packages icon



 groff(@MAN1EXT@)              groff @VERSION@              groff(@MAN1EXT@)
                                   @MDATE@



 Name
      groff - front end to the GNU roff document formatting system

 Synopsis
      [-abcCeEgGijklNpRsStUVXzZ] [-d~ctext] [-d~string=text] [-D~fallback-
      encoding] [-f~font-family] [-F~font-directory] [-I~inclusion-
      directory] [-K~input-encoding] [-L~spooler-argument] [-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~...]

      -h --help

      -v [option~...] [file~...] --version [option~...] [file~...]

 Description
      groff is the primary front end to the GNU roff document formatting
      system.  GNU roff is a typesetting system that reads plain text input
      that includes formatting commands to produce output in PostScript,
      PDF, HTML, or other formats, or for display to a terminal.  Formatting
      commands can be low-level typesetting primitives, macros from a
      supplied package, or user-defined macros.  All three approaches can be
      combined.  If no file operands are specified, or if file is [lq]-[rq],
      groff reads the standard input stream.

      A reimplementation and extension of troff and other programs from AT&T
      Unix, groff is widely available on POSIX and other systems owing to
      its long association with Unix manuals, including man pages.  It and
      its predecessor have produced several best-selling software
      engineering texts.  groff can create typographically sophisticated
      documents while consuming minimal system resources.

      Like its predecessor [lq]troff[rq], the term [lq]groff[rq] affords two
      popular pronunciations: as one syllable (like the surname), rhyming
      with [lq]trough[rq], or as [lq]jee-roff[rq], in analogy to the Bell
      Labs pronunciation [lq]tee-roff[rq].  Little risk of confusion exists;
      use whichever suits you.

      The groff command orchestrates the execution of preprocessors, the
      transformation of input documents into a device-independent page
      description language, and the production of output from that language.

 Options
      -h and --help display a usage message and exit.

      Because groff is intended to subsume most users' direct invocations of
      the formatter, the two programs share a set of options.  However,
      groff has some options that @g@troff does not share, and others which
      groff interprets differently.  At the same time, not all valid
      @g@troff options can be given to groff.



                                    - 1 -         Formatted:  March 20, 2026






 groff(@MAN1EXT@)              groff @VERSION@              groff(@MAN1EXT@)
                                   @MDATE@



    I]groff]-specific options
      The following options either do not exist in GNU troff or are
      interpreted differently by groff.

      -D~enc   Use enc as fallback input encoding; implies -k.

      -e       Run preprocessor.

      -g       Run preprocessor.

      -G       Run preprocessor; implies -p.

      -I~dir   Works as @g@troff's option (see below), but also implies -g
               and -s.  groff passes -I options and their arguments to and
               output drivers; with the option letter changed to -M, it
               passes the same arguments to

      -j       Run preprocessor; implies -p.

      -k       Run preprocessor.  Refer to its man page for its behavior if
               neither of groff's -K or -D options is also specified.

      -K~enc   Set input encoding used by to enc; implies -k.

      -l       Send the output to a spooler program for printing.  The
               [lq]print[rq] directive in the device description file
               specifies the default command to be used; see If no such
               directive is present for the output device, output is piped
               to See options -L and -X.

      -L~arg   Pass arg to the print spooler.  If multiple args are
               required, pass each with a separate -L option.  groff does
               not prefix an option dash to arg before passing it to the
               spooler.

      -M       Works as @g@troff's option (see below), but is also passed to
               and

      -N       Prohibit newlines between eqn delimiters: pass -N to

      -p       Run preprocessor.

      -P~arg   Pass arg to the postprocessor.  If multiple args are
               required, pass each with a separate -P option.  groff does
               not prefix an option dash to arg before passing it to the
               postprocessor.

      -R       Run preprocessor.  No mechanism is provided for passing
               arguments to it; most @g@refer options have equivalent
               language elements that can be specified within the document.




                                    - 2 -         Formatted:  March 20, 2026






 groff(@MAN1EXT@)              groff @VERSION@              groff(@MAN1EXT@)
                                   @MDATE@



      -s       Run preprocessor.

      -S       Enable safer mode and ignore any subsequent -U option.  groff
               passes the -S option to and

      -t       Run preprocessor.

