{ "mode": "info", "parameter": "groffer", "section": "", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/info/groffer/json", "generated": "2026-08-04T17:03:05Z", "synopsis": "groffer [mode-option ...] [groff-option ...] [man-option ...] [X-option\n...] [--] [filespec ...]\ngroffer -h\ngroffer --help\ngroffer -v\ngroffer --version", "sections": { "NAME": { "content": "groffer - display groff files and man pages on X and tty\n", "subsections": [] }, "SYNOPSIS": { "content": "groffer [mode-option ...] [groff-option ...] [man-option ...] [X-option\n...] [--] [filespec ...]\n\ngroffer -h\ngroffer --help\n\ngroffer -v\ngroffer --version\n", "subsections": [] }, "DESCRIPTION": { "content": "The groffer program is the easiest way to use groff(1). It can display\narbitrary documents written in the groff language, see groff(7), or\nother roff languages, see roff(7), that are compatible to the original\ntroff language. It finds and runs all necessary groff preprocessors,\nsuch as chem.\n\nThe groffer program also includes many of the features for finding and\ndisplaying the Unix manual pages (man pages), such that it can be used\nas a replacement for a man(1) program. Moreover, compressed files that\ncan be handled by gzip(1) or bzip2(1) are decompressed on-the-fly.\n\nThe normal usage is quite simple by supplying a file name or name of a\nman page without further options. But the option handling has many\npossibilities for creating special behaviors. This can be done either\nin configuration files, with the shell environment variable\nGROFFEROPT, or on the command line.\n\nThe output can be generated and viewed in several different ways avail-\nable for groff. This includes the X Window System-based groff program\ngxditview(1), each PostScript, PDF, or DVI display program, a web\nbrowser by generating HTML or XHTML in www mode, or several text modes\nin text terminals.\n\nMost of the options that must be named when running groff directly are\ndetermined automatically for groffer, due to the internal usage of the\ngrog(1) program. But all parts can also be controlled manually by ar-\nguments.\n\nSeveral file names can be specified on the command-line arguments.\nThey are transformed into a single document in the normal way of groff.\n\nOption handling is done in GNU style. Options and file names can be\nmixed freely. The option \"--\" closes the option handling, all follow-\ning arguments are treated as file names. Long options can be abbrevi-\nated in several ways.\n", "subsections": [] }, "OPTION OVERVIEW": { "content": "breaking options\n\n[-h | --help] [-v | --version]\n\ngroffer mode options\n\n[--auto] [--default] [--default-modes mode1,mode2,...] [--dvi]\n[--groff] [--html] [--latin1] [--mode displaymode] [--pdf]\n[--pdf2] [--ps] [--source] [--text] [--to-stdout] [--tty]\n[--utf8] [--viewer prog] [--www] [--xhtml] [--x | --X]\n\noptions related to groff\n\n[-T | --device device] [-Z | --intermediate-output | --ditroff]\n\nAll further groff short options are accepted.\n\noptions for man pages\n\n[--apropos] [--apropos-data] [--apropos-devel]\n[--apropos-progs] [--man] [--no-man] [--no-special] [--whatis]\n\nlong options taken over from GNU man\n\n[--all] [--ascii] [--ditroff] [--extension suffix]\n[--locale language] [--local-file] [--location | --where]\n[--manpath dir1:dir2:...] [--no-location] [--pager program]\n[--sections sec1:sec2:...] [--systems sys1,sys2,...]\n[--troff-device device]\n\nFurther long options of GNU man are accepted as well.\n\noptions mapped to X Window System Toolkit Intrinsics options\n\n[--bd | --bordercolor pixels] [--bg | --background color]\n[--bw | --borderwidth pixels] [--display X-display]\n[--fg | --foreground color] [--fn | --ft | --font fontname]\n[--geometry sizepos] [--resolution value] [--rv]\n[--title string] [--xrm X-resource]\n\noptions for development\n\n[--debug] [--debug-filenames] [--debug-grog] [--debug-keep]\n[--debug-params] [--debug-tmpdir] [--do-nothing] [--print text]\n[-V]\n\nfilespec arguments\n\nThe filespec parameters are all arguments that are neither an\noption nor an option argument. They usually mean a file name or\na man page searching scheme.\n\nIn the following, the term sectionextension is used. It means\na word that consists of a man section that is optionally fol-\nlowed by an extension. The name of a man section is a single\ncharacter from [1-9on], the extension is some word. The exten-\nsion is mostly lacking.\n\nNo filespec parameters means standard input.\n\n- stands for standard input (can occur several times).\n\nfilename the path name of an existing file.\n\nman:name(sectionextension)\nman:name.sectionextension\nname(sectionextension)\nname.sectionextension\nsectionextension name\nsearch the man page name in the section with optional\nextension sectionextension.\n\nman:name man page in the lowest man section that has name.\n\nname if name is not an existing file search for the\nman page name in the lowest man section.\n", "subsections": [] }, "OPTION DETAILS": { "content": "The groffer program can usually be run with very few options. But for\nspecial purposes, it supports many options. These can be classified in\n5 option classes.\n\nAll short options of groffer are compatible with the short options of\ngroff(1). All long options of groffer are compatible with the long op-\ntions of man(1).\n\nArguments for long option names can be abbreviated in several ways.\nFirst, the argument is checked whether it can be prolonged as is. Fur-\nthermore, each minus sign - is considered as a starting point for a new\nabbreviation. This leads to a set of multiple abbreviations for a sin-\ngle argument. For example, --de-n-f can be used as an abbreviation for\n--debug-not-func, but --de-n works as well. If the abbreviation of the\nargument leads to several resulting options an error is raised.\n\nThese abbreviations are only allowed in the environment variable\nGROFFEROPT, but not in the configuration files. In configuration, all\nlong options must be exact.\n\ngroffer breaking Options\nAs soon as one of these options is found on the command line it is exe-\ncuted, printed to standard output, and the running groffer is termi-\nnated thereafter. All other arguments are ignored.\n\n-h | --help\nPrint help information with a short explanation of options to\nstandard output.\n\n-v | --version\nPrint version information to standard output.\n\ngroffer Mode Options\nThe display mode and the viewer programs are determined by these op-\ntions. If none of these mode and viewer options is specified groffer\ntries to find a suitable display mode automatically. The default modes\nare mode pdf, mode ps, mode html, mode xhtml, mode x, and mode dvi in\nthe X Window System with different viewers and mode tty with device\nutf8 under less on a terminal; other modes are tested if the programs\nfor the main default mode do not exist.\n\nIn the X Window System, many programs create their own window when\ncalled. groffer can run these viewers as an independent program in the\nbackground. As this does not work in text mode on a terminal (tty)\nthere must be a way to know which viewers are X Window System-based\ngraphical programs. The groffer script has a small amount of informa-\ntion on some viewer names. If a viewer argument of the command-line\nchooses an element that is recognized as an X Window System-based pro-\ngram in this list, it is treated as a viewer that can run in the back-\nground. Unrecognized viewers are not run in the background.\n\nFor each mode, you are free to choose whatever viewer you want. That\nneed not be some graphical viewer suitable for this mode. There is a\nchance to view the output source; for example, the combination of the\noptions --mode=ps and --viewer=less shows the content of the PostScript\noutput, the source code, with the pager less.