Updated: 2022/Sep/29
Please read Privacy Policy. It's for your privacy.
TROFF(1) General Commands Manual TROFF(1)
NAME
troff - the troff processor of the groff text formatting system
SYNOPSIS
troff [ -abcivzCERU ] [ -dcs ] [ -ffam ] [ -Fdir ] [ -Idir ] [ -mname ]
[ -Mdir ] [ -nnum ] [ -olist ] [ -rcn ] [ -Tname ] [ -wname ]
[ -Wname ] [ files... ]
It is possible to have whitespace between a command line option and its
parameter.
DESCRIPTION
This manual page describes the GNU version of troff. It is part of the
groff document formatting system. It is functionally compatible with
UNIX troff, but has many extensions, see groff_diff(7). Usually it
should be invoked using the groff(1) command which will also run
preprocessors and postprocessors in the appropriate order and with the
appropriate options.
OPTIONS
-a Generate an ASCII approximation of the typeset output.
-b Print a backtrace with each warning or error message. This
backtrace should help track down the cause of the error. The
line numbers given in the backtrace may not always be correct,
for troff's idea of line numbers gets confused by as or am
requests.
-c Disable color output (always disabled in compatibility mode).
-C Enable compatibility mode.
-dcs
-dname=s
Define c or name to be a string s; c must be a one letter name.
-E Inhibit all error messages of troff. Note that this doesn't
affect messages output to standard error by macro packages
using the tm or tm1 requests.
-ffam Use fam as the default font family.
-Fdir Search in directory (or directory path) dir for subdirectories
devname (name is the name of the device) and there for the DESC
file and font files. dir is scanned before all other font
directories.
-i Read the standard input after all the named input files have
been processed.
-Idir This option may be used to specify a directory to search for
files (both those on the command line and those named in .psbb
requests). The current directory is always searched first.
This option may be specified more than once; the directories
will be searched in the order specified. No directory search
is performed for files specified using an absolute path.
-mname Read in the file name.tmac. If it isn't found, try tmac.name
instead. It will be first searched for in directories given
with the -M command line option, then in directories given in
the GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable, then in the current
directory (only if in unsafe mode), the home directory,
/usr/share/tmac, /usr/share/tmac, and /usr/share/tmac.
-Mdir Search directory (or directory path) dir for macro files. This
is scanned before all other macro directories.
-nnum Number the first page num.
-olist Output only pages in list, which is a comma-separated list of
page ranges; n means print page n, m-n means print every page
between m and n, -n means print every page up to n, n- means
print every page from n. troff will exit after printing the
last page in the list.
-rcn
-rname=n
Set number register c or name to n; c must be a one character
name; n can be any troff numeric expression.
-R Don't load troffrc and troffrc-end.
-Tname Prepare output for device name, rather than the default ps; see
groff(1) for a more detailed description.
-U Unsafe mode. This will enable the following requests: open,
opena, pso, sy, and pi. For security reasons, these
potentially dangerous requests are disabled otherwise. It will
also add the current directory to the macro search path.
-v Print the version number.
-wname Enable warning name. Available warnings are described in the
section WARNINGS below. For example, to enable all warnings,
use -w all. Multiple -w options are allowed.
-Wname Inhibit warning name. Multiple -W options are allowed.
-z Suppress formatted output.
WARNINGS
The warnings that can be given by troff are divided into the following
categories. The name associated with each warning is used by the -w
and -W options; the number is used by the warn request, and by the
.warn register; it is always a power of 2 to allow bitwise composition.
