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TROFF(1)                                                                                            TROFF(1)



NAME
       troff - the troff processor of the groff text formatting system

SYNOPSIS
       troff [ -abcivzCERU ] [ -dcs ] [ -ffam ] [ -Fdir ] [ -Idir ] [ -mname ] [ -Mdir ] [ -nnum ]
             [ -olist ] [ -rcn ] [ -Tname ] [ -wname ] [ -Wname ] [ 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  post-processors postprocessors
       processors 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.

       -Idir     This option may be used to specify a directory to search for files (both those on the  com-mand command
                 mand  line  and  those  named in .psbb requests).  The current directory is always searched
                 first.  This option may be specified more than once; the directories will  be  searched  in
                 the  order  specified.  No directory search is performed for files specified using an abso-lute absolute
                 lute path.

       -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/1.19.2/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 nmeans
                 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;  see  groff(1)  for  a  more
                 detailed description.

       -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 -w all.  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  associ-ated associated
       ated  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 encoun-tered, encountered,
                           tered, 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 \} 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 num-ber number
                           ber 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 direc-tory directory
              tory if in unsafe mode, home directory, /usr/lib/groff/site-tmac,  /usr/share/groff/site-tmac,
              /usr/share/groff/1.19.2/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/1.19.2/font, /usr/lib/font) after these.

FILES
       /usr/share/groff/1.19.2/tmac/troffrc        Initialization  file (called before any other macro pack-age). package).
                                                   age).

       /usr/share/groff/1.19.2/tmac/troffrc-end    Initialization file (called after any other  macro  pack-age). package).
                                                   age).

       /usr/share/groff/1.19.2/tmac/name.tmac
       /usr/share/groff/1.19.2/tmac/tmac.name      Macro files

       /usr/share/groff/1.19.2/font/devname/DESC   Device description file for device name.

       /usr/share/groff/1.19.2/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, 2003 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  GNU  copyleft  site  <http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html.  This document was written by James
       Clark, with modifications from

       Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org> and

       Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>

       This document is part of groff, the GNU roff distribution.

SEE ALSO
       groff(1)
              The main program of the groff system, a wrapper around troff.

       groff(7)
              A description of the groff language, including a short but complete reference  of  all  prede-fined predefined
              fined  requests, registers, and escapes of plain groff.  From the command line, this is called
              by

                     man 7 groff

       groff_diff(7)
              The differences of the groff language and the classical troff language.   Currently,  this  is
              the most actual document of the groff system.

       roff(7)
              An  overview over groff and other roff systems, including pointers to further related documen-tation. documentation.
              tation.

       The groff info file, cf. info(1), presents all groff documentation within a single document.



Groff Version 1.19.2                           13 October 2003                                      TROFF(1)

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