\n\n--auto Equivalent to --mode=auto.\n", "subsections": [ { "name": "--default", "content": "Reset all configuration from previously processed command-line\noptions to the default values. This is useful to wipe out all\nformer options of the configuration, in GROFFEROPT, and restart\noption processing using only the rest of the command line.\n\n--default-modes mode1,mode2,...\nSet the sequence of modes for auto mode to the comma separated\nlist given in the argument. See --mode for details on modes.\nDisplay in the default manner; actually, this means to try the\nmodes x, ps, and tty in this sequence.\n\n--dvi Equivalent to --mode=dvi. Known DVI viewers for the X Window\nSystem include xdvi(1) and dvilx(1).\n", "long": "--default" }, { "name": "--groff", "content": "Equivalent to --mode=groff.\n\n--html Equivalent to --mode=html.\n\n--mode value\nSet the display mode. The following mode values are recognized:\n\nauto Select the automatic determination of the display mode.\nThe sequence of modes that are tried can be set with the\n--default-modes option. Useful for restoring the\ndefault mode when a different mode was specified before.\n\ndvi Display formatted input in a DVI viewer program. By de-\nfault, the formatted input is displayed with the xdvi(1)\nprogram.\n\ngroff After the file determination, switch groffer to process\nthe input like groff(1) would do. This disables the\ngroffer viewing features.\n\nhtml Translate the input into HTML format and display the re-\nsult in a web browser program. By default, the existence\nof a sequence of standard web browsers is tested, start-\ning with konqueror(1) and mozilla(1). The text HTML\nviewer is lynx(1). By default, the existence of a se-\nquence of standard web browsers is tested, starting with\nkonqueror(1) and mozilla(1). The text HTML viewer is\nlynx(1).\n\npdf Transform roff input files into a PDF file by using the\ngroff (1) device -Tpdf. This is the default PDF genera-\ntor. The generated PDF file is displayed with suitable\nviewer programs, such as okular(1).\n\npdf2 This is the traditional pdf mode. Sometimes this mode\nproduces more correct output than the default PDF mode.\nBy default, the input is formatted by groff using the\nPostScript device, then it is transformed into the PDF\nfile format using gs(1), or ps2pdf(1). If that's not\npossible, the PostScript mode (ps) is used instead. Fi-\nnally it is displayed using different viewer programs.\n\nps Display formatted input in a PostScript viewer program.\nBy default, the formatted input is displayed in one of\nmany viewer programs.\n\ntext Format in a groff text mode and write the result to stan-\ndard output without a pager or viewer program. The text\ndevice, latin1 by default, can be chosen with option -T.\n\ntty Format in a groff text mode and write the result to stan-\ndard output using a text pager program, even when in the\nX Window System.\n\nwww Equivalent to --mode=html.\n\nx Display the formatted input in a native roff viewer. By\ndefault, the formatted input is displayed with the\ngxditview(1) program being distributed together with\ngroff. But the legacy X Window System application\nxditview(1) can also be chosen with the option --viewer.\nThe default resolution is 75dpi, but 100dpi are also pos-\nsible. The default groff device for the resolution of\n75dpi is X75-12, for 100dpi it is X100. The correspond-\ning groff intermediate output for the actual device is\ngenerated and the result is displayed. For a resolution\nof 100dpi, the default width of the geometry of the dis-\nplay program is chosen to 850dpi.\n\nX Equivalent to --mode=x.\n\nxhtml Translate the input into XHTML format, which is an XML\nversion of HTML. Then display the result in a web\nbrowser program, mostly the known HTML viewers.\n\nThe following modes do not use the groffer viewing features.\nThey are only interesting for advanced applications.\n\ngroff Generate device output with plain groff without using the\nspecial viewing features of groffer. If no device was\nspecified by option -T the groff default ps is assumed.\n\nsource Output the roff source code of the input files without\nfurther processing.\n\n--pdf Equivalent to --mode=pdf.\n--pdf2 Equivalent to --mode=pdf2.\n\n--ps Equivalent to --mode=ps. Common PostScript viewers include\nokular(1), evince(1), gv(1), ghostview(1), and gs(1), In each\ncase, arguments can be provided additionally.\n", "long": "--groff" }, { "name": "--source", "content": "Equivalent to --mode=source.\n\n--text Equivalent to --mode=text.\n", "long": "--source" }, { "name": "--to-stdout", "content": "The file for the chosen mode is generated and its content is\nprinted to standard output. It will not be displayed in graphi-\ncal mode.\n\n--tty Equivalent to --mode=tty. The standard pager is less(1). This\noption is equivalent to man option --pager=prog. The option ar-\ngument can be a file name or a program to be searched in $PATH;\narguments can be provided additionally.\n\n--viewer prog\nChoose a viewer program for actual device or mode. This can be\na file name or a program to be searched in $PATH; arguments can\nbe provided additionally.\n\n--www Equivalent to --mode=html.\n\n--X | --x\nEquivalent to --mode=x. Suitable viewer programs are\ngxditview(1) which is the default and xditview(1).\n\n-- Signals the end of option processing; all remaining arguments\nare interpreted as filespec parameters.\n\nBesides these, groffer accepts all short options that are valid for the\ngroff(1) program. All non-groffer options are sent unmodified via grog\nto groff. So postprocessors, macro packages, compatibility with clas-\nsical troff, and much more can be manually specified.\n\nOptions related to groff\nAll short options of groffer are compatible with the short options of\ngroff(1). The following of groff options have either an additional\nspecial meaning within groffer or make sense for normal usage.\n\nBecause of the special outputting behavior of the groff option -Z\ngroffer was designed to be switched into groff mode; the groffer view-\ning features are disabled there. The other groff options do not switch\nthe mode, but allow to customize the formatting process.\n\n--a This generates an ASCII approximation of output in the\ntext modes. That could be important when the text pager has\nproblems with control sequences in tty mode.\n\n--m file\nAdd file as a groff macro file. This is useful in case it can-\nnot be recognized automatically.\n\n--P optorarg\nSend the argument optorarg as an option or option argument to\nthe actual groff postprocessor.\n\n--T devname | --device devname\nThis option determines groff's output device. The most impor-\ntant devices are the text output devices for referring to the\ndifferent character sets, such as ascii, utf8, latin1, utf8, and\nothers. Each of these arguments switches groffer into a\ntext mode using this device, to mode tty if the actual mode is\nnot a text mode. The following devname arguments are mapped to\nthe corresponding groffer --mode=devname option: dvi, html,\nxhtml, and ps. All X* arguments are mapped to mode x. Each\nother devname argument switches to mode groff using this device.\n\n--X is equivalent to groff -X. It displays the groff intermediate\noutput with gxditview. As the quality is relatively bad this\noption is deprecated; use --X instead because the x mode uses an\nX* device for a better display.\n\n-Z | --intermediate-output | --ditroff\nSwitch into groff mode and format the input with the groff in-\ntermediate output without postprocessing; see groffout(5).\nThis is equivalent to option --ditroff of man, which can be used\nas well.