TROFF(1)                   OpenBSD Reference Manual                   TROFF(1)



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

SYNOPSIS
       troff [-abcivzCERU] [-d cs] [-f fam] [-F dir] [-I dir] [-m name]
             [-M dir] [-n num] [-o list] [-r cn] [-T name] [-w name] [-W name]
             [file ...]

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
       It is possible to have whitespace between a command line option and its
       parameter.

       -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 add a directory to the search path
                 for files (both those on the command line and those named in
                 .psbb requests).  The search path is initialized with the
                 current directory.  This option may be specified more than
                 once; the directories are then searched in the order
                 specified (but before the current directory).  If you want to
                 make the current directory be read before other directories,
                 add -I. at the appropriate place.

                 No directory search is performed for files with an absolute
                 file name.

       -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/local/lib/groff/site-tmac, /usr/local/share/groff/site-
                 tmac, and /usr/local/share/groff/1.21/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;
                 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 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       |
                |                     |  20   1048576   file        |
                +---------------------+-----------------------------+
       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.

       file      1048576   Indicates a missing file for the mso request.
                           Enabled by default.

       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 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/local/lib/groff/site-tmac,
              /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac,
              /usr/local/share/groff/1.21/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/local/share/groff/site-font,
              /usr/local/share/groff/1.21/font, /usr/lib/font) after these.

FILES
       /usr/local/share/groff/1.21/tmac/troffrc
              Initialization file (called before any other macro package).

       /usr/local/share/groff/1.21/tmac/troffrc-end
              Initialization file (called after any other macro package).

       /usr/local/share/groff/1.21/tmac/name.tmac
       /usr/local/share/groff/1.21/tmac/tmac.name
              Macro files

       /usr/local/share/groff/1.21/font/devname/DESC
              Device description file for device name.

       /usr/local/share/groff/1.21/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, 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software
       Foundation, Inc.

       This document is distributed under the terms of the FDL (GNU Free
       Documentation 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 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 predefined 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 documentation.

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



Groff Version 1.21             31 December 2010                       TROFF(1)
