1GROFF(1) General Commands Manual GROFF(1)
2
6 groff - front-end for the groff document formatting system
7
9 groff [-abcegijklpstzCEGNRSUVXZ] [-d cs] [-D arg] [-f fam] [-F dir]
10 [-I dir] [-K arg] [-L arg] [-m name] [-M dir] [-n num] [-o list]
11 [-P arg] [-r cn] [-T dev] [-w name] [-W name] [file ...]
12 groff -h | --help
13 groff -v | --version [option ...]
14
16 This document describes the groff program, the main front-end for the
17 groff document formatting system. The groff program and macro suite is
18 the implementation of a roff(7) system within the free software collec‐
19 tion GNU ⟨http://www.gnu.org⟩. The groff system has all features of
20 the classical roff, but adds many extensions.
21 The groff program allows to control the whole groff system by command
23 line options. This is a great simplification in comparison to the
24 classical case (which uses pipes only).
25
27 The command line is parsed according to the usual GNU convention. The
28 whitespace between a command line option and its argument is optional.
29 Options can be grouped behind a single ‘-’ (minus character). A file‐
30 name of - (minus character) denotes the standard input.
31 As groff is a wrapper program for troff both programs share a set of
33 options. But the groff program has some additional, native options and
34 gives a new meaning to some troff options. On the other hand, not all
35 troff options can be fed into groff.
36 Native groff Options
38 The following options either do not exist for troff or are differently
39 interpreted by groff.
40 -D arg Set default input encoding used by preconv to arg. Implies -k.
42 -e Preprocess with eqn.
44 -g Preprocess with grn.
46 -G Preprocess with grap. Implies -p.
48 -h
50 --help Print a help message.
51 -I dir This option may be used to specify a directory to search for
53 files (both those on the command line and those named in .psbb
54 and .so requests, and \X'ps: import' and \X'ps: file' escapes).
55 The current directory is always searched first. This option may
56 be specified more than once; the directories are searched in the
57 order specified. No directory search is performed for files
58 specified using an absolute path. This option implies the -s
59 option.
60 -j Preprocess with chem. Implies -p.
62 -k Preprocess with preconv. This is run before any other pre‐
64 processor. Please refer to preconv's manual page for its behav‐
65 iour if no -K (or -D) option is specified.
66 -K arg Set input encoding used by preconv to arg. Implies -k.
68 -l Send the output to a spooler program for printing. The command
70 that should be used for this is specified by the print command
71 in the device description file, see groff_font(5). If this com‐
72 mand is not present, the output is piped into the lpr(1) program
73 by default. See options -L and -X.
74 -L arg Pass arg to the spooler program. Several arguments should be
76 passed with a separate -L option each. Note that groff does not
77 prepend ‘-’ (a minus sign) to arg before passing it to the
78 spooler program.
79 -N Don't allow newlines within eqn delimiters. This is the same as
81 the -N option in eqn.
82 -p Preprocess with pic.
84 -P -option
86 -P -option -P arg
87 Pass -option or -option arg to the postprocessor. The option
88 must be specified with the necessary preceding minus sign(s) ‘-’
89 or ‘--’ because groff does not prepend any dashes before passing
90 it to the postprocessor. For example, to pass a title to the
91 gxditview postprocessor, the shell command
92 groff -X -P -title -P 'groff it' foo
94 is equivalent to
96 groff -X -Z foo | gxditview -title 'groff it' -
98 -R Preprocess with refer. No mechanism is provided for passing
100 arguments to refer because most refer options have equivalent
101 language elements that can be specified within the document.
102 See refer(1) for more details.
103 -s Preprocess with soelim.
105 -S Safer mode. Pass the -S option to pic and disable the following
107 troff requests: .open, .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi. For security
108 reasons, safer mode is enabled by default.
109 -t Preprocess with tbl.
111 -T dev Set output device to dev. For this device, troff generates the
113 intermediate output; see groff_out(5). Then groff calls a post‐
114 processor to convert troff's intermediate output to its final
115 format. Real devices in groff are
116 dvi TeX DVI format (postprocessor is grodvi).
118 html
120 xhtml HTML and XHTML output (preprocessors are soelim
121 and pre-grohtml, postprocessor is post-grohtml).
