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troff(1)
NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION OPTIONS WARNINGS ENVIRONMENT FILES AUTHORS SEE ALSO
TROFF(1)                               General Commands Manual                              TROFF(1)



NAME
       troff - the troff processor of the groff text formatting system

SYNOPSIS
       troff [-abcivzCERU] [-d cs] [-f fam] [-F dir] [-I dir] [-m name] [-M dir] [-n num] [-o list]
             [-r cn] [-T name] [-w name] [-W name] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION
       This manual page describes the GNU version of troff.  It is part of the groff  document  for‐
       matting  system.  It is functionally compatible with Unix troff, but has many extensions, see
       groff_diff(7).  Usually it should be invoked using the groff(1) command which will  also  run
       preprocessors and postprocessors in the appropriate order and with the appropriate options.

OPTIONS
       Whitespace is permitted between a command-line option and its argument.

       -a     Generate an ASCII approximation of the typeset output.

       -b     Print  a  backtrace  with  each  warning or error message.  This backtrace should help
              track down the cause of the error.  The line numbers given in the  backtrace  may  not
              always  be  correct,  for  troff's  idea of line numbers gets confused by as or am re‐
              quests.

       -c     Disable color output (always disabled in compatibility mode).

       -C     Enable compatibility mode.

       -dcs
       -dname=s
              Define c or name to be a string s; c must be a one letter name.

       -E     Inhibit all error messages of troff.  Note that this doesn't affect messages output to
              standard error by macro packages using the tm or tm1 requests.

       -ffam  Use fam as the default font family.

       -Fdir  Search  in  directory  (or directory path) dir for subdirectories devname (name is the
              name of the device) and there for the DESC file and font files.  dir is scanned before
              all other font directories.

       -i     Read the standard input after all the named input files have been processed.

       -Idir  This option may be used to add a directory to the search path for files (both those on
              the command line and those named in .psbb requests).  The search path  is  initialized
              with the current directory.  This option may be specified more than once; the directo‐
              ries are then searched in the order specified (but before the current directory).   If
              you  want  to  make the current directory be read before other directories, add -I. at
              the appropriate place.

              No directory search is performed for files with an absolute file name.

       -mname Read in the file name.tmac.  If it isn't found, try tmac.name  instead.   It  will  be
              first  searched  for in directories given with the -M command-line option, then in di‐
              rectories given in the GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable, then in the  current  di‐
              rectory  (only if in unsafe mode), the home directory, /usr/lib/groff/site-tmac, /usr/
              share/groff/site-tmac, and /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac.

       -Mdir  Search directory (or directory path) dir for macro files.  This is scanned before  all
              other macro directories.

       -nnum  Number the first page num.

       -olist Output  only  pages  in  list, which is a comma-separated list of page ranges; n means
              print page n, m-n means print every page between m and n, -n means print every page up
              to  n, n- means print every page from n.  troff will exit after printing the last page
              in the list.

       -rcn
       -rname=n
              Set number register c or name to n; c must be a one character name; n can be any troff
              numeric expression.

       -R     Don't load troffrc and troffrc-end.

       -Tname Prepare  output  for  device name, rather than the default ps; see groff(1) for a more
              detailed description.

       -U     Unsafe mode.  This will enable the following requests: open, opena, pso, sy,  and  pi.
              For security reasons, these potentially dangerous requests are disabled otherwise.  It
              will also add the current directory to the macro search path.

       -v     Print the version number.

       -wname Enable warning name.  Available warnings are described in  section  “Warnings”  below.
              To enable most useful warnings use -w all.  To enable absolutely all warnings use -w w
              instead.  Multiple -w options are allowed.

       -Wname Inhibit warning name.  Multiple -W options are allowed.

       -z     Suppress formatted output.

WARNINGS
       The warnings that can be given by troff are divided into the following categories.  The  name
       associated with each warning is used by the -w and -W options; the number is used by the warn
       request, and by the .warn register; it is always a power of 2 to allow bitwise composition.

