1GROFFER(1) General Commands Manual GROFFER(1)
2
6 groffer - display groff files and man pages on X and tty
7
9 groffer [option...] [--] [filespec...]
10 groffer -h|--help
11 groffer -v|--version
12
14 The groffer program is the easiest way to use groff(1). It can display
15 arbitrary documents written in the groff language, see groff(7), or
16 other roff languages, see roff(7), that are compatible to the original
17 troff language. The groffer program also includes many of the features
18 for finding and displaying the Unix manual pages (man pages), such that
19 it can be used as a replacement for a man(1) program. Moreover, com‐
20 pressed files that can be handled by gzip(1) or bzip2(1) are decom‐
21 pressed on-the-fly.
22 The normal usage is quite simple by supplying a file name or name of a
24 man page without further options. But the option handling has many
25 possibilities for creating special behaviors. This can be done either
26 in configuration files, with the shell environment variable
27 $GROFFER_OPT, or on the command line.
28 The output can be generated and viewed in several different ways avail‐
30 able for groff. This includes the groff native X Window viewer
31 gxditview(1), each Postcript, pdf, or dvi display program, a web brows‐
32 er by generating html in www mode, or several text modes in text termi‐
33 nals.
34 Most of the options that must be named when running groff directly are
36 determined automatically for groffer, due to the internal usage of the
37 grog(1) program. But all parts can also be controlled manually by ar‐
38 guments.
39 Several file names can be specified on the command line arguments.
41 They are transformed into a single document in the normal way of groff.
42 Option handling is done in GNU style. Options and file names can be
44 mixed freely. The option `--' closes the option handling, all follow‐
45 ing arguments are treated as file names. Long options can be abbrevi‐
46 ated in several ways.
47
49 breaking options
50 [-h|--help] [-v|--version]
52 groffer mode options
54 [--auto] [--default] [--default-modes mode1,mode2,...] [--dvi]
56 [--dvi-viewer prog] [--groff] [--html] [--html-viewer prog]
57 [--mode display_mode] [--pdf] [--pdf-viewer prog] [--ps]
58 [--ps-viewer prog] [--source] [--text] [--to-stdout] [--tty]
59 [--tty-viewer prog] [--www] [--www-viewer prog] [--x|--X]
60 [--x-viewer|--X-viewer prog]
61 options related to groff
63 [-T|--device device] [-Z|--intermediate-output|--ditroff]
65 All further groff short options are accepted.
67 options for man pages
69 [--apropos] [--apropos-data] [--apropos-devel] [--apropos-progs]
70 [--man] [--no-man] [--no-special] [--whatis]
71 long options taken over from GNU man
73 [--all] [--ascii] [--ditroff] [--extension suffix] [--locale
75 language] [--local-file] [--location|--where] [--manpath
76 dir1:dir2:...] [--no-location] [--pager program] [--sections
77 sec1:sec2:...] [--systems sys1,sys2,...] [--troff-device
78 device]
79 Further long options of GNU man are accepted as well.
81 X Window Toolkit options
83 [--bd|--bordercolor pixels] [--bg|--background color] [--bw|
85 --borderwidth pixels] [--display X-display] [--fg|--foreground
86 color] [--fn|--ft|--font font_name] [--geometry size_pos]
87 [--resolution value] [--rv] [--title string] [--xrm X-resource]
88 options for development
90 [--debug] [--debug-all] [--debug-filenames] [--debug-func]
92 [--debug-keep] [--debug-lm] [--debug-params] [--debug-shell]
93 [--debug-stacks] [--debug-tmpdir] [--debug-user] [--do-nothing]
94 [--print text] [--shell prog] [-V]
95 filespec arguments
97 The filespec parameters are all arguments that are neither an
99 option nor an option argument. They usually mean a file name or
100 a man page searching scheme.
101 In the following, the term section_extension is used. It means
103 a word that consists of a man section that is optionally fol‐
104 lowed by an extension. The name of a man section is a single
105 character from [1-9on], the extension is some word. The exten‐
106 sion is mostly lacking.
107 No filespec parameters means standard input.
109 - stands for standard input (can occur several times).
111 filename the path name of an existing file.
113 man:name(section_extension)
115 man:name.section_extension
116 name(section_extension)
117 name.section_extension
118 section_extension name
119 search the man page name in the section with optional
120 extension section_extension.
121 man:name man page in the lowest man section that has name.
123 name if name is not an existing file search for the
125 man page name in the lowest man section.
126
128 The groffer program can usually be run with very few options. But for
129 special purposes, it supports many options. These can be classified in
130 5 option classes.
131 All short options of groffer are compatible with the short options of
133 groff(1). All long options of groffer are compatible with the long op‐
134 tions of man(1).
135 Arguments for long option names can be abbreviated in several ways.
137 First, the argument is checked whether it can be prolonged as is. Fur‐
138 thermore, each minus sign - is considered as a starting point for a new
139 abbreviation. This leads to a set of multiple abbreviations for a sin‐
140 gle argument. For example, --de-n-f can be used as an abbreviation for
141 --debug-not-func, but --de-n works as well. If the abbreviation of the
142 argument leads to several resulting options an error is raised.
143 groffer breaking Options
145 As soon as one of these options is found on the command line it is exe‐
146 cuted, printed to standard output, and the running groffer is terminat‐
147 ed thereafter. All other arguments are ignored.
148 -h | --help
150 Print a helping information with a short explanation of option
151 sto standard output.
152 -v | --version
154 Print version information to standard output.
155 groffer Mode Options
157 The display mode and the viewer programs are determined by these op‐
158 tions. If none of these mode and viewer options is specified groffer
159 tries to find a suitable display mode automatically. The default modes
160 are mode pdf, mode ps, mode html, mode x, and mode dvi in X Window with
161 different viewers and mode tty with device latin1 under less on a ter‐
162 minal; other modes are tested if the programs for the main default mode
163 do not exist.
164 In X Window, many programs create their own window when called.
166 groffer can run these viewers as an independent program in the back‐
167 ground. As this does not work in text mode on a terminal (tty) there
168 must be a way to know which viewers are X Window graphical programs.
169 The groffer script has a small set of information on some viewer names.
170 If a viewer argument of the command-line chooses an element that is
171 kept as X Window program in this list it is treated as a viewer that
172 can run in the background. All other, unknown viewer calls are not run
173 in the background.
174 For each mode, you are free to choose whatever viewer you want. That
176 need not be some graphical viewer suitable for this mode. There is a
177 chance to view the output source; for example, the combination of the
178 options --mode=ps and --ps-viewer=less shows the content of the Post‐
179 script output, the source code, with the pager less.
180 --auto Equivalent to --mode=auto.