122 lbp Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
124 printers; postprocessor is grolbp).
125 lj4 HP LaserJet4 compatible (or other PCL5 compatible)
127 printers (postprocessor is grolj4).
128 ps PostScript output (postprocessor is grops).
130 pdf Portable Document Format (PDF) output (postproces‐
132 sor is gropdf).
133 For the following TTY output devices (postprocessor is always
135 grotty), -T selects the output encoding:
136 ascii 7bit ASCII.
138 cp1047 Latin-1 character set for EBCDIC hosts.
140 latin1 ISO 8859-1.
142 utf8 Unicode character set in UTF-8 encoding. This
144 mode has the most useful fonts for TTY mode, so it
145 is the best mode for TTY output.
146 The following arguments select gxditview as the ‘postprocessor’
148 (it is rather a viewing program):
149 X75 75dpi resolution, 10pt document base font.
151 X75-12 75dpi resolution, 12pt document base font.
153 X100 100dpi resolution, 10pt document base font.
155 X100-12
157 100dpi resolution, 12pt document base font.
158 The default device is ps.
160 -U Unsafe mode. Reverts to the (old) unsafe behaviour; see option
162 -S.
163 -v
165 --version
166 Output version information of groff and of all programs that are
167 run by it; that is, the given command line is parsed in the
168 usual way, passing -v to all subprograms.
169 -V Output the pipeline that would be run by groff (as a wrapper
171 program) on the standard output, but do not execute it. If
172 given more than once, the commands are both printed on the stan‐
173 dard error and run.
174 -X Use gxditview instead of using the usual postprocessor to
176 (pre)view a document. The printing spooler behavior as outlined
177 with options -l and -L is carried over to gxditview(1) by deter‐
178 mining an argument for the -printCommand option of gxditview(1).
179 This sets the default Print action and the corresponding menu
180 entry to that value. -X only produces good results with -Tps,
181 -TX75, -TX75-12, -TX100, and -TX100-12. The default resolution
182 for previewing -Tps output is 75dpi; this can be changed by
183 passing the -resolution option to gxditview, for example
184 groff -X -P-resolution -P100 -man foo.1
186 -z Suppress output generated by troff. Only error messages are
188 printed.
189 -Z Do not automatically postprocess groff intermediate output in
191 the usual manner. This will cause the troff output to appear on
192 standard output, replacing the usual postprocessor output; see
193 groff_out(5).
194 Transparent Options
196 The following options are transparently handed over to the formatter
197 program troff that is called by groff subsequently. These options are
198 described in more detail in troff(1).
199 -a ASCII approximation of output.
201 -b Backtrace on error or warning.
203 -c Disable color output. Please consult the grotty(1) man page for
205 more details.
206 -C Enable compatibility mode.
208 -d cs
210 -d name=s
211 Define string.
212 -E Disable troff error messages.
214 -f fam Set default font family.
216 -F dir Set path for font DESC files.
218 -i Process standard input after the specified input files.
220 -m name
222 Include macro file name.tmac (or tmac.name); see also
223 groff_tmac(5).
224 -M dir Path for macro files.
226 -n num Number the first page num.
228 -o list
230 Output only pages in list.
231 -r cn
233 -r name=n
234 Set number register.
235 -w name
237 Enable warning name. See troff(1) for names.
238 -W name
240 disable warning name. See troff(1) for names.
241
243 The groff system implements the infrastructure of classical roff; see
244 roff(7) for a survey on how a roff system works in general. Due to the
245 front-end programs available within the groff system, using groff is
246 much easier than classical roff. This section gives an overview of the
247 parts that constitute the groff system. It complements roff(7) with
248 groff-specific features. This section can be regarded as a guide to
249 the documentation around the groff system.
250 Paper Size
252 The virtual paper size used by troff to format the input is controlled
253 globally with the requests .po, .pl, and .ll. See groff_tmac(5) for
254 the ‘papersize’ macro package which provides a convenient interface.
255 The physical paper size, giving the actual dimensions of the paper
257 sheets, is controlled by output devices like grops with the command
258 line options -p and -l. See groff_font(5) and the man pages of the
259 output devices for more details. groff uses the command line option -P
260 to pass options to output devices; for example, the following selects
261 A4 paper in landscape orientation for the PS device:
262 groff -Tps -P-pa4 -P-l ...
