1TROFF(1) General Commands Manual TROFF(1)
2
6 troff - the troff processor of the groff text formatting system
7
9 troff [ -abcivzCERU ] [ -dcs ] [ -ffam ] [ -Fdir ] [ -mname ] [ -Mdir ]
10 [ -nnum ] [ -olist ] [ -rcn ] [ -Tname ] [ -wname ] [ -Wname ]
11 [ files... ]
12 It is possible to have whitespace between a command line option and its
14 parameter.
15
17 This manual page describes the GNU version of troff. It is part of the
18 groff document formatting system. It is functionally compatible with
19 UNIX troff, but has many extensions, see groff_diff(7). Usually it
20 should be invoked using the groff(1) command which will also run pre‐
21 processors and postprocessors in the appropriate order and with the
22 appropriate options.
23
25 -a Generate an ASCII approximation of the typeset output.
26 -b Print a backtrace with each warning or error message. This
28 backtrace should help track down the cause of the error. The
29 line numbers given in the backtrace may not always be cor‐
30 rect, for troff's idea of line numbers gets confused by as or
31 am requests.
32 -c Disable color output (always disabled in compatibility mode).
34 -C Enable compatibility mode.
36 -dcs
38 -dname=s Define c or name to be a string s; c must be a one letter
39 name.
40 -E Inhibit all error messages of troff. Note that this doesn't
42 affect messages output to standard error by macro packages
43 using the tm or tm1 requests.
44 -ffam Use fam as the default font family.
46 -Fdir Search in directory (or directory path) dir for subdirecto‐
48 ries devname (name is the name of the device) and there for
49 the DESC file and font files. dir is scanned before all
50 other font directories.
51 -i Read the standard input after all the named input files have
53 been processed.
54 -mname Read in the file name.tmac. If it isn't found, try tmac.name
56 instead. It will be first searched for in directories given
57 with the -M command line option, then in directories given in
58 the GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable, then in the current
59 directory (only if in unsafe mode), the home directory,
60 /usr/lib64/groff/site-tmac, /usr/share/groff/site-tmac, and
61 /usr/share/groff/1.18.1.4/tmac.
62 -Mdir Search directory (or directory path) dir for macro files.
64 This is scanned before all other macro directories.
65 -nnum Number the first page num.
67 -olist Output only pages in list, which is a comma-separated list of
69 page ranges; n means print page n, m-n means print every page
70 between m and n, -n means print every page up to n, n- means
71 print every page from n. troff will exit after printing the
72 last page in the list.
73 -rcn
75 -rname=n Set number register c or name to n; c must be a one character
76 name; n can be any troff numeric expression.
77 -R Don't load troffrc and troffrc-end.
79 -Tname Prepare output for device name, rather than the default ps.
81 -U Unsafe mode. This will enable the following requests: open,
83 opena, pso, sy, and pi. For security reasons, these poten‐
84 tially dangerous requests are disabled otherwise. It will
85 also add the current directory to the macro search path.
86 -v Print the version number.
88 -wname Enable warning name. Available warnings are described in the
90 section WARNINGS below. For example, to enable all warnings,
91 use -w all. Multiple -w options are allowed.
92 -Wname Inhibit warning name. Multiple -W options are allowed.
94 -z Suppress formatted output.
96
98 The warnings that can be given by troff are divided into the following
99 categories. The name associated with each warning is used by the -w
100 and -W options; the number is used by the warn request, and by the
101 .warn register; it is always a power of 2 to allow bitwise composition.
102 ┌─────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┐
104 │Bit Code Warning │ Bit Code Warning │
105 ├─────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
106 │ 0 1 char │ 10 1024 reg │
107 │ 1 2 number │ 11 2048 tab │
108 │ 2 4 break │ 12 4096 right-brace │
109 │ 3 8 delim │ 13 8192 missing │
110 │ 4 16 el │ 14 16384 input │
111 │ 5 32 scale │ 15 32768 escape │
112 │ 6 64 range │ 16 65536 space │
113 │ 7 128 syntax │ 17 131072 font │
114 │ 8 256 di │ 18 262144 ig │
115 │ 9 512 mac │ 19 524288 color │
116 └─────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┘
117 break 4 In fill mode, lines which could not be broken so
118 that their length was less than the line length.
119 This is enabled by default.
120 char 1 Non-existent characters. This is enabled by
122 default.
123 color 524288 Color related warnings.
125 delim 8 Missing or mismatched closing delimiters.
127 di 256 Use of di or da without an argument when there is
129 no current diversion.
130 el 16 Use of the el request with no matching ie request.
