troff - the troff processor of the groff text formatting system
SYNOPSIS
troff
[ -abcivzCERU ]
[ -d cs ]
[ -f fam ]
[ -F dir ]
[ -m name ]
[ -M dir ]
[ -n num ]
[ -o list ]
[ -r cn ]
[ -T name ]
[ -w name ]
[ -W name ]
[ files... ]
It is possible to have whitespace between a command line option and
its parameter.
DESCRIPTION
This manual page describes the GNU version of
troff.
It is part of the groff document formatting system.
It is functionally compatible with UNIX troff, but has many extensions,
see
groff_diff(7).
Usually it should be invoked using the
groff(1)
command which will also run preprocessors and postprocessors in the
appropriate order and with the appropriate options.
OPTIONS
-a
Generate an
ASCII
approximation of the typeset output.
-b
Print a backtrace with each warning or error message.
This backtrace should help track down the cause of the error.
The line numbers given in the backtrace may not always be correct, for
troff's
idea of line numbers gets confused by
as
or
am
requests.
-c
Disable color output (always disabled in compatibility mode).
-C
Enable compatibility mode.
-dcs
-dname=s
Define
c
or
name
to be a string
s;
c
must be a one letter name.
-E
Inhibit all error messages of
troff.
Note that this doesn't affect messages output to standard error by macro
packages using the
tm
or
tm1
requests.
-ffam
Use
fam
as the default font family.
-Fdir
Search in directory (or directory path)
dir
for subdirectories
devname
(name
is the name of the device) and there for the
DESC
file and font files.
dir
is scanned before all other font directories.
-i
Read the standard input after all the named input files have been
processed.
-mname
Read in the file
name.tmac.
If it isn't found, try
tmac.name
instead.
It will be first searched for in directories given with the
-M
command line option, then in directories given in the
GROFF_TMAC_PATH
environment variable, then in the current directory (only if in unsafe
mode), the home directory, /usr/lib/groff/site-tmac, /usr/share/groff/site-tmac, and
/usr/share/groff/1.18.1.1/tmac.
-Mdir
Search directory (or directory path)
dir
for macro files.
This is scanned before all other macro directories.
-nnum
Number the first page
num.
-olist
Output only pages in
list,
which is a comma-separated list of page ranges;
n
means print page
n,
m-n
means print every page between
m
and
n,
-n
means print every page up to
n,
n-
means print every page from
n.
troff
will exit after printing the last page in the list.
-rcn
-rname=n
Set number register
c
or
name
to
n;
c
must be a one character name;
n
can be any troff numeric expression.
-R
Don't load
troffrc
and
troffrc-end.
-Tname
Prepare output for device
name,
rather than the default
ps.
-U
Unsafe mode.
This will enable the following requests:
open,
opena,
pso,
sy,
and
pi.
For security reasons, these potentially dangerous requests are disabled
otherwise.
It will also add the current directory to the macro search path.
-v
Print the version number.
-wname
Enable warning
name.
Available warnings are described in the section
WARNINGS
below.
For example, to enable all warnings, use
-wall.
Multiple
-w
options are allowed.
-Wname
Inhibit warning
name.
Multiple
-W
options are allowed.
-z
Suppress formatted output.
WARNINGS
The warnings that can be given by
troff
are divided into the following categories.
The name associated with each warning is used by the
-w
and
-W
options; the number is used by the
warn
request, and by the
.warn
register; it is always a power of 2 to allow bitwise composition.
Bit
Code
Warning
Bit
Code
Warning
0
1
char
10
1024
reg
1
2
number
11
2048
tab
2
4
break
12
4096
right-brace
3
8
delim
13
8192
missing
4
16
el
14
16384
input
5
32
scale
15
32768
escape
6
64
range
16
65536
space
7
128
syntax
17
131072
font
8
256
di
18
262144
ig
9
512
mac
19
524288
color
break 4
In fill mode, lines which could not be broken so that their length was
less than the line length.
This is enabled by default.
char 1
Non-existent characters.