264 Front-ends
266 The groff program is a wrapper around the troff(1) program. It allows
267 to specify the preprocessors by command line options and automatically
268 runs the postprocessor that is appropriate for the selected device.
269 Doing so, the sometimes tedious piping mechanism of classical roff(7)
270 can be avoided.
271 The grog(1) program can be used for guessing the correct groff command
273 line to format a file.
274 The groffer(1) program is an allround-viewer for groff files and man
276 pages.
277 Preprocessors
279 The groff preprocessors are reimplementations of the classical pre‐
280 processors with moderate extensions. The standard preprocessors dis‐
281 tributed with the groff package are
282 eqn(1) for mathematical formulae,
284 grn(1) for including gremlin(1) pictures,
286 pic(1) for drawing diagrams,
288 chem(1)
290 for chemical structure diagrams,
291 refer(1)
293 for bibliographic references,
294 soelim(1)
296 for including macro files from standard locations,
297 and
299 tbl(1) for tables.
301 A new preprocessor not available in classical troff is preconv(1) which
303 converts various input encodings to something groff can understand. It
304 is always run first before any other preprocessor.
305 Besides these, there are some internal preprocessors that are automati‐
307 cally run with some devices. These aren't visible to the user.
308 Macro Packages
310 Macro packages can be included by option -m. The groff system imple‐
311 ments and extends all classical macro packages in a compatible way and
312 adds some packages of its own. Actually, the following macro packages
313 come with groff:
314 man The traditional man page format; see groff_man(7). It can be
316 specified on the command line as -man or -m man.
317 mandoc The general package for man pages; it automatically recognizes
319 whether the documents uses the man or the mdoc format and
320 branches to the corresponding macro package. It can be speci‐
321 fied on the command line as -mandoc or -m mandoc.
322 mdoc The BSD-style man page format; see groff_mdoc(7). It can be
324 specified on the command line as -mdoc or -m mdoc.
325 me The classical me document format; see groff_me(7). It can be
327 specified on the command line as -me or -m me.
328 mm The classical mm document format; see groff_mm(7). It can be
330 specified on the command line as -mm or -m mm.
331 ms The classical ms document format; see groff_ms(7). It can be
333 specified on the command line as -ms or -m ms.
334 www HTML-like macros for inclusion in arbitrary groff documents; see
336 groff_www(7).
337 Details on the naming of macro files and their placement can be found
339 in groff_tmac(5); this man page also documents some other, minor auxil‐
340 iary macro packages not mentioned here.
341 Programming Language
343 General concepts common to all roff programming languages are described
344 in roff(7).
345 The groff extensions to the classical troff language are documented in
347 groff_diff(7).
348 The groff language as a whole is described in the (still incomplete)
350 groff info file; a short (but complete) reference can be found in
351 groff(7).
352 Formatters
354 The central roff formatter within the groff system is troff(1). It
355 provides the features of both the classical troff and nroff, as well as
356 the groff extensions. The command line option -C switches troff into
357 compatibility mode which tries to emulate classical roff as much as
358 possible.
359 There is a shell script nroff(1) that emulates the behavior of classi‐
361 cal nroff. It tries to automatically select the proper output encod‐
362 ing, according to the current locale.
363 The formatter program generates intermediate output; see groff_out(7).
365 Devices
367 In roff, the output targets are called devices. A device can be a
368 piece of hardware, e.g., a printer, or a software file format. A
369 device is specified by the option -T. The groff devices are as fol‐
370 lows.
371 ascii Text output using the ascii(7) character set.
373 cp1047 Text output using the EBCDIC code page IBM cp1047 (e.g., OS/390
375 Unix).
376 dvi TeX DVI format.
378 html HTML output.
380 latin1 Text output using the ISO Latin-1 (ISO 8859-1) character set;
382 see iso_8859_1(7).
383 lbp Output for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
385 printers).
386 lj4 HP LaserJet4-compatible (or other PCL5-compatible) printers.
388 ps PostScript output; suitable for printers and previewers like
390 gv(1).