+---------------------+----------------------------+
|Bit Code Warning | Bit Code Warning |
+---------------------+----------------------------+
| 0 1 char | 10 1024 reg |
| 1 2 number | 11 2048 tab |
| 2 4 break | 12 4096 right-brace |
| 3 8 delim | 13 8192 missing |
| 4 16 el | 14 16384 input |
| 5 32 scale | 15 32768 escape |
| 6 64 range | 16 65536 space |
| 7 128 syntax | 17 131072 font |
| 8 256 di | 18 262144 ig |
| 9 512 mac | 19 524288 color |
+---------------------+----------------------------+
break 4
In fill mode, lines which could not be broken so that
their length was less than the line length. This is
enabled by default.
char 1
Non-existent characters. This is enabled by default.
color 524288
Color related warnings.
delim 8
Missing or mismatched closing delimiters.
di 256
Use of di or da without an argument when there is no
current diversion.
el 16
Use of the el request with no matching ie request.
escape 32768
Unrecognized escape sequences. When an unrecognized
escape sequence is encountered, the escape character
is ignored.
font 131072
Non-existent fonts. This is enabled by default.
ig 262144
Invalid escapes in text ignored with the ig request.
These are conditions that are errors when they do not
occur in ignored text.
input 16384
Invalid input characters.
mac 512
Use of undefined strings, macros and diversions. When
an undefined string, macro or diversion is used, that
string is automatically defined as empty. So, in most
cases, at most one warning will be given for each
name.
missing 8192
Requests that are missing non-optional arguments.
number 2
Invalid numeric expressions. This is enabled by
default.
range 64
Out of range arguments.
reg 1024
Use of undefined number registers. When an undefined
number register is used, that register is
automatically defined to have a value of 0. So, in
most cases, at most one warning will be given for use
of a particular name.
right-brace 4096
Use of \} where a number was expected.
scale 32
Meaningless scaling indicators.
space 65536
Missing space between a request or macro and its
argument. This warning will be given when an
undefined name longer than two characters is
encountered, and the first two characters of the name
make a defined name. The request or macro will not be
invoked. When this warning is given, no macro is
automatically defined. This is enabled by default.
This warning will never occur in compatibility mode.
syntax 128
Dubious syntax in numeric expressions.
tab 2048
Inappropriate use of a tab character. Either use of a
tab character where a number was expected, or use of
tab character in an unquoted macro argument.
There are also names that can be used to refer to groups of warnings:
all All warnings except di, mac, and reg. It is intended that this
covers all warnings that are useful with traditional macro
packages.
w All warnings.
ENVIRONMENT
GROFF_TMAC_PATH
A colon separated list of directories in which to search for
macro files. troff will scan directories given in the -M option
before these, and in standard directories (current directory if
in unsafe mode, home directory, /usr/share/tmac,
/usr/share/tmac, /usr/share/tmac) after these.
GROFF_TYPESETTER
Default device.
GROFF_FONT_PATH
A colon separated list of directories in which to search for the
devname directory. troff will scan directories given in the -F
option before these, and in standard directories
(/usr/share/groff_font, /usr/share/groff_font,
/usr/share/groff_font) after these.
FILES
/usr/share/tmac/troffrc
Initialization file (called before any other macro package).
/usr/share/tmac/troffrc-end
Initialization file (called after any other macro package).
/usr/share/tmac/name.tmac
/usr/share/tmac/tmac.name
Macro files
/usr/share/groff_font/devname/DESC
Device description file for device name.
/usr/share/groff_font/devname/F
Font file for font F of device name.
Note that troffrc and troffrc-end are neither searched in the current
nor in the home directory by default for security reasons (even if the
-U option is given). Use the -M command line option or the
GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to add these directories to the
search path if necessary.
AUTHOR
Copyright (C) 1989, 2001, 2002, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This document is distributed under the terms of the FDL (GNU Free
Documentation License) version 1.1 or later. You should have received
a copy of the FDL on your system, it is also available on-line at the
This document was written by James Clark, with modifications from and
This document is part of groff, the GNU roff distribution.
SEE ALSO
groff(1)
The main program of the groff system, a wrapper around troff.
groff(7)
A description of the groff language, including a short but
complete reference of all predefined requests, registers, and
escapes of plain groff. From the command line, this is called
by
man 7 groff
groff_diff(7)
The differences of the groff language and the classical troff
language. Currently, this is the most actual document of the
groff system.
roff(7)
An overview over groff and other roff systems, including
pointers to further related documentation.
The groff info file, cf. info(1), presents all groff documentation
within a single document.
Groff Version 1.19.2 September 4, 2005 TROFF(1)