man > nroff(1)

nroff(1)                               General Commands Manual                              nroff(1)

Name
       nroff - format documents with groff for TTY (terminal) devices

Synopsis
       nroff [-bcCEhikpRStUVz] [-d ctext] [-d string=text] [-K fallback-encoding] [-m macro-package]
             [-M macro-directory] [-n page-number] [-o page-list] [-P postprocessor-argument]
             [-r cnumeric-expression] [-r register=numeric-expression] [-T output-device]
             [-w warning-category] [-W warning-category] [file ...]

       nroff --help

       nroff -v
       nroff --version

Description
       nroff  formats documents written in the ]8;;man:groff(7)\groff(7)]8;;\ language for typewriter-like devices such as
       terminal emulators.  GNU nroff emulates the AT&T nroff command using ]8;;man:groff(1)\groff(1)]8;;\.  nroff  gener‐
       ates  output via ]8;;man:grotty(1)\grotty(1)]8;;\, groff's terminal output driver, which needs to know the character
       encoding scheme used by the device.  Consequently, acceptable arguments to the -T option  are
       ascii, latin1, utf8, and cp1047; any others are ignored.  If neither the GROFF_TYPESETTER en‐
       vironment  variable nor the -T command-line option (which overrides the environment variable)
       specifies a (valid) device, nroff consults the locale to select an appropriate output device.
       It first tries the ]8;;man:locale(1)\locale(1)]8;;\ program, then checks several  locale-related  environment  vari‐
       ables; see section “Environment” below.  If all of the foregoing fail, -Tascii is implied.

       The  -b,  -c, -C, -d, -E, -i, -m, -M, -n, -o, -r, -U, -w, -W, and -z options have the effects
       described in ]8;;man:troff(1)\troff(1)]8;;\.  -c and -h imply “-P-c” and “-P-h”, respectively; -c  is  also  inter‐
       preted  directly  by  troff.  In addition, this implementation ignores the AT&T nroff options
       -e, -q, and -s (which are not implemented in groff).  The options -k, -K, -p, -P, -R, -t, and
       -S are documented in ]8;;man:groff(1)\groff(1)]8;;\.  -V causes nroff to display the constructed groff  command  on
       the  standard output stream, but does not execute it.  -v and --version show version informa‐
       tion about nroff and the programs it runs, while --help displays a usage  message;  all  exit
       afterward.

Exit status
       nroff  exits  with error status 2 if there was a problem parsing its arguments, with status 0
       if any of the options -V, -v, --version, or --help were specified, and  with  the  status  of
       groff otherwise.

Environment
       Normally, the path separator in environment variables ending with PATH is the colon; this may
       vary depending on the operating system.  For example, Windows uses a semicolon instead.

       GROFF_BIN_PATH
              is  a  colon-separated list of directories in which to search for the groff executable
              before searching in PATH.  If unset, /usr/bin is used.

       GROFF_TYPESETTER
              specifies the default output device for groff.

       LC_ALL
       LC_CTYPE
       LANG
       LESSCHARSET
              are pattern-matched in this order for contents matching standard  character  encodings
              supported  by  groff in the event no -T option is given and GROFF_TYPESETTER is unset,
              or the values specified are invalid.

Files
       /usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/tty-char.tmac
              defines fallback definitions of  roff  special  characters.   These  definitions  more
              poorly  optically approximate typeset output than those of tty.tmac in favor of commu‐
              nicating semantic information.  nroff loads it automatically.

Notes
       Pager programs like ]8;;man:more(1)\more(1)]8;;\ and ]8;;man:less(1)\less(1)]8;;\ may require command-line options to correctly  handle
       some output sequences; see ]8;;man:grotty(1)\grotty(1)]8;;\.

See also
       ]8;;man:groff(1)\groff(1)]8;;\, ]8;;man:troff(1)\troff(1)]8;;\, ]8;;man:grotty(1)\grotty(1)]8;;\, ]8;;man:locale(1)\locale(1)]8;;\, ]8;;man:roff(7)\roff(7)]8;;\

groff 1.23.0                                31 March 2024                                   nroff(1)