182 --default
184 Reset all configuration from previously processed command line
185 options to the default values. This is useful to wipe out all
186 former options of the configuration, in $GROFFER_OPT, and
187 restart option processing using only the rest of the command
188 line.
189 --default-modes mode1,mode2,...
191 Set the sequence of modes for auto mode to the comma separated
192 list given in the argument. See --mode for details on modes.
193 Display in the default manner; actually, this means to try the
194 modes x, ps, and tty in this sequence.
195 --dvi Equivalent to --mode=dvi.
197 --dvi-viewer prog
199 Choose a viewer program for dvi mode. This can be a file name
200 or a program to be searched in $PATH. Known X Window dvi view‐
201 ers include xdvi(1) and dvilx(1) In each case, arguments can be
202 provided additionally.
203 --groff
205 Equivalent to --mode=groff.
206 --html Equivalent to --mode=html.
208 --html-viewer
210 Choose a web browser program for viewing in html mode. It can
211 be the path name of an executable file or a program in $PATH.
212 In each case, arguments can be provided additionally.
213 --mode value
215 Set the display mode. The following mode values are recognized:
216 auto Select the automatic determination of the display mode.
218 The sequence of modes that are tried can be set with the
219 --default-modes option. Useful for restoring the
220 default mode when a different mode was specified before.
221 dvi Display formatted input in a dvi viewer program. By de‐
223 fault, the formatted input is displayed with the xdvi(1)
224 program. --dvi.
225 groff After the file determination, switch groffer to process
227 the input like groff(1) would do. This disables the
228 groffer viewing features.
229 html Translate the input into html format and display the re‐
231 sult in a web browser program. By default, the existence
232 of a sequence of standard web browsers is tested, start‐
233 ing with konqueror(1) and mozilla(1). The text html
234 viewer is lynx(1).
235 pdf Display formatted input in a PDF (Portable Document For‐
237 mat) viewer program. By default, the input is formatted
238 by groff using the Postscript device, then it is trans‐
239 formed into the PDF file format using gs(1), or
240 ps2pdf(1). If that's not possible, the Postscript mode
241 (ps) is used instead. Finally it is displayed using dif‐
242 ferent viewer programs. pdf has a big advantage because
243 the text is displayed graphically and is searchable as
244 well.
245 ps Display formatted input in a Postscript viewer program.
247 By default, the formatted input is displayed in one of
248 many viewer programs.
249 text Format in a groff text mode and write the result to stan‐
251 dard output without a pager or viewer program. The text
252 device, latin1 by default, can be chosen with option -T.
253 tty Format in a groff text mode and write the result to stan‐
255 dard output using a text pager program, even when in
256 X Window.
257 www Equivalent to --mode=html.
259 x Display the formatted input in a native roff viewer. By
261 default, the formatted input is displayed with the
262 gxditview(1) program being distributed together with
263 groff. But the standard X Window tool xditview(1) can
264 also be chosen with the option --x-viewer. The default
265 resolution is 75 dpi, but 100 dpi are also possible. The
266 default groff device for the resolution of 75 dpi is
267 X75-12, for 100 dpi it is X100. The corresponding groff
268 intermediate output for the actual device is generated
269 and the result is displayed. For a resolution of
270 100 dpi, the default width of the geometry of the display
271 program is chosen to 850 dpi.
272 X Equivalent to --mode=x.
274 The following modes do not use the groffer viewing features.
276 They are only interesting for advanced applications.
277 groff Generate device output with plain groff without using the
279 special viewing features of groffer. If no device was
280 specified by option -T the groff default ps is assumed.
281 source Output the roff source code of the input files without
283 further processing.
284 --pdf Equivalent to --mode=pdf.
286 --pdf-viewer prog
288 Choose a viewer program for pdf mode. This can be a file name
289 or a program to be searched in $PATH; arguments can be provided
290 additionally.
291 --ps Equivalent to --mode=ps.
293 --ps-viewer prog
295 Choose a viewer program for ps mode. This can be a file name or
296 a program to be searched in $PATH. Common Postscript viewers
297 inlude gv(1), ghostview(1), and gs(1), In each case, arguments
298 can be provided additionally.
299 --source
301 Equivalent --mode=source.
302 --text Equivalent to --mode=text.
304 --to-stdout
306 The file for the chosen mode is generated and its content is
307 printed to standard output. It will not be displayed in graphi‐
308 cal mode.
309 --tty Equivalent to --mode=tty.
311 --tty-viewer prog
313 Choose a text pager for mode tty. The standard pager is
314 less(1). This option is eqivalent to man option --pager=prog.
315 The option argument can be a file name or a program to be
316 searched in $PATH; arguments can be provided additionally.
317 --www Equivalent to --mode=html.
319 --www-viewer prog
321 Equivalent to --html-viewer.
322 --X | --x
324 Equivalent to --mode=x.
325 --X-viewer | --x-viewer prog
327 Choose a viewer program for x mode. Suitable viewer programs
328 are gxditview(1) which is the default and xditview(1). The ar‐
329 gument can be any executable file or a program in $PATH; argu‐
330 ments can be provided additionally.
331 -- Signals the end of option processing; all remaining arguments
333 are interpreted as filespec parameters.
334 Besides these, groffer accepts all short options that are valid for the
336 groff(1) program. All non-groffer options are sent unmodified via grog
337 to groff. So postprocessors, macro packages, compatibility with clas‐
338 sical troff, and much more can be manually specified.
339 Options related to groff
341 All short options of groffer are compatible with the short options of
342 groff(1). The following of groff options have either an additional
343 special meaning within groffer or make sense for normal usage.
344 Because of the special outputting behavior of the groff option -Z
346 groffer was designed to be switched into groff mode ; the groffer view‐
347 ing features are disabled there. The other groff options do not switch
348 the mode, but allow to customize the formatting process.
349 -a This generates an ascii approximation of output in the
351 text modes. That could be important when the text pager has
352 problems with control sequences in tty mode.
353 -m file
355 Add file as a groff macro file. This is useful in case it can‐
356 not be recognized automatically.
357 -P opt_or_arg
359 Send the argument opt_or_arg as an option or option argument to
360 the actual groff postprocessor.
361 -T | --device devname
363 This option determines groff's output device. The most impor‐
364 tant devices are the text output devices for referring to the
365 different character sets, such as ascii, utf8, latin1, and oth‐
366 ers. Each of these arguments switches groffer into a text mode
367 using this device, to mode tty if the actual mode is not a
368 text mode. The following devname arguments are mapped to the
369 corresponding groffer --mode=devname option: dvi, html, and ps.
370 All X* arguments are mapped to mode x. Each other devname argu‐
371 ment switches to mode groff using this device.
