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 /etc/groff/site-tmac, /etc/groff/site-tmac, and
73 /usr/share/groff/1.22.3/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 │ │ 20 1048576 file │
130 └─────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
131 break 4 In fill mode, lines which could not be broken so
132 that their length was less than the line length.
133 This is enabled by default.
134 char 1 Non-existent characters. This is enabled by
136 default.
137 color 524288 Color related warnings.
139 delim 8 Missing or mismatched closing delimiters.
141 di 256 Use of di or da without an argument when there is
143 no current diversion.
144 el 16 Use of the el request with no matching ie request.
146 escape 32768 Unrecognized escape sequences. When an unrecog‐
148 nized escape sequence is encountered, the escape
149 character is ignored.
150 file 1048576 Indicates a missing file for the mso request.
152 Enabled by default.
153 font 131072 Non-existent fonts. This is enabled by default.
155 ig 262144 Invalid escapes in text ignored with the ig
157 request. These are conditions that are errors when
158 they do not occur in ignored text.
159 input 16384 Invalid input characters.
161 mac 512 Use of undefined strings, macros and diversions.
163 When an undefined string, macro or diversion is
164 used, that string is automatically defined as
165 empty. So, in most cases, at most one warning will
166 be given for each name.
167 missing 8192 Requests that are missing non-optional arguments.
169 number 2 Invalid numeric expressions. This is enabled by
171 default.
172 range 64 Out of range arguments.
174 reg 1024 Use of undefined number registers. When an unde‐
176 fined number register is used, that register is
177 automatically defined to have a value of 0. So, in
178 most cases, at most one warning will be given for
179 use of a particular name.
180 right-brace 4096 Use of \} where a number was expected.
182 scale 32 Meaningless scaling indicators.
184 space 65536 Missing space between a request or macro and its
186 argument. This warning will be given when an unde‐
187 fined name longer than two characters is encoun‐
188 tered, and the first two characters of the name
189 make a defined name. The request or macro will not
190 be invoked. When this warning is given, no macro
191 is automatically defined. This is enabled by
192 default. This warning will never occur in compati‐
193 bility mode.
194 syntax 128 Dubious syntax in numeric expressions.
196 tab 2048 Inappropriate use of a tab character. Either use
198 of a tab character where a number was expected, or
199 use of tab character in an unquoted macro argument.
200 There are also names that can be used to refer to groups of warnings:
202 all All warnings except di, mac, and reg. It is intended that this
204 covers all warnings that are useful with traditional macro pack‐
205 ages.
206 w All warnings.
208
210 GROFF_TMAC_PATH
211 A colon separated list of directories in which to search for
212 macro files. troff will scan directories given in the -M option
213 before these, and in standard directories (current directory if
214 in unsafe mode, home directory, /etc/groff/site-tmac,
215 /etc/groff/site-tmac, /usr/share/groff/1.22.3/tmac) after these.
216 GROFF_TYPESETTER
218 Default device.
219 GROFF_FONT_PATH
221 A colon separated list of directories in which to search for the
222 devname directory. troff will scan directories given in the -F
223 option before these, and in standard directories
224 (/etc/groff/site-font, /usr/share/groff/1.22.3/font,
225 /usr/lib/font) after these.
226
228 /usr/share/groff/1.22.3/tmac/troffrc
229 Initialization file (called before any other macro package).
230 /usr/share/groff/1.22.3/tmac/troffrc-end
232 Initialization file (called after any other macro package).
233 /usr/share/groff/1.22.3/tmac/name.tmac
235 /usr/share/groff/1.22.3/tmac/tmac.name
236 Macro files
237 /usr/share/groff/1.22.3/font/devname/DESC
239 Device description file for device name.
240 /usr/share/groff/1.22.3/font/devname/F
242 Font file for font F of device name.
243 Note that troffrc and troffrc-end are neither searched in the current
245 nor in the home directory by default for security reasons (even if the
246 -U option is given). Use the -M command line option or the
247 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to add these directories to the
248 search path if necessary.
249
251 groff(1)
252 The main program of the groff system, a wrapper around troff.
253 groff(7)
255 A description of the groff language, including a short but com‐
256 plete reference of all predefined requests, registers, and
257 escapes of plain groff. From the command line, this is called
258 by
259 man 7 groff
261 groff_diff(7)
263 The differences of the groff language and the classical troff
264 language. Currently, this is the most actual document of the
265 groff system.
266 roff(7)
268 An overview over groff and other roff systems, including point‐
269 ers to further related documentation.
270 The groff info file, cf. info(1), presents all groff documentation
272 within a single document.
273
275 Copyright © 1989-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
276 This file is part of groff, the GNU roff type-setting system, which is
278 a GNU free software project..
279 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
281 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
282 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
283 Invariant Sections being this .ig-section and AUTHOR, with no Front-
284 Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts.
285 A copy of the Free Documentation License is included as a file called
287 FDL in the main directory of the groff source package.
288
290 This file was originally written by James Clark, it was modified by
291 Werner Lemberg ⟨wl@gnu.org⟩ and Bernd Warken ⟨groff-
292 bernd.warken-72@web.de⟩.
293Groff Version 1.22.3 4 November 2014 TROFF(1)