1TROFF(1) General Commands Manual TROFF(1)
2
6 troff - the troff processor of the groff text formatting system
7
9 troff [-abcivzCERU] [-d cs] [-f fam] [-F dir] [-I dir] [-m name]
10 [-M dir] [-n num] [-o list] [-r cn] [-T name] [-w name] [-W name]
11 [file ...]
12
14 This manual page describes the GNU version of troff. It is part of the
15 groff document formatting system. It is functionally compatible with
16 UNIX troff, but has many extensions, see groff_diff(7). Usually it
17 should be invoked using the groff(1) command which will also run pre‐
18 processors and postprocessors in the appropriate order and with the
19 appropriate options.
20
22 It is possible to have whitespace between a command line option and its
23 parameter.
24 -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 -Idir This option may be used to add a directory to the search path
56 for files (both those on the command line and those named in
57 .psbb requests). The search path is initialized with the
58 current directory. This option may be specified more than
59 once; the directories are then searched in the order speci‐
60 fied (but before the current directory). If you want to make
61 the current directory be read before other directories, add
62 -I. at the appropriate place.
63 No directory search is performed for files with an absolute
65 file name.
66 -mname Read in the file name.tmac. If it isn't found, try tmac.name
68 instead. It will be first searched for in directories given
69 with the -M command line option, then in directories given in
70 the GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable, then in the current
71 directory (only if in unsafe mode), the home directory,
72 /usr/lib64/groff/site-tmac, /usr/share/groff/site-tmac, and
73 /usr/share/groff/1.20.1/tmac.
74 -Mdir Search directory (or directory path) dir for macro files.
76 This is scanned before all other macro directories.
77 -nnum Number the first page num.
79 -olist Output only pages in list, which is a comma-separated list of
81 page ranges; n means print page n, m-n means print every page
82 between m and n, -n means print every page up to n, n- means
83 print every page from n. troff will exit after printing the
84 last page in the list.
85 -rcn
87 -rname=n Set number register c or name to n; c must be a one character
88 name; n can be any troff numeric expression.
89 -R Don't load troffrc and troffrc-end.
91 -Tname Prepare output for device name, rather than the default ps;
93 see groff(1) for a more detailed description.
94 -U Unsafe mode. This will enable the following requests: open,
96 opena, pso, sy, and pi. For security reasons, these poten‐
97 tially dangerous requests are disabled otherwise. It will
98 also add the current directory to the macro search path.
99 -v Print the version number.
101 -wname Enable warning name. Available warnings are described in the
103 section WARNINGS below. For example, to enable all warnings,
104 use -w all. Multiple -w options are allowed.
105 -Wname Inhibit warning name. Multiple -W options are allowed.
107 -z Suppress formatted output.
109
111 The warnings that can be given by troff are divided into the following
112 categories. The name associated with each warning is used by the -w
113 and -W options; the number is used by the warn request, and by the
114 .warn register; it is always a power of 2 to allow bitwise composition.
115 ┌─────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┐
117 │Bit Code Warning │ Bit Code Warning │
118 ├─────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
119 │ 0 1 char │ 10 1024 reg │
120 │ 1 2 number │ 11 2048 tab │
121 │ 2 4 break │ 12 4096 right-brace │
122 │ 3 8 delim │ 13 8192 missing │
123 │ 4 16 el │ 14 16384 input │
124 │ 5 32 scale │ 15 32768 escape │
125 │ 6 64 range │ 16 65536 space │
126 │ 7 128 syntax │ 17 131072 font │
127 │ 8 256 di │ 18 262144 ig │
128 │ 9 512 mac │ 19 524288 color │
129 └─────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┘
130 break 4 In fill mode, lines which could not be broken so
131 that their length was less than the line length.
132 This is enabled by default.
133 char 1 Non-existent characters. This is enabled by
135 default.
136 color 524288 Color related warnings.
138 delim 8 Missing or mismatched closing delimiters.
140 di 256 Use of di or da without an argument when there is
142 no current diversion.
143 el 16 Use of the el request with no matching ie request.
145 escape 32768 Unrecognized escape sequences. When an unrecog‐
147 nized escape sequence is encountered, the escape
148 character is ignored.
149 font 131072 Non-existent fonts. This is enabled by default.
