1GROG(1) General Commands Manual GROG(1)
2
6 grog - guess options for groff command
7
9 grog [-C] [groff-option ...] [--] [filespec ...]
10 grog -h | --help
11 grog -v | --version
12
14 grog reads the input (file names or standard input) and guesses which
15 of the groff(1) options are needed to perform the input with the groff
16 program. The corresponding groff command is output.
17
19 The only grog options recognized are -C (which is also passed on) to
20 enable compatibility mode; -v and --version print information on the
21 version number; and -h and --help print usage information. -v, --ver‐
22 sion, -h, and --help stop the program directly without printing a groff
23 command to standard output.
24 All other specified short options (words starting with one minus char‐
26 acter -) are interpreted as groff options or option clusters with or
27 without argument. No space is allowed between options and their argu‐
28 ment. Except from the -marg options, all options will be passed on,
29 i.e. they are included unchanged in the command for the output without
30 effecting the work of grog.
31 A filespec argument can either be the name of an existing file or a
33 single minus - to mean standard input. If no filespec is specified
34 standard input is read automatically.
35
37 grog reads all filespec parameters as a whole. It tries to guess which
38 of the following groff options are required for running the input under
39 groff: -e, -man, -me, -mm, -mom, -ms, -mdoc, -mdoc-old, -p, -R, -g, -G,
40 -s, and -t. The guessed groff command including those options and the
41 found filespec parameters is put on the standard output.
42 It is possible to specify arbitrary groff options on the command line.
44 These are passed on the output without change, except for the -marg
45 options.
46 The groff program has trouble when the wrong -marg option or several of
48 these options are specified. In these cases, grog will print an error
49 message and exit with an error code. It is better to specify no -marg
50 option. Because such an option is only accepted and passed when grog
51 does not find any of these options or the same option is found.
52 If several different -marg options are found by grog an error message
54 is produced and the program is terminated with an error code. But the
55 output is written with the wrong options nevertheless.
56 Remember that it is not necessary to determine a macro package. A roff
58 file can also be written in the groff language without any macro pack‐
59 age. grog will produce an output without an -marg option.
60 As groff also works with pure text files without any roff requests,
62 grog cannot be used to identify a file to be a roff file.
63 The groffer(1) program heavily depends on a working grog.
65 The grog source contains two files written in different programming
67 languages: grog.pl is the Perl version, while grog.sh is a shell script
68 using BR awk (1). During the run of make(1), it is determined whether
69 the system contains a suitable version of perl(1). If so, grog.pl is
70 transformed into grog; otherwise grog.sh is used instead.
71
73 · Calling
74 grog meintro.me
76 results in
78 groff -me meintro.me
80 So grog recognized that the file meintro.me is written with the
82 -me macro package.
83 · On the other hand,
85 grog pic.ms
87 outputs
89 groff -pte -ms pic.ms
91 Besides determining the macro package -ms, grog recognized that
93 the file pic.ms additionally needs -pte, the combination of -p
94 for pic, -t for tbl, and -e for eqn.
95 · If both files are combined by the command
97 grog meintro.me pic.ms
99 an error message is sent to standard error because groff cannot
101 work with two different macro packages:
102 grog: error: there are several macro packages: -me -ms
104 Additionally the corresponding output with the wrong options is
106 printed to standard output:
107 groff -pte -me -ms meintro.me pic.ms
109 But the program is terminated with an error code.
111 · The call of
113 grog -ksS -Tdvi grnexmpl.g
115 contains several groff options that are just passed on the out‐
117 put without any interface to grog. These are the option cluster
118 -ksS consisting of -k, -s, and -S; and the option -T with argu‐
119 ment dvi. The output is
120 groff -ksS -Tdvi grnexmpl.g
122 so no additional option was added by grog. As no option -marg
124 was found by grog this file does not use a macro package.
125 · grog can also handle files using the chem language. The example
127 grog chAh_brackets.chem
129 outputs
131 chem chAh_brackets.chem | groff -pe
133 So chem is run first and groff is appended. The option -p for
135 pic is implied automatically by chem. Additionally, the file
136 uses eqn with -e.
137
139 groff(1), troff(1), tbl(1), pic(1), eqn(1), refer(1), grn(1), grap(1),
140 soelim(1), groff_me(7), groff_ms(7), groff_mm(7), groff_mom(7),
141 groff_man(7), groffer(1)
142
144 Copyright (C) 1989-2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009 Free Soft‐
145 ware Foundation, Inc. Written by James Clark. Maintained by Werner
146 Lemberg ⟨wl@gnu.org⟩. Rewritten and put under GPL by Bernd Warken.
147 This file is part of grog, which is part of groff, a free software
149 project. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of
150 the GNU General Public License (GPL) as published by the Free Software
151 Foundation, either version 2, or (at your option) any later version.
152 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
154 with groff, see the files COPYING and LICENSE in the top directory of
155 the groff source package. Or read the man page gpl(1). You can also
156 write to the Free Software Foundation, 51 Franklin St - Fifth Floor,
157 Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
158Groff Version 1.20.1 9 January 2009 GROG(1)