1GROFFER(1)                  General Commands Manual                 GROFFER(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       groffer - display groff files and man pages on X and tty
7

SYNOPSIS

9       groffer [option ...] [--] [filespec ...]
10
11       groffer -h|--help
12
13       groffer -v|--version
14

DESCRIPTION

16       The groffer program is the easiest way to use groff(1).  It can display
17       arbitrary documents written in the groff  language,  see  groff(7),  or
18       other  roff languages, see roff(7), that are compatible to the original
19       troff language.  It finds and runs all necessary  groff  preprocessors,
20       such as chem.
21
22       The  groffer program also includes many of the features for finding and
23       displaying the Unix manual pages (man pages), such that it can be  used
24       as a replacement for a man(1) program.  Moreover, compressed files that
25       can be handled by gzip(1) or bzip2(1) are decompressed on-the-fly.
26
27       The normal usage is quite simple by supplying a file name or name of  a
28       man  page  without  further  options.  But the option handling has many
29       possibilities for creating special behaviors.  This can be done  either
30       in   configuration   files,   with   the   shell  environment  variable
31       $GROFFER_OPT, or on the command line.
32
33       The output can be generated and viewed in several different ways avail‐
34       able  for  groff.   This  includes  the  groff  native  X Window viewer
35       gxditview(1), each Postcript, pdf, or dvi display program, a web brows‐
36       er by generating html in www mode, or several text modes in text termi‐
37       nals.
38
39       Most of the options that must be named when running groff directly  are
40       determined  automatically for groffer, due to the internal usage of the
41       grog(1) program.  But all parts can also be controlled manually by  ar‐
42       guments.
43
44       Several  file  names  can  be  specified on the command line arguments.
45       They are transformed into a single document in the normal way of groff.
46
47       Option handling is done in GNU style.  Options and file  names  can  be
48       mixed  freely.  The option `--' closes the option handling, all follow‐
49       ing arguments are treated as file names.  Long options can be  abbrevi‐
50       ated in several ways.
51

OPTION OVERVIEW

53       breaking options
54
55               [-h | --help] [-v | --version]
56
57       groffer mode options
58
59               [--auto] [--default] [--default-modes mode1,mode2,...] [--dvi]
60               [--dvi-viewer prog] [--groff] [--html] [--html-viewer prog]
61               [--mode display_mode] [--pdf] [--pdf-viewer prog] [--ps]
62               [--ps-viewer prog] [--source] [--text] [--to-stdout] [--tty]
63               [--tty-viewer prog] [--www] [--www-viewer prog] [--x | --X]
64               [--x-viewer | --X-viewer prog]
65
66       options related to groff
67
68               [-T | --device device] [-Z | --intermediate-output | --ditroff]
69
70              All further groff short options are accepted.
71
72       options for man pages
73
74               [--apropos] [--apropos-data] [--apropos-devel]
75               [--apropos-progs] [--man] [--no-man] [--no-special] [--whatis]
76
77       long options taken over from GNU man
78
79               [--all] [--ascii] [--ditroff] [--extension suffix]
80               [--locale language] [--local-file] [--location | --where]
81               [--manpath dir1:dir2:...] [--no-location] [--pager program]
82               [--sections sec1:sec2:...] [--systems sys1,sys2,...]
83               [--troff-device device]
84
85              Further long options of GNU man are accepted as well.
86
87       X Window Toolkit options
88
89               [--bd | --bordercolor pixels] [--bg | --background color]
90               [--bw | --borderwidth pixels] [--display X-display]
91               [--fg | --foreground color] [--fn | --ft | --font font_name]
92               [--geometry size_pos] [--resolution value] [--rv]
93               [--title string] [--xrm X-resource]
94
95       options for development
96
97               [--debug] [--debug-filenames] [--debug-grog] [--debug-keep]
98               [--debug-params] [--debug-tmpdir] [--do-nothing] [--print text]
99               [-V]
100
101       filespec arguments
102
103              The  filespec  parameters  are all arguments that are neither an
104              option nor an option argument.  They usually mean a file name or
105              a man page searching scheme.
106
107              In  the following, the term section_extension is used.  It means
108              a word that consists of a man section that  is  optionally  fol‐
109              lowed  by  an  extension.  The name of a man section is a single
110              character from [1-9on], the extension is some word.  The  exten‐
111              sion is mostly lacking.
112
113              No filespec parameters means standard input.
114
115              -         stands for standard input (can occur several times).
116
117              filename  the path name of an existing file.
118
119              man:name(section_extension)
120              man:name.section_extension
121              name(section_extension)
122              name.section_extension
123              section_extension name
124                        search  the man page name in the section with optional
125                        extension section_extension.
126
127              man:name  man page in the lowest man section that has name.
128
129              name      if name  is  not  an  existing  file  search  for  the
130                        man page name in the lowest man section.
131