151 ig 262144 Invalid escapes in text ignored with the ig
153 request. These are conditions that are errors when
154 they do not occur in ignored text.
155 input 16384 Invalid input characters.
157 mac 512 Use of undefined strings, macros and diversions.
159 When an undefined string, macro or diversion is
160 used, that string is automatically defined as
161 empty. So, in most cases, at most one warning will
162 be given for each name.
163 missing 8192 Requests that are missing non-optional arguments.
165 number 2 Invalid numeric expressions. This is enabled by
167 default.
168 range 64 Out of range arguments.
170 reg 1024 Use of undefined number registers. When an unde‐
172 fined number register is used, that register is
173 automatically defined to have a value of 0. So, in
174 most cases, at most one warning will be given for
175 use of a particular name.
176 right-brace 4096 Use of \} where a number was expected.
178 scale 32 Meaningless scaling indicators.
180 space 65536 Missing space between a request or macro and its
182 argument. This warning will be given when an unde‐
183 fined name longer than two characters is encoun‐
184 tered, and the first two characters of the name
185 make a defined name. The request or macro will not
186 be invoked. When this warning is given, no macro
187 is automatically defined. This is enabled by
188 default. This warning will never occur in compati‐
189 bility mode.
190 syntax 128 Dubious syntax in numeric expressions.
192 tab 2048 Inappropriate use of a tab character. Either use
194 of a tab character where a number was expected, or
195 use of tab character in an unquoted macro argument.
196 There are also names that can be used to refer to groups of warnings:
198 all All warnings except di, mac, and reg. It is intended that this
200 covers all warnings that are useful with traditional macro pack‐
201 ages.
202 w All warnings.
204
206 GROFF_TMAC_PATH
207 A colon separated list of directories in which to search for
208 macro files. troff will scan directories given in the -M option
209 before these, and in standard directories (current directory if
210 in unsafe mode, home directory, /usr/lib64/groff/site-tmac,
211 /usr/share/groff/site-tmac, /usr/share/groff/1.20.1/tmac) after
212 these.
213 GROFF_TYPESETTER
215 Default device.
216 GROFF_FONT_PATH
218 A colon separated list of directories in which to search for the
219 devname directory. troff will scan directories given in the -F
220 option before these, and in standard directories
221 (/usr/share/groff/site-font, /usr/share/groff/1.20.1/font,
222 /usr/lib/font) after these.
223
225 /usr/share/groff/1.20.1/tmac/troffrc
226 Initialization file (called before any other macro package).
227 /usr/share/groff/1.20.1/tmac/troffrc-end
229 Initialization file (called after any other macro package).
230 /usr/share/groff/1.20.1/tmac/name.tmac
232 /usr/share/groff/1.20.1/tmac/tmac.name
233 Macro files
234 /usr/share/groff/1.20.1/font/devname/DESC
236 Device description file for device name.
237 /usr/share/groff/1.20.1/font/devname/F
239 Font file for font F of device name.
240 Note that troffrc and troffrc-end are neither searched in the current
242 nor in the home directory by default for security reasons (even if the
243 -U option is given). Use the -M command line option or the
244 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to add these directories to the
245 search path if necessary.
246
248 Copyright (C) 1989, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software
249 Foundation, Inc.
250 This document is distributed under the terms of the FDL (GNU Free Docu‐
252 mentation License) version 1.3 or later. You should have received a
253 copy of the FDL on your system, it is also available on-line at the GNU
254 copyleft site ⟨http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html⟩. This document
255 was written by James Clark, with modifications from Werner Lemberg
256 ⟨wl@gnu.org⟩ and Bernd Warken ⟨bwarken@mayn.de⟩.
257 This document is part of groff, the GNU roff distribution.
259
261 groff(1)
262 The main program of the groff system, a wrapper around troff.
263 groff(7)
265 A description of the groff language, including a short but com‐
266 plete reference of all predefined requests, registers, and
267 escapes of plain groff. From the command line, this is called
268 by
269 man 7 groff
271 groff_diff(7)
273 The differences of the groff language and the classical troff
274 language. Currently, this is the most actual document of the
275 groff system.
276 roff(7)
278 An overview over groff and other roff systems, including point‐
279 ers to further related documentation.
280 The groff info file, cf. info(1), presents all groff documentation
282 within a single document.
283Groff Version 1.20.1 9 January 2009 TROFF(1)