NAME

troff, nroff − typeset or format text

SYNOPSIS

nroff [ options ] [ files ]

troff [ options ] [ files ]

DESCRIPTION

Nroff formats text contained in files (standard input by default) for printing on typewriter-like devices and line printers; similarly, troff formats text for a Wang Laboratories, Inc., C/A/T phototypesetter.  Their capabilities are described in the NROFF/TROFF User’s Manual cited below. 

An argument consisting of a minus (−) is taken to be a file name corresponding to the standard input.  The options, which may appear in any order, but must appear before the files, are:

−olist Print only pages whose page numbers appear in the list of numbers and ranges, separated by commas.  A range N−M means pages N through M; an initial −N means from the beginning to page N; and a final N− means from N to the end.  (See BUGS below.) 

−nN Number first generated page N.

−sN Stop every N pages.  Nroff will halt after every N pages (default N=1) to allow paper loading or changing, and will resume upon receipt of a line-feed or new-line (new-lines do not work in pipelines, e.g., with mm(1)). This option does not work if the output of nroff is piped through col(1). Troff will stop the phototypesetter every N pages, produce a trailer to allow changing cassettes, and resume when the typesetter’s start button is pressed.  When nroff (troff) halts between pages, an ASCII BEL (in troff, the message page stop) is sent to the terminal. 

−raN Set register a (which must have a one-character name) to N.

−i Read standard input after files are exhausted. 

−q Invoke the simultaneous input-output mode of the .rd request. 

−z Print only messages generated by .tm (terminal message) requests. 

−mname Prepend to the input files the non-compacted (ASCII text) macro file /usr/lib/tmac/tmac.name.

−cname Prepend to the input

files the compacted macro files /usr/lib/macros/cmp.[nt]. [dt].name and /usr/lib/macros/ucmp.[nt].name.

−kname Compact the macros used in this invocation of nroff/troff, placing the output in files [dt].name in the current directory (see the May 1979 Addendum to the NROFF/TROFF User’s Manual for details of compacting macro files). 

Nroff only:

−Tname Prepare output for specified terminal.  Known names are 37 for the (default) TELETYPE® Model 37 terminal, tn300 for the GE TermiNet 300 (or any terminal without half-line capability), 300s for the DASI 300s, 300 for the DASI 300, 450 for the DASI 450, lp for a (generic) ASCII line printer, 382 for the DTC-382, 4000A for the Trendata 4000A, 832 for the Anderson Jacobson 832, X for a (generic) EBCDIC printer, and 2631 for the Hewlett Packard 2631 line printer. 

−e Produce equally-spaced words in adjusted lines, using the full resolution of the particular terminal. 

−h Use output tabs during horizontal spacing to speed output and reduce output character count.  Tab settings are assumed to be every 8 nominal character widths. 

−un Set the emboldening factor (number of character overstrikes) for the third font position (bold) to n, or to zero if n is missing. 

Troff only:

−t Direct output to the standard output instead of the phototypesetter. 

−f Refrain from feeding out paper and stopping phototypesetter at the end of the run. 

−w Wait until phototypesetter is available, if it is currently busy. 

−b Report whether the phototypesetter is busy or available.  No text processing is done. 

−a Send a printable ASCII approximation of the results to the standard output. 

−pN Print all characters in point size N while retaining all prescribed spacings and motions, to reduce phototypesetter elapsed time. 

−g Prepare output for the Murray Hill Computation Center phototypesetter and direct it to the standard output (see gcat(1C)). This option is not compatible with the −s option; furthermore, when this option is invoked, all .fp (font position) requests (if any) in the troff input must come before the first break, and no .tl requests may come before the first break. 

−Tname Use font-width tables for device name (the font tables are found in /usr/lib/font/name/∗).  Currently, no names are supported.

FILES

/usr/lib/suftabsuffix hyphenation tables

/tmp/ta$#temporary file

/usr/lib/tmac/tmac.∗standard macro files and pointers

/usr/lib/macros/∗standard macro files

/usr/lib/term/∗terminal driving tables for nroff

/usr/lib/font/∗font width tables for troff

SEE ALSO

NROFF/TROFF User’s Manual by J. F. Ossanna. 

A TROFF Tutorial by B. W. Kernighan. 

eqn(1), tbl(1), mm(7). 

col(1), greek(1), mm(1) (nroff only).

gcat(1C), mmt(1), tc(1), mv(7) (troff only).

BUGS

Nroff/troff believes in Eastern Standard Time; as a result, depending on the time of the year and on your local time zone, the date that nroff/troff generates may be off by one day from your idea of what the date is. 
When nroff/troff is used with the −olist option inside a pipeline (e.g., with one or more of cw(1), eqn(1), and tbl(1)), it may cause a harmless “broken pipe” diagnostic if the last page of the document is not specified in list.

May 16, 1980