GROFF(1)                    General Commands Manual                   GROFF(1)



NAME
       groff - front-end for the groff document formatting system

SYNOPSIS
       groff [-abcegijklpstzCEGNRSUVXZ] [-d cs] [-D arg] [-f fam] [-F dir]
             [-I dir] [-K arg] [-L arg] [-m name] [-M dir] [-n num] [-o list]
             [-P arg] [-r cn] [-T dev] [-w name] [-W name] [file ...]
       groff -h | --help
       groff -v | --version [option ...]

DESCRIPTION
       This  document  describes the groff program, the main front-end for the
       groff document formatting system.  The groff program and macro suite is
       the implementation of a roff(7) system within the free software collec-
       tion GNU <http://www.gnu.org>.  The groff system has  all  features  of
       the classical roff, but adds many extensions.

       The  groff  program allows to control the whole groff system by command
       line options.  This is a great  simplification  in  comparison  to  the
       classical case (which uses pipes only).

OPTIONS
       The  command line is parsed according to the usual GNU convention.  The
       whitespace between a command line option and its argument is  optional.
       Options  can be grouped behind a single `-' (minus character).  A file-
       name of - (minus character) denotes the standard input.

       As groff is a wrapper program for troff both programs share  a  set  of
       options.  But the groff program has some additional, native options and
       gives a new meaning to some troff options.  On the other hand, not  all
       troff options can be fed into groff.

   Native groff Options
       The  following options either do not exist for troff or are differently
       interpreted by groff.

       -D arg Set default input encoding used by preconv to arg.  Implies -k.

       -e     Preprocess with eqn.

       -g     Preprocess with grn.

       -G     Preprocess with grap.  Implies -p.

       -h
       --help Print a help message.

       -I dir This option may be used to specify a  directory  to  search  for
              files  (both  those on the command line and those named in .psbb
              and .so requests, and \X'ps: import' and \X'ps: file'  escapes).
              The current directory is always searched first.  This option may
              be specified more than once; the directories are searched in the
              order  specified.   No  directory  search is performed for files
              specified using an absolute path.  This option  implies  the  -s
              option.

       -j     Preprocess with chem.  Implies -p.

       -k     Preprocess  with  preconv.   This  is  run before any other pre-
              processor.  Please refer to preconv's manual page for its behav-
              iour if no -K (or -D) option is specified.

       -K arg Set input encoding used by preconv to arg.  Implies -k.

       -l     Send  the output to a spooler program for printing.  The command
              that should be used for this is specified by the  print  command
              in the device description file, see groff_font(5).  If this com-
              mand is not present, the output is piped into the lpr(1) program
              by default.  See options -L and -X.

       -L arg Pass  arg  to  the spooler program.  Several arguments should be
              passed with a separate -L option each.  Note that groff does not
              prepend  `-'  (a  minus  sign)  to  arg before passing it to the
              spooler program.

       -N     Don't allow newlines within eqn delimiters.  This is the same as
              the -N option in eqn.

       -p     Preprocess with pic.

       -P -option
       -P -option -P arg
              Pass  -option  or  -option arg to the postprocessor.  The option
              must be specified with the necessary preceding minus sign(s) '-'
              or '--' because groff does not prepend any dashes before passing
              it to the postprocessor.  For example, to pass a  title  to  the
              gxditview postprocessor, the shell command

                     groff -X -P -title -P 'groff it' foo

              is equivalent to

                     groff -X -Z foo | gxditview -title 'groff it' -

       -R     Preprocess  with  refer.   No  mechanism is provided for passing
              arguments to refer because most refer  options  have  equivalent
              language  elements  that  can  be specified within the document.
              See refer(1) for more details.

       -s     Preprocess with soelim.

       -S     Safer mode.  Pass the -S option to pic and disable the following
              troff requests: .open, .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi.  For security
              reasons, safer mode is enabled by default.

       -t     Preprocess with tbl.