372 -X is equivalent to groff -X. It displays the groff intermediate
374 output with gxditview. As the quality is relatively bad this
375 option is deprecated; use --X instead because the x mode uses an
376 X* device for a better display.
377 -Z | --intermediate-output | --ditroff
379 Switch into groff mode and format the input with the groff in‐
380 termediate output without postprocessing; see groff_out(5).
381 This is equivalent to option --ditroff of man, which can be used
382 as well.
383 All other groff options are supported by groffer, but they are just
385 transparently transferred to groff without any intervention. The op‐
386 tions that are not explicitly handled by groffer are transparently
387 passed to groff. Therefore these transparent options are not document‐
388 ed here, but in groff(1). Due to the automatism in groffer, none of
389 these groff options should be needed, except for advanced usage.
390 Options for man pages
392 --apropos
393 Start the apropos(1) command or facility of man(1) for searching
394 the filespec arguments within all man page descriptions. Each
395 filespec argument is taken for search as it is; section specific
396 parts are not handled, such that 7 groff searches for the two
397 arguments 7 and groff, with a large result; for the filespec
398 groff.7 nothing will be found. The language locale is handled
399 only when the called programs do support this; the GNU apropos
400 and man -k do not. The display differs from the apropos program
401 by the following concepts:
402 · Construct a groff frame similar to a man page to the output of
404 apropos,
405 · each filespec argument is searched on its own.
407 · The restriction by --sections is handled as well,
409 · wildcard characters are allowed and handled without a further
411 option.
412 --apropos-data
414 Show only the apropos descriptions for data documents, these are
415 the man(7) sections 4, 5, and 7. Direct section declarations
416 are ignored, wildcards are accepted.
417 --apropos-devel
419 Show only the apropos descriptions for development documents,
420 these are the man(7) sections 2, 3, and 9. Direct section dec‐
421 larations are ignored, wildcards are accepted.
422 --apropos-progs
424 Show only the apropos descriptions for documents on programs,
425 these are the man(7) sections 1, 6, and 8. Direct section dec‐
426 larations are ignored, wildcards are accepted.
427 --whatis
429 For each filespec argument search all man pages and display
430 their description — or say that it is not a man page. This is
431 written from anew, so it differs from man's whatis output by the
432 following concepts
433 · each retrieved file name is added,
435 · local files are handled as well,
437 · the language and system locale is supported,
439 · the display is framed by a groff output format similar to a
441 man page,
442 · wildcard characters are allowed without a further option.
444 The following options were added to groffer for choosing whether the
446 file name arguments are interpreted as names for local files or as a
447 search pattern for man pages. The default is looking up for local
448 files.
449 --man Check the non-option command line arguments (filespecs) first on
451 being man pages, then whether they represent an existing file.
452 By default, a filespec is first tested whether it is an existing
453 file.
454 --no-man | --local-file
456 Do not check for man pages. --local-file is the corresponding
457 man option.
458 --no-special
460 Disable former calls of --all, --apropos*, and --whatis.
461 Long options taken over from GNU man
463 The long options of groffer were synchronized with the long options of
464 GNU man. All long options of GNU man are recognized, but not all of
465 these options are important to groffer, so most of them are just ig‐
466 nored. These ignored man options are --catman, --troff, and --update.
467 In the following, the man options that have a special meaning for
469 groffer are documented.
470 If your system has GNU man installed the full set of long and short op‐
472 tions of the GNU man program can be passed via the environment variable
473 $MANOPT; see man(1).
474 --all In searching man pages, retrieve all suitable documents instead
476 of only one.
477 -7 | --ascii
479 In text modes, display ASCII translation of special characters
480 for critical environment. This is equivalent to groff -mt‐
481 ty_char; see groff_tmac(5).
482 --ditroff
484 Produce groff intermediate output. This is equivalent to
485 groffer -Z.
486 --extension suffix
488 Restrict man page search to file names that have suffix appended
489 to their section element. For example, in the file name
490 /usr/share/man/man3/terminfo.3ncurses.gz the man page extension
491 is ncurses.
492 --locale language
494 Set the language for man pages. This has the same effect, but
495 overwrites $LANG
496 --location
498 Print the location of the retrieved files to standard error.
499 --no-location
501 Do not display the location of retrieved files; this resets a
502 former call to --location. This was added by groffer.
503 --manpath 'dir1:dir2:...'
505 Use the specified search path for retrieving man pages instead
506 of the program defaults. If the argument is set to the empty
507 string "" the search for man page is disabled.
508 --pager
510 Set the pager program in tty mode; default is less. This is
511 equivalent to --tty-viewer.
512 --sections 'sec1:sec2:...'
514 Restrict searching for man pages to the given sections, a colon-
515 separated list.
516 --systems 'sys1,sys2,...'
518 Search for man pages for the given operating systems; the argu‐
519 ment systems is a comma-separated list.
520 --where
522 Eqivalent to --location.
523 X Window Toolkit Options
525 The following long options were adapted from the corresponding
526 X Window Toolkit options. groffer will pass them to the actual viewer
527 program if it is an X Window program. Otherwise these options are ig‐
528 nored.
529 Unfortunately these options use the old style of a single minus for
531 long options. For groffer that was changed to the standard with using
532 a double minus for long options, for example, groffer uses the option
533 --font for the X Window option -font.
534 See X(1), X(7), and the documentation on the X Window Toolkit options
536 for more details on these options and their arguments.
537 --background color
539 Set the background color of the viewer window.
540 --bd pixels
542 This is equivalent to --bordercolor.
543 --bg color
545 This is equivalent to --background.
546 --bw pixels
548 This is equivalent to --borderwidth.
549 --bordercolor pixels
551 Specifies the color of the border surrounding the viewer window.
552 --borderwidth pixels
554 Specifies the width in pixels of the border surrounding the
555 viewer window.
556 --display X-display
558 Set the X Window display on which the viewer program shall be
559 started, see the X Window documentation for the syntax of the
560 argument.
561 --foreground color
563 Set the foreground color of the viewer window.
564 --fg color
566 This is equivalent to -foreground.
567 --fn font_name
569 This is equivalent to --font.
570 --font font_name
572 Set the font used by the viewer window. The argument is an
573 X Window font name.
574 --ft font_name
576 This is equivalent to --font.
577 --geometry size_pos
579 Set the geometry of the display window, that means its size and
580 its starting position. See X(7) for the syntax of the argument.
581 --resolution value
583 Set X Window resolution in dpi (dots per inch) in some viewer
584 programs. The only supported dpi values are 75 and 100. Actu‐
585 ally, the default resolution for groffer is set to 75 dpi. The
586 resolution also sets the default device in mode x.
587 --rv Reverse foreground and background color of the viewer window.