This is enabled by default.
color 524288
Color related warnings.
delim 8
Missing or mismatched closing delimiters.
di 256
Use of
di
or
da
without an argument when there is no current diversion.
el 16
Use of the
el
request with no matching
ie
request.
escape 32768
Unrecognized escape sequences.
When an unrecognized escape sequence is encountered, the escape
character is ignored.
font 131072
Non-existent fonts.
This is enabled by default.
ig 262144
Invalid escapes in text ignored with the
ig
request.
These are conditions that are errors when they do not occur in ignored
text.
input 16384
Invalid input characters.
mac 512
Use of undefined strings, macros and diversions.
When an undefined string, macro or diversion is used, that string is
automatically defined as empty.
So, in most cases, at most one warning will be given for each name.
missing 8192
Requests that are missing non-optional arguments.
number 2
Invalid numeric expressions.
This is enabled by default.
range 64
Out of range arguments.
reg 1024
Use of undefined number registers.
When an undefined number register is used, that register is
automatically defined to have a value of~0.
So, in most cases, at most one warning will be given for use of a
particular name.
right-brace 4096
Use of
[rs]}
where a number was expected.
scale 32
Meaningless scaling indicators.
space 65536
Missing space between a request or macro and its argument.
This warning will be given when an undefined name longer than two
characters is encountered, and the first two characters of the name
make a defined name.
The request or macro will not be invoked.
When this warning is given, no macro is automatically defined.
This is enabled by default.
This warning will never occur in compatibility mode.
syntax 128
Dubious syntax in numeric expressions.
tab 2048
Inappropriate use of a tab character.
Either use of a tab character where a number was expected, or use of tab
character in an unquoted macro argument.
There are also names that can be used to refer to groups of warnings:
all
All warnings except
di,
mac,
and
reg.
It is intended that this covers all warnings that are useful with
traditional macro packages.
w
All warnings.
ENVIRONMENT
GROFF_TMAC_PATH
A colon separated list of directories in which to search for
macro files.
troff
will scan directories given in the
-M
option before these, and in standard directories (current directory if
in unsafe mode, home directory,
/usr/lib/groff/site-tmac,
/usr/share/groff/site-tmac,
/usr/share/groff/1.18.1.1/tmac)
after these.
GROFF_TYPESETTER
Default device.
GROFF_FONT_PATH
A colon separated list of directories in which to search for the
devname
directory.
troff
will scan directories given in the
-F
option before these, and in standard directories
(/usr/share/groff/site-font,
/usr/share/groff/1.18.1.1/font,
/usr/lib/font)
after these.
FILES
u+3n
/usr/share/groff/1.18.1.1/tmac/troffrc
Initialization file (called before any other macro package).
/usr/share/groff/1.18.1.1/tmac/troffrc-end
Initialization file (called after any other macro package).
/usr/share/groff/1.18.1.1/tmac/name.tmac
/usr/share/groff/1.18.1.1/tmac/tmac.name
Macro files
/usr/share/groff/1.18.1.1/font/devname/DESC
Device description file for device
name.
/usr/share/groff/1.18.1.1/font/devname/F
Font file for font
F
of device
name.
Note that
troffrc
and
troffrc-end
are neither searched in the current nor in the home directory by
default for security reasons (even if the
-U
option is given).
Use the
-M
command line option or the
GROFF_TMAC_PATH
environment variable to add these directories to the search path if
necessary.
AUTHOR
Copyright (C) 1989, 2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This document is distributed under the terms of the FDL (GNU Free
Documentation License) version 1.1 or later.
You should have received a copy of the FDL on your system, it is also
available on-line at the
This document was written by James Clark, with modifications from
and
This document is part of
groff,
the GNU roff distribution.
A description of the
groff
language, including a short but complete reference of all predefined
requests, registers, and escapes of plain
groff.
From the command line, this is called by
An overview over
groff
and other
roff
systems, including pointers to further related documentation.
The
groff infofile,
cf.
info(1),
presents all groff documentation within a single document.