       -T dev Set output device to dev.  For this device, troff generates  the
              intermediate output; see groff_out(5).  Then groff calls a post-
              processor to convert troff's intermediate output  to  its  final
              format.  Real devices in groff are

                     dvi    TeX DVI format (postprocessor is grodvi).

                     html
                     xhtml  HTML  and  XHTML  output (preprocessors are soelim
                            and pre-grohtml, postprocessor is post-grohtml).

                     lbp    Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
                            printers; postprocessor is grolbp).

                     lj4    HP LaserJet4 compatible (or other PCL5 compatible)
                            printers (postprocessor is grolj4).

                     ps     PostScript output (postprocessor is grops).

                     pdf    Portable Document Format (PDF) output (postproces-
                            sor is gropdf).

              For  the  following  TTY output devices (postprocessor is always
              grotty), -T selects the output encoding:

                     ascii  7bit ASCII.

                     cp1047 Latin-1 character set for EBCDIC hosts.

                     latin1 ISO 8859-1.

                     utf8   Unicode character set in UTF-8 encoding.

              The following arguments select gxditview as the  `postprocessor'
              (it is rather a viewing program):

                     X75    75dpi resolution, 10pt document base font.

                     X75-12 75dpi resolution, 12pt document base font.

                     X100   100dpi resolution, 10pt document base font.

                     X100-12
                            100dpi resolution, 12pt document base font.

              The default device is ps.

       -U     Unsafe  mode.  Reverts to the (old) unsafe behaviour; see option
              -S.

       -v
       --version
              Output version information of groff and of all programs that are
              run  by  it;  that  is,  the given command line is parsed in the
              usual way, passing -v to all subprograms.

       -V     Output the pipeline that would be run by  groff  (as  a  wrapper
              program)  on  the  standard  output,  but do not execute it.  If
              given more than once, the commands are both printed on the stan-
              dard error and run.

       -X     Use  gxditview  instead  of  using  the  usual  postprocessor to
              (pre)view a document.  The printing spooler behavior as outlined
              with options -l and -L is carried over to gxditview(1) by deter-
              mining an argument for the -printCommand option of gxditview(1).
              This  sets  the  default Print action and the corresponding menu
              entry to that value.  -X only produces good results  with  -Tps,
              -TX75,  -TX75-12, -TX100, and -TX100-12.  The default resolution
              for previewing -Tps output is 75dpi;  this  can  be  changed  by
              passing the -resolution option to gxditview, for example

                     groff -X -P-resolution -P100 -man foo.1

       -z     Suppress  output  generated  by  troff.  Only error messages are
              printed.

       -Z     Do not automatically postprocess groff  intermediate  output  in
              the usual manner.  This will cause the troff output to appear on
              standard output, replacing the usual postprocessor  output;  see
              groff_out(5).

   Transparent Options
       The  following  options  are transparently handed over to the formatter
       program troff that is called by groff subsequently.  These options  are
       described in more detail in troff(1).

       -a     ASCII approximation of output.

       -b     Backtrace on error or warning.

       -c     Disable color output.  Please consult the grotty(1) man page for
              more details.

       -C     Enable compatibility mode.

       -d cs
       -d name=s
              Define string.

       -E     Disable troff error messages.

       -f fam Set default font family.

       -F dir Set path for font DESC files.

       -i     Process standard input after the specified input files.

       -m name
              Include  macro  file  name.tmac   (or   tmac.name);   see   also
              groff_tmac(5).

       -M dir Path for macro files.

       -n num Number the first page num.

       -o list
              Output only pages in list.

       -r cn
       -r name=n
              Set number register.

       -w name
              Enable warning name.  See troff(1) for names.

       -W name
              disable warning name.  See troff(1) for names.

USING GROFF
       The  groff  system implements the infrastructure of classical roff; see
       roff(7) for a survey on how a roff system works in general.  Due to the
       front-end  programs  available  within the groff system, using groff is
       much easier than classical roff.  This section gives an overview of the
       parts  that  constitute  the groff system.  It complements roff(7) with
       groff-specific features.  This section can be regarded as  a  guide  to
       the documentation around the groff system.

