NAME

       soelim - interpret .so requests in groff input

SYNOPSIS

       soelim [-Crtv] [-I dir] [files ...]

       It is possible to have whitespace between the -I command line option and its parameter.

DESCRIPTION

       soelim reads files and replaces lines of the form

              .so file

       by the contents of file.  It is useful if files included with .so need to be preprocessed.
       Normally, soelim should be invoked with the -s option of groff.

       To embed `\' in the file name, write `\\' or `\e'.  To embed a  space,  write  `\ '.   Any
       other escape sequence in file makes soelim ignore the whole line.

       Note  that  there must be no whitespace between the leading dot and the two characters `s'
       and `o'.  Otherwise, only groff interprets the .so request (and soelim ignores it).

OPTIONS

       -C     Recognize .so even when followed by a character other than space or newline.

       -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  .so  requests).   The search path is
              initialized with the current directory.  This option may  be  specified  more  than
              once;  the  directories  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.

       -r     Do not add .lf requests (for general use, with non-groff files).

       -t     Don't  emit  .lf  requests  but  TeX  comment  lines (starting with `%') giving the
              current file and line number.

       -v     Print the version number.

USAGE

       The normal processing sequence of groff is this:

                 input        sourced
                 file          file
                   |             |
                   v             v
               preprocessor -> troff -> postprocessor
                                             |
                                             v
                                          output
                                           file

       That is, files sourced with .so are normally read only by troff  (the  actual  formatter).
       soelim is not required for troff to source files.

       If  a  file  to be sourced should also be preprocessed, it must already be read before the
       input file passes through the preprocessor.  This is handled by soelim:

                 input
                 file
                   |
                   v
                 soelim -> preprocessor -> troff -> postprocessor
                   ^                                     |
                   |                                     v
                sourced                               output
                 file                                  file

SEE ALSO

       groff(1)