OPTION DETAILS

133       The  groffer program can usually be run with very few options.  But for
134       special purposes, it supports many options.  These can be classified in
135       5 option classes.
136
137       All  short  options of groffer are compatible with the short options of
138       groff(1).  All long options of groffer are  compatible  with  the  long
139       options of man(1).
140
141       Arguments  for  long  option  names can be abbreviated in several ways.
142       First, the argument is checked whether it can be prolonged as is.  Fur‐
143       thermore, each minus sign - is considered as a starting point for a new
144       abbreviation.  This leads to a set of multiple abbreviations for a sin‐
145       gle argument.  For example, --de-n-f can be used as an abbreviation for
146       --debug-not-func, but --de-n works as well.  If the abbreviation of the
147       argument leads to several resulting options an error is raised.
148
149       These  abbreviations  are  only  allowed  in  the  environment variable
150       $GROFFER_OPT, but not in the configuration  files.   In  configuration,
151       all long options must be exact.
152
153   groffer breaking Options
154       As soon as one of these options is found on the command line it is exe‐
155       cuted, printed to standard output, and the running groffer is terminat‐
156       ed thereafter.  All other arguments are ignored.
157
158       -h | --help
159              Print  help  information  with a short explanation of options to
160              standard output.
161
162       -v | --version
163              Print version information to standard output.
164
165   groffer Mode Options
166       The display mode and the viewer programs are determined  by  these  op‐
167       tions.   If  none of these mode and viewer options is specified groffer
168       tries to find a suitable display mode automatically.  The default modes
169       are mode pdf, mode ps, mode html, mode x, and mode dvi in X Window with
170       different viewers and mode tty with device latin1 under less on a  ter‐
171       minal; other modes are tested if the programs for the main default mode
172       do not exist.
173
174       In X Window,  many  programs  create  their  own  window  when  called.
175       groffer  can  run  these viewers as an independent program in the back‐
176       ground.  As this does not work in text mode on a terminal  (tty)  there
177       must  be  a  way to know which viewers are X Window graphical programs.
178       The groffer script has a small set of information on some viewer names.
179       If  a  viewer  argument  of the command-line chooses an element that is
180       kept as X Window program in this list it is treated as  a  viewer  that
181       can run in the background.  All other, unknown viewer calls are not run
182       in the background.
183
184       For each mode, you are free to choose whatever viewer you  want.   That
185       need  not  be some graphical viewer suitable for this mode.  There is a
186       chance to view the output source; for example, the combination  of  the
187       options  --mode=ps  and --ps-viewer=less shows the content of the Post‐
188       script output, the source code, with the pager less.
189
190       --auto Equivalent to --mode=auto.
191
192       --default
193              Reset all configuration from previously processed  command  line
194              options  to  the default values.  This is useful to wipe out all
195              former  options  of  the  configuration,  in  $GROFFER_OPT,  and
196              restart  option  processing  using  only the rest of the command
197              line.
198
199       --default-modes mode1,mode2,...
200              Set the sequence of modes for auto mode to the  comma  separated
201              list  given  in  the argument.  See --mode for details on modes.
202              Display in the default manner; actually, this means to  try  the
203              modes x, ps, and tty in this sequence.
204
205       --dvi  Equivalent to --mode=dvi.
206
207       --dvi-viewer prog
208              Choose  a  viewer program for dvi mode.  This can be a file name
209              or a program to be searched in $PATH.  Known X Window dvi  view‐
210              ers  include  xdvi(1) and dvilx(1).  In each case, arguments can
211              be provided additionally.
212
213       --groff
214              Equivalent to --mode=groff.
215
216       --html Equivalent to --mode=html.
217
218       --html-viewer
219              Choose a web browser program for viewing in html mode.   It  can
220              be  the  path  name of an executable file or a program in $PATH.
221              In each case, arguments can be provided additionally.
222
223       --mode value
224              Set the display mode.  The following mode values are recognized:
225
226              auto   Select the automatic determination of the  display  mode.
227                     The  sequence of modes that are tried can be set with the
228                     --default-modes  option.   Useful   for   restoring   the
229                     default mode when a different mode was specified before.
230
231              dvi    Display  formatted input in a dvi viewer program.  By de‐
232                     fault, the formatted input is displayed with the  xdvi(1)
233                     program.
234
235              groff  After  the  file determination, switch groffer to process
236                     the input like groff(1)  would  do.   This  disables  the
237                     groffer viewing features.
238
239              html   Translate  the input into html format and display the re‐
240                     sult in a web browser program.  By default, the existence
241                     of  a sequence of standard web browsers is tested, start‐
242                     ing with konqueror(1)  and  mozilla(1).   The  text  html
243                     viewer is lynx(1).
244
245              pdf    Display  formatted input in a PDF (Portable Document For‐
246                     mat) viewer program.  By default, the input is  formatted
247                     by  groff  using the Postscript device, then it is trans‐
248                     formed  into  the  PDF  file  format  using   gs(1),   or
249                     ps2pdf(1).   If  that's not possible, the Postscript mode
250                     (ps) is used instead.  Finally it is displayed using dif‐
251                     ferent  viewer programs.  pdf has a big advantage because
252                     the text is displayed graphically and  is  searchable  as
253                     well.
254
255              ps     Display  formatted  input in a Postscript viewer program.
256                     By default, the formatted input is displayed  in  one  of
257                     many viewer programs.
258
259              text   Format in a groff text mode and write the result to stan‐
260                     dard output without a pager or viewer program.  The  text
261                     device, latin1 by default, can be chosen with option -T.
262
263              tty    Format in a groff text mode and write the result to stan‐
264                     dard output using a text  pager  program,  even  when  in
265                     X Window.
266
267              www    Equivalent to --mode=html.
268
269              x      Display  the formatted input in a native roff viewer.  By
270                     default,  the  formatted  input  is  displayed  with  the
271                     gxditview(1)  program  being  distributed  together  with
272                     groff.  But the standard X Window  tool  xditview(1)  can
273                     also  be  chosen with the option --x-viewer.  The default
274                     resolution is 75dpi, but 100dpi are also  possible.   The
275                     default  groff  device  for  the  resolution  of 75dpi is
276                     X75-12, for 100dpi it is X100.  The  corresponding  groff
277                     intermediate  output  for  the actual device is generated
278                     and the result is displayed.  For a resolution of 100dpi,
279                     the  default width of the geometry of the display program
280                     is chosen to 850dpi.
281
282              X      Equivalent to --mode=x.
283
284              The following modes do not use  the  groffer  viewing  features.
285              They are only interesting for advanced applications.
286
287              groff  Generate device output with plain groff without using the
288                     special viewing features of groffer.  If  no  device  was
289                     specified by option -T the groff default ps is assumed.
290
291              source Output  the  roff  source code of the input files without
292                     further processing.
293
294       --pdf  Equivalent to --mode=pdf.
295
296       --pdf-viewer prog
297              Choose a viewer program for pdf mode.  This can be a  file  name
298              or  a program to be searched in $PATH; arguments can be provided
299              additionally.
300
301       --ps   Equivalent to --mode=ps.
302
303       --ps-viewer prog
304              Choose a viewer program for ps mode.  This can be a file name or
305              a  program  to  be searched in $PATH.  Common Postscript viewers
306              include gv(1), ghostview(1), and gs(1), In each case,  arguments
307              can be provided additionally.
308
309       --source
310              Equivalent to --mode=source.
311
312       --text Equivalent to --mode=text.
313
314       --to-stdout
315              The  file  for  the  chosen mode is generated and its content is
