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Name | Synopsis | Description | Options | Warnings | Environment | Files | Authors | See also | COLOPHON |
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troff(1) General Commands Manual troff(1)
troff - GNU roff typesetter and document formatter
troff [-abcCEiRUz] [-d cs] [-d name=string] [-f fam] [-F dir]
[-I dir] [-m name] [-M dir] [-n num] [-o list] [-r cn]
[-r reg=expr] [-T dev] [-w name] [-W name] [file ...]
troff --help
troff -v
troff --version
The GNU version of troff is the heart of the groff document
formatting system. troff is the groff system's formatter, the
program that transforms roff language input into a device-
independent output format. It is functionally compatible with
the AT&T troff typesetter and features numerous extensions. Many
people prefer to use the groff(1) command, a front end which also
runs preprocessors and output drivers in the appropriate order
and with appropriate options.
-a Generate a plain text approximation of the typeset output.
The read-only register .A is set to 1. This option
produces a sort of abstract preview of the formatted
output.
• Page breaks are marked by a phrase in angle
brackets; for example, “<beginning of page>”.
• Lines are broken where they would be in the
formatted output.
• A horizontal motion of any size is represented as
one space. Adjacent horizontal motions are not
combined. Inter-sentence space nodes (those
arising from the second argument to the .ss
request) are not represented.
• Vertical motions are not represented.
• Special characters are rendered in angle brackets;
for example, the default soft hyphen character
appears as “<hy>”.
The above description should not be considered a
specification; the details of -a output are subject to
change.
-b Write a backtrace reporting the state of troff's input
parser to the standard error stream with each diagnostic
message. The line numbers given in the backtrace might
not always be correct, because troff's idea of line
numbers can be confused by requests that append to strings
or macros.
-c Start with color output disabled.
-C Enable AT&T troff compatibility mode; implies -c.
-d cs
-d name=string
Define roff string c or name as s or string; c must be a
one-character name. Due to getopt_long(3) limitations,
c cannot be and name cannot contain an equals sign, even
though that is a valid character in a roff identifier.
-E Inhibit troff error messages; implies -Ww. This option
does not suppress messages sent to the standard error
stream by documents or macro packages using .tm or related
requests.
-f fam Use fam as the default font family.
-F dir Search in directory dir for the selected output device's
directory of device and font description files. See the
description of GROFF_FONT_PATH in section “Environment”
below for the default search locations and ordering.
-i Read the standard input after all the named input files
have been processed.
-I dir Search dir for input files (those on the command line,
those named in .psbb, .so, and .soquiet requests, and
those named in “\X'ps: import'”, “\X'ps: file'”, and
“\X'pdf: pdfpic'” escape sequences). This option may be
specified more than once; the directories are then
searched in the order specified. If you want to search
the current directory before others, add “-I .” at the
appropriate place. The current working directory is
otherwise searched last. -I works similarly to, and is
named for, the “include” option of Unix C compilers. No
directory search is performed for files specified using an
absolute file name.
-m name
Process name.tmac before any input files. If name.tmac is
not found, tmac.name is attempted. name (in both
arrangements) is presumed to be a macro file; see the
description of GROFF_TMAC_PATH in section “Environment”
below for the default search locations and ordering.
-M dir Search directory dir for macro files. See the description
of GROFF_TMAC_PATH in section “Environment” below for the
default search locations and ordering.
-n num Number the first page num.
-o list
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, -n means print every page
up to n, and n- means print every page from n on. troff
stops processing and exits after formatting the last page
enumerated in list.
-r cn
-r reg=n
Define roff register c or reg as groff numeric
expression n or expr; c must be a one-character name. Due
to getopt_long(3) limitations, c cannot be and reg cannot
contain an equals sign, even though that is a valid
character in a roff identifier.
-R Don't load troffrc and troffrc-end.
-T dev Prepare output for device dev, rather than the default,
“ps”; see groff(1).
-U Operate in unsafe mode, which enables the .open, .opena,
.pi, .pso, and .sy requests. These requests are disabled
by default because they allow an untrusted input document
to write to arbitrary file names and run arbitrary
commands. This option also adds the current directory to
the macro search path; see the -m option above.
-w name
-W name
Enable (-w) or inhibit (-W) emission of warnings in
category name. See section “Warnings” below.
-z Suppress formatted output.
Warning diagnostics emitted by troff are divided into named,
numbered categories. The name associated with each warning
category is used by the -w and -W options. Each category is also
assigned a power of two; the sum of enabled category codes is
used by the warn request and the .warn register. Warnings of
each category are produced under the following circumstances.
┌──────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│Bit Code Category │ Bit Code Category │
├──────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│ 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 │
│ │ 20 1048576 file │
└──────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
break 4 When filling is enabled, a line could not be
broken such that its length was less than the
output line length \n[.l]. This is enabled
by default.
char 1 An undefined glyph was requested for output.
(“char” is a misnomer since it reports
missing glyphs—there are no “missing” input
characters, only invalid ones.) This
cateogry is enabled by default.
color 524288 An undefined color was dereferenced, an
attempt was made to define a color using an
unrecognized color space, an invalid
component in a color definition was
encountered, or an attempt was made to
redefine the default color.
delim 8 The closing delimiter in an escape sequence
was missing or mismatched.
di 256 A di, da, box, or boxa request was invoked
without an argument when there was no current
diversion.
el 16 The el request was encountered with no prior
corresponding ie request.
escape 32768 An unsupported escape sequence was
encountered. In such a sequence \X, the
escape character is ignored and X is output.
file 1048576 An attempt was made to load a file that does
not exist. This category is enabled by
default.
font 131072 A non-existent font was dereferenced. This
category is enabled by default.
ig 262144 An invalid escape sequence occurred in input
ignored using the ig request. This warning
category diagnoses a condition that is an
error when it occurs in non-ignored input.
input 16384 An invalid character occurred on the input
stream.
mac 512 An undefined string, macro, diversion, or box
was used. When such an object is
dereferenced, an empty object of that name is
automatically created. So, in most cases, at
most one warning is given for each name.