589 --title 'some text'
591 Set the title for the viewer window.
592 --xrm 'resource'
594 Set X Window resource.
595 Options for Development
597 --debug
598 Enable seven debugging informations. The temporary files are
599 kept and not deleted, the name of the temporary directory and
600 the shell name for groffer2.sh are printed, the displayed file
601 names are printed, the parameters are printed at several steps
602 of development, and a function stack is output with function er‐
603 ror_user() as well. Neither the function call stack at the
604 opening and closing of each function call nor the landmark in‐
605 formation to determine how far the program is running are print‐
606 ed. These seem to be the most useful parts among all debugging
607 options.
608 --debug-all
610 Enable all nine debugging informations including the function
611 call stack and the landmark information.
612 --debug-filenames
614 Print the names of the files and man pages that are displayed by
615 groffer.
616 --debug-func
618 Enable the basic debugging information for checking the func‐
619 tions on the beginning and end of each call. The options
620 --debug-stacks and --debug-user enable this option automatical‐
621 ly. This option is important for the development, but it de‐
622 creases the speed of groffer by large amounts.
623 --debug-keep
625 Enable two debugging informations, the printing of the name of
626 the temporary directory and the keeping of the temporary files.
627 --debug-lm
629 Enable one debugging information, the landmark information.
630 --debug-params
632 Enable one debugging information, the parameters at several
633 steps.
634 --debug-shell
636 Enable one debugging information, the shell name for
637 groffer2.sh.
638 --debug-stacks
640 Enable one debugging information, the function call stack.
641 --debug-tmpdir
643 Enable one debugging information, the name of the temporary di‐
644 rectory.
645 --debug-user
647 Enable one debugging information, the function stack with er‐
648 ror_user().
649 --do-nothing
651 This is like --version, but without the output; no viewer is
652 started. This makes only sense in development.
653 --print=text
655 Just print the argument to standard error. This is good for pa‐
656 rameter check.
657 --shell shell_program
659 Specify the shell under which the groffer2.sh script should be
660 run. This option overwrites the automatic shell determination
661 of the program. If the argument shell_program is empty a former
662 shell option and the automatic shell determination is cancelled
663 and the default shell is restored. Some shells run considerably
664 faster than the standard shell.
665 -V This is an advanced option for debugging only. Instead of dis‐
667 playing the formatted input, a lot of groffer specific informa‐
668 tion is printed to standard output:
669 · the output file name in the temporary directory,
671 · the display mode of the actual groffer run,
673 · the display program for viewing the output with its arguments,
675 · the active parameters from the config files, the arguments in
677 $GROFFER_OPT, and the arguments of the command line,
678 · the pipeline that would be run by the groff program, but with‐
680 out executing it.
681 Other useful debugging options are the groff option -Z and
683 --mode=groff.
684 Filespec Arguments
686 A filespec parameter is an argument that is not an option or option ar‐
687 gument. In groffer, filespec parameters are a file name or a template
688 for searching man pages. These input sources are collected and com‐
689 posed into a single output file such as groff does.
690 The strange POSIX behavior to regard all arguments behind the first
692 non-option argument as filespec arguments is ignored. The GNU behavior
693 to recognize options even when mixed with filespec arguments is used
694 througout. But, as usual, the double minus argument -- ends the option
695 handling and interprets all following arguments as filespec arguments;
696 so the POSIX behavior can be easily adopted.
697 The options have a special handling of filespec arguments. Each argu‐
699 ment is taken as a search scheme of its own. Also a regexp (regular
700 expression) can be used in the filespec. For example, groffer --apro‐
701 pos '^gro.f$' searches groff in the man page name, while groffer
702 --apropos groff searches groff somewhere in the name or description of
703 the man pages.
704 All other parts of groffer, such as the normal display or the output
706 with have a different scheme for filespecs. No regular expressions are
707 used for the arguments. The filespec arguments are handled by the fol‐
708 lowing scheme.
709 It is necessary to know that on each system the man pages are sorted
711 according to their content into several sections. The classical man
712 sections have a single-character name, either a digit from 1 to 9 or
713 one of the characters n or o.
714 This can optionally be followed by a string, the so-called extension.
716 The extension allows to store several man pages with the same name in
717 the same section. But the extension is only rarely used, usually it is
718 omitted. Then the extensions are searched automatically by alphabet.
719 In the following, we use the name section_extension for a word that
721 consists of a single character section name or a section character that
722 is followed by an extension. Each filespec parameter can have one of
723 the following forms in decreasing sequence.
724 · No filespec parameters means that groffer waits for standard input.
726 The minus option - always stands for standard input; it can occur
727 several times. If you want to look up a man page called - use the
728 argument man:-.
729 · Next a filespec is tested whether it is the path name of an existing
731 file. Otherwise it is assumed to be a searching pattern for a
732 man page.
733 · man:name(section_extension), man:name.section_extension,
735 name(section_extension), or name.section_extension search the
736 man page name in man section and possibly extension of
737 section_extension.
738 · Now man:name searches for a man page in the lowest man section that
740 has a document called name.
741 · section_extension name is a pattern of 2 arguments that originates
743 from a strange argument parsing of the man program. Again, this
744 searches the man page name with section_extension, a combination of a
745 section character optionally followed by an extension.
746 · We are left with the argument name which is not an existing file. So
748 this searches for the man page called name in the lowest man section
749 that has a document for this name.
750 Several file name arguments can be supplied. They are mixed by groff
752 into a single document. Note that the set of option arguments must fit
753 to all of these file arguments. So they should have at least the same
754 style of the groff language.
755
757 By default, the groffer program collects all input into a single file,
758 formats it with the groff program for a certain device, and then choos‐
759 es a suitable viewer program. The device and viewer process in groffer
760 is called a mode. The mode and viewer of a running groffer program is
761 selected automatically, but the user can also choose it with options.
762 The modes are selected by option the arguments of --mode=anymode. Ad‐
763 ditionally, each of this argument can be specified as an option of its
764 own, such as --anymode. Most of these modes have a viewer program,
765 which can be chosen by an option that is constructed like
766 --anymode-viewer.
767 Several different modes are offered, graphical modes for X Window,
769 text modes, and some direct groff modes for debugging and development.
770 By default, groffer first tries whether x mode is possible, then
772 ps mode, and finally tty mode. This mode testing sequence for
773 auto mode can be changed by specifying a comma separated list of modes
774 with the option --default-modes.
775 The searching for man pages and the decompression of the input are ac‐
777 tive in every mode.
778 Graphical Display Modes
780 The graphical display modes work mostly in the X Window environment (or
781 similar implementations within other windowing environments). The en‐
782 vironment variable $DISPLAY and the option --display are used for spec‐
783 ifying the X Window display to be used. If this environment variable
784 is empty groffer assumes that no X Window is running and changes to a
785 text mode. You can change this automatic behavior by the option
786 --default-modes.