   Paper Size
       The  virtual paper size used by troff to format the input is controlled
       globally with the requests .po, .pl, and .ll.   See  groff_tmac(5)  for
       the `papersize' macro package which provides a convenient interface.

       The  physical  paper  size,  giving  the actual dimensions of the paper
       sheets, is controlled by output devices like  grops  with  the  command
       line  options  -p  and  -l.  See groff_font(5) and the man pages of the
       output devices for more details.  groff uses the command line option -P
       to  pass  options to output devices; for example, the following selects
       A4 paper in landscape orientation for the PS device:

              groff -Tps -P-pa4 -P-l ...

   Front-ends
       The groff program is a wrapper around the troff(1) program.  It  allows
       to  specify the preprocessors by command line options and automatically
       runs the postprocessor that is appropriate  for  the  selected  device.
       Doing  so,  the sometimes tedious piping mechanism of classical roff(7)
       can be avoided.

       The grog(1) program can be used for guessing the correct groff  command
       line to format a file.

       The  groffer(1)  program  is an allround-viewer for groff files and man
       pages.

   Preprocessors
       The groff preprocessors are reimplementations  of  the  classical  pre-
       processors  with  moderate extensions.  The standard preprocessors dis-
       tributed with the groff package are

       eqn(1) for mathematical formulae,

       grn(1) for including gremlin(1) pictures,

       pic(1) for drawing diagrams,

       chem(1)
              for chemical structure diagrams,

       refer(1)
              for bibliographic references,

       soelim(1)
              for including macro files from standard locations,

       and

       tbl(1) for tables.

       A new preprocessor not available in classical troff is preconv(1) which
       converts various input encodings to something groff can understand.  It
       is always run first before any other preprocessor.

       Besides these, there are some internal preprocessors that are automati-
       cally run with some devices.  These aren't visible to the user.

   Macro Packages
       Macro  packages  can be included by option -m.  The groff system imple-
       ments and extends all classical macro packages in a compatible way  and
       adds  some packages of its own.  Actually, the following macro packages
       come with groff:

       man    The traditional man page format; see groff_man(7).   It  can  be
              specified on the command line as -man or -m man.

       mandoc The  general  package for man pages; it automatically recognizes
              whether the documents uses  the  man  or  the  mdoc  format  and
              branches  to  the corresponding macro package.  It can be speci-
              fied on the command line as -mandoc or -m mandoc.

       mdoc   The BSD-style man page format; see  groff_mdoc(7).   It  can  be
              specified on the command line as -mdoc or -m mdoc.

       me     The  classical  me  document format; see groff_me(7).  It can be
              specified on the command line as -me or -m me.

       mm     The classical mm document format; see groff_mm(7).   It  can  be
              specified on the command line as -mm or -m mm.

       ms     The  classical  ms  document format; see groff_ms(7).  It can be
              specified on the command line as -ms or -m ms.

       www    HTML-like macros for inclusion in arbitrary groff documents; see
              groff_www(7).

       Details  on  the naming of macro files and their placement can be found
       in groff_tmac(5); this man page also documents some other, minor auxil-
       iary macro packages not mentioned here.

   Programming Language
       General concepts common to all roff programming languages are described
       in roff(7).

       The groff extensions to the classical troff language are documented  in
       groff_diff(7).

       The  groff  language  as a whole is described in the (still incomplete)
       groff info file; a short (but  complete)  reference  can  be  found  in
       groff(7).

   Formatters
       The  central  roff  formatter  within the groff system is troff(1).  It
       provides the features of both the classical troff and nroff, as well as
       the  groff  extensions.  The command line option -C switches troff into
       compatibility mode which tries to emulate classical  roff  as  much  as
       possible.

       There  is a shell script nroff(1) that emulates the behavior of classi-
       cal nroff.  It tries to automatically select the proper  output  encod-
       ing, according to the current locale.

       The formatter program generates intermediate output; see groff_out(7).