This warning is also emitted upon an attempt
to move an unplanted trap. In such cases,
the unplanted macro is not dereferenced, so
it is not created if it does not exist.
missing 8192 A request was invoked with a mandatory
argument absent.
number 2 An invalid numeric expression was
encountered. This category is enabled by
default.
range 64 A numeric expression was out of range for its
context.
reg 1024 An undefined register was used. When an
undefined register is dereferenced, it is
automatically defined with a value of 0. So,
in most cases, at most one warning is given
for each name.
right-brace 4096 A right brace escape sequence \} was
encountered where a number was expected.
scale 32 An inappropriate scaling indicator was used
in a numeric expression.
space 65536 A space was missing between a request or
macro and its argument. This warning is
produced when an undefined name longer than
two characters is encountered and the first
two characters of the name constitute a
defined name. No request is invoked, no
macro called, and an empty macro is not
defined. This category is enabled by
default. It never occurs in compatibility
mode.
syntax 128 A self-contradictory hyphenation mode was
requested; an empty or incomplete numeric
expression was encountered; an operand to a
numeric operator was missing; an attempt was
made to define a recursive, empty, or
nonsensical character class; or a groff
extension conditional expression operator was
used while in compatibility mode.
tab 2048 A tab character was encountered where a
number was expected, or appeared in an
unquoted macro argument.
Two warning names group other warning categories for convenience.
all All warning categories except di, mac, and reg. This
shorthand is intended to produce all warnings that are
useful with macro packages written for AT&T troff and its
descendants, which have less fastidious diagnostics than
GNU troff.
w All warning categories. Authors of documents and macro
packages targeting groff are encouraged to use this
setting.
GROFF_FONT_PATH and GROFF_TMAC_PATH each accept a search path of
directories; that is, a list of directory names separated by the
system's path component separator character. On Unix systems,
this character is a colon (:); on Windows systems, it is a
semicolon (;).
GROFF_FONT_PATH
A list of directories in which to seek the selected output
device's directory of device and font description files.
troff will scan directories given as arguments to any
specified -F options before these, then in a site-specific
directory (/usr/local/share/groff/site-font), a standard
location (/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/font), and a
compatibility directory (/usr/lib/font) after them.
GROFF_TMAC_PATH
A list of directories in which to search for macro files.
troff will scan directories given as arguments to any
specified -M options before these, then the current
directory (only if in unsafe mode), the user's home
directory, a platform-specific directory (/usr/local/lib/
groff/site-tmac), a site-specific directory (/usr/local/
share/groff/site-tmac), and a standard location (/usr/
local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac) after them.
GROFF_TYPESETTER
Set the default output device. If empty or not set, “ps”
is used. The -T option overrides GROFF_TYPESETTER.
SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
A timestamp (expressed as seconds since the Unix epoch) to
use as the creation timestamp in place of the current
time. The time is converted to human-readable form using
ctime(3) when the formatter starts up and stored in
registers usable by documents and macro packages.
TZ The timezone to use when converting the current time (or
value of SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH) to human-readable form; see
tzset(3).
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/troffrc
is an initialization macro file loaded before any macro
packages specified with -m options.
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/troffrc-end
is an initialization macro file loaded after all macro
packages specified with -m options.
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/name.tmac
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/tmac.name
are macro files distributed with groff.
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/font/devname/DESC
describes the output device name.
/usr/local/share/groff/1.23.0/font/devname/F
describes the font F of device name.
troffrc and troffrc-end are sought neither in the current nor the
home directory by default for security reasons, even if the -U
option is specified. Use the -M command-line option or the
GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to add these directories to
the search path if necessary.
The GNU version of troff was originally written by James Clark;
he also wrote the original version of this document, which was
updated by Werner Lemberg ⟨wl@gnu.org⟩, Bernd Warken ⟨groff-bernd
.warken-72@web.de⟩, and G. Branden Robinson ⟨g.branden.robinson@
gmail.com⟩.
Groff: The GNU Implementation of troff, by Trent A. Fisher and
Werner Lemberg, is the primary groff manual. You can browse it
interactively with “info groff”.
groff(1)
offers an overview of the GNU roff system and describes
its front end executable.
groff(7)
details the groff language, including a short but complete
reference of all predefined requests, registers, and
escape sequences.
groff_char(7)
explains the syntax of groff special character escape
sequences, and lists all special characters predefined by
the language.
groff_diff(7)
enumerates the differences between AT&T device-independent
troff and groff.
groff_font(5)
covers the format of groff device and font description
files.
groff_out(5)
describes the format of troff's output.
groff_tmac(5)
includes information about macro files that ship with
groff.
roff(7)
supplies background on roff systems in general, including
pointers to further related documentation.
This page is part of the groff (GNU troff) project. Information
about the project can be found at
⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/⟩. If you have a bug report
for this manual page, see ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/⟩.
This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/groff.git⟩ on 2021-08-27. (At
that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in
the repository was 2021-08-23.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org
groff 1.23.0.rc1.1101-d1263-di2r6tyAugust 2021 troff(1)
Pages that refer to this page: colcrt(1), groffer(1), grops(1), man(1), zsoelim(1), groff_char(7), groff_trace(7), roff(7)
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