316              printed to standard output.  It will not be displayed in graphi‐
317              cal mode.
318
319       --tty  Equivalent to --mode=tty.
320
321       --tty-viewer prog
322              Choose  a  text  pager  for  mode  tty.   The  standard pager is
323              less(1).  This option is equivalent to man option  --pager=prog.
324              The  option  argument  can  be  a  file  name or a program to be
325              searched in $PATH; arguments can be provided additionally.
326
327       --www  Equivalent to --mode=html.
328
329       --www-viewer prog
330              Equivalent to --html-viewer.
331
332       --X | --x
333              Equivalent to --mode=x.
334
335       --X-viewer | --x-viewer prog
336              Choose a viewer program for x mode.   Suitable  viewer  programs
337              are  gxditview(1) which is the default and xditview(1).  The ar‐
338              gument can be any executable file or a program in  $PATH;  argu‐
339              ments can be provided additionally.
340
341       --     Signals  the  end  of option processing; all remaining arguments
342              are interpreted as filespec parameters.
343
344       Besides these, groffer accepts all short options that are valid for the
345       groff(1) program.  All non-groffer options are sent unmodified via grog
346       to groff.  So postprocessors, macro packages, compatibility with  clas‐
347       sical troff, and much more can be manually specified.
348
349   Options related to groff
350       All  short  options of groffer are compatible with the short options of
351       groff(1).  The following of groff options  have  either  an  additional
352       special meaning within groffer or make sense for normal usage.
353
354       Because  of  the  special  outputting  behavior  of the groff option -Z
355       groffer was designed to be switched into groff mode; the groffer  view‐
356       ing features are disabled there.  The other groff options do not switch
357       the mode, but allow to customize the formatting process.
358
359       --a    This  generates  an  ascii  approximation  of  output   in   the
360              text  modes.   That  could  be important when the text pager has
361              problems with control sequences in tty mode.
362
363       --m file
364              Add file as a groff macro file.  This is useful in case it  can‐
365              not be recognized automatically.
366
367       --P opt_or_arg
368              Send  the argument opt_or_arg as an option or option argument to
369              the actual groff postprocessor.
370
371       --T devname | --device devname
372              This option determines groff's output device.  The  most  impor‐
373              tant  devices  are  the text output devices for referring to the
374              different character sets, such as ascii, utf8, latin1, and  oth‐
375              ers.   Each of these arguments switches groffer into a text mode
376              using this device, to mode tty if  the  actual  mode  is  not  a
377              text  mode.   The  following devname arguments are mapped to the
378              corresponding groffer --mode=devname option: dvi, html, and  ps.
379              All X* arguments are mapped to mode x.  Each other devname argu‐
380              ment switches to mode groff using this device.
381
382       --X    is equivalent to groff -X.  It displays the  groff  intermediate
383              output  with  gxditview.   As the quality is relatively bad this
384              option is deprecated; use --X instead because the x mode uses an
385              X* device for a better display.
386
387       -Z | --intermediate-output | --ditroff
388              Switch  into  groff mode and format the input with the groff in‐
389              termediate  output  without  postprocessing;  see  groff_out(5).
390              This is equivalent to option --ditroff of man, which can be used
391              as well.
392
393       All other groff options are supported by groffer,  but  they  are  just
394       transparently  transferred  to groff without any intervention.  The op‐
395       tions that are not explicitly  handled  by  groffer  are  transparently
396       passed to groff.  Therefore these transparent options are not document‐
397       ed here, but in groff(1).  Due to the automatism in  groffer,  none  of
398       these groff options should be needed, except for advanced usage.
399
400   Options for man pages
401       --apropos
402              Start the apropos(1) command or facility of man(1) for searching
403              the filespec arguments within all man page  descriptions.   Each
404              filespec argument is taken for search as it is; section specific
405              parts are not handled, such that 7 groff searches  for  the  two
406              arguments  7  and  groff,  with a large result; for the filespec
407              groff.7 nothing will be found.  The language locale  is  handled
408              only  when  the called programs do support this; the GNU apropos
409              and man -k do not.  The display differs from the apropos program
410              by the following concepts:
411
412              · Construct a groff frame similar to a man page to the output of
413                apropos,
414
415              · each filespec argument is searched on its own.
416
417              · The restriction by --sections is handled as well,
418
419              · wildcard characters are allowed and handled without a  further
420                option.
421
422       --apropos-data
423              Show only the apropos descriptions for data documents, these are
424              the man(7) sections 4, 5, and 7.   Direct  section  declarations
425              are ignored, wildcards are accepted.
426
427       --apropos-devel
428              Show  only  the  apropos descriptions for development documents,
429              these are the man(7) sections 2, 3, and 9.  Direct section  dec‐
430              larations are ignored, wildcards are accepted.
431
432       --apropos-progs
433              Show  only  the  apropos descriptions for documents on programs,
434              these are the man(7) sections 1, 6, and 8.  Direct section  dec‐
435              larations are ignored, wildcards are accepted.
436
437       --whatis
438              For  each  filespec  argument  search  all man pages and display
439              their description — or say that it is not a man page.   This  is
440              written from anew, so it differs from man's whatis output by the
441              following concepts
442
443              · each retrieved file name is added,
444
445              · local files are handled as well,
446
447              · the language and system locale is supported,
448
449              · the display is framed by a groff output format  similar  to  a
450                man page,
451
452              · wildcard characters are allowed without a further option.
453
454       The  following  options  were added to groffer for choosing whether the
455       file name arguments are interpreted as names for local files  or  as  a
456       search  pattern  for  man  pages.   The default is looking up for local
457       files.
458
459       --man  Check the non-option command line arguments (filespecs) first on
460              being  man  pages, then whether they represent an existing file.
461              By default, a filespec is first tested whether it is an existing
462              file.
463
464       --no-man | --local-file
465              Do  not  check for man pages.  --local-file is the corresponding
466              man option.
467
468       --no-special
469              Disable former calls of --all, --apropos*, and --whatis.
470
471   Long options taken over from GNU man
472       The long options of groffer were synchronized with the long options  of
473       GNU  man.   All  long options of GNU man are recognized, but not all of
474       these options are important to groffer, so most of them  are  just  ig‐
475       nored.  These ignored man options are --catman, --troff, and --update.
476
477       In  the  following,  the  man  options  that have a special meaning for
478       groffer are documented.
479
480       If your system has GNU man installed the full set of long and short op‐
481       tions of the GNU man program can be passed via the environment variable
482       $MANOPT; see man(1).
483
484       --all  In searching man pages, retrieve all suitable documents  instead
485              of only one.
486
487       -7 | --ascii
488              In  text  modes, display ASCII translation of special characters
489              for  critical  environment.   This  is   equivalent   to   groff
490              -mtty_char; see groff_tmac(5).
491
492       --ditroff
493              Produce  groff  intermediate  output.   This  is  equivalent  to
494              groffer -Z.
495
496       --extension suffix
497              Restrict man page search to file names that have suffix appended
498              to  their  section  element.   For  example,  in  the  file name
499              /usr/share/man/man3/terminfo.3ncurses.gz the man page  extension
500              is ncurses.
501
502       --locale language
503              Set  the  language for man pages.  This has the same effect, but
504              overwrites $LANG.
505
506       --location
507              Print the location of the retrieved files to standard error.
508
509       --no-location
510              Do not display the location of retrieved files;  this  resets  a
511              former call to --location.  This was added by groffer.
512
513       --manpath 'dir1:dir2:...'
514              Use  the  specified search path for retrieving man pages instead