391 pdf PDF files; suitable for viewing with tools such as evince(1) and
393 okular(1).
394 utf8 Text output using the Unicode (ISO 10646) character set with
396 UTF-8 encoding; see unicode(7).
397 xhtml XHTML output.
399 X75 75dpi X Window System output suitable for the previewers
401 xditview(1x) and gxditview(1). A variant for a 12pt document
402 base font is X75-12.
403 X100 100dpi X Window System output suitable for the previewers
405 xditview(1x) and gxditview(1). A variant for a 12pt document
406 base font is X100-12.
407 The postprocessor to be used for a device is specified by the postpro
409 command in the device description file; see groff_font(5). This can be
410 overridden with the -X option.
411 The default device is ps.
413 Postprocessors
415 groff provides 3 hardware postprocessors:
416 grolbp(1)
418 for some Canon printers,
419 grolj4(1)
421 for printers compatible to the HP LaserJet 4 and PCL5,
422 grotty(1)
424 for text output using various encodings, e.g., on text-oriented
425 terminals or line-printers.
426 Today, most printing or drawing hardware is handled by the operating
428 system, by device drivers, or by software interfaces, usually accepting
429 PostScript. Consequently, there isn't an urgent need for more hardware
430 device postprocessors.
431 The groff software devices for conversion into other document file for‐
433 mats are
434 grodvi(1)
436 for the DVI format,
437 grohtml(1)
439 for HTML and XHTML formats,
440 grops(1)
442 for PostScript.
443 gropdf(1)
445 for PDF.
446 Combined with the many existing free conversion tools this should be
448 sufficient to convert a troff document into virtually any existing data
449 format.
450 Utilities
452 The following utility programs around groff are available.
453 addftinfo(1)
455 Add information to troff font description files for use with
456 groff.
457 afmtodit(1)
459 Create font description files for PostScript device.
460 eqn2graph(1)
462 Convert an eqn image into a cropped image.
463 gdiffmk(1)
465 Mark differences between groff, nroff, or troff files.
466 grap2graph(1)
468 Convert a grap diagram into a cropped bitmap image.
469 groffer(1)
471 General viewer program for groff files and man pages.
472 gxditview(1)
474 The groff X viewer, the GNU version of xditview.
475 hpftodit(1)
477 Create font description files for lj4 device.
478 indxbib(1)
480 Make inverted index for bibliographic databases.
481 lkbib(1)
483 Search bibliographic databases.
484 lookbib(1)
486 Interactively search bibliographic databases.
487 pdfroff(1)
489 Create PDF documents using groff.
490 pfbtops(1)
492 Translate a PostScript font in .pfb format to ASCII.
493 pic2graph(1)
495 Convert a pic diagram into a cropped image.
496 tfmtodit(1)
498 Create font description files for TeX DVI device.
499 xditview(1x)
501 roff viewer distributed with X window.
502 xtotroff(1)
504 Convert X font metrics into GNU troff font metrics.
505
507 Normally, the path separator in the following environment variables is
508 the colon; this may vary depending on the operating system. For exam‐
509 ple, DOS and Windows use a semicolon instead.
510 GROFF_BIN_PATH
512 This search path, followed by $PATH, is used for commands that
513 are executed by groff. If it is not set then the directory
514 where the groff binaries were installed is prepended to PATH.
515 GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX
517 When there is a need to run different roff implementations at
518 the same time groff provides the facility to prepend a prefix to
519 most of its programs that could provoke name clashings at run
520 time (default is to have none). Historically, this prefix was
521 the character g, but it can be anything. For example, gtroff
522 stood for groff's troff, gtbl for the groff version of tbl. By
523 setting GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX to different values, the different
524 roff installations can be addressed. More exactly, if it is set
525 to prefix xxx then groff as a wrapper program internally calls
526 xxxtroff instead of troff. This also applies to the preproces‐
527 sors eqn, grn, pic, refer, tbl, soelim, and to the utilities
528 indxbib and lookbib. This feature does not apply to any pro‐
529 grams different from the ones above (most notably groff itself)
530 since they are unique to the groff package.