\n\nAll other groff options are supported by groffer, but they are just\ntransparently transferred to groff without any intervention. The op-\ntions that are not explicitly handled by groffer are transparently\npassed to groff. Therefore these transparent options are not docu-\nmented here, but in groff(1). Due to the automatism in groffer, none\nof these groff options should be needed, except for advanced usage.\n\nOptions for man pages", "long": "--to-stdout" }, { "name": "--apropos", "content": "Start the apropos(1) command or facility of man(1) for searching\nthe filespec arguments within all man page descriptions. Each\nfilespec argument is taken for search as it is; section specific\nparts are not handled, such that 7 groff searches for the two\narguments 7 and groff, with a large result; for the filespec\ngroff.7 nothing will be found. The language locale is handled\nonly when the called programs do support this; the GNU apropos\nand man -k do not. The display differs from the apropos program\nby the following concepts:\n\n* Construct a groff frame similar to a man page to the output of\napropos,\n\n* each filespec argument is searched on its own.\n\n* The restriction by --sections is handled as well,\n\n* wildcard characters are allowed and handled without a further\noption.\n", "long": "--apropos" }, { "name": "--apropos-data", "content": "Show only the apropos descriptions for data documents, these are\nthe man(7) sections 4, 5, and 7. Direct section declarations\nare ignored, wildcards are accepted.\n", "long": "--apropos-data" }, { "name": "--apropos-devel", "content": "Show only the apropos descriptions for development documents,\nthese are the man(7) sections 2, 3, and 9. Direct section dec-\nlarations are ignored, wildcards are accepted.\n", "long": "--apropos-devel" }, { "name": "--apropos-progs", "content": "Show only the apropos descriptions for documents on programs,\nthese are the man(7) sections 1, 6, and 8. Direct section dec-\nlarations are ignored, wildcards are accepted.\n", "long": "--apropos-progs" }, { "name": "--whatis", "content": "For each filespec argument search all man pages and display\ntheir description -- or say that it is not a man page. This is\nwritten from anew, so it differs from man's whatis output by the\nfollowing concepts\n\n* each retrieved file name is added,\n\n* local files are handled as well,\n\n* the language and system locale is supported,\n\n* the display is framed by a groff output format similar to a\nman page,\n\n* wildcard characters are allowed without a further option.\n\nThe following options were added to groffer for choosing whether the\nfile name arguments are interpreted as names for local files or as a\nsearch pattern for man pages. The default is looking up for local\nfiles.\n\n--man Check the non-option command-line arguments (filespecs) first on\nbeing man pages, then whether they represent an existing file.\nBy default, a filespec is first tested whether it is an existing\nfile.\n\n--no-man | --local-file\nDo not check for man pages. --local-file is the corresponding\nman option.\n", "long": "--whatis" }, { "name": "--no-special", "content": "Disable former calls of --all, --apropos*, and --whatis.\n\nLong options taken over from GNU man\nThe long options of groffer were synchronized with the long options of\nGNU man. All long options of GNU man are recognized, but not all of\nthese options are important to groffer, so most of them are just ig-\nnored. These ignored man options are --catman, --troff, and --update.\n\nIn the following, the man options that have a special meaning for\ngroffer are documented.\n\nIf your system has GNU man installed the full set of long and short op-\ntions of the GNU man program can be passed via the environment variable\nMANOPT; see man(1).\n\n--all In searching man pages, retrieve all suitable documents instead\nof only one.\n\n-7 | --ascii\nIn text modes, display ASCII translation of special characters\nfor critical environment. This is equivalent to groff\n-mttychar; see grofftmac(5).\n", "long": "--no-special" }, { "name": "--ditroff", "content": "Produce groff intermediate output. This is equivalent to\ngroffer -Z.\n\n--extension suffix\nRestrict man page search to file names that have suffix appended\nto their section element. For example, in the file name\n/usr/share/man/man3/terminfo.3ncurses.gz the man page extension\nis ncurses.\n\n--locale language\nSet the language for man pages. This has the same effect, but\noverwrites $LANG.\n", "long": "--ditroff" }, { "name": "--location", "content": "Print the location of the retrieved files to standard error.\n", "long": "--location" }, { "name": "--no-location", "content": "Do not display the location of retrieved files; this resets a\nformer call to --location. This was added by groffer.\n\n--manpath 'dir1:dir2:...'\nUse the specified search path for retrieving man pages instead\nof the program defaults. If the argument is set to the empty\nstring \"\" the search for man page is disabled.\n", "long": "--no-location" }, { "name": "--pager", "content": "Set the pager program in tty mode; default is less. This can be\nset with --viewer.\n\n--sections sec1:sec2:...\nRestrict searching for man pages to the given sections, a colon-\nseparated list.\n\n--systems sys1,sys2,...\nSearch for man pages for the given operating systems; the argu-\nment systems is a comma-separated list.\n", "long": "--pager" }, { "name": "--where", "content": "Equivalent to --location.\n\nX Window System Toolkit Intrinsics Options\nThe following long options were adapted from the corresponding X Window\nSystem Toolkit Intrinsics options. groffer will pass them to the actu-\nal viewer program if it is an X Window System program. Otherwise these\noptions are ignored.\n\nUnfortunately these options use the old style of a single minus for\nlong options. For groffer that was changed to the standard with using\na double minus for long options, for example, groffer uses the option\n--font for the X Window System Toolkit Intrinsics option -font.\n\nSee X(7) and the manual X Toolkit Intrinsics - C Language Interface for\nmore details on these options and their arguments.\n\n--background color\nSet the background color of the viewer window.\n\n--bd pixels\nThis is equivalent to --bordercolor.\n\n--bg color\nThis is equivalent to --background.\n\n--bw pixels\nThis is equivalent to --borderwidth.\n\n--bordercolor pixels\nSpecifies the color of the border surrounding the viewer window.\n\n--borderwidth pixels\nSpecifies the width in pixels of the border surrounding the\nviewer window.\n\n--display X-display\nSet the X Window System display on which the viewer program\nshall be started. See section \"Display Names\" in X(7) for the\nsyntax of the argument.\n\n--foreground color\nSet the foreground color of the viewer window.\n\n--fg color\nThis is equivalent to --foreground.\n\n--fn fontname\nThis is equivalent to --font.\n\n--font fontname\nSet the font used by the viewer window. The argument is an X\nWindow System font name.\n\n--ft fontname\nThis is equivalent to --font.\n\n--geometry sizepos\nSet the geometry of the display window, that means its size and\nits starting position. See section \"Geometry Specifications\" in\nX(7) for the syntax of the argument.\n\n--resolution value\nSet X Window System resolution in dpi (dots per inch) in some\nviewer programs. The only supported dpi values are 75 and 100.\nActually, the default resolution for groffer is set to 75dpi.\nThe resolution also sets the default device in mode x.\n\n--rv Reverse foreground and background color of the viewer window.\n\n--title 'some text'\nSet the title for the viewer window.\n\n--xrm 'resource'\nSet the X Window System server resource to the given value.