515              of the program defaults.  If the argument is set  to  the  empty
516              string "" the search for man page is disabled.
517
518       --pager
519              Set  the  pager  program  in tty mode; default is less.  This is
520              equivalent to --tty-viewer.
521
522       --sections sec1:sec2:...
523              Restrict searching for man pages to the given sections, a colon-
524              separated list.
525
526       --systems sys1,sys2,...
527              Search  for man pages for the given operating systems; the argu‐
528              ment systems is a comma-separated list.
529
530       --where
531              Equivalent to --location.
532
533   X Window Toolkit Options
534       The  following  long  options  were  adapted  from  the   corresponding
535       X  Window Toolkit options.  groffer will pass them to the actual viewer
536       program if it is an X Window program.  Otherwise these options are  ig‐
537       nored.
538
539       Unfortunately  these  options  use  the old style of a single minus for
540       long options.  For groffer that was changed to the standard with  using
541       a  double  minus for long options, for example, groffer uses the option
542       --font for the X Window option -font.
543
544       See X(7) and the documentation on the X Window Toolkit options for more
545       details on these options and their arguments.
546
547       --background color
548              Set the background color of the viewer window.
549
550       --bd pixels
551              This is equivalent to --bordercolor.
552
553       --bg color
554              This is equivalent to --background.
555
556       --bw pixels
557              This is equivalent to --borderwidth.
558
559       --bordercolor pixels
560              Specifies the color of the border surrounding the viewer window.
561
562       --borderwidth pixels
563              Specifies  the  width  in  pixels  of the border surrounding the
564              viewer window.
565
566       --display X-display
567              Set the X Window display on which the viewer  program  shall  be
568              started,  see  the  X Window documentation for the syntax of the
569              argument.
570
571       --foreground color
572              Set the foreground color of the viewer window.
573
574       --fg color
575              This is equivalent to -foreground.
576
577       --fn font_name
578              This is equivalent to --font.
579
580       --font font_name
581              Set the font used by the viewer  window.   The  argument  is  an
582              X Window font name.
583
584       --ft font_name
585              This is equivalent to --font.
586
587       --geometry size_pos
588              Set  the geometry of the display window, that means its size and
589              its starting position.  See X(7) for the syntax of the argument.
590
591       --resolution value
592              Set X Window resolution in dpi (dots per inch)  in  some  viewer
593              programs.   The only supported dpi values are 75 and 100.  Actu‐
594              ally, the default resolution for groffer is set to  75dpi.   The
595              resolution also sets the default device in mode x.
596
597       --rv   Reverse foreground and background color of the viewer window.
598
599       --title 'some text'
600              Set the title for the viewer window.
601
602       --xrm 'resource'
603              Set X Window resource.
604
605   Options for Development
606       --debug
607              Enable  all debugging options --debug-type.  The temporary files
608              are kept and not deleted, the grog output is printed,  the  name
609              of  the temporary directory is printed, the displayed file names
610              are printed, and the parameters are printed.
611
612       --debug-filenames
613              Print the names of the files and man pages that are displayed by
614              groffer.
615
616       --debug-grog
617              Print the output of all grog commands.
618
619       --debug-keep
620              Enable two debugging informations.  Print the name of the tempo‐
621              rary directory and keep the temporary files, do not delete  them
622              during the run of groffer.
623
624       --debug-params
625              Print  the parameters, as obtained from the configuration files,
626              from GROFFER_OPT, and the command line arguments.
627
628       --debug-tmpdir
629              Print the name of the temporary directory.
630
631       --do-nothing
632              This is like --version, but without the  output;  no  viewer  is
633              started.  This makes only sense in development.
634
635       --print=text
636              Just print the argument to standard error.  This is good for pa‐
637              rameter check.
638
639       -V     This is an advanced option for debugging only.  Instead of  dis‐
640              playing  the formatted input, a lot of groffer specific informa‐
641              tion is printed to standard output:
642
643              · the output file name in the temporary directory,
644
645              · the display mode of the actual groffer run,
646
647              · the display program for viewing the output with its arguments,
648
649              · the active parameters from the config files, the arguments  in
650                $GROFFER_OPT, and the arguments of the command line,
651
652              · the pipeline that would be run by the groff program, but with‐
653                out executing it.
654
655       Other  useful  debugging  options  are  the   groff   option   -Z   and
656       --mode=groff.
657
658   Filespec Arguments
659       A filespec parameter is an argument that is not an option or option ar‐
660       gument.  In groffer, filespec parameters are a file name or a  template
661       for  searching  man  pages.  These input sources are collected and com‐
662       posed into a single output file such as groff does.
663
664       The strange POSIX behavior to regard all  arguments  behind  the  first
665       non-option argument as filespec arguments is ignored.  The GNU behavior
666       to recognize options even when mixed with filespec  arguments  is  used
667       throughout.   But,  as usual, the double minus argument -- ends the op‐
668       tion handling and interprets all following arguments as filespec  argu‐
669       ments; so the POSIX behavior can be easily adopted.
670
671       The  options  --apropos* have a special handling of filespec arguments.
672       Each argument is taken as a search scheme of its own.   Also  a  regexp
673       (regular expression) can be used in the filespec.  For example, groffer
674       --apropos '^gro.f$' searches groff in the man page name, while  groffer
675       --apropos  groff searches groff somewhere in the name or description of
676       the man pages.
677
678       All other parts of groffer, such as the normal display  or  the  output
679       with  --whatis  have  a different scheme for filespecs.  No regular ex‐
680       pressions are used for the arguments.  The filespec arguments are  han‐
681       dled by the following scheme.
682
683       It  is  necessary  to know that on each system the man pages are sorted
684       according to their content into several sections.   The  classical  man
685       sections  have  a  single-character name, either a digit from 1 to 9 or
686       one of the characters n or o.
687
688       This can optionally be followed by a string, the  so-called  extension.
689       The  extension  allows to store several man pages with the same name in
690       the same section.  But the extension is only rarely used, usually it is
691       omitted.  Then the extensions are searched automatically by alphabet.
692
693       In  the  following,  we  use the name section_extension for a word that
694       consists of a single character section name or a section character that
695       is  followed  by an extension.  Each filespec parameter can have one of
696       the following forms in decreasing sequence.
697
698       · No filespec parameters means that groffer waits for  standard  input.
699         The  minus  option  -  always stands for standard input; it can occur
700         several times.  If you want to look up a man page called  -  use  the
701         argument man:-.
702
703       · Next  a filespec is tested whether it is the path name of an existing
704         file.  Otherwise it is assumed  to  be  a  searching  pattern  for  a
705         man page.
706
707       · man:name(section_extension),              man:name.section_extension,
708         name(section_extension),   or   name.section_extension   search   the
709         man   page   name   in   man   section   and  possibly  extension  of
710         section_extension.
711
712       · Now man:name searches for a man page in the lowest man  section  that
713         has a document called name.
714
715       · section_extension  name  is  a pattern of 2 arguments that originates
716         from a strange argument parsing of  the  man  program.   Again,  this
717         searches the man page name with section_extension, a combination of a
718         section character optionally followed by an extension.
719
720       · We are left with the argument name which is not an existing file.  So
721         this  searches for the man page called name in the lowest man section
722         that has a document for this name.
723
724       Several file name arguments can be supplied.  They are mixed  by  groff
725       into a single document.  Note that the set of option arguments must fit
726       to all of these file arguments.  So they should have at least the  same
727       style of the groff language.
728