787 Known viewers for the graphical display modes and their standard
789 X Window viewer progams are
790 · in a PDF viewer (pdf mode),
792 · in a web browser (html or www mode).
794 · in a Postscript viewer (ps mode),
796 · X Window roff viewers such as gxditview(1) or xditview(1) (in
798 x mode),
799 · in a dvi viewer program (dvi mode),
801 The pdf mode has a major advantage — it is the only graphical diplay
803 mode that allows to search for text within the viewer; this can be a
804 really important feature. Unfortunately, it takes some time to trans‐
805 form the input into the PDF format, so it was not chosen as the major
806 mode.
807 These graphical viewers can be customized by options of the
809 X Window Toolkit. But the groffer options use a leading double minus
810 instead of the single minus used by the X Window Toolkit.
811 Text modes
813 There are two modes for text output, mode text for plain output without
814 a pager and mode tty for a text output on a text terminal using some
815 pager program.
816 If the variable $DISPLAY is not set or empty, groffer assumes that it
818 should use tty mode.
819 In the actual implementation, the groff output device latin1 is chosen
821 for text modes. This can be changed by specifying option -T or
822 --device.
823 The pager to be used can be specified by one of the options --pager and
825 --tty-viewer, or by the environment variable $PAGER. If all of this is
826 not used the less(1) program with the option -r for correctly display‐
827 ing control sequences is used as the default pager.
828 Special Modes for Debugging and Development
830 These modes use the groffer file determination and decompression. This
831 is combined into a single input file that is fed directly into groff
832 with different strategy without the groffer viewing facilities. These
833 modes are regarded as advanced, they are useful for debugging and de‐
834 velopment purposes.
835 The source mode with option --source just displays the decompressed in‐
837 put.
838 Otion --to-stdout does not display in a graphical mode. It just gener‐
840 ates the file for the chosen mode and then prints its content to stan‐
841 dard output.
842 The groff mode passes the input to groff using only some suitable op‐
844 tions provided to groffer. This enables the user to save the generated
845 output into a file or pipe it into another program.
846 In groff mode, the option -Z disables post-processing, thus producing
848 the groff intermediate output. In this mode, the input is formatted,
849 but not postprocessed; see groff_out(5) for details.
850 All groff short options are supported by groffer.
852
854 The default behavior of groffer is to first test whether a file parame‐
855 ter represents a local file; if it is not an existing file name, it is
856 assumed to represent the name of a man page. The following options can
857 be used to determine whether the arguments should be handled as file
858 name or man page arguments.
859 --man forces to interpret all file parameters as filespecs for search‐
861 ing man pages.
862 --no-man
864 --local-file
865 disable the man searching; so only local files are displayed.
866 If neither a local file nor a man page was retrieved for some file pa‐
868 rameter a warning is issued on standard error, but processing is con‐
869 tinued.
870 Search Algoritm
872 Let us now assume that a man page should be searched. The groffer pro‐
873 gram provides a search facility for man pages. All long options, all
874 environment variables, and most of the functionality of the GNU man(1)
875 program were implemented. The search algorithm shall determine which
876 file is displayed for a given man page. The process can be modified by
877 options and environment variables.
878 The only man action that is omitted in groffer are the preformatted
880 man pages, also called cat pages. With the excellent performance of
881 the actual computers, the preformatted man pages aren't necessary any
882 longer. Additionally, groffer is a roff program; it wants to read roff
883 source files and format them itself.
884 The algorithm for retrieving the file for a man page needs first a set
886 of directories. This set starts with the so-called man path that is
887 modified later on by adding names of operating system and language.
888 This arising set is used for adding the section directories which con‐
889 tain the man page files.
890 The man path is a list of directories that are separated by colon. It
892 is generated by the following methods.
893 · The environment variable $MANPATH can be set.
895 · It can be read from the arguments of the environment variable
897 $MANOPT.
898 · The man path can be manually specified by using the option --manpath.
900 An empty argument disables the man page searching.
901 · When no man path was set the manpath(1) program is tried to determine
903 one.
904 · If this does not work a reasonable default path from $PATH is deter‐
906 mined.
907 We now have a starting set of directories. The first way to change
909 this set is by adding names of operating systems. This assumes that
910 man pages for several operating systems are installed. This is not al‐
911 ways true. The names of such operating systems can be provided by 3
912 methods.
913 · The environment variable $SYSTEM has the lowest precedence.
915 · This can be overridden by an option in $MANOPT.
917 · This again is overridden by the command line option --systems.
919 Several names of operating systems can be given by appending their
921 names, separated by a comma.
922 The man path is changed by appending each system name as subdirectory
924 at the end of each directory of the set. No directory of the man path
925 set is kept. But if no system name is specified the man path is left
926 unchanged.
927 After this, the actual set of directories can be changed by language
929 information. This assumes that there exist man pages in different lan‐
930 guages. The wanted language can be chosen by several methods.
931 · Enviroment variable $LANG.
933 · This is overridden by $LC_MESSAGES.
935 · This is overridden by $LC_ALL.
937 · This can be overridden by providing an option in $MANOPT.
939 · All these environment variables are overridden by the command line
941 option --locale.
942 The default language can be specified by specifying one of the pseudo-
944 language parameters C or POSIX. This is like deleting a formerly given
945 language information. The man pages in the default language are usual‐
946 ly in English.
947 Of course, the language name is determined by man. In GNU man, it is
949 specified in the POSIX 1003.1 based format:
950 <language>[_<territory>[.<character-set>[,<version>]]],
952 but the two-letter code in <language> is sufficient for most purposes.
954 If for a complicated language formulation no man pages are found
955 groffer searches the country part consisting of these first two charac‐
956 ters as well.
957 The actual directory set is copied thrice. The language name is ap‐
959 pended as subdirectory to each directory in the first copy of the actu‐
960 al directory set (this is only done when a language information is giv‐
961 en). Then the 2-letter abbreviation of the language name is appended
962 as subdirectories to the second copy of the directory set (this is only
963 done when the given language name has more than 2 letters). The third
964 copy of the directory set is kept unchanged (if no language information
965 is given this is the kept directory set). These maximally 3 copies are
966 appended to get the new directory set.
967 We now have a complete set of directories to work with. In each of
969 these directories, the man files are separated in sections. The name
970 of a section is represented by a single character, a digit between 1
971 and 9, or the character o or n, in this order.
972 For each available section, a subdirectory man<section> exists contain‐
974 ing all man files for this section, where <section> is a single charac‐
975 ter as described before. Each man file in a section directory has the
976 form man<section>/<name>.<section>[<extension>][.<compression>], where
977 <extension> and <compression> are optional. <name> is the name of the
978 man page that is also specified as filespec argument on the command
979 line.