\n\nOptions for Development", "long": "--where" }, { "name": "--debug", "content": "Enable all debugging options --debug-type. The temporary files\nare kept and not deleted, the grog output is printed, the name\nof the temporary directory is printed, the displayed file names\nare printed, and the parameters are printed.\n", "long": "--debug" }, { "name": "--debug-filenames", "content": "Print the names of the files and man pages that are displayed by\ngroffer.\n", "long": "--debug-filenames" }, { "name": "--debug-grog", "content": "Print the output of all grog commands.\n", "long": "--debug-grog" }, { "name": "--debug-keep", "content": "Enable two debugging informations. Print the name of the tempo-\nrary directory and keep the temporary files, do not delete them\nduring the run of groffer.\n", "long": "--debug-keep" }, { "name": "--debug-params", "content": "Print the parameters, as obtained from the configuration files,\nfrom GROFFEROPT, and the command-line arguments.\n", "long": "--debug-params" }, { "name": "--debug-tmpdir", "content": "Print the name of the temporary directory.\n", "long": "--debug-tmpdir" }, { "name": "--do-nothing", "content": "This is like --version, but without the output; no viewer is\nstarted. This makes only sense in development.\n\n--print=text\nJust print the argument to standard error. This is good for pa-\nrameter check.\n\n-V This is an advanced option for debugging only. Instead of dis-\nplaying the formatted input, a lot of groffer specific informa-\ntion is printed to standard output:\n\n* the output file name in the temporary directory,\n\n* the display mode of the actual groffer run,\n\n* the display program for viewing the output with its arguments,\n\n* the active parameters from the config files, the arguments in\nGROFFEROPT, and the arguments of the command line,\n\n* the pipeline that would be run by the groff program, but with-\nout executing it.\n\nOther useful debugging options are the groff option -Z and\n--mode=groff.\n\nFilespec Arguments\nA filespec parameter is an argument that is not an option or option ar-\ngument. In groffer, filespec parameters are a file name or a template\nfor searching man pages. These input sources are collected and com-\nposed into a single output file such as groff does.\n\nThe strange POSIX behavior to regard all arguments behind the first\nnon-option argument as filespec arguments is ignored. The GNU behavior\nto recognize options even when mixed with filespec arguments is used\nthroughout. But, as usual, the double minus argument -- ends the op-\ntion handling and interprets all following arguments as filespec argu-\nments; so the POSIX behavior can be easily adopted.\n\nThe options --apropos* have a special handling of filespec arguments.\nEach argument is taken as a search scheme of its own. Also a regexp\n(regular expression) can be used in the filespec. For example, groffer\n--apropos '^gro.f$' searches groff in the man page name, while groffer\n--apropos groff searches groff somewhere in the name or description of\nthe man pages.\n\nAll other parts of groffer, such as the normal display or the output\nwith --whatis have a different scheme for filespecs. No regular ex-\npressions are used for the arguments. The filespec arguments are han-\ndled by the following scheme.\n\nIt is necessary to know that on each system the man pages are sorted\naccording to their content into several sections. The classical man\nsections have a single-character name, either a digit from 1 to 9 or\none of the characters n or o.\n\nThis can optionally be followed by a string, the so-called extension.\nThe extension allows the storage of several man pages with the same\nname in the same section. But the extension is only rarely used; usu-\nally it is omitted. Then the extensions are searched automatically by\nalphabet.\n\nIn the following, we use the name sectionextension for a word that\nconsists of a single character section name or a section character that\nis followed by an extension. Each filespec parameter can have one of\nthe following forms in decreasing sequence.\n\n* No filespec parameters means that groffer waits for standard input.\nThe minus option - always stands for standard input; it can occur\nseveral times. If you want to look up a man page called - use the\nargument man:-.\n\n* Next a filespec is tested whether it is the path name of an existing\nfile. Otherwise it is assumed to be a searching pattern for a\nman page.\n\n* man:name(sectionextension), man:name.sectionextension,\nname(sectionextension), or name.sectionextension search the\nman page name in man section and possibly extension of\nsectionextension.\n\n* Now man:name searches for a man page in the lowest man section that\nhas a document called name.\n\n* sectionextension name is a pattern of 2 arguments that originates\nfrom a strange argument parsing of the man program. Again, this\nsearches the man page name with sectionextension, a combination of a\nsection character optionally followed by an extension.\n\n* We are left with the argument name which is not an existing file. So\nthis searches for the man page called name in the lowest man section\nthat has a document for this name.\n\nSeveral file name arguments can be supplied. They are mixed by groff\ninto a single document. Note that the set of option arguments must fit\nto all of these file arguments. So they should have at least the same\nstyle of the groff language.\n", "long": "--do-nothing" } ] }, "OUTPUT MODES": { "content": "By default, the groffer program collects all input into a single file,\nformats it with the groff program for a certain device, and then choos-\nes a suitable viewer program. The device and viewer process in groffer\nis called a mode. The mode and viewer of a running groffer program is\nselected automatically, but the user can also choose it with options.\nThe modes are selected by option the arguments of --mode=anymode. Ad-\nditionally, each of this argument can be specified as an option of its\nown, such as anymode. Most of these modes have a viewer program, which\ncan be chosen by the option --viewer.\n\nSeveral different modes are offered: graphical modes for the X Window\nSystem, text modes, and some direct groff modes for debugging and de-\nvelopment.\n\nBy default, groffer first tries whether x mode is possible, then\nps mode, and finally tty mode. This mode testing sequence for\nauto mode can be changed by specifying a comma separated list of modes\nwith the option --default-modes.\n\nThe searching for man pages and the decompression of the input are ac-\ntive in every mode.\n\nGraphical Display Modes\nThe graphical display modes work mostly in the X Window System environ-\nment (or similar implementations within other windowing environments).\nThe environment variable DISPLAY and the option --display are used for\nspecifying the X Window System display to be used. If this environment\nvariable is empty, groffer assumes that the X Window System is not run-\nning and changes to a text mode. You can change this automatic behav-\nior by the option --default-modes.\n\nKnown viewers for the graphical display modes and their standard X Win-\ndow System viewer programs are\n\n* in a PDF viewer (pdf mode)\n\n* in a web browser (html, (xhtml, or www mode)\n\n* in a PostScript viewer (ps mode)\n\n* X Window System roff viewers such as gxditview(1) or xditview(1) (in\nx mode)\n\n* in a DVI viewer program (dvi mode)\n\nThe pdf mode has a major advantage -- it is the only graphical display\nmode that allows searching for text within the viewer; this can be a\nreally important feature. Unfortunately, it takes some time to trans-\nform the input into the PDF format, so it was not chosen as the major\nmode.\n\nThese graphical viewers can be customized by options of the X Window\nSystem Toolkit Intrinsics. But the groffer options use a leading dou-\nble minus instead of the single minus used by the X Window System Tool-\nkit Intrinsics.