      -T~dev   Prepare output for device dev. groff passes the -T option and
               its argument to @g@troff, then (unless the -Z option is used)
               runs an output driver to convert @g@troff's output to a form
               appropriate for dev; see subsection [lq]Output devices[rq]
               below.

      -U       Operate in unsafe mode.  groff passes the -U option to and

      --version
               -v Write version information for groff and all programs run
               by it to the standard output stream; that is, the given
               command line is processed in the usual way, passing -v to the
               formatter and any pre- or postprocessors invoked.

      -V       Output the pipeline that groff would run to the standard
               output stream and exit.  If given more than once, groff both
               writes the pipeline to the standard error stream and runs it.

      -X       Use instead of the usual postprocessor to (pre)view a
               document on an X11 display.  Combining this option with
               [lq]-T ps[rq] uses the font metrics of the PostScript device,
               whereas the [lq]-T X75[rq], [lq]-T X75-12[rq] [lq]-T
               X100[rq], and [lq]-T X100-12[rq] options use the metrics of
               X11 fonts.

      -Z       Disable postprocessing.  @g@troff output appears on the
               standard output stream (unless suppressed with -z); see for a
               description of this format.

    Transparent options
      The following options are passed as-is to the formatter program and
      described in more detail in its man page.

      -a       Generate a plain text approximation of the typeset output.

      -b       Write a backtrace to the standard error stream on each error
               or warning.

      -c       Start with color output disabled.

      -C       Enable AT&T troff compatibility mode; implies -c.

      -d~ctext -d~string=text Define string.




                                    - 3 -         Formatted:  March 20, 2026






 groff(@MAN1EXT@)              groff @VERSION@              groff(@MAN1EXT@)
                                   @MDATE@



      -E       Inhibit @g@troff error messages; implies -Ww.

      -f~fam   Set default font family.

      -F~dir   Search in directory dir for the selected output device's
               directory of device and font description files.

      -i       Process standard input after the specified input files.

      -I~dir   Search dir for input files.

      -m~mac   Read macro package mac before input.  groff passes -m options
               and their arguments to and

      -M~dir   Search directory dir for macro files.  groff passes -M
               options and their arguments to and

      -n~num   Begin numbering pages at num.

      -o~list  Output only pages in list.

      -r~cnumeric-expression
               -r~register=numeric-expression Define register.

      -S       Enable safer mode and ignore any subsequent -U option.

      -U       Operate in unsafe mode.

      -w~cat   -W~cat Enable and inhibit, respectively, warnings in category
               cat.

      -z       Suppress formatted device-independent output of @g@troff.

 Usage
      The architecture of the GNU roff system follows that of other device-
      independent roff implementations, comprising preprocessors, macro
      packages, output drivers (or [lq]postprocessors[rq]), and a suite of
      utilities, with the formatter program at its heart.  See for a survey
      of how a roff system works.

      The front end programs available in the GNU roff system make it easier
      to use than traditional roffs that required the construction of
      pipelines or use of temporary files to carry a source document from
      maintainable form to device-ready output.  The discussion below
      summarizes the constituent parts of the GNU roff system.  It
      complements with groff-specific information.

    Getting started
      Those who prefer to learn by experimenting or are desirous of rapid
      feedback from the system may wish to start with a [lq]Hello,
      world![rq] document.



                                    - 4 -         Formatted:  March 20, 2026






 groff(@MAN1EXT@)              groff @VERSION@              groff(@MAN1EXT@)
                                   @MDATE@



      $ echo [dq]Hello, world![dq] | groff -Tascii Hello, world!

      We used a command only to eliminate the 65 blank lines that would
      otherwise flood the terminal screen.  (roff systems were developed in
      the days of paper-based terminals with 66 lines to a page.)

      Today's users may prefer output to a UTF-8-capable terminal.

      $ echo [dq]Hello, world![dq] | groff -Tutf8

      Producing PDF, HTML, or TeX]'s DVI is also straightforward.  The hard
      part may be selecting a viewer program for the output.