980 The extension is an addition to the section. This postfix acts like a
982 subsection. An extension occurs only in the file name, not in name of
983 the section subdirectory. It can be specified on the command line.
984 On the other hand, the compression is just an information on how the
986 file is compressed. This is not important for the user, such that it
987 cannot be specified on the command line.
988 There are 4 methods to specify a section on the command line:
990 · Environment variable $MANSECT
992 · Command line option --sections
994 · Appendix to the name argument in the form <name>.<section>
996 · Preargument before the name argument in the form <section> <name>
998 It is also possible to specify several sections by appending the single
1000 characters separated by colons. One can imagine that this means to re‐
1001 strict the man page search to only some sections. The multiple sec‐
1002 tions are only possible for $MANSECT and --sections.
1003 If no section is specified all sections are searched one after the oth‐
1005 er in the given order, starting with section 1, until a suitable file
1006 is found.
1007 There are 4 methods to specify an extension on the command line. But
1009 it is not necessary to provide the whole extension name, some abbrevia‐
1010 tion is good enough in most cases.
1011 · Environment variable $EXTENSION
1013 · Command line option --extension
1015 · Appendix to the <name>.<section> argument in the form <name>.<sec‐
1017 tion><extension>
1018 · Preargument before the name argument in the form <section><extension>
1020 <name>
1021 For further details on man page searching, see man(1).
1023 Examples of man files
1025 /usr/share/man/man1/groff.1
1026 This is an uncompressed file for the man page groff in sec‐
1027 tion 1. It can be called by
1028 sh# groffer groff
1029 No section is specified here, so all sections should be
1030 searched, but as section 1 is searched first this file will be
1031 found first. The file name is composed of the following compo‐
1032 nents. /usr/share/man must be part of the man path; the subdi‐
1033 rectory man1/ and the part .1 stand for the section; groff is
1034 the name of the man page.
1035 /usr/local/share/man/man7/groff.7.gz
1037 The file name is composed of the following components.
1038 /usr/local/share/man must be part of the man path; the subdirec‐
1039 tory man7/ and the part .7 stand for the section; groff is the
1040 name of the man page; the final part .gz stands for a compres‐
1041 sion with gzip(1). As the section is not the first one it must
1042 be specified as well. This can be done by one of the following
1043 commands.
1044 sh# groffer groff.7
1045 sh# groffer 7 groff
1046 sh# groffer --sections=7 groff
1047 /usr/local/man/man1/ctags.1emacs21.bz2
1049 Here /usr/local/man must be in man path; the subdirectory man1/
1050 and the file name part .1 stand for section 1; the name of the
1051 man page is ctags; the section has an extension emacs21; and the
1052 file is compressed as .bz2 with bzip2(1). The file can be
1053 viewed with one of the following commands
1054 sh# groffer ctags.1e
1055 sh# groffer 1e ctags
1056 sh# groffer --extension=e --sections=1 ctags
1057 where e works as an abbreviation for the extension emacs21.
1058 /usr/man/linux/de/man7/man.7.Z
1060 The directory /usr/man is now part of the man path; then there
1061 is a subdirectory for an operating system name linux/; next
1062 comes a subdirectory de/ for the German language; the section
1063 names man7 and .7 are known so far; man is the name of the
1064 man page; and .Z signifies the compression that can be handled
1065 by gzip(1). We want now show how to provide several values for
1066 some options. That is possible for sections and operating sys‐
1067 tem names. So we use as sections 5 and 7 and as system names
1068 linux and aix. The command is then
1069 sh# groffer --locale=de --sections=5:7 --systems=linux,aix man
1070 sh# LANG=de MANSECT=5:7 SYSTEM=linux,aix groffer man
1071
1073 The program has a decompression facility. If standard input or a file
1074 that was retrieved from the command line parameters is compressed with
1075 a format that is supported by either gzip(1) or bzip2(1) it is decom‐
1076 pressed on-the-fly. This includes the GNU .gz, .bz2, and the tradi‐
1077 tional .Z compression. The program displays the concatenation of all
1078 decompressed input in the sequence that was specified on the command
1079 line.
1080
1082 The groffer program supports many system variables, most of them by
1083 courtesy of other programs. All environment variables of groff(1) and
1084 GNU man(1) and some standard system variables are honored.
1085 Native groffer Variables
1087 $GROFFER_OPT
1088 Store options for a run of groffer. The options specified in
1089 this variable are overridden by the options given on the command
1090 line. The content of this variable is run through the shell
1091 builtin `eval'; so arguments containing white-space or special
1092 shell characters should be quoted. Do not forget to export this
1093 variable, otherwise it does not exist during the run of groffer.
1094 System Variables
1096 The groffer program is a shell script that is run through /bin/sh,
1097 which can be internally linked to programs like bash(1). The corre‐
1098 sponding system environment is automatically effective. The following
1099 variables have a special meaning for groffer.
1100 $DISPLAY
1102 If this variable is set this indicates that the X Window system
1103 is running. Testing this variable decides on whether graphical
1104 or text output is generated. This variable should not be
1105 changed by the user carelessly, but it can be used to start the
1106 graphical groffer on a remote X Window terminal. For example,
1107 depending on your system, groffer can be started on the second
1108 monitor by the command
1109 sh# DISPLAY=:0.1 groffer what.ever&
1110 $LC_ALL
1112 $LC_MESSAGES
1113 $LANG If one of these variables is set (in the above sequence), its
1114 content is interpreted as the locale, the language to be used,
1115 especially when retrieving IR man pages . A locale name is typ‐
1116 ically of the form language[_territory[.codeset[@modifier]]],
1117 where language is an ISO 639 language code, territory is an ISO
1118 3166 country code, and codeset is a character set or encoding
1119 identifier like ISO-8859-1 or UTF-8; see setlocale(3). The lo‐
1120 cale values C and POSIX stand for the default, i.e. the man page
1121 directories without a language prefix. This is the same behav‐
1122 ior as when all 3 variables are unset.
1123 $PAGER This variable can be used to set the pager for the tty output.
1125 For example, to disable the use of a pager completely set this
1126 variable to the cat(1) program
1127 sh# PAGER=cat groffer anything
1128 $PATH All programs within the groffer shell script are called without
1130 a fixed path. Thus this environment variable determines the set
1131 of programs used within the run of groffer.
1132 Groff Variables
1134 The groffer program internally calls groff, so all environment vari‐
1135 ables documented in groff(1) are internally used within groffer as
1136 well. The following variable has a direct meaning for the groffer pro‐
1137 gram.
1138 $GROFF_TMPDIR
1140 If the value of this variable is an existing, writable directo‐
1141 ry, groffer uses it for storing its temporary files, just as
1142 groff does.