\n\nText modes\nThere are two modes for text output, mode text for plain output without\na pager and mode tty for a text output on a text terminal using some\npager program.\n\nIf the variable DISPLAY is not set or empty, groffer assumes that it\nshould use tty mode.\n\nIn the actual implementation, the groff output device latin1 is chosen\nfor text modes. This can be changed by specifying option -T or\n--device.\n\nThe pager to be used can be specified by one of the options --pager and\n--viewer, or by the environment variable PAGER. If all of this is not\nused the less(1) program with the option -r for correctly displaying\ncontrol sequences is used as the default pager.\n\nSpecial Modes for Debugging and Development\nThese modes use the groffer file determination and decompression. This\nis combined into a single input file that is fed directly into groff\nwith different strategy without the groffer viewing facilities. These\nmodes are regarded as advanced, they are useful for debugging and de-\nvelopment purposes.\n\nThe source mode with option --source just displays the decompressed in-\nput.\n\nOption --to-stdout does not display in a graphical mode. It just gen-\nerates the file for the chosen mode and then prints its content to\nstandard output.\n\nThe groff mode passes the input to groff using only some suitable op-\ntions provided to groffer. This enables the user to save the generated\noutput into a file or pipe it into another program.\n\nIn groff mode, the option -Z disables post-processing, thus producing\nthe groff intermediate output. In this mode, the input is formatted,\nbut not postprocessed; see groffout(5) for details.\n\nAll groff short options are supported by groffer.\n", "subsections": [] }, "MAN PAGE SEARCHING": { "content": "The default behavior of groffer is to first test whether a file parame-\nter represents a local file; if it is not an existing file name, it is\nassumed to represent the name of a man page. The following options can\nbe used to determine whether the arguments should be handled as file\nname or man page arguments.\n\n--man forces to interpret all file parameters as filespecs for search-\ning man pages.\n", "subsections": [ { "name": "--no-man", "content": "", "long": "--no-man" }, { "name": "--local-file", "content": "disable the man searching; so only local files are displayed.\n\nIf neither a local file nor a man page was retrieved for some file pa-\nrameter a warning is issued on standard error, but processing is con-\ntinued.\n\nSearch Algorithm\nLet us now assume that a man page should be searched. The groffer pro-\ngram provides a search facility for man pages. All long options, all\nenvironment variables, and most of the functionality of the GNU man(1)\nprogram were implemented. The search algorithm shall determine which\nfile is displayed for a given man page. The process can be modified by\noptions and environment variables.\n\nThe only man action that is omitted in groffer are the preformatted\nman pages, also called cat pages. With the excellent performance of\nthe actual computers, the preformatted man pages aren't necessary any\nlonger. Additionally, groffer is a roff program; it wants to read roff\nsource files and format them itself.\n\nThe algorithm for retrieving the file for a man page needs first a set\nof directories. This set starts with the so-called man path that is\nmodified later on by adding names of operating system and language.\nThis arising set is used for adding the section directories which con-\ntain the man page files.\n\nThe man path is a list of directories that are separated by colon. It\nis generated by the following methods.\n\n* The environment variable MANPATH can be set.\n\n* It can be read from the arguments of the environment variable MANOPT.\n\n* The man path can be manually specified by using the option --manpath.\nAn empty argument disables the man page searching.\n\n* When no man path was set the manpath(1) program is tried to determine\none.\n\n* If this does not work a reasonable default path from $PATH is deter-\nmined.\n\nWe now have a starting set of directories. The first way to change\nthis set is by adding names of operating systems. This assumes that\nman pages for several operating systems are installed. This is not al-\nways true. The names of such operating systems can be provided by 3\nmethods.\n\n* The environment variable SYSTEM has the lowest precedence.\n\n* This can be overridden by an option in MANOPT.\n\n* This again is overridden by the command-line option --systems.\n\nSeveral names of operating systems can be given by appending their\nnames, separated by a comma.\n\nThe man path is changed by appending each system name as subdirectory\nat the end of each directory of the set. No directory of the man path\nset is kept. But if no system name is specified the man path is left\nunchanged.\n\nAfter this, the actual set of directories can be changed by language\ninformation. This assumes that there exist man pages in different lan-\nguages. The wanted language can be chosen by several methods.\n\n* Environment variable LANG.\n\n* This is overridden by LCMESSAGES.\n\n* This is overridden by LCALL.\n\n* This can be overridden by providing an option in MANOPT.\n\n* All these environment variables are overridden by the command-line\noption --locale.\n\nThe default language can be specified by specifying one of the pseudo-\nlanguage parameters C or POSIX. This is like deleting a formerly given\nlanguage information. The man pages in the default language are usual-\nly in English.\n\nOf course, the language name is determined by man. In GNU man, it is\nspecified in the POSIX 1003.1 based format:\n\n[[.[,]]],\n\nbut the two-letter code in is sufficient for most purposes.\nIf for a complicated language formulation no man pages are found\ngroffer searches the country part consisting of these first two charac-\nters as well.\n\nThe actual directory set is copied thrice. The language name is ap-\npended as subdirectory to each directory in the first copy of the actu-\nal directory set (this is only done when a language information is giv-\nen). Then the 2-letter abbreviation of the language name is appended\nas subdirectories to the second copy of the directory set (this is only\ndone when the given language name has more than 2 letters). The third\ncopy of the directory set is kept unchanged (if no language information\nis given this is the kept directory set). These maximally 3 copies are\nappended to get the new directory set.\n\nWe now have a complete set of directories to work with. In each of\nthese directories, the man files are separated in sections. The name\nof a section is represented by a single character, a digit between 1\nand 9, or the character o or n, in this order.\n\nFor each available section, a subdirectory man
exists contain-\ning all man files for this section, where
is a single charac-\nter as described before. Each man file in a section directory has the\nform man
/.
[][.], where\n and are optional. is the name of the\nman page that is also specified as filespec argument on the command\nline.\n\nThe extension is an addition to the section. This postfix acts like a\nsubsection. An extension occurs only in the file name, not in name of\nthe section subdirectory. It can be specified on the command line.\n\nOn the other hand, the compression is just an information on how the\nfile is compressed. This is not important for the user, such that it\ncannot be specified on the command line.\n\nThere are 4 methods to specify a section on the command line:\n\n* Environment variable MANSECT\n\n* Command line option --sections\n\n* Appendix to the name argument in the form .
