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
12 groffer -v|--version
14
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 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 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 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 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 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 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
53 breaking options
54 [-h | --help] [-v | --version]
56 groffer mode options
58 [--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 options related to groff
67 [-T | --device device] [-Z | --intermediate-output | --ditroff]
69 All further groff short options are accepted.
71 options for man pages
73 [--apropos] [--apropos-data] [--apropos-devel]
75 [--apropos-progs] [--man] [--no-man] [--no-special] [--whatis]
76 long options taken over from GNU man
78 [--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 Further long options of GNU man are accepted as well.
86 X Window Toolkit options
88 [--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 options for development
96 [--debug] [--debug-filenames] [--debug-grog] [--debug-keep]
98 [--debug-params] [--debug-tmpdir] [--do-nothing] [--print text]
99 [-V]
100 filespec arguments
102 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 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 No filespec parameters means standard input.
114 - stands for standard input (can occur several times).
116 filename the path name of an existing file.
118 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 man:name man page in the lowest man section that has name.
128 name if name is not an existing file search for the
130 man page name in the lowest man section.
131
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 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 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 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 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 -h | --help
159 Print help information with a short explanation of options to
160 standard output.
161 -v | --version
163 Print version information to standard output.
164 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 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 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 --auto Equivalent to --mode=auto.
191 --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 --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 --dvi Equivalent to --mode=dvi.
206 --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 --groff
214 Equivalent to --mode=groff.
215 --html Equivalent to --mode=html.
217 --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 --mode value
224 Set the display mode. The following mode values are recognized:
225 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 www Equivalent to --mode=html.
268 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 X Equivalent to --mode=x.
283 The following modes do not use the groffer viewing features.
285 They are only interesting for advanced applications.
286 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 source Output the roff source code of the input files without
292 further processing.
293 --pdf Equivalent to --mode=pdf.
295 --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 --ps Equivalent to --mode=ps.
302 --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 --source
310 Equivalent to --mode=source.
311 --text Equivalent to --mode=text.
313 --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 --tty Equivalent to --mode=tty.
320 --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 --www Equivalent to --mode=html.
328 --www-viewer prog
330 Equivalent to --html-viewer.
331 --X | --x
333 Equivalent to --mode=x.
334 --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 -- Signals the end of option processing; all remaining arguments
342 are interpreted as filespec parameters.
343 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 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 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 --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 --m file
364 Add file as a groff macro file. This is useful in case it can‐
365 not be recognized automatically.
366 --P opt_or_arg
368 Send the argument opt_or_arg as an option or option argument to
369 the actual groff postprocessor.
370 --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 --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 -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 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 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 · Construct a groff frame similar to a man page to the output of
413 apropos,
414 · each filespec argument is searched on its own.
416 · The restriction by --sections is handled as well,
418 · wildcard characters are allowed and handled without a further
420 option.
421 --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 --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 --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 --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 · each retrieved file name is added,
444 · local files are handled as well,
446 · the language and system locale is supported,
448 · the display is framed by a groff output format similar to a
450 man page,
451 · wildcard characters are allowed without a further option.
453 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 --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 --no-man | --local-file
465 Do not check for man pages. --local-file is the corresponding
466 man option.
467 --no-special
469 Disable former calls of --all, --apropos*, and --whatis.
470 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 In the following, the man options that have a special meaning for
478 groffer are documented.
479 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 --all In searching man pages, retrieve all suitable documents instead
485 of only one.
486 -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 --ditroff
493 Produce groff intermediate output. This is equivalent to
494 groffer -Z.
495 --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 --locale language
503 Set the language for man pages. This has the same effect, but
504 overwrites $LANG.
505 --location
507 Print the location of the retrieved files to standard error.
508 --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 --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 --pager
519 Set the pager program in tty mode; default is less. This is
520 equivalent to --tty-viewer.
521 --sections sec1:sec2:...
523 Restrict searching for man pages to the given sections, a colon-
524 separated list.
525 --systems sys1,sys2,...
527 Search for man pages for the given operating systems; the argu‐
528 ment systems is a comma-separated list.
529 --where
531 Equivalent to --location.
532 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 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 See X(7) and the documentation on the X Window Toolkit options for more
545 details on these options and their arguments.
546 --background color
548 Set the background color of the viewer window.
549 --bd pixels
551 This is equivalent to --bordercolor.
552 --bg color
554 This is equivalent to --background.
555 --bw pixels
557 This is equivalent to --borderwidth.
558 --bordercolor pixels
560 Specifies the color of the border surrounding the viewer window.
561 --borderwidth pixels
563 Specifies the width in pixels of the border surrounding the
564 viewer window.