132 escape 32768 Unrecognized escape sequences. When an unrecog‐
134 nized escape sequence is encountered, the escape
135 character is ignored.
136 font 131072 Non-existent fonts. This is enabled by default.
138 ig 262144 Invalid escapes in text ignored with the ig
140 request. These are conditions that are errors when
141 they do not occur in ignored text.
142 input 16384 Invalid input characters.
144 mac 512 Use of undefined strings, macros and diversions.
146 When an undefined string, macro or diversion is
147 used, that string is automatically defined as
148 empty. So, in most cases, at most one warning will
149 be given for each name.
150 missing 8192 Requests that are missing non-optional arguments.
152 number 2 Invalid numeric expressions. This is enabled by
154 default.
155 range 64 Out of range arguments.
157 reg 1024 Use of undefined number registers. When an unde‐
159 fined number register is used, that register is
160 automatically defined to have a value of 0. So, in
161 most cases, at most one warning will be given for
162 use of a particular name.
163 right-brace 4096 Use of \} where a number was expected.
165 scale 32 Meaningless scaling indicators.
167 space 65536 Missing space between a request or macro and its
169 argument. This warning will be given when an unde‐
170 fined name longer than two characters is encoun‐
171 tered, and the first two characters of the name
172 make a defined name. The request or macro will not
173 be invoked. When this warning is given, no macro
174 is automatically defined. This is enabled by
175 default. This warning will never occur in compati‐
176 bility mode.
177 syntax 128 Dubious syntax in numeric expressions.
179 tab 2048 Inappropriate use of a tab character. Either use
181 of a tab character where a number was expected, or
182 use of tab character in an unquoted macro argument.
183 There are also names that can be used to refer to groups of warnings:
185 all All warnings except di, mac, and reg. It is intended that this
187 covers all warnings that are useful with traditional macro pack‐
188 ages.
189 w All warnings.
191
193 GROFF_TMAC_PATH
194 A colon separated list of directories in which to search for
195 macro files. troff will scan directories given in the -M option
196 before these, and in standard directories (current directory if
197 in unsafe mode, home directory, /usr/lib64/groff/site-tmac,
198 /usr/share/groff/site-tmac, /usr/share/groff/1.18.1.4/tmac)
199 after these.
200 GROFF_TYPESETTER
202 Default device.
203 GROFF_FONT_PATH
205 A colon separated list of directories in which to search for the
206 devname directory. troff will scan directories given in the -F
207 option before these, and in standard directories
208 (/usr/share/groff/site-font, /usr/share/groff/1.18.1.4/font,
209 /usr/lib/font) after these.
210
212 /usr/share/groff/1.18.1.4/tmac/troffrc
213 Initialization file (called before any other macro package).
214 /usr/share/groff/1.18.1.4/tmac/troffrc-end
216 Initialization file (called after any other macro package).
217 /usr/share/groff/1.18.1.4/tmac/name.tmac
219 /usr/share/groff/1.18.1.4/tmac/tmac.name
220 Macro files
221 /usr/share/groff/1.18.1.4/font/devname/DESC
223 Device description file for device name.
224 /usr/share/groff/1.18.1.4/font/devname/F
226 Font file for font F of device name.
227 Note that troffrc and troffrc-end are neither searched in the current
229 nor in the home directory by default for security reasons (even if the
230 -U option is given). Use the -M command line option or the
231 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to add these directories to the
232 search path if necessary.
233
235 Copyright (C) 1989, 2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
236 This document is distributed under the terms of the FDL (GNU Free Docu‐
238 mentation License) version 1.1 or later. You should have received a
239 copy of the FDL on your system, it is also available on-line at the GNU
240 copyleft site ⟨http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html⟩. This document
241 was written by James Clark, with modifications from Werner Lemberg
242 ⟨wl@gnu.org⟩ and Bernd Warken ⟨bwarken@mayn.de⟩
243 This document is part of groff, the GNU roff distribution.
245
247 groff(1)
248 The main program of the groff system, a wrapper around troff.
249 groff(7)
251 A description of the groff language, including a short but com‐
252 plete reference of all predefined requests, registers, and
253 escapes of plain groff. From the command line, this is called
254 by
255 man 7 groff
257 groff_diff(7)
259 The differences of the groff language and the classical troff
260 language. Currently, this is the most actual document of the
261 groff system.
262 roff(7)
264 An overview over groff and other roff systems, including point‐
265 ers to further related documentation.
266 The groff info file, cf. info(1), presents all groff documentation
268 within a single document.
269Groff Version 1.18.1.4 16 September 2002 TROFF(1)