\n\n* Preargument before the name argument in the form
\n\nIt is also possible to specify several sections by appending the single\ncharacters separated by colons. One can imagine that this means to re-\nstrict the man page search to only some sections. The multiple sec-\ntions are only possible for MANSECT and --sections.\n\nIf no section is specified all sections are searched one after the oth-\ner in the given order, starting with section 1, until a suitable file\nis found.\n\nThere are 4 methods to specify an extension on the command line. But\nit is not necessary to provide the whole extension name, some abbrevia-\ntion is good enough in most cases.\n\n* Environment variable EXTENSION\n\n* Command line option --extension\n\n* Appendix to the .
argument in the form .\n\n* Preargument before the name argument in the form
\n\n\nFor further details on man page searching, see man(1).\n\nExamples of man files\n/usr/share/man/man1/groff.1\nThis is an uncompressed file for the man page groff in sec-\ntion 1. It can be called by\nsh# groffer groff\nNo section is specified here, so all sections should be\nsearched, but as section 1 is searched first this file will be\nfound first. The file name is composed of the following compo-\nnents. /usr/share/man/ must be part of the man path; the subdi-\nrectory man1/ and the part .1 stand for the section; groff is\nthe name of the man page.\n\n/usr/local/share/man/man7/groff.7.gz\nThe file name is composed of the following components. /usr/lo-\ncal/share/man must be part of the man path; the subdirectory\nman7/ and the part .7 stand for the section; groff is the name\nof the man page; the final part .gz stands for a compression\nwith gzip(1). As the section is not the first one it must be\nspecified as well. This can be done by one of the following\ncommands.\nsh# groffer groff.7\nsh# groffer 7 groff\nsh# groffer --sections=7 groff\n\n/usr/local/man/man1/ctags.1emacs21.bz2\nHere /usr/local/man must be in man path; the subdirectory man1/\nand the file name part .1 stand for section 1; the name of the\nman page is ctags; the section has an extension emacs21; and the\nfile is compressed as .bz2 with bzip2(1). The file can be\nviewed with one of the following commands\nsh# groffer ctags.1e\nsh# groffer 1e ctags\nsh# groffer --extension=e --sections=1 ctags\nwhere e works as an abbreviation for the extension emacs21.\n\n/usr/man/linux/de/man7/man.7.Z\nThe directory /usr/man is now part of the man path; then there\nis a subdirectory for an operating system name linux/; next\ncomes a subdirectory de/ for the German language; the section\nnames man7 and .7 are known so far; man is the name of the\nman page; and .Z signifies the compression that can be handled\nby gzip(1). We want now show how to provide several values for\nsome options. That is possible for sections and operating sys-\ntem names. So we use as sections 5 and 7 and as system names\nlinux and aix. The command is then\n\nsh# groffer --locale=de --sections=5:7 --systems=linux,aix man\nsh# LANG=de MANSECT=5:7 SYSTEM=linux,aix groffer man\n", "long": "--local-file" } ] }, "DECOMPRESSION": { "content": "The program has a decompression facility. If standard input or a file\nthat was retrieved from the command line parameters is compressed with\na format that is supported by either gzip(1) or bzip2(1) it is decom-\npressed on-the-fly. This includes the GNU .gz, .bz2, and the tradi-\ntional .Z compression. The program displays the concatenation of all\ndecompressed input in the sequence that was specified on the command\nline.\n", "subsections": [] }, "ENVIRONMENT": { "content": "The groffer program supports many system variables, most of them by\ncourtesy of other programs. All environment variables of groff(1) and\nGNU man(1) and some standard system variables are honored.\n\nNative groffer Variables\nGROFFEROPT\nStore options for a run of groffer. The options specified in\nthis variable are overridden by the options given on the command\nline. The content of this variable is run through the shell\nbuiltin \"eval\", so arguments containing whitespace or special\nshell characters should be quoted. Do not forget to export this\nvariable, otherwise it does not exist during the run of groffer.\n\nSystem Variables\nThe following variables have a special meaning for groffer.\n\nDISPLAY\nIf set, this variable indicates that the X Window System is run-\nning. Testing this variable decides on whether graphical or\ntext output is generated. This variable should not be changed\nby the user carelessly, but it can be used to start the graphi-\ncal groffer on a remote X Window System terminal. For example,\ndepending on your system, groffer can be started on the second\nmonitor by the command\n\nsh# DISPLAY=:0.1 groffer what.ever &\n\nLCALL\nLCMESSAGES\nLANG If one of these variables is set (in the above sequence), its\ncontent is interpreted as the locale, the language to be used,\nespecially when retrieving man pages. A locale name is typi-\ncally of the form language[territory[.codeset[@modifier]]],\nwhere language is an ISO 639 language code, territory is an ISO\n3166 country code, and codeset is a character set or encoding\nidentifier like ISO-8859-1 or UTF-8; see setlocale(3). The lo-\ncale values C and POSIX stand for the default, i.e. the man page\ndirectories without a language prefix. This is the same behav-\nior as when all 3 variables are unset.\n\nPAGER This variable can be used to set the pager for the tty output.\nFor example, to disable the use of a pager completely set this\nvariable to the cat(1) program\n\nsh# PAGER=cat groffer anything\n\nPATH All programs within the groffer script are called without a\nfixed path. Thus this environment variable determines the set\nof programs used within the run of groffer.\n\nGroff Variables\nThe groffer program internally calls groff, so all environment vari-\nables documented in groff(1) are internally used within groffer as\nwell. The following variable has a direct meaning for the groffer pro-\ngram.\n\nGROFFTMPDIR\nIf the value of this variable is an existing, writable direc-\ntory, groffer uses it for storing its temporary files, just as\ngroff does. See the groff(1) man page for more details on the\nlocation of temporary files.\n\nMan Variables\nParts of the functionality of the man program were implemented in\ngroffer; support for all environment variables documented in man(1) was\nadded to groffer, but the meaning was slightly modified due to the dif-\nferent approach in groffer; but the user interface is the same. The\nman environment variables can be overwritten by options provided with\nMANOPT, which in turn is overwritten by the command line.\n\nEXTENSION\nRestrict the search for man pages to files having this exten-\nsion. This is overridden by option --extension; see there for\ndetails.\n\nMANOPT This variable contains options as a preset for man(1). As not\nall of these are relevant for groffer only the essential parts\nof its value are extracted. The options specified in this vari-\nable overwrite the values of the other environment variables\nthat are specific to man. All options specified in this vari-\nable are overridden by the options given on the command line.\n\nMANPATH\nIf set, this variable contains the directories in which the\nman page trees are stored. This is overridden by option\n--manpath.\n\nMANSECT\nIf this is a colon separated list of section names, the search\nfor man pages is restricted to those manual sections in that or-\nder. This is overridden by option --sections.\n\nSYSTEM If this is set to a comma separated list of names these are in-\nterpreted as man page trees for different operating systems.\nThis variable can be overwritten by option --systems; see there\nfor details.\n\nThe environment variable MANROFFSEQ is ignored by groffer because the\nnecessary preprocessors are determined automatically.\n", "subsections": [] }, "CONFIGURATION FILES": { "content": "The groffer program can be preconfigured by two configuration files.\n\n/etc/groff/groffer.conf\nSystem-wide configuration file for groffer.