1143 Man Variables
1145 Parts of the functionality of the man program were implemented in
1146 groffer; support for all environment variables documented in man(1) was
1147 added to groffer, but the meaning was slightly modified due to the dif‐
1148 ferent approach in groffer; but the user interface is the same. The
1149 man environment variables can be overwritten by options provided with
1150 $MANOPT, which in turn is overwritten by the command line.
1151 $EXTENSION
1153 Restrict the search for man pages to files having this exten‐
1154 sion. This is overridden by option --extension; see there for
1155 details.
1156 $MANOPT
1158 This variable contains options as a preset for man(1). As not
1159 all of these are relevant for groffer only the essential parts
1160 of its value are extracted. The options specified in this vari‐
1161 able overwrite the values of the other environment variables
1162 that are specific to man. All options specified in this vari‐
1163 able are overridden by the options given on the command line.
1164 $MANPATH
1166 If set, this variable contains the directories in which the
1167 man page trees are stored. This is overridden by option
1168 --manpath.
1169 $MANSECT
1171 If this is a colon separated list of section names, the search
1172 for man pages is restricted to those manual sections in that or‐
1173 der. This is overridden by option --sections.
1174 $SYSTEM
1176 If this is set to a comma separated list of names these are in‐
1177 terpreted as man page trees for different operating systems.
1178 This variable can be overwritten by option --systems; see there
1179 for details.
1180 The environment variable $MANROFFSEQ is ignored by groffer because the
1182 necessary preprocessors are determined automatically.
1183
1185 The groffer program can be preconfigured by two configuration files.
1186 /etc/groff/groffer.conf
1188 System-wide configuration file for groffer.
1189 $HOME/.groff/groffer.conf
1191 User-specific configuration file for groffer, where $HOME de‐
1192 notes the user's home directory. This file is called after the
1193 system-wide configuration file to enable overriding by the user.
1194 Both files are handled for the configuration, but the configuration
1196 file in /etc comes first; it is overwritten by the configuration file
1197 in the home directory; both configuration files are overwritten by the
1198 environment variable $GROFFER_OPT; everything is overwritten by the
1199 command line arguments.
1200 In the configuration files, arbitrary spaces are allowed at the begin‐
1202 ning of each line, they are just ignored. Apart from that, the lines
1203 of the configuration lines either start with a minus character, all
1204 other lines are interpreted as shell commands.
1205 The lines with the beginning minus are interpreted as groffer options.
1207 This easily allows to set general groffer options that should be used
1208 with any call of groffer.
1209 If a lines starts with a double minus it represents a groffer long op‐
1211 tion; everything behind the first equal sign `=' or space character up
1212 to the end of the line is interpreted as its argument. A line starting
1213 with a single minus represents a short options cluster with or without
1214 a final argument. It is not necessary to use quotes in these lines;
1215 quotes are just ignored.
1216 The lines starting with a minus are changed into a prepend to the ex‐
1218 isting value of $GROFFER_OPT. So the configuration files will be
1219 transferred into a shell script that is called within groffer.
1220 It makes sense to use these configuration files for the following
1222 tasks:
1223 · Preset command line options, such as choosing a mode or a viewer.
1225 These are written into lines starting with a single or double minus
1226 sign, followed by the option name.
1227 · Preset environment variables recognized by groffer; but do not forget
1229 to export them.
1230 · You can also write a shell function for calling, for example a viewer
1232 program for some mode. Such a function can be fed into a correspond‐
1233 ing --mode-viewer option.
1234 · Enter --shell to specify a shell for the run of groffer2.sh. Some
1236 shells run much faster than the standard shell.
1237 As an example, consider the following configuration file in
1239 ~/.groff/groffer.conf, say.
1240 # groffer configuration file
1242 #
1243 # groffer options that are used in each call of groffer
1244 --shell=ksh
1245 --foreground=DarkBlue
1246 --resolution=100
1247 --x-viewer=gxditview -geometry 900x1200
1248 #
1249 # some shell commands
1250 if test "$DISPLAY" = ""; then
1251 export DISPLAY='localhost:0.0'
1252 fi
1253 date >>~/mygroffer.log
1254 The lines starting with # are command lines. This configuration sets
1256 four groffer options (the lines starting with `-') and runs two shell
1257 commands (the rest of the script). This has the following effects:
1258 · Use ksh as the shell to run the groffer script; if it works it should
1260 be faster than the usual sh.
1261 · Use a text color of DarkBlue in all viewers that support this, such
1263 as gxditview.
1264 · Use a resolution of 100 dpi in all viewers that support this, such as
1266 gxditview. By this, the default device in x mode is set to X100.
1267 · Force gxditview(1) as the x-mode viewer using the geometry option for
1269 setting the width to 900 dpi and the height to 1200 dpi. This geome‐
1270 try is suitable for a resolution of 100 dpi.
1271 · If the environment variable $DISPLAY is empty set it to local‐
1273 host:0.0. That allows to start groffer in the standard X Window dis‐
1274 play, even when the program is called from a text console.
1275 · Just for fun, the date of each groffer start is written to the file
1277 mygroffer.log in the home directory.
1278
1280 The usage of groffer is very easy. Usually, it is just called with a
1281 file name or man page. The following examples, however, show that
1282 groffer has much more fancy capabilities.
1283 sh# groffer /usr/local/share/doc/groff/meintro.ms.gz
1285 Decompress, format and display the compressed file meintro.ms.gz
1286 in the directory /usr/local/share/doc/groff, using the standard
1287 viewer gxditview as graphical viewer when in X Window, or the
1288 less(1) pager program when not in X Window.
1289 sh# groffer groff
1291 If the file ./groff exists use it as input. Otherwise interpret
1292 the argument as a search for the man page named groff in the
1293 smallest possible man section, being section 1 in this case.
1294 sh# groffer man:groff
1296 search for the man page of groff even when the file ./groff ex‐
1297 ists.
1298 sh# groffer groff.7
1300 sh# groffer 7 groff
1301 search the man page of groff in man section 7. This section
1302 search works only for a digit or a single character from a small
1303 set.
1304 sh# groffer fb.modes
1306 If the file ./fb.modes does not exist interpret this as a search
1307 for the man page of fb.modes. As the extension modes is not a
1308 single character in classical section style the argument is not
1309 split to a search for fb.
1310 sh# groffer groff ’troff(1)’ man:roff
1312 The arguments that are not existing files are looked-up as the
1313 following man pages: groff (automatic search, should be found in
1314 man section 1), troff (in section 1), and roff (in the section
1315 with the lowest number, being 7 in this case). The quotes
1316 around ’troff(1)’ are necessary because the paranthesis are spe‐
1317 cial shell characters; escaping them with a backslash character
1318 \( and \) would be possible, too. The formatted files are con‐
1319 catenated and displayed in one piece.