OUTPUT MODES

730       By  default, the groffer program collects all input into a single file,
731       formats it with the groff program for a certain device, and then choos‐
732       es a suitable viewer program.  The device and viewer process in groffer
733       is called a mode.  The mode and viewer of a running groffer program  is
734       selected  automatically,  but the user can also choose it with options.
735       The modes are selected by option the arguments of --mode=anymode.   Ad‐
736       ditionally,  each of this argument can be specified as an option of its
737       own, such as anymode.  Most of these modes have a viewer program, which
738       can be chosen by an option that is constructed like --anymode-viewer.
739
740       Several  different  modes  are  offered,  graphical modes for X Window,
741       text modes, and some direct groff modes for debugging and development.
742
743       By default, groffer first  tries  whether  x  mode  is  possible,  then
744       ps  mode,  and  finally  tty  mode.   This  mode  testing  sequence for
745       auto mode can be changed by specifying a comma separated list of  modes
746       with the option --default-modes.
747
748       The  searching for man pages and the decompression of the input are ac‐
749       tive in every mode.
750
751   Graphical Display Modes
752       The graphical display modes work mostly in the X Window environment (or
753       similar  implementations within other windowing environments).  The en‐
754       vironment variable $DISPLAY and the option --display are used for spec‐
755       ifying  the  X Window display to be used.  If this environment variable
756       is empty groffer assumes that no X Window is running and changes  to  a
757       text  mode.  You can change this automatic behavior by the option --de‐
758       fault-modes.
759
760       Known viewers for  the  graphical  display  modes  and  their  standard
761       X Window viewer programs are
762
763       · in a PDF viewer (pdf mode)
764
765       · in a web browser (html or www mode)
766
767       · in a Postscript viewer (ps mode)
768
769       · X Window roff viewers such as gxditview(1) or xditview(1) (in x mode)
770
771       · in a dvi viewer program (dvi mode)
772
773       The  pdf  mode has a major advantage — it is the only graphical display
774       mode that allows to search for text within the viewer; this  can  be  a
775       really  important feature.  Unfortunately, it takes some time to trans‐
776       form the input into the PDF format, so it was not chosen as  the  major
777       mode.
778
779       These   graphical   viewers   can  be  customized  by  options  of  the
780       X Window Toolkit.  But the groffer options use a leading  double  minus
781       instead of the single minus used by the X Window Toolkit.
782
783   Text modes
784       There are two modes for text output, mode text for plain output without
785       a pager and mode tty for a text output on a text  terminal  using  some
786       pager program.
787
788       If  the  variable $DISPLAY is not set or empty, groffer assumes that it
789       should use tty mode.
790
791       In the actual implementation, the groff output device latin1 is  chosen
792       for  text  modes.   This  can  be  changed  by  specifying option -T or
793       --device.
794
795       The pager to be used can be specified by one of the options --pager and
796       --tty-viewer, or by the environment variable $PAGER.  If all of this is
797       not used the less(1) program with the option -r for correctly  display‐
798       ing control sequences is used as the default pager.
799
800   Special Modes for Debugging and Development
801       These modes use the groffer file determination and decompression.  This
802       is combined into a single input file that is fed  directly  into  groff
803       with  different strategy without the groffer viewing facilities.  These
804       modes are regarded as advanced, they are useful for debugging  and  de‐
805       velopment purposes.
806
807       The source mode with option --source just displays the decompressed in‐
808       put.
809
810       Otion --to-stdout does not display in a graphical mode.  It just gener‐
811       ates  the file for the chosen mode and then prints its content to stan‐
812       dard output.
813
814       The groff mode passes the input to groff using only some  suitable  op‐
815       tions provided to groffer.  This enables the user to save the generated
816       output into a file or pipe it into another program.
817
818       In groff mode, the option -Z disables post-processing,  thus  producing
819       the  groff  intermediate output.  In this mode, the input is formatted,
820       but not postprocessed; see groff_out(5) for details.
821
822       All groff short options are supported by groffer.
823

