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).

See also

       groff(1), troff(1), grotty(1), locale(1), roff(7)