565 --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 --foreground color
572 Set the foreground color of the viewer window.
573 --fg color
575 This is equivalent to -foreground.
576 --fn font_name
578 This is equivalent to --font.
579 --font font_name
581 Set the font used by the viewer window. The argument is an
582 X Window font name.
583 --ft font_name
585 This is equivalent to --font.
586 --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 --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 --rv Reverse foreground and background color of the viewer window.
598 --title 'some text'
600 Set the title for the viewer window.
601 --xrm 'resource'
603 Set X Window resource.
604 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 --debug-filenames
613 Print the names of the files and man pages that are displayed by
614 groffer.
615 --debug-grog
617 Print the output of all grog commands.
618 --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 --debug-params
625 Print the parameters, as obtained from the configuration files,
626 from GROFFER_OPT, and the command line arguments.
627 --debug-tmpdir
629 Print the name of the temporary directory.
630 --do-nothing
632 This is like --version, but without the output; no viewer is
633 started. This makes only sense in development.
634 --print=text
636 Just print the argument to standard error. This is good for pa‐
637 rameter check.
638 -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 · the output file name in the temporary directory,
644 · the display mode of the actual groffer run,
646 · the display program for viewing the output with its arguments,
648 · the active parameters from the config files, the arguments in
650 $GROFFER_OPT, and the arguments of the command line,
651 · the pipeline that would be run by the groff program, but with‐
653 out executing it.
654 Other useful debugging options are the groff option -Z and
656 --mode=groff.
657 Filespec Arguments
659 A filespec parameter is an argument that is not an option or option ar‐
660 gument. In groffer, filespec parameters are a file name or a template
661 for searching man pages. These input sources are collected and com‐
662 posed into a single output file such as groff does.
663 The strange POSIX behavior to regard all arguments behind the first
665 non-option argument as filespec arguments is ignored. The GNU behavior
666 to recognize options even when mixed with filespec arguments is used
667 throughout. But, as usual, the double minus argument -- ends the op‐
668 tion handling and interprets all following arguments as filespec argu‐
669 ments; so the POSIX behavior can be easily adopted.
670 The options --apropos* have a special handling of filespec arguments.
672 Each argument is taken as a search scheme of its own. Also a regexp
673 (regular expression) can be used in the filespec. For example, groffer
674 --apropos '^gro.f$' 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 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 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 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 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 · 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 · 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 · 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 · Now man:name searches for a man page in the lowest man section that
713 has a document called name.
714 · 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 · 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 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
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 Several different modes are offered, graphical modes for X Window,
741 text modes, and some direct groff modes for debugging and development.
742 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 The searching for man pages and the decompression of the input are ac‐
749 tive in every mode.
750 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 Known viewers for the graphical display modes and their standard
761 X Window viewer programs are
762 · in a PDF viewer (pdf mode)
764 · in a web browser (html or www mode)
766 · in a Postscript viewer (ps mode)
768 · X Window roff viewers such as gxditview(1) or xditview(1) (in x mode)
770 · in a dvi viewer program (dvi mode)
772 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 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 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 If the variable $DISPLAY is not set or empty, groffer assumes that it
789 should use tty mode.
790 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 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 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 The source mode with option --source just displays the decompressed in‐
808 put.
809 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 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 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 All groff short options are supported by groffer.
823
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 --man forces to interpret all file parameters as filespecs for search‐
832 ing man pages.
833 --no-man
835 --local-file
836 disable the man searching; so only local files are displayed.
837 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 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 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 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 The man path is a list of directories that are separated by colon. It
863 is generated by the following methods.
864 · The environment variable $MANPATH can be set.
866 · It can be read from the arguments of the environment variable
868 $MANOPT.
869 · The man path can be manually specified by using the option --manpath.
871 An empty argument disables the man page searching.
872 · When no man path was set the manpath(1) program is tried to determine
874 one.
875 · If this does not work a reasonable default path from $PATH is deter‐
877 mined.
878 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 · The environment variable $SYSTEM has the lowest precedence.
886 · This can be overridden by an option in $MANOPT.
888 · This again is overridden by the command line option --systems.
890 Several names of operating systems can be given by appending their
892 names, separated by a comma.
893 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 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 · Environment variable $LANG.
904 · This is overridden by $LC_MESSAGES.
906 · This is overridden by $LC_ALL.
908 · This can be overridden by providing an option in $MANOPT.
910 · All these environment variables are overridden by the command line
912 option --locale.