531 GROFF_ENCODING
533 The value of this environment value is passed to the preconv
534 preprocessor to select the encoding of input files. Setting
535 this option implies groff's command line option -k (this is,
536 groff actually always calls preconv). If set without a value,
537 groff calls preconv without arguments. An explicit -K command
538 line option overrides the value of GROFF_ENCODING. See pre‐
539 conv(1) for details.
540 GROFF_FONT_PATH
542 A list of directories in which to search for the devname direc‐
543 tory in addition to the default ones. See troff(1) and
544 groff_font(5) for more details.
545 GROFF_TMAC_PATH
547 A list of directories in which to search for macro files in
548 addition to the default directories. See troff(1) and
549 groff_tmac(5) for more details.
550 GROFF_TMPDIR
552 The directory in which temporary files are created. If this is
553 not set but the environment variable TMPDIR instead, temporary
554 files are created in the directory $TMPDIR. On MS-DOS and Win‐
555 dows 32 platforms, the environment variables TMP and TEMP (in
556 that order) are searched also, after GROFF_TMPDIR and TMPDIR.
557 Otherwise, temporary files are created in /tmp. The refer(1),
558 groffer(1), grohtml(1), and grops(1) commands use temporary
559 files.
560 GROFF_TYPESETTER
562 Preset the default device. If this is not set the ps device is
563 used as default. This device name is overwritten by the option
564 -T.
565
567 The following example illustrates the power of the groff program as a
568 wrapper around troff.
569 To process a roff file using the preprocessors tbl and pic and the me
571 macro set, classical troff had to be called by
572 pic foo.me | tbl | troff -me -Tlatin1 | grotty
574 Using groff, this pipe can be shortened to the equivalent command
576 groff -p -t -me -T latin1 foo.me
578 An even easier way to call this is to use grog(1) to guess the pre‐
580 processor and macro options and execute the generated command (by using
581 backquotes to specify shell command substitution)
582 `grog -Tlatin1 foo.me`
584 The simplest way is to view the contents in an automated way by calling
586 groffer foo.me
588
590 On EBCDIC hosts (e.g., OS/390 Unix), output devices ascii and latin1
591 aren't available. Similarly, output for EBCDIC code page cp1047 is not
592 available on ASCII based operating systems.
593 Report bugs to the groff mailing list ⟨bug-groff@gnu.org⟩. Include a
595 complete, self-contained example that allows the bug to be reproduced,
596 and say which version of groff you are using.
597
599 There are some directories in which groff installs all of its data
600 files. Due to different installation habits on different operating
601 systems, their locations are not absolutely fixed, but their function
602 is clearly defined and coincides on all systems.
603 Collection of Installation Directories
605 This section describes the position of all files of the groff package
606 after the installation — got from Makefile.comm at the top of the groff
607 source package.
608 /usr/dict/papers/Ind
610 index directory and index name
611 /usr/lib/font
613 legacy font directory
614 /usr/bin
616 directory for binary programs
617 /etc/groff/site-tmac
619 system tmac directory
620 /usr/share/doc/groff
622 documentation directory
623 /usr/share/doc/groff/examples
625 directory for examples
626 /usr/share/doc/groff/html
628 documentation directory for html files
629 /usr/share/doc/groff/pdf
631 documentation directory for pdf files
632 /usr/share/groff/1.22.3
634 data subdirectory
635 /usr/share/groff/1.22.3/eign
637 file for common words
638 /usr/share/groff/1.22.3/font
640 directory for fonts
641 /usr/share/groff/1.22.3/oldfont
643 directory for old fonts
644 /usr/share/groff/1.22.3/tmac
646 tmac directory
647 /usr/share/groff/1.22.3/tmac/mm
649 mm tmac directory
650 /etc/groff/site-font
652 local font directory
653 /etc/groff/site-tmac
655 local tmac directory
656 groff Macro Directory
658 This contains all information related to macro packages. Note that
659 more than a single directory is searched for those files as documented
660 in groff_tmac(5). For the groff installation corresponding to this
661 document, it is located at /usr/share/groff/1.22.3/tmac. The following
662 files contained in the groff macro directory have a special meaning:
663 troffrc
665 Initialization file for troff. This is interpreted by troff
666 before reading the macro sets and any input.
667 troffrc-end
669 Final startup file for troff. It is parsed after all macro sets
670 have been read.
