# pdfroff(1) - man - phpman [PDFROFF(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/PDFROFF/1/markdown) General Commands Manual [PDFROFF(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/PDFROFF/1/markdown) ## NAME pdfroff - create PDF documents using groff ## SYNOPSIS **pdfroff** [**-abcegilpstzCEGNRSUVXZ**] [**-d** _cs_] [**-f** _fam_] [**-F** _dir_] [**-I** _dir_] [**-L** _arg_] [**-m** _name_] [**-M** _dir_] [**-n** _num_] [**-o** _list_] [**-P** _arg_] [**-r** _cn_] [**-T** _dev_] [**-w** _name_] [**-W** _name_] [**--emit-ps**] [**--no-toc-relocation**] [**--no-kill-null-pages**] [**--stylesheet=**_name_] [**--no-pdf-output**] [**--pdf-output=**_name_] [**--no-reference-dictionary**] [**--reference-dictionary=**_name_] [**--report-progress**] [**--keep-temporary-files**] [_file_ ...] ### pdfroff -h ### pdfroff --help **pdfroff** **-v** [_groff-option_ ...] **pdfroff** **--version** [_groff-option_ ...] ## DESCRIPTION **pdfroff** is a wrapper program for the GNU text processing system, **groff**. It transparently handles the mechanics of multiple pass **groff** processing, when applied to suitably marked up **groff** source files, such that tables of contents and body text are formatted separately, and are subsequently combined in the correct order, for final publication as a single PDF docu‐ ment. A further optional “style sheet” capability is provided; this allows for the defini‐ tion of content which is required to precede the table of contents, in the published docu‐ ment. For each invocation of **pdfroff**, the ultimate **groff** output stream is post-processed by the GhostScript interpreter, to produce a finished PDF document. **pdfroff** makes no assumptions about, and imposes no restrictions on, the use of any **groff** macro packages which the user may choose to employ, in order to achieve a desired document format; however, it _does_ include specific built in support for the **pdfmark** macro package, should the user choose to employ it. Specifically, if the _pdfhref_ macro, defined in the _pdfmark.tmac_ package, is used to define public reference marks, or dynamic links to such ref‐ erence marks, then **pdfroff** performs as many preformatting **groff** passes as required, up to a maximum limit of _four_, in order to compile a document reference dictionary, to resolve refer‐ ences, and to expand the dynamically defined content of links. ## USAGE The command line is parsed in accordance with normal GNU conventions, but with one exception — when specifying any short form option (i.e., a single character option introduced by a sin‐ gle hyphen), and if that option expects an argument, then it _must_ be specified independently (i.e., it may _not_ be appended to any group of other single character short form options). Long form option names (i.e., those introduced by a double hyphen) may be abbreviated to their minimum length unambiguous initial substring. Otherwise, **pdfroff** usage closely mirrors that of **groff** itself. Indeed, with the exception of the **-h**, **-v**, and **-T** _dev_ short form options, and all long form options, which are parsed inter‐ nally by **pdfroff**, all options and file name arguments specified on the command line are passed on to **groff**, to control the formatting of the PDF document. Consequently, **pdfroff** ac‐ cepts all options and arguments, as specified in [**groff**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groff/1/markdown), which may also be considered as the definitive reference for all standard **pdfroff** options and argument usage. ## OPTIONS **pdfroff** accepts all of the short form options (i.e., those introduced by a single hyphen), which are available with **groff** itself. In most cases, these are simply passed transparently to **groff**; the following, however, are handled specially by **pdfroff**. ### -h --help ### -i parently to **groff**, but, if grouped with other options, it _must_ be the first in the group. Hiding it within a group breaks standard input processing, in the multiple pass **groff** processing context of **pdfroff**. ### -T -T **pdfroff** to abort. ### -v --version See [**groff**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groff/1/markdown) for a description of all other short form options, which are transparently passed through **pdfroff** to **groff**. All long form options (i.e., those introduced by a double hyphen) are interpreted locally by **pdfroff**; they are **not** passed on to **groff**, unless otherwise stated below. **--help** Causes **pdfroff** to display a summary of the its usage syntax, and supported options, and then exit. ### --emit-ps Suppresses the final output conversion step, causing **pdfroff** to emit PostScript output instead of PDF. This may be useful, to capture intermediate PostScript output, when using a specialised postprocessor, such as _gpresent_ for example, in place of the de‐ fault _GhostScript_ PDF writer. ### --keep-temporary-files Suppresses the deletion of temporary files, which normally occurs after **pdfroff** has completed PDF document formatting; this may be useful, when debugging formatting prob‐ lems. See section “Files” below for a description of the temporary files used by **pdfroff**. ### --no-pdf-output May be used with the **--reference-dictionary=**_name_ option (described below) to eliminate the overhead of PDF formatting, when running **pdfroff** to create