Home of Groff (GNU Troff).
GNU Troff (Groff) -- a GNU project. Hosted by FFII.
HE groff (GNU Troff) software is a typesetting package which
reads plain text mixed with formatting commands and produces
formatted output. Groff now supports HTML.
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User issues lead:
Ted Harding
Technical issues lead:
Werner Lemberg
README
This is the GNU groff document formatting system. The version number is given in the file VERSION.
Included in this release are implementations of troff, pic, eqn, tbl, refer, the -man macros and the -ms macros, and drivers for PostScript, TeX dvi format, HP LaserJet 4 printers, HTML format (still alpha), and typewriter-like devices. Also included is a modified version of the Berkeley -me macros, an enhanced version of the X11 xditview previewer, and an implementation of the -mm macros contributed by Jörgen Hägg.
See the file INSTALL for installation instructions. You will require a C++ compiler.
The file NEWS describes recent user-visible changes to groff.
Groff is free software. See the file COPYING for copying permission.
The file PROBLEMS describes various problems that have been encountered in compiling, installing, and running groff.
For the moment, the documentation assumes that you are already familiar with the Unix versions of troff, -man, -ms and the preprocessors.
The most recent released version of groff is always available by anonymous ftp from ftp.gnu.org in the directory pub/gnu/groff.
A CVS repository is now available, containing the current development version of groff. You can access it with the commands:
export CVSROOT=:pserver:address@hidden:/var/cvs cvs login cvs -z9 co groff |
(if the prompt for the password appears, just press the enter key). After a successful login you no longer need the first two commands; an update of a checked out repository should be done with:
| cvs -z9 update -dP |
Please read the info pages of cvs for further details.
Alternatively, you can download snapshots (which are updated twice a day) from here or a diff file relative to the latest official groff release as:
| ftp://ftp.ffii.org/pub/groff/devel/groff-[version]-current.diff.gz |
Please report bugs using the form in the file BUG-REPORT; the idea of this is to make sure that FSF has all the information it needs to fix the bug. At the very least, read the BUG-REPORT form and make sure that you supply all the information that it asks for. Even if you are not sure that something is a bug, report it using BUG-REPORT: this will enable us to determine whether it really is a bug or not.
Three mailing lists are available:
- address@hidden for reporting bugs
- address@hidden for general discussion of groff
- address@hidden a read-only list showing logs of commitments to the CVS repository
Note that address@hidden is an alias for address@hidden; you must be subscribed to the `groff' and `groff-commit' lists to send mails.
To subscribe, send e-mail to address@hidden (example: address@hidden) with the word `subscribe' in either the subject or body of the e-mail (don't include the quotes).
GNU groff was written by James Clark. It is now maintained by Ted Harding and Werner Lemberg.
NEWS VERSION 1.18
This section describes recent user-visible changes in groff. Bug fixes are not described. There are more details in the man pages.
Troff
- Color support has been added to troff and pic
(and to two device drivers, grops and grohtml -- other
preprocessors and drivers will follow). A new function
`defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence `\m' sets the
drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
background color for closed objects created with \D'...'
commands. Similar to fonts, `\mP' and `\MP' switch back to
the previous color. `\m' and `\M' correspond to the new
troff output commands `m' and `DF'.
Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c (it is always disabled in compatibility mode).
For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling indicator `f' has been defined: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is available.
More details can be found in the troff manual page.
- It is now possible to have whitespace between the
first and second dot (or the name of the ending macro) to
end a macro definition. Example:
.de ! .. . .de foo . nop Hello, I'm `foo'. . nop I will now define `bar'. . de bar ! . nop Hello, I'm `bar'. . ! ..
- `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
- The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. Its syntax is the same as the `char' request; the only difference is that a character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens before checking special fonts.
- The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted with \c counts as one input line.
- A new escape sequence `\O' is available (mainly for internal use with grohtml). Please see groff_diff.man and groff.texinfo for more details.
- Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
- The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly, `-column' has been extended to has this functionality also.
- A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an exit status.
- `troff.man' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented in the new man page `groff_diff.man'.
- groff_mwww.man' has been renamed to `groff_www.man'. The file mwww.tmac has been removed.
- The macro `NO-AUTO-RULE' has been added to www.tmac; it suppresses the generation of top and bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
groff
- The new command line `-c' disables color output (which is always disabled in compatibility mode).
pic
- New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored',
`coloured'), `outline' (or `outlined'), and `shaded' are
available. `outline' sets the color of the outline, `shaded'
the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
circle shaded "green" outline "black" ; Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
Pic2graph
- A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <address@hidden>. It converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
grops
- Color support has been added.
grohtml
- Color support for glyphs has been added.
- New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
Miscellaneous
- A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
This document was produced using groff-1.18.