MAN PAGE SEARCHING

825       The default behavior of groffer is to first test whether a file parame‐
826       ter  represents a local file; if it is not an existing file name, it is
827       assumed to represent the name of a man page.  The following options can
828       be  used  to  determine whether the arguments should be handled as file
829       name or man page arguments.
830
831       --man  forces to interpret all file parameters as filespecs for search‐
832              ing man pages.
833
834       --no-man
835       --local-file
836              disable the man searching; so only local files are displayed.
837
838       If  neither a local file nor a man page was retrieved for some file pa‐
839       rameter a warning is issued on standard error, but processing  is  con‐
840       tinued.
841
842   Search Algorithm
843       Let us now assume that a man page should be searched.  The groffer pro‐
844       gram provides a search facility for man pages.  All long  options,  all
845       environment  variables, and most of the functionality of the GNU man(1)
846       program were implemented.  The search algorithm shall  determine  which
847       file is displayed for a given man page.  The process can be modified by
848       options and environment variables.
849
850       The only man action that is omitted in  groffer  are  the  preformatted
851       man  pages,  also  called cat pages.  With the excellent performance of
852       the actual computers, the preformatted man pages aren't  necessary  any
853       longer.  Additionally, groffer is a roff program; it wants to read roff
854       source files and format them itself.
855
856       The algorithm for retrieving the file for a man page needs first a  set
857       of  directories.   This  set starts with the so-called man path that is
858       modified later on by adding names of  operating  system  and  language.
859       This  arising set is used for adding the section directories which con‐
860       tain the man page files.
861
862       The man path is a list of directories that are separated by colon.   It
863       is generated by the following methods.
864
865       · The environment variable $MANPATH can be set.
866
867       · It  can  be  read  from  the  arguments  of  the environment variable
868         $MANOPT.
869
870       · The man path can be manually specified by using the option --manpath.
871         An empty argument disables the man page searching.
872
873       · When no man path was set the manpath(1) program is tried to determine
874         one.
875
876       · If this does not work a reasonable default path from $PATH is  deter‐
877         mined.
878
879       We  now  have  a  starting set of directories.  The first way to change
880       this set is by adding names of operating systems.   This  assumes  that
881       man pages for several operating systems are installed.  This is not al‐
882       ways true.  The names of such operating systems can be  provided  by  3
883       methods.
884
885       · The environment variable $SYSTEM has the lowest precedence.
886
887       · This can be overridden by an option in $MANOPT.
888
889       · This again is overridden by the command line option --systems.
890
891       Several  names  of  operating  systems  can be given by appending their
892       names, separated by a comma.
893
894       The man path is changed by appending each system name  as  subdirectory
895       at  the end of each directory of the set.  No directory of the man path
896       set is kept.  But if no system name is specified the man path  is  left
897       unchanged.
898
899       After  this,  the  actual set of directories can be changed by language
900       information.  This assumes that there exist man pages in different lan‐
901       guages.  The wanted language can be chosen by several methods.
902
903       · Environment variable $LANG.
904
905       · This is overridden by $LC_MESSAGES.
906
907       · This is overridden by $LC_ALL.
908
909       · This can be overridden by providing an option in $MANOPT.
910
911       · All  these  environment  variables are overridden by the command line
912         option --locale.
913
914       The default language can be specified by specifying one of the  pseudo-
915       language parameters C or POSIX.  This is like deleting a formerly given
916       language information.  The man pages in the default language are usual‐
917       ly in English.
918
919       Of  course,  the language name is determined by man.  In GNU man, it is
920       specified in the POSIX 1003.1 based format:
921
922       <language>[_<territory>[.<character-set>[,<version>]]],
923
924       but the two-letter code in <language> is sufficient for most  purposes.
925       If  for  a  complicated  language  formulation  no  man pages are found
926       groffer searches the country part consisting of these first two charac‐
927       ters as well.
928
929       The  actual  directory  set is copied thrice.  The language name is ap‐
930       pended as subdirectory to each directory in the first copy of the actu‐
931       al directory set (this is only done when a language information is giv‐
932       en).  Then the 2-letter abbreviation of the language name  is  appended
933       as subdirectories to the second copy of the directory set (this is only
934       done when the given language name has more than 2 letters).  The  third
935       copy of the directory set is kept unchanged (if no language information
936       is given this is the kept directory set).  These maximally 3 copies are
937       appended to get the new directory set.
938
939       We  now  have  a  complete set of directories to work with.  In each of
940       these directories, the man files are separated in sections.   The  name
941       of  a  section  is represented by a single character, a digit between 1
942       and 9, or the character o or n, in this order.
943
944       For each available section, a subdirectory man<section> exists contain‐
945       ing all man files for this section, where <section> is a single charac‐
946       ter as described before.  Each man file in a section directory has  the
947       form  man<section>/<name>.<section>[<extension>][.<compression>], where
948       <extension> and <compression> are optional.  <name> is the name of  the
949       man  page  that  is  also specified as filespec argument on the command
950       line.
951
952       The extension is an addition to the section.  This postfix acts like  a
953       subsection.   An extension occurs only in the file name, not in name of
954       the section subdirectory.  It can be specified on the command line.
955
956       On the other hand, the compression is just an information  on  how  the
957       file  is  compressed.  This is not important for the user, such that it
958       cannot be specified on the command line.
959
960       There are 4 methods to specify a section on the command line:
961
962       · Environment variable $MANSECT
963
964       · Command line option --sections
965
966       · Appendix to the name argument in the form <name>.<section>
967
968       · Preargument before the name argument in the form <section> <name>
969
970       It is also possible to specify several sections by appending the single
971       characters separated by colons.  One can imagine that this means to re‐
972       strict the man page search to only some sections.   The  multiple  sec‐
973       tions are only possible for $MANSECT and --sections.
974
975       If no section is specified all sections are searched one after the oth‐
976       er in the given order, starting with section 1, until a  suitable  file
977       is found.
978
979       There  are  4 methods to specify an extension on the command line.  But
980       it is not necessary to provide the whole extension name, some abbrevia‐
981       tion is good enough in most cases.
982
983       · Environment variable $EXTENSION
984
985       · Command line option --extension
986
987       · Appendix  to  the  <name>.<section> argument in the form <name>.<sec‐
988         tion><extension>
989
990       · Preargument before the name argument in the form <section><extension>
991         <name>
992
993       For further details on man page searching, see man(1).
994
995   Examples of man files
996       /usr/share/man/man1/groff.1
997              This  is  an  uncompressed  file  for the man page groff in sec‐
998              tion 1.  It can be called by
999              sh# groffer groff
1000              No  section  is  specified  here,  so  all  sections  should  be
1001              searched,  but  as section 1 is searched first this file will be
1002              found first.  The file name is composed of the following  compo‐
1003              nents.   /usr/share/man must be part of the man path; the subdi‐
1004              rectory man1/ and the part .1 stand for the  section;  groff  is
1005              the name of the man page.
1006
1007       /usr/local/share/man/man7/groff.7.gz
1008              The   file   name  is  composed  of  the  following  components.
1009              /usr/local/share/man must be part of the man path; the subdirec‐
1010              tory  man7/  and the part .7 stand for the section; groff is the
1011              name of the man page; the final part .gz stands for  a  compres‐
1012              sion  with gzip(1).  As the section is not the first one it must
1013              be specified as well.  This can be done by one of the  following
1014              commands.
1015              sh# groffer groff.7
1016              sh# groffer 7 groff
1017              sh# groffer --sections=7 groff
1018
1019       /usr/local/man/man1/ctags.1emacs21.bz2
1020              Here  /usr/local/man must be in man path; the subdirectory man1/
1021              and the file name part .1 stand for section 1; the name  of  the
1022              man page is ctags; the section has an extension emacs21; and the
1023              file is compressed as .bz2  with  bzip2(1).   The  file  can  be
1024              viewed with one of the following commands
1025              sh# groffer ctags.1e
1026              sh# groffer 1e ctags
1027              sh# groffer --extension=e --sections=1 ctags
1028              where e works as an abbreviation for the extension emacs21.
1029
1030       /usr/man/linux/de/man7/man.7.Z
1031              The  directory  /usr/man is now part of the man path; then there
1032              is a subdirectory for an  operating  system  name  linux/;  next
1033              comes   a  subdirectory de/ for the German language; the section
1034              names man7 and .7 are known so far;  man  is  the  name  of  the
1035              man  page;  and .Z signifies the compression that can be handled
1036              by gzip(1).  We want now show how to provide several values  for
1037              some  options.  That is possible for sections and operating sys‐
1038              tem names.  So we use as sections 5 and 7 and  as  system  names
1039              linux and aix.  The command is then
1040
1041              sh# groffer --locale=de --sections=5:7 --systems=linux,aix man
1042              sh# LANG=de MANSECT=5:7 SYSTEM=linux,aix groffer man
1043

DECOMPRESSION

1045       The  program has a decompression facility.  If standard input or a file
1046       that was retrieved from the command line parameters is compressed  with
1047       a  format  that is supported by either gzip(1) or bzip2(1) it is decom‐
1048       pressed on-the-fly.  This includes the GNU .gz, .bz2,  and  the  tradi‐
1049       tional  .Z  compression.  The program displays the concatenation of all
1050       decompressed input in the sequence that was specified  on  the  command
1051       line.
1052

