groff - front end for the groff document formatting system


SYNOPSIS

       groff [ -abeghilpstvzCEGNRSUVXZ ] [ -wname ] [ -Wname ]
             [ -mname ] [ -Fdir ] [ -Idir ] [ -Tdev ] [ -ffam ]
             [ -Mdir ] [ -dcs ] [ -rcn ] [ -nnum ] [ -olist ]
             [ -Parg ] [ -Larg ] [ files... ]

       It  is  possible to have whitespace between a command line
       option and its parameter.


DESCRIPTION

       groff is a front-end to the groff document formatting sys­
       tem.  Normally it runs the troff program and a postproces­
       sor  appropriate  for  the  selected  device.    Available
       devices are:

       ps     For PostScript printers and previewers

       dvi    For TeX dvi format.

       X75    For a 75dpi X11 previewer.

       X100   For a 100dpi X11 previewer.

       ascii  For typewriter-like devices.

       ascii8 For  typewriter-like  devices.   Unlike ascii, this
              device is 8 bit clean.  This device is intended  to
              be   used   for   codesets  other  than  ASCII  and
              ISO-8859-1.

       latin1 For typewriter-like devices using the  ISO  Latin-1
              (ISO 8859-1) character set.

       utf8   For  typewriter-like devices using the Unicode (ISO
              10646) character set with UTF-8 encoding.

       cp1047 For typewriter-like devices which  use  the  EBCDIC
              code page IBM cp1047 (e.g. OS/390 Unix).

       nippon For  typewriter-like devices using the Japanese-EUC
              character set.

       lj4    For an HP LaserJet4-compatible (or other  PCL5-com­
              patible) printer.

       lbp    For  Canon  CAPSL  printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series
              laser printers).

       html   To produce HTML output.

       The postprocessor to be used for a device is specified  by

       can be overridden with the -X option.

       The default device is ps.  It  can  optionally  preprocess
       with any of pic, eqn, grn, grap, tbl, refer, or soelim.

       Options without an argument can be grouped behind a single
       -.  A filename of - denotes the standard input.

       The grog command can be used to guess  the  correct  groff
       command to use to format a file.


OPTIONS

       -h     Print a help message.

       -e     Preprocess with eqn.

       -t     Preprocess with tbl.

       -g     Preprocess with grn.

       -G     Preprocess with grap.

       -p     Preprocess with pic.

       -s     Preprocess with soelim.

       -Idir  This  option  is  as  described in soelim(1).  This
              option implies the -s option.

       -R     Preprocess with refer.  No  mechanism  is  provided
              for  passing  arguments to refer because most refer
              options  have  equivalent  commands  which  can  be
              included  in  the  file.   See  refer(1)  for  more
              details.

       -v     Make programs run by groff print out their  version
              number.

       -V     Print  the  pipeline on stdout instead of executing
              it.

       -z     Suppress output from troff.   Only  error  messages
              will be printed.

       -Z     Do  not  postprocess the output of troff.  Normally
              groff will automatically run the appropriate  post­
              processor.

       -Parg  Pass  arg  to  the  postprocessor.   Each  argument
              should be passed with a separate -P  option.   Note
              that groff does not prepend - to arg before passing
              it to the postprocessor.

              command  used  for  this  is specified by the print
              command in the device description file (if not pre­
              sent, -l has no effect).

       -Larg  Pass  arg  to the spooler.  Each argument should be
              passed with a separate -L option.  Note that  groff
              does  not prepend - to arg before passing it to the
              postprocessor.  If there is no print command in the
              device description file, -L is ignored.

       -Tdev  Prepare  output for device dev.  The default device
              is ps.

       -X     Preview with gxditview instead of using  the  usual
              postprocessor.  Groff passes gxditview a -printCom­
              mand option which will make  the  Print  action  do
              what  groff  would  have  done if the -l option had
              been given.   This  is  unlikely  to  produce  good
              results except with -Tps.

       -N     Don't  allow newlines with eqn delimiters.  This is
              the same as the -N option in eqn.

       -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.

       -U     Unsafe  mode.  Reverts to the old unsafe behaviour.

       -a
       -b
       -i
       -C
       -E
       -wname
       -Wname
       -mname
       -olist
       -dcs
       -rcn
       -Fdir
       -Mdir
       -ffam
       -nnum  These are as described in troff(1).


ENVIRONMENT

       GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX
              If this is  set  X,  then  groff  will  run  Xtroff
              instead  of  troff.  This also applies to tbl, pic,
              eqn, grn, refer, and soelim.  It does not apply  to
              grap,  grops,  grodvi, grotty, grolj4, grohtml, and
              gxditview.

              A colon separated list of directories in  which  to
              search  for  macro files in addition to the default
              directories.  See troff(1) for more details.

       GROFF_TYPESETTER
              Default device.

       GROFF_FONT_PATH
              A colon separated list of directories in  which  to
              search for the devname directory in addition to the
              default one.  See troff(1) for more details.

       GROFF_BIN_PATH
              This search path, followed by PATH,  will  be  used
              for  commands  executed  by  groff.   If  not  set,
              `/usr/bin' is prepended to PATH.

       GROFF_TMPDIR
              The directory in which temporary files will be cre­
              ated.  If this is not set and TMPDIR is set, tempo­
              rary files will be created in that directory.  Oth­
              erwise  temporary  files  will  be created in /tmp.
              The grops(1) and refer(1) commands can create  tem­
              porary files.


FILES

       /usr/share/groff/1.17.2/font/devname/DESC
              Device description file for device name.

       /usr/share/groff/1.17.2/font/devname/F
              Font file for font F of device name.

       Note  that  on EBCDIC hosts, output devices ascii, latin1,
       and utf8  aren't  available.   Similarly,  cp1047  is  not
       available on ASCII based operating systems.


EXAMPLE

       To  print  the man page foo.1 to the standard output using
       the latin-1 output device and less as the pager, the  fol­
       lowing command can be used:

              groff -mandoc -Tlatin1 foo.1 | less

       Alternatively, you can say

              groff -m mandoc -Tlatin1 foo.1 | less


AUTHOR

       James Clark <jjc@jclark.com>


BUGS

       Report  bugs  to  bug-groff@gnu.org.   Include a complete,
       self-contained example that  will  allow  the  bug  to  be



COPYRIGHT

       Copyright © 1989-2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

       groff is free software; you  can  redistribute  it  and/or
       modify  it  under  the  terms  of  the  GNU General Public
       License as published  by  the  Free  Software  Foundation;
       either version 2, or (at your option) any later version.

       groff  is  distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
       but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even  the  implied  war­
       ranty  of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PUR­
       POSE.   See  the  GNU  General  Public  License  for  more
       details.

       You  should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
       License along with groff; see the file COPYING.   If  not,
       write  to  the Free Software Foundation, 59 Temple Place -
       Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.


AVAILABILITY

       The most recent released version of groff is always avail­
       able  for  anonymous ftp from ftp.gnu.org in the directory
       gnu/groff.

       groff only supports the freely available grap  implementa­
       tion  written  by  Ted  Faber  <faber@lunabase.org>.   The
       actual version can be found at

              http://www.lunabase.org/~faber/Vault/software/grap/


SEE ALSO

       grog(1),   troff(1),   tbl(1),   pic(1),  eqn(1),  grn(1),
       grap(1),   soelim(1),   refer(1),   grops(1),   grodvi(1),
       grotty(1), grolj4(1), grolbp(1), grohtml(1), gxditview(1),
       groff_font(5),  groff_out(5),  groff_man(7),  groff_ms(7),
       groff_me(7), groff_char(7)


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