913 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 Of course, the language name is determined by man. In GNU man, it is
920 specified in the POSIX 1003.1 based format:
921 <language>[_<territory>[.<character-set>[,<version>]]],
923 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 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 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 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 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 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 There are 4 methods to specify a section on the command line:
961 · Environment variable $MANSECT
963 · Command line option --sections
965 · Appendix to the name argument in the form <name>.<section>
967 · Preargument before the name argument in the form <section> <name>
969 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 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 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 · Environment variable $EXTENSION
984 · Command line option --extension
986 · Appendix to the <name>.<section> argument in the form <name>.<sec‐
988 tion><extension>
989 · Preargument before the name argument in the form <section><extension>
991 <name>
992 For further details on man page searching, see man(1).
994 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 /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 /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 /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 sh# groffer --locale=de --sections=5:7 --systems=linux,aix man
1042 sh# LANG=de MANSECT=5:7 SYSTEM=linux,aix groffer man
1043
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
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 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 System Variables
1068 The following variables have a special meaning for groffer.
1069 $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 sh# DISPLAY=:0.1 groffer what.ever &
1080 $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 $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 sh# PAGER=cat groffer anything
1099 $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 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 $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 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 $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 $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 $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 $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 $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 The environment variable $MANROFFSEQ is ignored by groffer because the
1155 necessary preprocessors are determined automatically.
1156
1158 The groffer program can be preconfigured by two configuration files.
1159 /etc/groff/groffer.conf
1161 System-wide configuration file for groffer.
1162 $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 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 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 The option names in the configuration files may not be abbreviated,
1183 they must be exact.
1184 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 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 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 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 As an example, consider the following configuration file that can be
1210 used either in /etc/groff/groffer.conf or ~/.groff/groffer.conf.
1211 # 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 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 · Use a text color of DarkBlue in all viewers that support this, such
1225 as gxditview.
1226 · 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 · 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 · Use xpdf(1) as the pdf-mode viewer with the argument -Z 150.
1235
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 sh# groffer /usr/local/share/doc/groff/meintro.ms.gz
1242 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 sh# groffer groff
1249 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 sh# groffer man:groff
1255 search for the man page of groff even when the file ./groff exists.
1257 sh# groffer groff.7
1259 sh# groffer 7 groff
1260 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 sh# groffer fb.modes
1265 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 sh# groffer groff ’troff(1)’ man:roff
1272 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 sh# LANG=de groffer --man --www --www-viewer=galeon ls
1282 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 sh# groffer --source 'man:roff(7)'
1289 Get the man page called roff in man section 7, decompress it, and print
1291 its unformatted content, its source code.
1292 sh# groffer --de-p --in --ap
1294 This is a set of abbreviated arguments, it is determined as
1296 sh# groffer --debug-params --intermediate-output --apropos
1298 sh# cat file.gz | groffer -Z -mfoo
1301 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 sh# echo '\f[CB]WOW!' |
1308 > groffer --x --bg red --fg yellow --geometry 200x100 -
1309 Display the word WOW! in a small window in constant-width
1311 bold font, using color yellow on red background.
1312
1314 The groffer program is written in Perl, the Perl version during writing
1315 was v5.8.8.
1316 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 · The option consisting of a single minus - refers to standard input.
1324 · 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 · 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 · 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 · 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 sh# groffer file1 -a -o arg file2
1344 is equivalent to
1346 sh# groffer -a -o arg -- file1 file2
1348 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
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 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 See groff(1) for information on availability.
1366
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 groff(7)
1373 Documentation of the groff language.
1374 grog(1)
1376 Internally, groffer tries to guess the groff command line
1377 options from the input using this program.
1378 groff_out(5)
1380 Documentation on the groff intermediate output (ditroff output).
1381 groff_tmac(5)
1383 Documentation on the groff macro files.
1384 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 gxditview(1), xditview(1x)
1391 Viewers for groffer's x mode.
1392 kpdf(1), kghostview(1), evince(1), ggv(1), gv(1), ghostview(1), gs(1)
1394 Viewers for groffer's ps mode.
1395 kpdf(1), acroread(1), evince(1), xpdf(1), gpdf(1), kghostview(1),
1397 ggv(1)
1398 Viewers for groffer's pdf mode.
1399 kdvi(1), xdvi(1), dvilx(1)
1401 Viewers for groffer's dvi mode.
1402 konqueror(1), epiphany(1), firefox(1), mozilla(1), netscape(1), lynx(1)
1404 Web-browsers for groffer's html or www mode.
1405 less(1)
1407 Standard pager program for the tty mode.
1408 gzip(1), bzip2(1)
1410 The decompression programs supported by groffer.
1411
1413 This file was written by Bernd Warken <groff-bernd.warken-72@web.de>.
1414
1416 Copyright (C) 2001, 2002, 2004-2006, 2009-2012
1417 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1418 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 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/>.
1429Groff Version 1.22.2 9 June 2014 GROFFER(1)