   Devices
       In  roff,  the  output  targets  are called devices.  A device can be a
       piece of hardware, e.g., a printer,  or  a  software  file  format.   A
       device  is  specified  by the option -T.  The groff devices are as fol-
       lows.

       ascii  Text output using the ascii(7) character set.

       cp1047 Text output using the EBCDIC code page IBM cp1047 (e.g.,  OS/390
              Unix).

       dvi    TeX DVI format.

       html   HTML output.

       latin1 Text  output  using  the ISO Latin-1 (ISO 8859-1) character set;
              see iso_8859_1(7).

       lbp    Output for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and  LBP-8  series  laser
              printers).

       lj4    HP LaserJet4-compatible (or other PCL5-compatible) printers.

       ps     PostScript  output;  suitable  for  printers and previewers like
              gv(1).

       pdf    PDF files; suitable for viewing with tools such as evince(1) and
              okular(1).

       utf8   Text  output  using  the  Unicode (ISO 10646) character set with
              UTF-8 encoding; see unicode(7).

       xhtml  XHTML output.

       X75    75dpi  X  Window  System  output  suitable  for  the  previewers
              xditview(1x)  and  gxditview(1).   A variant for a 12pt document
              base font is X75-12.

       X100   100dpi X  Window  System  output  suitable  for  the  previewers
              xditview(1x)  and  gxditview(1).   A variant for a 12pt document
              base font is X100-12.

       The postprocessor to be used for a device is specified by  the  postpro
       command in the device description file; see groff_font(5).  This can be
       overridden with the -X option.

       The default device is ps.

   Postprocessors
       groff provides 3 hardware postprocessors:

       grolbp(1)
              for some Canon printers,

       grolj4(1)
              for printers compatible to the HP LaserJet 4 and PCL5,

       grotty(1)
              for text output using various encodings, e.g., on  text-oriented
              terminals or line-printers.

       Today,  most  printing  or drawing hardware is handled by the operating
       system, by device drivers, or by software interfaces, usually accepting
       PostScript.  Consequently, there isn't an urgent need for more hardware
       device postprocessors.

       The groff software devices for conversion into other document file for-
       mats are

       grodvi(1)
              for the DVI format,

       grohtml(1)
              for HTML and XHTML formats,

       grops(1)
              for PostScript.

       gropdf(1)
              for PDF.

       Combined  with  the  many existing free conversion tools this should be
       sufficient to convert a troff document into virtually any existing data
       format.

   Utilities
       The following utility programs around groff are available.

       addftinfo(1)
              Add  information  to  troff  font description files for use with
              groff.

       afmtodit(1)
              Create font description files for PostScript device.

       eqn2graph(1)
              Convert an eqn image into a cropped image.

       gdiffmk(1)
              Mark differences between groff, nroff, or troff files.

       grap2graph(1)
              Convert a grap diagram into a cropped bitmap image.

       groffer(1)
              General viewer program for groff files and man pages.

       gxditview(1)
              The groff X viewer, the GNU version of xditview.

       hpftodit(1)
              Create font description files for lj4 device.

       indxbib(1)
              Make inverted index for bibliographic databases.

       lkbib(1)
              Search bibliographic databases.

       lookbib(1)
              Interactively search bibliographic databases.

       pdfroff(1)
              Create PDF documents using groff.

       pfbtops(1)
              Translate a PostScript font in .pfb format to ASCII.

       pic2graph(1)
              Convert a pic diagram into a cropped image.

       tfmtodit(1)
              Create font description files for TeX DVI device.

       xditview(1x)
              roff viewer distributed with X window.

       xtotroff(1)
              Convert X font metrics into GNU troff font metrics.

ENVIRONMENT
       Normally, the path separator in the following environment variables  is
       the  colon; this may vary depending on the operating system.  For exam-
       ple, DOS and Windows use a semicolon instead.

       GROFF_BIN_PATH
              This search path, followed by $PATH, is used for  commands  that
              are  executed  by  groff.   If  it is not set then the directory
              where the groff binaries were installed is prepended to PATH.

       GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX
              When there is a need to run different  roff  implementations  at
              the same time groff provides the facility to prepend a prefix to
              most of its programs that could provoke name  clashings  at  run
              time  (default  is to have none).  Historically, this prefix was
              the character g, but it can be anything.   For  example,  gtroff
              stood  for groff's troff, gtbl for the groff version of tbl.  By
              setting GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX to different values, the  different
              roff installations can be addressed.  More exactly, if it is set
              to prefix xxx then groff as a wrapper program  internally  calls
              xxxtroff  instead of troff.  This also applies to the preproces-
              sors eqn, grn, pic, refer, tbl, soelim,  and  to  the  utilities
              indxbib  and  lookbib.   This feature does not apply to any pro-
              grams different from the ones above (most notably groff  itself)
              since they are unique to the groff package.

       GROFF_ENCODING
              The  value  of  this  environment value is passed to the preconv
              preprocessor to select the encoding  of  input  files.   Setting
              this  option  implies  groff's  command line option -k (this is,
              groff actually always calls preconv).  If set without  a  value,
              groff  calls  preconv without arguments.  An explicit -K command
              line option overrides the value  of  GROFF_ENCODING.   See  pre-
              conv(1) for details.

       GROFF_FONT_PATH
              A  list of directories in which to search for the devname direc-
              tory  in  addition  to  the  default  ones.   See  troff(1)  and
              groff_font(5) for more details.

       GROFF_TMAC_PATH
              A  list  of  directories  in  which to search for macro files in
              addition  to  the  default  directories.    See   troff(1)   and
              groff_tmac(5) for more details.

       GROFF_TMPDIR
              The  directory in which temporary files are created.  If this is
              not set but the environment variable TMPDIR  instead,  temporary
              files  are created in the directory $TMPDIR.  On MS-DOS and Win-
              dows 32 platforms, the environment variables TMP  and  TEMP  (in
              that  order)  are  searched also, after GROFF_TMPDIR and TMPDIR.
              Otherwise, temporary files are created in /tmp.   The  refer(1),
              groffer(1),  grohtml(1),  and  grops(1)  commands  use temporary
              files.

       GROFF_TYPESETTER
              Preset the default device.  If this is not set the ps device  is
              used  as default.  This device name is overwritten by the option
              -T.

FILES
       There are some directories in which groff  installs  all  of  its  data
       files.   Due  to  different  installation habits on different operating
       systems, their locations are not absolutely fixed, but  their  function
       is clearly defined and coincides on all systems.

   groff Macro Directory
       This  contains  all  information  related to macro packages.  Note that
       more than a single directory is searched for those files as  documented
       in  groff_tmac(5).   For  the  groff installation corresponding to this
       document, it is located at /usr/share/groff/1.22.2/tmac.  The following
       files contained in the groff macro directory have a special meaning:

       troffrc
              Initialization  file  for  troff.   This is interpreted by troff
              before reading the macro sets and any input.

       troffrc-end
              Final startup file for troff.  It is parsed after all macro sets
              have been read.

       name.tmac
       tmac.name
              Macro file for macro package name.

   groff Font Directory
       This  contains  all  information  related to output devices.  Note that
       more than a single directory is searched for those files; see troff(1).
       For  the  groff  installation  corresponding  to  this  document, it is
       located at /usr/share/groff/1.22.2/font.  The following files contained
       in the groff font directory have a special meaning:

       devname/DESC
              Device description file for device name, see groff_font(5).

       devname/F
              Font file for font F of device name.

EXAMPLES
       The  following  example illustrates the power of the groff program as a
       wrapper around troff.

       To process a roff file using the preprocessors tbl and pic and  the  me
       macro set, classical troff had to be called by

              pic foo.me | tbl | troff -me -Tlatin1 | grotty

       Using groff, this pipe can be shortened to the equivalent command

              groff -p -t -me -T latin1 foo.me

       An  even  easier  way  to call this is to use grog(1) to guess the pre-
       processor and macro options and execute the generated command (by using
       backquotes to specify shell command substitution)

              `grog -Tlatin1 foo.me`

       The simplest way is to view the contents in an automated way by calling

              groffer foo.me

BUGS
       On  EBCDIC  hosts  (e.g., OS/390 Unix), output devices ascii and latin1
       aren't available.  Similarly, output for EBCDIC code page cp1047 is not
       available on ASCII based operating systems.

