DEROFF(1) INTERACTIVE UNIX System DEROFF(1)
NAME
deroff - remove nroff/troff, tbl, and eqn constructs
SYNOPSIS
deroff [-mx] [-w] [ files ]
DESCRIPTION
The deroff command reads each of the files in sequence and
removes all troff(1) requests, macro calls, backslash con-
structs, eqn(1) constructs (between .EQ and .EN lines and
between delimiters), and tbl(1) descriptions, perhaps
replacing them with white space (blanks and blank lines),
and writes the remainder of the file on the standard output.
Note: troff(1), nroff(1), and eqn(1) are not part of this
UNIX system release.
deroff follows chains of included files (.so and .nx troff
commands); if a file has already been included, a .so naming
that file is ignored and a .nx naming that file terminates
execution. If no input file is given, deroff reads the
standard input.
The -m option may be followed by an m, s, or l. The -mm
option causes the macros to be interpreted so that only run-
ning text is output (i.e., no text from macro lines). The
-ml option forces the -mm option and also causes deletion of
lists associated with the mm macros.
If the -w option is given, the output is a word list, one
``word'' per line, with all other characters deleted. Oth-
erwise, the output follows the original with the deletions
mentioned above. In text, a ``word'' is any string that
contains at least two letters and is composed of letters,
digits, ampersands (&), and apostrophes ('); in a macro
call, however, a ``word'' is a string that begins with at
least two letters and contains a total of at least three
letters. Delimiters are any characters other than letters,
digits, apostrophes, and ampersands. Trailing apostrophes
and ampersands are removed from ``words.''
BUGS
deroff is not a complete troff interpreter, so it can be
confused by subtle constructs. Most such errors result in
too much rather than too little output.
The -ml option does not handle nested lists correctly.
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