\n\n$HOME/.groff/groffer.conf\nUser-specific configuration file for groffer, where $HOME de-\nnotes the user's home directory. This file is called after the\nsystem-wide configuration file to enable overriding by the user.\n\nBoth files are handled for the configuration, but the configuration\nfile in /etc comes first; it is overwritten by the configuration file\nin the home directory; both configuration files are overwritten by the\nenvironment variable GROFFEROPT; everything is overwritten by the com-\nmand line arguments.\n\nThe configuration files contain options that should be called as de-\nfault for every groffer run. These options are written in lines such\nthat each contains either a long option, a short option, or a short op-\ntion cluster; each with or without an argument. So each line with con-\nfiguration information starts with a minus character \"-\"; a line with a\nlong option starts with two minus characters \"--\", a line with a short\noption or short option cluster starts with a single minus \"-\".\n\nThe option names in the configuration files may not be abbreviated,\nthey must be exact.\n\nThe argument for a long option can be separated from the option name\neither by an equal sign \"=\" or by whitespace, i.e. one or several space\nor tab characters. An argument for a short option or short option\ncluster can be directly appended to the option name or separated by\nwhitespace. The end of an argument is the end of the line. It is not\nallowed to use a shell environment variable in an option name or argu-\nment.\n\nIt is not necessary to use quotes in an option or argument, except for\nempty arguments. An empty argument can be provided by appending a pair\nof quotes to the separating equal sign or whitespace; with a short op-\ntion, the separator can be omitted as well. For a long option with a\nseparating equal sign \"=\", the pair of quotes can be omitted, thus end-\ning the line with the separating equal sign. All other quote charac-\nters are cancelled internally.\n\nIn the configuration files, arbitrary whitespace is allowed at the be-\nginning of each line, it is just ignored. Each whitespace within a\nline is replaced by a single space character \" \" internally.\n\nAll lines of the configuration lines that do not start with a minus\ncharacter are ignored, such that comments starting with \"#\" are possi-\nble. So there are no shell commands in the configuration files.\n\nAs an example, consider the following configuration file that can be\nused either in /etc/groff/groffer.conf or ~/.groff/groffer.conf .\n\n# groffer configuration file\n#\n# groffer options that are used in each call of groffer\n--foreground=DarkBlue\n--resolution=100\n--viewer=gxditview -geometry 900x1200\n\nThe lines starting with # are just ignored, so they act as command\nlines. This configuration sets four groffer options (the lines start-\ning with \"-\"). This has the following effects:\n\n* Use a text color of DarkBlue in all viewers that support this, such\nas gxditview.\n\n* Use a resolution of 100dpi in all viewers that support this, such as\ngxditview. By this, the default device in x mode is set to X100.\n\n* Force gxditview(1) as the x-mode viewer using the geometry option for\nsetting the width to 900px and the height to 1200px. This geometry\nis suitable for a resolution of 100dpi.\n\n* Use xpdf(1) as the pdf-mode viewer with the argument -Z 150.\n", "subsections": [] }, "EXAMPLES": { "content": "The usage of groffer is very easy. Usually, it is just called with a\nfile name or man page. The following examples, however, show that\ngroffer has much more fancy capabilities.\n\nsh# groffer /usr/local/share/doc/groff/meintro.ms.gz\n\nDecompress, format and display the compressed file meintro.ms.gz in the\ndirectory /usr/local/share/doc/groff, using the standard viewer\ngxditview as graphical viewer when in the X Window System, or the\nless(1) pager program otherwise.\n\nsh# groffer groff\n\nIf the file ./groff exists use it as input. Otherwise interpret the\nargument as a search for the man page named groff in the smallest pos-\nsible man section, being section 1 in this case.\n\nsh# groffer man:groff\n\nsearch for the man page of groff even when the file ./groff exists.\n\nsh# groffer groff.7\nsh# groffer 7 groff\n\nsearch the man page of groff in man section 7. This section search\nworks only for a digit or a single character from a small set.\n\nsh# groffer fb.modes\n\nIf the file ./fb.modes does not exist interpret this as a search for\nthe man page of fb.modes. As the extension modes is not a single char-\nacter in classical section style the argument is not split to a search\nfor fb.\n\nsh# groffer groff 'troff(1)' man:roff\n\nThe arguments that are not existing files are looked-up as the follow-\ning man pages: groff (automatic search, should be found in man sec-\ntion 1), troff (in section 1), and roff (in the section with the lowest\nnumber, being 7 in this case). The quotes around 'troff(1)' are neces-\nsary because the parentheses are special shell characters; escaping\nthem with a backslash character \\( and \\) would be possible, too. The\nformatted files are concatenated and displayed in one piece.\n\nsh# LANG=de groffer --man --viewer=galeon ls\n\nRetrieve the German man page (language de) for the ls program, decom-\npress it, format it to html or xhtml format (www mode) and view the re-\nsult in the web browser galeon. The option --man guarantees that the\nman page is retrieved, even when a local file ls exists in the actual\ndirectory.\n\nsh# groffer --source 'man:roff(7)'\n\nGet the man page called roff in man section 7, decompress it, and print\nits unformatted content, its source code.\n\nsh# groffer --de-p --in --ap\n\nThis is a set of abbreviated arguments, it is determined as\n\nsh# groffer --debug-params --intermediate-output --apropos\n\nsh# cat file.gz | groffer -Z -mfoo\n\nThe file file.gz is sent to standard input, this is decompressed, and\nthen this is transported to the groff intermediate output mode without\npost-processing (groff option -Z), using macro package foo (groff op-\ntion -m).\n\nsh# echo '\\f(CBWOW!' |\n> groffer --x --bg red --fg yellow --geometry 200x100 -\n\nDisplay the word WOW! in a small window in constant-width bold font,\nusing color yellow on red background.\n", "subsections": [] }, "COMPATIBILITY": { "content": "The groffer program is written in Perl, the Perl version during writing\nwas v5.8.8.\n\ngroffer provides its own parser for command-line arguments that is com-\npatible to both POSIX getopts(1) and GNU getopt(1). It can handle op-\ntion arguments and file names containing white space and a large set of\nspecial characters. The following standard types of options are sup-\nported.\n\n* The option consisting of a single minus - refers to standard input.\n\n* A single minus followed by characters refers to a single character\noption or a combination thereof; for example, the groffer short op-\ntion combination -Qmfoo is equivalent to -Q -m foo.\n\n* Long options are options with names longer than one character; they\nare always preceded by a double minus. An option argument can either\ngo to the next command-line argument or be appended with an equal\nsign to the argument; for example, --long=arg is equivalent to\n--long arg.\n\n* An argument of -- ends option parsing; all further command-line argu-\nments are interpreted as filespec parameters, i.e. file names or con-\nstructs for searching man pages).\n\n* All command-line arguments that are neither options nor option argu-\nments are interpreted as filespec parameters and stored until option\nparsing has finished. For example, the command line\n\nsh# groffer file1 -a -o arg file2\n\nis equivalent to\n\nsh# groffer -a -o arg -- file1 file2\n\nThe free mixing of options and filespec parameters follows the GNU\nprinciple. That does not fulfill the strange option behavior of POSIX\nthat ends option processing as soon as the first non-option argument\nhas been reached. The end of option processing can be forced by the\noption \"--\" anyway.