Ubuntu Manpage: nroff - format documents with groff for TTY (terminal) devices

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 groff(7) language for typewriter-like devices such
as terminal emulators. GNU nroff emulates the AT&T nroff command using groff(1). nroff
generates output via grotty(1), 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 environment 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 locale(1) program, then checks several
locale-related environment variables; 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 troff(1). -c and -h imply “-P-c” and “-P-h”, respectively; -c is
also interpreted 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 groff(1). -V causes nroff to display the
constructed groff command on the standard output stream, but does not execute it. -v and
--version show version information 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
              communicating semantic information.  nroff loads it automatically.

Notes

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