1320 sh# LANG=de groffer --man --www --www-viever=galeon ls
1322 Retrieve the German man page (language de) for the ls program,
1323 decompress it, format it to html format (www mode) and view the
1324 result in the web browser galeon. The option --man guarantees
1325 that the man page is retrieved, even when a local file ls exists
1326 in the actual directory.
1327 sh# groffer --source 'man:roff(7)'
1329 Get the man page called roff in man section 7, decompress it,
1330 and print its unformatted content, its source code.
1331 sh# groffer --de-p --in --ap
1333 This is a set of abbreviated arguments, it is determined as
1334 sh# groffer --debug-params --intermediate-output --apropos
1335 sh# cat file.gz | groffer -Z -mfoo
1337 The file file.gz is sent to standard input, this is decom‐
1338 pressed, and then this is transported to the groff intermediate
1339 output mode without post-processing (groff option -Z), using
1340 macro package foo (groff option -m)
1341 sh# echo '\f[CB]WOW!' |
1343 > groffer --x --bg red --fg yellow --geometry 200x100 -
1344 Display the word WOW! in a small window in constant-width bold
1345 font, using color yellow on red background.
1346
1348 The groffer program consists of two shell scripts.
1349 The starting script is the file groffer that is installed in a bin di‐
1351 rectory. It is generated from the source file groffer.sh. It is just
1352 a short starting script without any functions such that it can run on
1353 very poor shells.
1354 The main part of the groffer program is the file groffer2.sh that is
1356 installed in the groff library directory. This script can be run under
1357 a different shell by using the groffer option --shell.
1358 Both scripts are compatible with both GNU and POSIX. POSIX compatibil‐
1360 ity refers to IEEE P1003.2/D11.2 of September 1991, a very early ver‐
1361 sion of the POSIX standard that is still freely available in the inter‐
1362 net at POSIX P1003.2 draft 11.2 ⟨http://www.funet.fi/pub/doc/posix/
1363 p1003.2/d11.2/all⟩.
1364 Only a restricted set of shell language elements and shell builtins is
1366 used to achieve even compatibility with some Bourne shells that are not
1367 fully POSIX compatible. The groffer shell scripts were tested on many
1368 shells, including the following Bourne shells: ash(1), bash(1),
1369 dash(1), ksh(1), pdksh(1), posh(1), and zsh(1). So it should work on
1370 most actual free and commercial operating systems.
1371 The shell for the run of groffer2.sh can be chosen by the option
1373 --shell on the command line or the environment variable $GROFF_OPT. If
1374 you want to add it to one of the groffer configuration files you must
1375 write a line starting with --shell.
1376 The groffer program provides its own parser for command line arguments
1378 that is compatible to both POSIX getopts(1) and GNU getopt(1). It can
1379 handle option arguments and file names containing white space and a
1380 large set of special characters. The following standard types of op‐
1381 tions are supported.
1382 · The option consisiting of a single minus - refers to standard input.
1384 · A single minus followed by characters refers to a single character
1386 option or a combination thereof; for example, the groffer short op‐
1387 tion combination -Qmfoo is equivalent to -Q -m foo.
1388 · Long options are options with names longer than one character; they
1390 are always preceded by a double minus. An option argument can either
1391 go to the next command line argument or be appended with an equal
1392 sign to the argument; for example, --long=arg is equivalent to
1393 --long arg .
1394 · An argument of -- ends option parsing; all further command line argu‐
1396 ments are interpreted as filespec parameters, i.e. file names or con‐
1397 structs for searching man pages).
1398 · All command line arguments that are neither options nor option argu‐
1400 ments are interpreted as filespec parameters and stored until option
1401 parsing has finished. For example, the command line
1402 sh# groffer file1 -a -o arg file2
1403 is equivalent to
1404 sh# groffer -a -o arg -- file1 file2
1405 The free mixing of options and filespec parameters follows the GNU
1407 principle. That does not fulfill the strange option behavior of POSIX
1408 that ends option processing as soon as the first non-option argument
1409 has been reached. The end of option processing can be forced by the
1410 option `--' anyway.
1411
1413 Report bugs to the bug-groff mailing list ⟨bug-groff@gnu.org⟩. Include
1414 a complete, self-contained example that will allow the bug to be repro‐
1415 duced, and say which version of groffer you are using.
1416 You can also use the groff mailing list ⟨groff@gnu.org⟩, but you must
1418 first subscribe to this list. You can do that by visiting the groff
1419 mailing list web page ⟨http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/groff⟩.
1420 See groff(1) for information on availability.
1422
1424 groff(1), troff(1)
1425 Details on the options and environment variables available in
1426 groff; all of them can be used with groffer.
1427 groff(7)
1429 Documentation of the groff language.
1430 grog(1)
1432 Internally, groffer tries to guess the groff command line op‐
1433 tions from the input using this program.
1434 groff_out(5)
1436 Documentation on the groff intermediate output (ditroff output).
1437 groff_tmac(5)
1439 Documentation on the groff macro files.
1440 man(1) The standard program to display man pages. The information
1442 there is only useful if it is the man page for GNU man. Then it
1443 documents the options and environment variables that are sup‐
1444 ported by groffer.
1445 ash(1), bash(1), dash(1), ksh(1), pdksh(1), posh(1), sh(1), zsh(1)
1447 Bourne shells that were tested with groffer.
1448 gxditview(1), xditview(1x)
1450 Viewers for groffer's x mode.
1451 kpdf(1), kghostview(1), evince(1), ggv(1), gv(1), ghostview(1), gs(1)
1453 Viewers for groffer's ps mode.
1454 kpdf(1), acroread(1), evince(1), xpdf(1), gpdf(1), kghostview(1),
1456 ggv(1)
1457 Viewers for groffer's pdf mode.
1458 kdvi(1), xdvi(1), dvilx(1)
1460 Viewers for groffer's dvi mode.
1461 konqueror(1), epiphany(1), firefox(1), mozilla(1), netscape(1), lynx(1)
1463 Web-browsers for groffer's html or www mode.
1464 less(1)
1466 Standard pager program for the tty mode .
1467 gzip(1), bzip2(1)
1469 The decompression programs supported by groffer.
1470
1472 This file was written by Bernd Warken.
1473
1475 Copyright (C) 2001,2002,2004,2005,2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1476 This file is part of groffer, which is part of groff, a free software
1478 project. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of
1479 the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
1480 Foundation, either version 2, or (at your option) any later version.
1481 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
1483 with groff, see the files COPYING and LICENSE in the top directory of
1484 the groff source package. Or read the man page gpl(1). You can also
1485 write to the Free Software Foundation, 51 Franklin St - Fifth Floor,
1486 Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
1487Groff Version 1.18.1.4 05 October 2006 GROFFER(1)