ENVIRONMENT

1054       The  groffer  program  supports  many system variables, most of them by
1055       courtesy of other programs.  All environment variables of groff(1)  and
1056       GNU man(1) and some standard system variables are honored.
1057
1058   Native groffer Variables
1059       $GROFFER_OPT
1060              Store  options  for  a run of groffer.  The options specified in
1061              this variable are overridden by the options given on the command
1062              line.   The  content  of  this variable is run through the shell
1063              builtin `eval'; so arguments containing white-space  or  special
1064              shell characters should be quoted.  Do not forget to export this
1065              variable, otherwise it does not exist during the run of groffer.
1066
1067   System Variables
1068       The following variables have a special meaning for groffer.
1069
1070       $DISPLAY
1071              If this variable is set this indicates that the X Window  system
1072              is  running.  Testing this variable decides on whether graphical
1073              or text output  is  generated.   This  variable  should  not  be
1074              changed  by the user carelessly, but it can be used to start the
1075              graphical groffer on a remote X Window terminal.   For  example,
1076              depending  on  your system, groffer can be started on the second
1077              monitor by the command
1078
1079              sh# DISPLAY=:0.1 groffer what.ever &
1080
1081       $LC_ALL
1082       $LC_MESSAGES
1083       $LANG  If one of these variables is set (in the  above  sequence),  its
1084              content  is  interpreted as the locale, the language to be used,
1085              especially when retrieving man pages.  A locale name is typical‐
1086              ly  of the form language[_territory[.codeset[@modifier]]], where
1087              language is an ISO 639 language code, territory is an  ISO  3166
1088              country code, and codeset is a character set or encoding identi‐
1089              fier like ISO-8859-1 or UTF-8;  see  setlocale(3).   The  locale
1090              values  C and POSIX stand for the default, i.e. the man page di‐
1091              rectories without a language prefix.  This is the same  behavior
1092              as when all 3 variables are unset.
1093
1094       $PAGER This  variable  can be used to set the pager for the tty output.
1095              For example, to disable the use of a pager completely  set  this
1096              variable to the cat(1) program
1097
1098              sh# PAGER=cat groffer anything
1099
1100
1101       $PATH  All  programs  within  the  groffer  script are called without a
1102              fixed path.  Thus this environment variable determines  the  set
1103              of programs used within the run of groffer.
1104
1105   Groff Variables
1106       The  groffer  program  internally calls groff, so all environment vari‐
1107       ables documented in groff(1) are  internally  used  within  groffer  as
1108       well.  The following variable has a direct meaning for the groffer pro‐
1109       gram.
1110
1111       $GROFF_TMPDIR
1112              If the value of this variable is an existing, writable  directo‐
1113              ry,  groffer  uses  it  for storing its temporary files, just as
1114              groff does.  See the groff(1) man page for more details  on  the
1115              location of temporary files.
1116
1117   Man Variables
1118       Parts  of  the  functionality  of  the  man program were implemented in
1119       groffer; support for all environment variables documented in man(1) was
1120       added to groffer, but the meaning was slightly modified due to the dif‐
1121       ferent approach in groffer; but the user interface is  the  same.   The
1122       man  environment  variables can be overwritten by options provided with
1123       $MANOPT, which in turn is overwritten by the command line.
1124
1125       $EXTENSION
1126              Restrict the search for man pages to files  having  this  exten‐
1127              sion.   This  is overridden by option --extension; see there for
1128              details.
1129
1130       $MANOPT
1131              This variable contains options as a preset for man(1).   As  not
1132              all  of  these are relevant for groffer only the essential parts
1133              of its value are extracted.  The options specified in this vari‐
1134              able  overwrite  the  values  of the other environment variables
1135              that are specific to man.  All options specified in  this  vari‐
1136              able are overridden by the options given on the command line.
1137
1138       $MANPATH
1139              If  set,  this  variable  contains  the directories in which the
1140              man page  trees  are  stored.   This  is  overridden  by  option
1141              --manpath.
1142
1143       $MANSECT
1144              If  this  is a colon separated list of section names, the search
1145              for man pages is restricted to those manual sections in that or‐
1146              der.  This is overridden by option --sections.
1147
1148       $SYSTEM
1149              If  this is set to a comma separated list of names these are in‐
1150              terpreted as man page trees  for  different  operating  systems.
1151              This  variable can be overwritten by option --systems; see there
1152              for details.
1153
1154       The environment variable $MANROFFSEQ is ignored by groffer because  the
1155       necessary preprocessors are determined automatically.
1156

CONFIGURATION FILES

1158       The groffer program can be preconfigured by two configuration files.
1159
1160       /etc/groff/groffer.conf
1161              System-wide configuration file for groffer.
1162
1163       $HOME/.groff/groffer.conf
1164              User-specific  configuration  file  for groffer, where $HOME de‐
1165              notes the user's home directory.  This file is called after  the
1166              system-wide configuration file to enable overriding by the user.
1167
1168       Both  files  are  handled  for the configuration, but the configuration
1169       file in /etc comes first; it is overwritten by the  configuration  file
1170       in  the home directory; both configuration files are overwritten by the
1171       environment variable $GROFFER_OPT; everything  is  overwritten  by  the
1172       command line arguments.
1173
1174       The  configuration  files  contain options that should be called as de‐
1175       fault for every groffer run.  These options are written in  lines  such
1176       that each contains either a long option, a short option, or a short op‐
1177       tion cluster; each with or without an argument.  So each line with con‐
1178       figuration information starts with a minus character `-'; a line with a
1179       long option starts with two minus characters `--', a line with a  short
1180       option or short option cluster starts with a single minus `-'.
1181
1182       The  option  names  in  the configuration files may not be abbreviated,
1183       they must be exact.
1184
1185       The argument for a long option can be separated from  the  option  name
1186       either by an equal sign `=' or by whitespace, i.e. one or several space
1187       or tab characters.  An argument for a  short  option  or  short  option
1188       cluster  can  be  directly  appended to the option name or separated by
1189       whitespace.  The end of an argument is the end of the line.  It is  not
1190       allowed  to use a shell environment variable in an option name or argu‐
1191       ment.
1192
1193       It is not necessary to use quotes in an option or argument, except  for
1194       empty arguments.  An empty argument can be provided by appending a pair
1195       of quotes to the separating equal sign or whitespace; with a short  op‐
1196       tion,  the  separator can be omitted as well.  For a long option with a
1197       separating equal sign `=', the pair of quotes can be omitted, thus end‐
1198       ing  the  line with the separating equal sign.  All other quote charac‐
1199       ters are cancelled internally.
1200
1201       In the configuration files, arbitrary whitespace is allowed at the  be‐
1202       ginning  of  each  line,  it is just ignored.  Each whitespace within a
1203       line is replaced by a single space character ` ' internally.
1204
1205       All lines of the configuration lines that do not  start  with  a  minus
1206       character  are ignored, such that comments starting with `#' are possi‐
1207       ble.  So there are no shell commands in the configuration files.
1208
1209       As an example, consider the following configuration file  that  can  be
1210       used either in /etc/groff/groffer.conf or ~/.groff/groffer.conf.
1211
1212       # groffer configuration file
1213       #
1214       # groffer options that are used in each call of groffer
1215       --foreground=DarkBlue
1216       --resolution=100
1217       --x-viewer=gxditview -geometry 900x1200
1218       --pdf-viewer xpdf -Z 150
1219
1220       The  lines  starting  with  #  are just ignored, so they act as command
1221       lines.  This configuration sets four groffer options (the lines  start‐
1222       ing with `-').  This has the following effects:
1223
1224       · Use  a  text color of DarkBlue in all viewers that support this, such
1225         as gxditview.
1226
1227       · Use a resolution of 100dpi in all viewers that support this, such  as
1228         gxditview.  By this, the default device in x mode is set to X100.
1229
1230       · Force gxditview(1) as the x-mode viewer using the geometry option for
1231         setting the width to 900px and the height to 1200px.   This  geometry
1232         is suitable for a resolution of 100dpi.
1233
1234       · Use xpdf(1) as the pdf-mode viewer with the argument -Z 150.
1235