\n", "subsections": [] }, "AUTHORS": { "content": "groffer was written by Bernd Warken .\n", "subsections": [] }, "SEE ALSO": { "content": "groff(1), troff(1)\nDetails on the options and environment variables available in\ngroff; all of them can be used with groffer.\n\ngrog(1)\nThis program tries to guess the necessary groff command-line op-\ntions from the input and the groffer options.\n\ngroff(7)\nDocumentation of the groff language.\n\ngroffchar(7)\nDocumentation on the groff characters, special characters, and\nglyphs..\n\ngrofftmac(5)\nDocumentation on the groff macro files.\n\ngroffout(5)\nDocumentation on the groff intermediate output before the run of\na postprocessor. (ditroff output). This can be run by the\ngroff or groffer option -Z.\n\nman(1) The standard program to display man pages. The information\nthere is only useful if it is the man page for GNU man. Then it\ndocuments the options and environment variables that are sup-\nported by groffer.\n\ngxditview(1)\nxditview(1x)\nViewers for groffer's x mode.\n\nkpdf(1)\nkghostview(1)\nevince(1)\nggv(1)\ngv(1)\nghostview(1)\ngs(1) Viewers for groffer's ps mode.\n\nkpdf(1)\nacroread(1)\nevince(1)\nxpdf(1)\ngpdf(1)\nkghostview(1)\nggv(1) Viewers for groffer's pdf mode.\n\nkdvi(1), xdvi(1), dvilx(1)\nViewers for groffer's dvi mode.\n\nkonqueror(1)\nepiphany(1)\nfirefox(1)\nmozilla(1)\nnetscape(1)\nlynx(1)\nWeb-browsers for groffer's html, xhtml, or www mode.\n\nless(1)\nmore(1)\nStandard pager program for the tty mode.\n\ngzip(1)\nbzip2(1)\nxz(1) The decompression programs supported by groffer.\n\ngroff 1.22.4 23 March 2022 GROFFER(1)", "subsections": [] } }, "summary": "groffer - display groff files and man pages on X and tty", "flags": [], "examples": [ "The usage of groffer is very easy. Usually, it is just called with a", "file name or man page. The following examples, however, show that", "groffer has much more fancy capabilities.", "sh# groffer /usr/local/share/doc/groff/meintro.ms.gz", "Decompress, format and display the compressed file meintro.ms.gz in the", "directory /usr/local/share/doc/groff, using the standard viewer", "gxditview as graphical viewer when in the X Window System, or the", "less(1) pager program otherwise.", "sh# groffer groff", "If the file ./groff exists use it as input. Otherwise interpret the", "argument as a search for the man page named groff in the smallest pos-", "sible man section, being section 1 in this case.", "sh# groffer man:groff", "search for the man page of groff even when the file ./groff exists.", "sh# groffer groff.7", "sh# groffer 7 groff", "search the man page of groff in man section 7. This section search", "works only for a digit or a single character from a small set.", "sh# groffer fb.modes", "If the file ./fb.modes does not exist interpret this as a search for", "the man page of fb.modes. As the extension modes is not a single char-", "acter in classical section style the argument is not split to a search", "for fb.", "sh# groffer groff 'troff(1)' man:roff", "The arguments that are not existing files are looked-up as the follow-", "ing man pages: groff (automatic search, should be found in man sec-", "tion 1), troff (in section 1), and roff (in the section with the lowest", "number, being 7 in this case). The quotes around 'troff(1)' are neces-", "sary because the parentheses are special shell characters; escaping", "them with a backslash character \\( and \\) would be possible, too. The", "formatted files are concatenated and displayed in one piece.", "sh# LANG=de groffer --man --viewer=galeon ls", "Retrieve the German man page (language de) for the ls program, decom-", "press it, format it to html or xhtml format (www mode) and view the re-", "sult in the web browser galeon. The option --man guarantees that the", "man page is retrieved, even when a local file ls exists in the actual", "directory.", "sh# groffer --source 'man:roff(7)'", "Get the man page called roff in man section 7, decompress it, and print", "its unformatted content, its source code.", "sh# groffer --de-p --in --ap", "This is a set of abbreviated arguments, it is determined as", "sh# groffer --debug-params --intermediate-output --apropos", "sh# cat file.gz | groffer -Z -mfoo", "The file file.gz is sent to standard input, this is decompressed, and", "then this is transported to the groff intermediate output mode without", "post-processing (groff option -Z), using macro package foo (groff op-", "tion -m).", "sh# echo '\\f(CBWOW!' |", "> groffer --x --bg red --fg yellow --geometry 200x100 -", "Display the word WOW! in a small window in constant-width bold font,", "using color yellow on red background." ], "see_also": [ { "name": "groff", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groff/1/json" }, { "name": "troff", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/troff/1/json" }, { "name": "grog", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/grog/1/json" }, { "name": "groff", "section": "7", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groff/7/json" }, { "name": "groffchar", "section": "7", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groffchar/7/json" }, { "name": "grofftmac", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/grofftmac/5/json" }, { "name": "groffout", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groffout/5/json" }, { "name": "man", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/man/1/json" }, { "name": "gxditview", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/gxditview/1/json" }, { "name": "xditview", "section": "1x", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/xditview/1x/json" }, { "name": "kpdf", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/kpdf/1/json" }, { "name": "kghostview", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/kghostview/1/json" }, { "name": "evince", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/evince/1/json" }, { "name": "ggv", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ggv/1/json" }, { "name": "gv", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/gv/1/json" }, { "name": "ghostview", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ghostview/1/json" }, { "name": "gs", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/gs/1/json" }, { "name": "kpdf", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/kpdf/1/json" }, { "name": "acroread", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/acroread/1/json" }, { "name": "evince", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/evince/1/json" }, { "name": "xpdf", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/xpdf/1/json" }, { "name": "gpdf", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/gpdf/1/json" }, { "name": "kghostview", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/kghostview/1/json" }, { "name": "ggv", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ggv/1/json" }, { "name": "kdvi", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/kdvi/1/json" }, { "name": "xdvi", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/xdvi/1/json" }, { "name": "dvilx", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/dvilx/1/json" }, { "name": "konqueror", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/konqueror/1/json" }, { "name": "epiphany", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/epiphany/1/json" }, { "name": "firefox", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/firefox/1/json" }, { "name": "mozilla", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mozilla/1/json" }, { "name": "netscape", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/netscape/1/json" }, { "name": "lynx", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/lynx/1/json" }, { "name": "less", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/less/1/json" }, { "name": "more", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/more/1/json" }, { "name": "gzip", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/gzip/1/json" }, { "name": "bzip2", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/bzip2/1/json" }, { "name": "xz", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/xz/1/json" } ] }