       Report  bugs  to  the groff maling list <bug-groff@gnu.org>.  Include a
       complete, self-contained example that allows the bug to be  reproduced,
       and say which version of groff you are using.

AVAILABILITY
       Information on how to get groff and related information is available at
       the groff GNU website  <http://www.gnu.org/software/groff>.   The  most
       recent  released version of groff is available at the groff development
       site <http://groff.ffii.org/groff/devel/groff-current.tar.gz>.

       Three groff mailing lists are available:

              for reporting bugs <bug-groff@gnu.org>.

              for general discussion of groff, <groff@gnu.org>.

              the groff commit list <groff-commit@ffii.org>, a read-only  list
              showing logs of commitments to the CVS repository.

       Details  on CVS access and much more can be found in the file README at
       the top directory of the groff source package.

       There is a free implementation of the grap preprocessor, written by Ted
       Faber  <faber@lunabase.org>.   The  actual  version can be found at the
       grap   website   <http://www.lunabase.org/~faber/Vault/software/grap/>.
       This is the only grap version supported by groff.

AUTHORS
       Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

       This document is distributed under the terms of the FDL (GNU Free Docu-
       mentation License) version 1.3 or later.  You should  have  received  a
       copy of the FDL on your system, it is also available on-line at the GNU
       copyleft site <http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html>.

       This document is based on the original groff man page written by  James
       Clark  <jjc@jclark.com>.  It was rewritten, enhanced, and put under the
       FDL license by  Bernd  Warken  <groff-bernd.warken-72@web.de>.   It  is
       maintained by Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.

       groff  is  a GNU free software project.  All parts of the groff package
       are protected by GNU copyleft licenses.  The software  files  are  dis-
       tributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL), while
       the documentation files mostly use the GNU Free  Documentation  License
       (FDL).

SEE ALSO
       The groff info file contains all information on the groff system within
       a single document, providing many examples and background  information.
       See info(1) on how to read it.

       Due  to  its  complex  structure,  the groff system has many man pages.
       They can be read with man(1) or groffer(1).

       Introduction, history and further readings:
              roff(7).

       Viewer for groff files:
              groffer(1), gxditview(1), xditview(1x).

       Wrapper programs for formatters:
              groff(1), grog(1).

       Roff preprocessors:
              eqn(1),   grn(1),   pic(1),   chem(1),   preconv(1),   refer(1),
              soelim(1), tbl(1), grap(1).

       Roff language with the groff extensions:
              groff(7), groff_char(7), groff_diff(7), groff_font(5).

       Roff formatter programs:
              nroff(1), troff(1), ditroff(7).

       The intermediate output language:
              groff_out(7).

       Postprocessors for the output devices:
              grodvi(1),   grohtml(1),   grolbp(1),   grolj4(1),  lj4_font(5),
              grops(1), gropdf(1), grotty(1).

       Groff macro packages and macro-specific utilities:
              groff_tmac(5),   groff_man(7),    groff_mdoc(7),    groff_me(7),
              groff_mm(7),    groff_mmse(7)   (only   in   Swedish   locales),
              groff_mom(7),   groff_ms(7),    groff_www(7),    groff_trace(7),
              mmroff(7).

       The following utilities are available:
              addftinfo(1),     afmtodit(1),     eqn2graph(1),     gdiffmk(1),
              grap2graph(1),    groffer(1),     gxditview(1),     hpftodit(1),
              indxbib(1),   lkbib(1),   lookbib(1),   pdfroff(1),  pfbtops(1),
              pic2graph(1), tfmtodit(1), xtotroff(1).



Groff Version 1.22.2           04 September 2014                      GROFF(1)