671 name.tmac
673 tmac.name
674 Macro file for macro package name.
675 groff Font Directory
677 This contains all information related to output devices. Note that
678 more than a single directory is searched for those files; see troff(1).
679 For the groff installation corresponding to this document, it is
680 located at /usr/share/groff/1.22.3/font. The following files contained
681 in the groff font directory have a special meaning:
682 devname/DESC
684 Device description file for device name, see groff_font(5).
685 devname/F
687 Font file for font F of device name.
688
690 Information on how to get groff and related information is available at
691 the groff GNU website ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/groff⟩.
692 Three groff mailing lists are available:
694 for reporting bugs ⟨bug-groff@gnu.org⟩.
696 for general discussion of groff, ⟨groff@gnu.org⟩.
698 the groff commit list ⟨groff-commit@ffii.org⟩, a read-only list
700 showing logs of commitments to the groff repository.
701 Details on repository access and much more can be found in the file
703 README at the top directory of the groff source package.
704 There is a free implementation of the grap preprocessor, written by Ted
706 Faber ⟨faber@lunabase.org⟩. The actual version can be found at the
707 grap website ⟨http://www.lunabase.org/~faber/Vault/software/grap/⟩.
708 This is the only grap version supported by groff.
709
711 The groff info file contains all information on the groff system within
712 a single document, providing many examples and background information.
713 See info(1) on how to read it.
714 Due to its complex structure, the groff system has many man pages.
716 They can be read with man(1) or groffer(1).
717 But there are special sections of man-pages. groff has man-pages in
719 sections 1, 5,and 7. When there are several man-pages with the same
720 name in the same man section, the one with the lowest section is should
721 as first. The other man-pages can be shown anyway by adding the sec‐
722 tion number as argument before the man-page name. Reading the man-page
723 about the groff language is done by one of
724 man 7 groff
725 groffer 7 groff
726 Introduction, history and further readings:
728 roff(7).
729 Viewer for groff files:
731 groffer(1), gxditview(1), xditview(1x).
732 Wrapper programs for formatters:
734 groff(1), grog(1).
735 Roff preprocessors:
737 eqn(1), grn(1), pic(1), chem(1), preconv(1), refer(1),
738 soelim(1), tbl(1), grap(1).
739 Roff language with the groff extensions:
741 groff(7), groff_char(7), groff_diff(7), groff_font(5).
742 Roff formatter programs:
744 nroff(1), troff(1), ditroff(7).
745 The intermediate output language:
747 groff_out(7).
748 Postprocessors for the output devices:
750 grodvi(1), grohtml(1), grolbp(1), grolj4(1), lj4_font(5),
751 grops(1), gropdf(1), grotty(1).
752 Groff macro packages and macro-specific utilities:
754 groff_tmac(5), groff_man(7), groff_mdoc(7), groff_me(7),
755 groff_mm(7), groff_mmse(7), groff_mom(7), groff_ms(7),
756 groff_www(7), groff_trace(7), mmroff(7).
757 The following utilities are available:
759 addftinfo(1), afmtodit(1), eqn2graph(1), gdiffmk(1),
760 grap2graph(1), groffer(1), gxditview(1), hpftodit(1),
761 indxbib(1), lkbib(1), lookbib(1), pdfroff(1), pfbtops(1),
762 pic2graph(1), tfmtodit(1), xtotroff(1).
763
765 Copyright © 1989-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
766 Rewritten in 2002 by Bernd Warken <groff-bernd.warken-72@web.de>
768 This document is part of groff, a free GNU software project.
770 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
772 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
773 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
774 Invariant Sections being the macro definition or .co and .au, with no
775 Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts.
776 A copy of the Free Documentation License is included as a file called
778 FDL in the main directory of the groff source package.
779 It is also available in the internet at the GNU copyleft site ⟨http://
781 www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html⟩.
782
784 This document is based on the original groff man page written by James
785 Clark ⟨jjc@jclark.com⟩. It was rewritten, enhanced, and put under the
786 FDL license by Bernd Warken <groff-bernd.warken-72@web.de>. It is
787 maintained by Werner Lemberg ⟨wl@gnu.org⟩.
788Groff Version 1.22.3 4 November 2014 GROFF(1)