EXAMPLES

1237       The  usage  of groffer is very easy.  Usually, it is just called with a
1238       file name or man page.  The  following  examples,  however,  show  that
1239       groffer has much more fancy capabilities.
1240
1241       sh# groffer /usr/local/share/doc/groff/meintro.ms.gz
1242
1243       Decompress, format and display the compressed file meintro.ms.gz in the
1244       directory  /usr/local/share/doc/groff,  using   the   standard   viewer
1245       gxditview  as  graphical  viewer when in X Window, or the less(1) pager
1246       program when not in X Window.
1247
1248       sh# groffer groff
1249
1250       If the file ./groff exists use it as input.   Otherwise  interpret  the
1251       argument  as a search for the man page named groff in the smallest pos‐
1252       sible man section, being section 1 in this case.
1253
1254       sh# groffer man:groff
1255
1256       search for the man page of groff even when the file ./groff exists.
1257
1258       sh# groffer groff.7
1259       sh# groffer 7 groff
1260
1261       search the man page of groff in man section  7.   This  section  search
1262       works only for a digit or a single character from a small set.
1263
1264       sh# groffer fb.modes
1265
1266       If  the  file  ./fb.modes does not exist interpret this as a search for
1267       the man page of fb.modes.  As the extension modes is not a single char‐
1268       acter  in classical section style the argument is not split to a search
1269       for fb.
1270
1271       sh# groffer groff ’troff(1)’ man:roff
1272
1273       The arguments that are not existing files are looked-up as the  follow‐
1274       ing  man  pages:  groff  (automatic search, should be found in man sec‐
1275       tion 1), troff (in section 1), and roff (in the section with the lowest
1276       number, being 7 in this case).  The quotes around troff(1) are neces‐
1277       sary because the parentheses are  special  shell  characters;  escaping
1278       them  with a backslash character \( and \) would be possible, too.  The
1279       formatted files are concatenated and displayed in one piece.
1280
1281       sh# LANG=de groffer --man --www --www-viewer=galeon ls
1282
1283       Retrieve the German man page (language de) for the ls  program,  decom‐
1284       press  it,  format  it to html format (www mode) and view the result in
1285       the web browser galeon.  The option --man guarantees that the man  page
1286       is retrieved, even when a local file ls exists in the actual directory.
1287
1288       sh# groffer --source 'man:roff(7)'
1289
1290       Get the man page called roff in man section 7, decompress it, and print
1291       its unformatted content, its source code.
1292
1293       sh# groffer --de-p --in --ap
1294
1295       This is a set of abbreviated arguments, it is determined as
1296
1297       sh# groffer --debug-params --intermediate-output --apropos
1298
1299
1300       sh# cat file.gz | groffer -Z -mfoo
1301
1302       The file file.gz is sent to standard input, this is  decompressed,  and
1303       then  this is transported to the groff intermediate output mode without
1304       post-processing (groff option -Z), using macro package foo  (groff  op‐
1305       tion -m).
1306
1307       sh# echo '\f[CB]WOW!' |
1308       > groffer --x --bg red --fg yellow --geometry 200x100 -
1309
1310       Display the word WOW! in a small window in constant-width
1311       bold font, using color yellow on red background.
1312

COMPATIBILITY

1314       The groffer program is written in Perl, the Perl version during writing
1315       was v5.8.8.
1316
1317       groffer provides its own parser for  command  line  arguments  that  is
1318       compatible  to  both POSIX getopts(1) and GNU getopt(1).  It can handle
1319       option arguments and file names containing white space and a large  set
1320       of  special  characters.   The  following standard types of options are
1321       supported.
1322
1323       · The option consisting of a single minus - refers to standard input.
1324
1325       · A single minus followed by characters refers to  a  single  character
1326         option  or  a  combination  thereof;  for  example, the groffer short
1327         option combination -Qmfoo is equivalent to -Q -m foo.
1328
1329       · Long options are options with names longer than one  character;  they
1330         are always preceded by a double minus.  An option argument can either
1331         go to the next command line argument or be  appended  with  an  equal
1332         sign  to  the  argument;  for  example,  --long=arg  is equivalent to
1333         --long arg.
1334
1335       · An argument of -- ends  option  parsing;  all  further  command  line
1336         arguments  are interpreted as filespec parameters, i.e. file names or
1337         constructs for searching man pages).
1338
1339       · All command line  arguments  that  are  neither  options  nor  option
1340         arguments  are  interpreted  as  filespec parameters and stored until
1341         option parsing has finished.  For example, the command line
1342
1343         sh# groffer file1 -a -o arg file2
1344
1345         is equivalent to
1346
1347         sh# groffer -a -o arg -- file1 file2
1348
1349
1350       The free mixing of options and  filespec  parameters  follows  the  GNU
1351       principle.   That does not fulfill the strange option behavior of POSIX
1352       that ends option processing as soon as the  first  non-option  argument
1353       has  been  reached.   The end of option processing can be forced by the
1354       option `--' anyway.
1355

BUGS

1357       Report bugs to the bug-groff mailing list ⟨bug-groff@gnu.org⟩.  Include
1358       a complete, self-contained example that will allow the bug to be repro‐
1359       duced, and say which version of groffer you are using.
1360
1361       You can also use the groff mailing list ⟨groff@gnu.org⟩, but  you  must
1362       first  subscribe  to  this list.  You can do that by visiting the groff
1363       mailing list web page ⟨http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/groff⟩.
1364
1365       See groff(1) for information on availability.
1366

SEE ALSO

1368       groff(1), troff(1)
1369              Details on the options and environment  variables  available  in
1370              groff; all of them can be used with groffer.
1371
1372       groff(7)
1373              Documentation of the groff language.
1374
1375       grog(1)
1376              Internally,  groffer  tries  to  guess  the  groff  command line
1377              options from the input using this program.
1378
1379       groff_out(5)
1380              Documentation on the groff intermediate output (ditroff output).
1381
1382       groff_tmac(5)
1383              Documentation on the groff macro files.
1384
1385       man(1) The standard program to  display  man  pages.   The  information
1386              there is only useful if it is the man page for GNU man.  Then it
1387              documents the options and environment variables  that  are  sup‐
1388              ported by groffer.
1389
1390       gxditview(1), xditview(1x)
1391              Viewers for groffer's x mode.
1392
1393       kpdf(1), kghostview(1), evince(1), ggv(1), gv(1), ghostview(1), gs(1)
1394              Viewers for groffer's ps mode.
1395
1396       kpdf(1),   acroread(1),  evince(1),  xpdf(1),  gpdf(1),  kghostview(1),
1397       ggv(1)
1398              Viewers for groffer's pdf mode.
1399
1400       kdvi(1), xdvi(1), dvilx(1)
1401              Viewers for groffer's dvi mode.
1402
1403       konqueror(1), epiphany(1), firefox(1), mozilla(1), netscape(1), lynx(1)
1404              Web-browsers for groffer's html or www mode.
1405
1406       less(1)
1407              Standard pager program for the tty mode.
1408
1409       gzip(1), bzip2(1)
1410              The decompression programs supported by groffer.
1411

AUTHOR

1413       This file was written by Bernd Warken <groff-bernd.warken-72@web.de>.
1414

COPYING

1416       Copyright (C) 2001, 2002, 2004-2006, 2009-2012
1417         Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1418
1419       This file is part of groffer, which is part of groff, a  free  software
1420       project.   You  can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of
1421       the GNU General Public  License  as  published  by  the  Free  Software
1422       Foundation,  either  version  3 of the License, or (at your option) any
1423       later version.
1424
1425       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
1426       with  groff,  see the files COPYING and LICENSE in the top directory of
1427       the groff source package.  Or read the man page gpl(1).  You  can  also
1428       visit <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1429
1430
1431
1432Groff Version 1.22.2              9 June 2014                       GROFFER(1)
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