a reference dictionary, for use in a different document. ### --no-reference-dictionary May be used to eliminate the overhead of creating a reference dictionary, when it is known that the target PDF document contains no public references, created by the _pdfhref_ macro. ### --no-toc-relocation May be used to eliminate the extra **groff** processing pass, which is required to gener‐ ate a table of contents, and relocate it to the start of the PDF document, when pro‐ cessing any document which lacks an automatically generated table of contents. ### --no-kill-null-pages While preparing for simulation of the manual collation step, which is traditionally required to relocate a _table_ _of_ _contents_ to the start of a document, **pdfroff** accumu‐ lates a number of empty page descriptions into the intermediate _PostScript_ output stream. During the final collation step, these empty pages are normally discarded from the finished document; this option forces **pdfroff** to leave them in place. **--pdf-output=**_name_ Specifies the name to be used for the resultant PDF document; if unspecified, the PDF output is written to standard output. A future version of **pdfroff** may use this op‐ tion, to encode the document name in a generated reference dictionary. **--reference-dictionary=**_name_ Specifies the name to be used for the generated reference dictionary file; if unspeci‐ fied, the reference dictionary is created in a temporary file, which is deleted when **pdfroff** completes processing of the current document. This option _must_ be specified, if it is desired to save the reference dictionary, for use in references placed in other PDF documents. ### --report-progress Causes **pdfroff** to display an informational message on standard error, at the start of each **groff** processing pass. **--stylesheet=**_name_ Specifies the name of an _input_ _file_, to be used as a style sheet for formatting of content, which is to be placed _before_ the table of contents, in the formatted PDF doc‐ ument. ### --version Causes **pdfroff** to display a version identification message. The entire command line is then passed transparently to **groff**, in a _one_ pass operation _only_, in order to dis‐ play the associated **groff** version information, before exiting. ## ENVIRONMENT The following environment variables may be set, and exported, to modify the behaviour of **pdfroff**. _PDFROFF_COLLATE_ Specifies the program to be used for collation of the finished PDF document. This collation step may be required to move _tables_ _of_ _contents_ to the start of the finished PDF document, when formatting with traditional macro packages, which print them at the end. However, users should not normally need to specify _PDFROFF_COLLATE_, (and indeed, are not encouraged to do so). If unspecified, **pdfroff** uses [**sed**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sed/1/markdown) by de‐ fault, which normally suffices. If _PDFROFF_COLLATE_ _is_ specified, then it must act as a filter, accepting a list of file name arguments, and write its output to the _stdout_ stream, whence it is piped to the _PDFROFF_POSTPROCESSOR_COMMAND_, to produce the finished PDF output. When specifying _PDFROFF_COLLATE_, it is normally necessary to also specify _PDFROFF_KILL_NULL_PAGES_. _PDFROFF_COLLATE_ is ignored, if **pdfroff** is invoked with the _--no-kill-null-pages_ op‐ tion. _PDFROFF_KILL_NULL_PAGES_ Specifies options to be passed to the _PDFROFF_COLLATE_ program. It should not normally be necessary to specify _PDFROFF_KILL_NULL_PAGES_. The internal default is a [**sed**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sed/1/markdown) script, which is intended to remove completely blank pages from the collated output stream, and which should be appropriate in most applications of **pdfroff**. However, if any alternative to [**sed**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sed/1/markdown) is specified for _PDFROFF_COLLATE_, then it is likely that a corresponding alternative specification for _PDFROFF_KILL_NULL_PAGES_ is required. As in the case of _PDFROFF_COLLATE_, _PDFROFF_KILL_NULL_PAGES_ is ignored, if **pdfroff** is invoked with the _--no-kill-null-pages_ option. _PDFROFF_POSTPROCESSOR_COMMAND_ Specifies the command to be used for the final document conversion from PostScript in‐ termediate output to PDF. It must behave as a filter, writing its output to the _std__‐ _out_ stream, and must accept an arbitrary number of _files_ _..._ arguments, with the spe‐ cial case of _-_ representing the _stdin_ stream. If unspecified, _PDFROFF_POSTPROCESSOR_COMMAND_ defaults to gs -dBATCH -dQUIET -dNOPAUSE -dSAFER -sDEVICE=pdfwrite \ -sOutputFile=- _GROFF_TMPDIR_ Identifies the directory in which **pdfroff** should create temporary files. If _GROFF_TMPDIR_ is _not_ specified, then the variables _TMPDIR_, _TMP_ and _TEMP_ are considered in turn, as possible temporary file repositories. If none of these are set, then tem‐ porary files are created in the current directory. _GROFF_GHOSTSCRIPT_INTERPRETER_ Specifies the program to be invoked, when **pdfroff** converts **groff** PostScript output to PDF. If _PDFROFF_POSTPROCESSOR_COMMAND_ is specified, then the command name it speci‐ fies is _implicitly_ assigned to _GROFF_GHOSTSCRIPT_INTERPRETER_, overriding any explicit setting specified in the environment. If _GROFF_GHOSTSCRIPT_INTERPRETER_ is not speci‐ fied, then **pdfroff** searches the process _PATH_, looking for a program with any of the well known names for the GhostScript interpreter; if no GhostScript interpreter can be found, **pdfroff** aborts. _GROFF_AWK_INTERPRETER_ Specifies the program to be invoked, when **pdfroff** is extracting reference dictionary entries from a **groff** intermediate message stream. If _GROFF_AWK_INTERPRETER_ is not specified, then **pdfroff** searches the process _PATH_, looking for any of the preferred programs, ‘gawk’, ‘mawk’, ‘nawk’, and ‘awk’, in this order; if none of these are found, **pdfroff** issues a warning message, and continue processing; however, in this case, no reference dictionary is created. _OSTYPE_ Typically defined automatically by the operating system, _OSTYPE_ is used on Microsoft Win32/MS-DOS platforms _only_, to infer the default _PATH_SEPARATOR_ character, which is used when parsing the process _PATH_ to search for external helper programs. _PATH_SEPARATOR_ If set, _PATH_SEPARATOR_ overrides the default separator character, (‘:’ on POSIX/Unix systems, inferred from _OSTYPE_ on Microsoft Win32/MS-DOS), which is used when parsing the process _PATH_ to search for external helper programs. _SHOW_PROGRESS_ If this is set to a non-empty value, then **pdfroff** always behaves as if the **--report-progress** option is specified, on the command line. ## FILES Input and output files for **pdfroff** may be named according to any convention of the user's choice. Typically, input files may be named according to the choice of the principal format‐ ting macro package, e.g., file_.ms_ might be an input file for formatting using the **ms** macros (_s.tmac_); normally, the final output file should be named file_.pdf_. Temporary files, created by **pdfroff**, are placed in the file system hierarchy, in or below the directory specified by environment variables (see section “Environment” above). If [**mktemp**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mktemp/1/markdown) is available, it is invoked to create a private subdirectory of the nominated temporary files directory, (with subdirectory name derived from the template _pdfroff-XXXXXXXXXX_); if this subdirectory is successfully created, the temporary files will be placed within it, otherwise they will be placed directly in the directory nominated in the environment. All temporary files themselves are named according to the convention _pdf_$$_._*, where _$$_ is the standard shell variable representing the process ID of the **pdfroff** process itself, and _*_ rep‐ resents any of the extensions used by **pdfroff** to identify the following temporary and inter‐ mediate files. _pdf_$$_.tmp_ A scratch pad file, used to capture reference data emitted by **groff**, during the _refer__‐ _ence_ _dictionary_ compilation phase. _pdf_$$_.ref_ The _reference_ _dictionary_, as compiled in the last but one pass of the _reference_ _dic__‐ _tionary_ compilation phase; (at the start of the first pass, this file is created empty; in successive passes, it contains the _reference_ _dictionary_ entries, as col‐ lected in the preceding pass). If the **--reference-dictionary**=_name_ option is specified, this intermediate file becomes permanent, and is named _name_, rather than _pdf_$$_.ref_. _pdf_$$_.cmp_ Used to collect _reference_ _dictionary_ entries during the active pass of the _reference_ _dictionary_ compilation phase. At the end of any pass, when the content of _pdf_$$_.cmp_ compares as identical to _pdf_$$_.ref_, (or the corresponding file named by the **--reference-dictionary**=_name_ option), then _reference_ _dictionary_ compilation is termi‐ nated, and the _document_ _reference_ _map_ is appended to this intermediate file, for in‐ clusion in the final formatting passes. _pdf_$$_.tc_ An intermediate _PostScript_ file, in which “Table of Contents” entries are collected, to facilitate relocation before the body text, on ultimate output to the _GhostScript_ postprocessor. _pdf_$$_.ps_ An intermediate _PostScript_ file, in which the body text is collected prior to ultimate output to the _GhostScript_ postprocessor, in the proper sequence, _after_ _pdf_$$_.tc_. ## AUTHORS **pdfroff** was written by Keith Marshall ⟨⟩. ## SEE ALSO See [**groff**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groff/1/markdown) for the definitive reference to document formatting with **groff**. Since **pdfroff** provides a superset of all **groff** capabilities, [**groff**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/groff/1/markdown) may also be considered to be the de‐ finitive reference to all _standard_ capabilities of **pdfroff**, with this document providing the reference to **pdfroff**'s extended features. While **pdfroff** imposes neither any restriction on, nor any requirement for, the use of any specific **groff** macro package, a number of supplied macro packages, and in particular those associated with the package _pdfmark.tmac_, are best suited for use with **pdfroff** as the pre‐ ferred formatter. Detailed documentation on the use of these packages may be found, in PDF format, in the reference guide ““**Portable** **Document** **Format** **Publishing** **with** **GNU** **Troff**””, included in the installed documentation set as _/usr/share/doc/groff-base/pdf/pdfmark.pdf.gz_. groff 1.22.4 23 March 2022 [PDFROFF(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/PDFROFF/1/markdown)