GROG(1)                     General Commands Manual                    GROG(1)



NAME
       grog - guess options for groff command

SYNOPSIS
       grog [-C] [groff-option ...] [--] [filespec ...]
       grog -h | --help
       grog -v | --version

DESCRIPTION
       grog  reads  the input (file names or standard input) and guesses which
       of the groff(1) options are needed to perform the input with the  groff
       program.  The corresponding groff command is output.

OPTIONS
       The  only  grog  options recognized are -C (which is also passed on) to
       enable compatibility mode; -v and --version print  information  on  the
       version  number; and -h and --help print usage information.  -v, --ver-
       sion, -h, and --help stop the program directly without printing a groff
       command to standard output.

       All  other specified short options (words starting with one minus char-
       acter -) are interpreted as groff options or option  clusters  with  or
       without  argument.  No space is allowed between options and their argu-
       ment.  Except from the -marg options, all options will  be  passed  on,
       i.e.  they are included unchanged in the command for the output without
       effecting the work of grog.

       A filespec argument can either be the name of an  existing  file  or  a
       single  minus  -  to  mean standard input.  If no filespec is specified
       standard input is read automatically.

DETAILS
       grog reads all filespec parameters as a whole.  It tries to guess which
       of the following groff options are required for running the input under
       groff: -e, -man, -me, -mm, -mom, -ms, -mdoc, -mdoc-old, -p, -R, -g, -G,
       -s,  and -t.  The guessed groff command including those options and the
       found filespec parameters is put on the standard output.

       It is possible to specify arbitrary groff options on the command  line.
       These  are  passed  on  the output without change, except for the -marg
       options.

       The groff program has trouble when the wrong -marg option or several of
       these  options are specified.  In these cases, grog will print an error
       message and exit with an error code.  It is better to specify no  -marg
       option.   Because  such an option is only accepted and passed when grog
       does not find any of these options or the same option is found.

       If several different -marg options are found by grog an  error  message
       is  produced and the program is terminated with an error code.  But the
       output is written with the wrong options nevertheless.

       Remember that it is not necessary to determine a macro package.  A roff
       file  can also be written in the groff language without any macro pack-
       age.  grog will produce an output without an -marg option.

       As groff also works with pure text files  without  any  roff  requests,
       grog cannot be used to identify a file to be a roff file.

       The groffer(1) program heavily depends on a working grog.

       The  grog  source  contains  two files written in different programming
       languages: grog.pl is the Perl version, while grog.sh is a shell script
       using  awk(1).  During the run of make(1), it is determined whether the
       system contains a suitable version  of  perl(1).   If  so,  grog.pl  is
       transformed into grog; otherwise grog.sh is used instead.

EXAMPLES
       o      Calling

                     grog meintro.me

              results in

                     groff -me meintro.me

              So  grog recognized that the file meintro.me is written with the
              -me macro package.

       o      On the other hand,

                     grog pic.ms

              outputs

                     groff -pte -ms pic.ms

              Besides determining the macro package -ms, grog recognized  that
              the  file  pic.ms additionally needs -pte, the combination of -p
              for pic, -t for tbl, and -e for eqn.

       o      If both files are combined by the command

                     grog meintro.me pic.ms

              an error message is sent to standard error because groff  cannot
              work with two different macro packages:

                     grog: error: there are several macro packages: -me -ms

              Additionally  the corresponding output with the wrong options is
              printed to standard output:

                     groff -pte -me -ms meintro.me pic.ms

              But the program is terminated with an error code.

       o      The call of

                     grog -ksS -Tdvi grnexmpl.g

              contains several groff options that are just passed on the  out-
              put without any interface to grog.  These are the option cluster
              -ksS consisting of -k, -s, and -S; and the option -T with  argu-
              ment dvi.  The output is

                     groff -ksS -Tdvi grnexmpl.g

              so  no  additional option was added by grog.  As no option -marg
              was found by grog this file does not use a macro package.

SEE ALSO
       groff(1), troff(1), tbl(1), pic(1), chem(1), eqn(1), refer(1),  grn(1),
       grap(1),     soelim(1),    groff_me(7),    groff_ms(7),    groff_mm(7),
       groff_mom(7), groff_man(7), groffer(1)

COPYING
       Copyright (C) 1989-2003, 2006, 2007, 2009-2012  Free  Software  Founda-
       tion,  Inc.   Written  by  James  Clark.   Maintained by Werner Lemberg
       <wl@gnu.org>.  Rewritten and put under  GPL  by  Bernd  Warken  <groff-
       bernd.warken-72@web.de>.

       This  file  is  part  of  grog, which is part of groff, a free software
       project.  You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the  terms  of
       the  GNU General Public License (GPL) as published by the Free Software
       Foundation, either version 2, or (at your option) any later version.

       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
       with  groff,  see the files COPYING and LICENSE in the top directory of
       the groff source package.  Or read the man page gpl(1).  You  can  also
       write  to  the  Free Software Foundation, 51 Franklin St - Fifth Floor,
       Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.



Groff Version 1.22.2           07 February 2013                        GROG(1)