                           ┌─────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
                           │Bit   Code   Warning │ Bit    Code       Warning   │
                           ├─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
                           │  0      1   char    │  10      1024   reg         │
                           │  1      2   number  │  11      2048   tab         │
                           │  2      4   break   │  12      4096   right-brace │
                           │  3      8   delim   │  13      8192   missing     │
                           │  4     16   el      │  14     16384   input       │
                           │  5     32   scale   │  15     32768   escape      │
                           │  6     64   range   │  16     65536   space       │
                           │  7    128   syntax  │  17    131072   font        │
                           │  8    256   di      │  18    262144   ig          │
                           │  9    512   mac     │  19    524288   color       │
                           │                     │  20   1048576   file        │
                           └─────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
       break           4   In fill mode, lines which could not be broken so that  their  length  was
                           less than the line length.  This is enabled by default.

       char            1   Non-existent characters.  This is enabled by default.

       color      524288   Color-related warnings.

       delim           8   Missing or mismatched closing delimiters.

       di            256   Use of di or da without an argument when there is no current diversion.

       el             16   Use of the el request with no matching ie request.

       escape      32768   Unrecognized  escape  sequences.  When an unrecognized escape sequence is
                           encountered, the escape character is ignored.

       file      1048576   Indicates a missing file for the mso request.  Enabled by default.

       font       131072   Non-existent fonts.  This is enabled by default.

       ig         262144   Invalid escapes in text ignored with the ig request.   These  are  condi‐
                           tions that are errors when they do not occur in ignored text.

       input       16384   Invalid input characters.

       mac           512   Use  of  undefined  strings,  macros  and  diversions.  When an undefined
                           string, macro or diversion is used, that string is automatically  defined
                           as  empty.  So, in most cases, at most one warning will be given for each
                           name.

       missing      8192   Requests that are missing non-optional arguments.

       number          2   Invalid numeric expressions.  This is enabled by default.

       range          64   Out of range arguments.

       reg          1024   Use of undefined number registers.  When an undefined number register  is
                           used,  that  register is automatically defined to have a value of 0.  So,
                           in most cases, at most one warning will be given for use of a  particular
                           name.

       right-brace  4096   Use of \} where a number was expected.

       scale          32   Meaningless scaling indicators.

       space       65536   Missing  space between a request or macro and its argument.  This warning
                           will be given when an undefined name longer than two  characters  is  en‐
                           countered,  and the first two characters of the name make a defined name.
                           The request or macro will not be invoked.  When this warning is given, no
                           macro  is automatically defined.  This is enabled by default.  This warn‐
                           ing will never occur in compatibility mode.

       syntax        128   Dubious syntax in numeric expressions.

       tab          2048   Inappropriate use of a tab character.  Either  use  of  a  tab  character
                           where a number was expected, or use of tab character in an unquoted macro
                           argument.

       There are also names that can be used to refer to groups of warnings:

       all    All warnings except di, mac, and reg.  It is intended that this  covers  all  warnings
              that are useful with traditional macro packages.

       w      All warnings.

ENVIRONMENT
       GROFF_TMAC_PATH
              A  colon separated list of directories in which to search for macro files.  troff will
              scan directories given in the -M option before  these,  and  in  standard  directories
              (current  directory if in unsafe mode, home directory, /usr/lib/groff/site-tmac, /usr/
              share/groff/site-tmac, /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac) after these.

       GROFF_TYPESETTER
              Default device.

       GROFF_FONT_PATH
              A colon separated list of directories in which to search for  the  devname  directory.
              troff  will  scan directories given in the -F option before these, and in standard di‐
              rectories  (/usr/share/groff/site-font,  /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/font,  /usr/lib/font)
              after these.

FILES
       /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/troffrc
              Initialization file (called before any other macro package).

       /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/troffrc-end
              Initialization file (called after any other macro package).

       /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/name.tmac
       /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/tmac.name
              Macro files

       /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/font/devname/DESC
              Device description file for device name.

       /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/font/devname/F
              Font file for font F of device name.

       Note that troffrc and troffrc-end are searched for neither in the current nor the home direc‐
       tory by default for security reasons (even if the -U option is given).  Use the  -M  command-
       line  option  or  the  GROFF_TMAC_PATH  environment  variable to add these directories to the
       search path if necessary.

AUTHORS
       The GNU version of troff was originally written by James Clark; he also  wrote  the  original
       version  of this document, which was modified by Werner Lemberg ⟨wl AT gnu.org⟩ and Bernd Warken
       ⟨groff-bernd.warken-72 AT web.de⟩.

SEE ALSO
       groff(1)
              The main program of the groff system, a wrapper around troff.

       groff(7)
              A description of the groff language, including a short but complete reference  of  all
              predefined  requests,  registers,  and escapes of plain groff.  From the command line,
              this is called by

                     man 7 groff

       groff_diff(7)
              The differences of the groff language and the classical  troff  language.   Currently,
              this is the most actual document of the groff system.

       roff(7)
              An  overview  over groff and other roff systems, including pointers to further related
              documentation.

       Groff: The GNU Implementation of troff, by Trent A. Fisher and Werner Lemberg, is the primary
       groff manual.  You can browse it interactively with “info groff”.



groff 1.22.4                                23 March 2022                                   TROFF(1)

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