.
Report bugs to
the
groff maling list Include a complete, self-contained example that allows
the bug to be reproduced, and say which version of
groff you are using.
AVAILABILITY¶
Information on how to get
groff and related information is available at
the
groff
GNU website The most recent released version of
groff is available
at the
groff
development site
Three
groff mailing lists are available:
for reporting
bugs for general
discussion of groff,
the groff commit
list a read-only list showing logs of commitments to the CVS repository.
Details on CVS access and much more can be found in the file
README at
the top directory of the
groff source package.
There is a free implementation of the
grap preprocessor, written by
Ted Faber The
actual version can be found at the
grap
website This is the only grap version supported by
groff.
AUTHORS¶
Copyright © 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This document is distributed under the terms of the FDL (GNU Free Documentation
License) version 1.3 or later. You should have received a copy of the FDL on
your system, it is also available on-line at the
GNU
copyleft site
This document is based on the original
groff man page written by
James Clark It was
rewritten, enhanced, and put under the FDL license by Bernd Warken
<groff-bernd.warken-72@web.de>. It is maintained by
Werner Lemberg
groff is a GNU free software project. All parts of the
groff
package are protected by GNU copyleft licenses. The software files are
distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL), while the
documentation files mostly use the GNU Free Documentation License (FDL).
SEE ALSO¶
The
groff info file contains all information on the
groff system
within a single document, providing many examples and background information.
See
info(1) on how to read it.
Due to its complex structure, the
groff system has many man pages. They
can be read with
man(1) or
groffer(1).
- Introduction, history and further readings:
- roff(7).
- Viewer for groff files:
- groffer(1), gxditview(1), xditview(1x).
- Wrapper programs for formatters:
- groff(1), grog(1).
- Roff preprocessors:
- eqn(1), grn(1), pic(1), chem(1),
preconv(1), refer(1), soelim(1), tbl(1),
grap(1).
- Roff language with the groff extensions:
- groff(7), groff_char(7), groff_diff(7),
groff_font(5).
- Roff formatter programs:
- nroff(1), troff(1), ditroff(7).
- The intermediate output language:
- groff_out(7).
- Postprocessors for the output devices:
- grodvi(1), grohtml(1), grolbp(1), grolj4(1),
lj4_font(5), grops(1), gropdf(1),
grotty(1).
- Groff macro packages and macro-specific utilities:
- groff_tmac(5), groff_man(7), groff_mdoc(7),
groff_me(7), groff_mm(7), groff_mmse(7) (only in
Swedish locales), groff_mom(7), groff_ms(7),
groff_www(7), groff_trace(7), mmroff(7).
- The following utilities are available:
- addftinfo(1), afmtodit(1), eqn2graph(1),
gdiffmk(1), grap2graph(1), groffer(1),
gxditview(1), hpftodit(1), indxbib(1),
lkbib(1), lookbib(1), pdfroff(1), pfbtops(1),
pic2graph(1), tfmtodit(1), xtotroff(1).