GROG(1) - man - phpMan

GROG(1)                                General Commands Manual                               GROG(1)



NAME
       grog - guess options for a following groff command

SYNOPSIS
       grog [-C] [-T device] [--run] [--warnings] [--ligatures] [groff-option ...] [--] [filespec
            ...]

       grog -h
       grog --help

       grog -v
       grog --version

DESCRIPTION
       grog reads the input (file names or standard input) and guesses which of the groff(1) options
       are  needed  to  perform  the  input with the groff program.  A suitable device is now always
       written as -Tdevice including the groff default as -T ps.

       The corresponding groff command is usually displayed in standard  output.   With  the  option
       --run,  the  generated  line is output into standard error and the generated groff command is
       run on the standard output.  groffer(1) relies on a perfectly running groff(1).

OPTIONS
       The option -v or --version prints information on the  version  number.   Also  -h  or  --help
       prints  usage  information.  Both of these options automatically end the grog program.  Other
       options are thenignored, and no groff command line is generated.  The following 3 options are
       the only grog options,

       -C     this  option  means enabling the groff compatibility mode, which is also transfered to
              the generated groff command line.

       --ligatures
              this option forces to include the arguments -P-y -PU within the generated  groff  com‐
              mand line.

       --run  with  this  option,  the  command line is output at standard error and then run on the
              computer.

       --warnings
              with this option, some more warnings are output to standard error.

       All other specified short options (words starting with one minus character -) are interpreted
       as  groff  options  or option clusters with or without argument.  No space is allowed between
       options and their argument.  Except from the -marg options, all options will  be  passed  on,
       i.e.  they are included unchanged in the command for the output without effecting the work of
       grog.

       A filespec argument can either be the name of an existing file or a single minus  -  to  mean
       standard input.  If no filespec is specified standard input is read automatically.

DETAILS
       grog  reads  all  filespec  parameters  as a whole.  It tries to guess which of the following
       groff options are required for running the input under groff: -e, -g, -G, -j, -p, -R, -s,  -t
       (preprocessors); and -man, -mdoc, -mdoc-old, -me, -mm, -mom, and -ms (macro packages).

       The guessed groff command including those options and the found filespec parameters is put on
       the standard output.

       It is possible to specify arbitrary groff options on the command line.  These are  passed  on
       the output without change, except for the -marg options.

       The  groff  program  has  trouble when the wrong -marg option or several of these options are
       specified.  In these cases, grog will print an error message and exit with an error code.  It
       is  better  to  specify  no -marg option.  Because such an option is only accepted and passed
       when grog does not find any of these options or the same option is found.

       If several different -marg options are found by grog an error message  is  produced  and  the
       program  is  terminated with an error code.  But the output is written with the wrong options
       nevertheless.

       Remember that it is not necessary to determine a macro package.  A  roff  file  can  also  be
       written in the groff language without any macro package.  grog will produce an output without
       an -marg option.

       As groff also works with pure text files without any roff requests, grog cannot  be  used  to
       identify a file to be a roff file.

       The groffer(1) program heavily depends on a working grog.

EXAMPLES
       Calling
              grog meintro.me
       results in
              groff -me meintro.me
       So grog recognized that the file meintro.me is written with the -me macro package.
       On the other hand,
              grog pic.ms
       outputs
              groff -p -t -e -ms pic.ms
       Besides  determining the macro package -ms, grog recognized that the file pic.ms additionally
       needs -pte, the combination of -p for pic, -t for tbl, and -e for eqn.
       If both of the former example files are combined by the command
              grog meintro.me pic.ms
       an error message is sent to standard error because groff cannot work with two different macro
       packages:
              grog: error: there are several macro packages: -me -ms
       Additionally the corresponding output with the wrong options is printed to standard output:
              groff -pte -me -ms meintro.me pic.ms
       But the program is terminated with an error code.  The call of
              grog -ksS -Tdvi grnexmpl.g
       contains  several  groff  options that are just passed on the output without any interface to
       grog.  These are the option cluster -ksS consisting of -k, -s, and -S; and the option -T with
       argument dvi.  The output is
              groff -k -s -S -Tdvi grnexmpl.g
       so  no  additional  option was added by grog.  As no option -marg was found by grog this file
       does not use a macro package.

AUTHORS
       grog was originally written by James Clark.  The current Perl implementation was  written  by
       Bernd  Warken  ⟨groff-bernd.warken-72 AT web.de⟩  with contributions from Ralph Corderoy, and is
       maintained by Werner Lemberg ⟨wl AT gnu.org⟩.

SEE ALSO
       groff(1), groffer(1)



groff 1.22.4                                23 March 2022                                    GROG(1)