      $ echo [dq]Hello, world![dq] | groff -Tpdf $ evince hello.pdf $ echo
      [dq]Hello, world![dq] | groff -Thtml $ firefox hello.html $ echo
      [dq]Hello, world![dq] | groff -Tdvi $ xdvi hello.dvi

    Using I]groff] as a REPL
      Those with a programmer's bent may be pleased to know that they can
      use groff in a read-evaluate-print loop (REPL).  Doing so can be handy
      to verify one's understanding of the formatter's behavior and/or the
      syntax it accepts.  Turning on all warnings with -ww can aid this
      goal.

      $ groff -ww -Tutf8 [rs]# This is a comment. Let[aq]s .nr a 1 [rs]# Do
      integer arithmetic with operators .nr b [rs]n[a]+5/2 [rs]# Let[aq]s
      get the result on .tm [rs]n[b] 3 [rs]# Now we[aq]ll define a string.
      .ds name Leslie[rs]" This is another .nr b ([rs]n[a] + (7/2)) [rs]#
      Center the next two text .ce 2 Hi, [rs]*[name]. Your secret number is
      [rs]n[b]. [rs]# We will see that the It is [rs]# Here[aq]s an if-else
      control structure.  .ie ([rs]n[b] % 2) odd. .el even. [rs]# This trick
      sets the page [rs]# position, so that blank lines .pl [rs]n[nl]u
      <Control-D>
                                 Hi, Leslie.
                          Your secret number is 4.  It is even.

    Paper format
      The formatter reads the device description file DESC for the selected
      output device when it starts; page dimensions declared there are used
      if present.  groff's build process configures a default page format
      and writes it to typesetters' DESC files.  This installation defaults
      to [lq]@PAGE@[rq].  If the DESC file lacks this information, the
      formatter and output driver use a page length of [lq]11i[rq] (eleven
      inches) for compatibility with AT&T troff.  See

      In the formatter, the pl request changes the page length, but macro
      packages often do not support alteration of the paper format within a
      document.  One might, for instance, want to switch between portrait
      and landscape orientations.  Macro packages lack a consistent approach
      to configuration of parameters dependent on the paper format; some,
      like ms, benefit from a preamble in the document prior to the first



                                    - 5 -         Formatted:  March 20, 2026






 groff(@MAN1EXT@)              groff @VERSION@              groff(@MAN1EXT@)
                                   @MDATE@



      macro call, while others, like mm, instead require the specification
      of registers on the command line, or otherwise before its macro file
      is interpreted, to configure page dimensions.

      Output drivers for typesetters also recognize command-line options -p
      to override the default page dimensions and -l to use landscape
      orientation.  The output driver's man page, such as may be helpful.

      groff's [lq]-d paper[rq] command-line option is a convenient means of
      setting the paper format; see Combine it with appropriate -P options
      for the output driver, overriding its defaults.  The following command
      formats for PostScript on A4 paper in landscape orientation.

           $ groff -T ps -d paper=a4l -P -pa4 -P -l -ms my.ms >my.ps

    Front end
      The groff program wraps allowing one to specify preprocessors via
      command-line options and running the appropriate output driver for the
      selected output device.  This convenience avoids the manual
      construction of pipelines or management of temporary files required of
      users of traditional systems.  Use to infer an appropriate groff
      command line to format a document.

    Language
      Input to a roff system is in plain text interleaved with control lines
      and escape sequences.  The combination constitutes a document in one
      of a family of languages we also call roff; see for background.  An
      overview of GNU roff language syntax and features, including lists of
      all supported escape sequences, requests, and predefined registers,
      can be found in GNU roff extensions to the AT&T troff language, a
      common subset of roff dialects extant today, are detailed in

    Preprocessors
      A preprocessor interprets a domain-specific language that produces
      roff language output.  Frequently, such input is confined to sections
      or regions of roff input (bracketed with macro calls specific to each
      preprocessor), which it replaces.  Preprocessors therefore often
      interpret a subset of roff syntax along with their own language.  GNU
      roff provides reimplementations of most preprocessors familiar to
      users of AT&T troff; these routinely have extended features and/or
      require GNU troff to format their output.













                                    - 6 -         Formatted:  March 20, 2026






 groff(@MAN1EXT@)              groff @VERSION@              groff(@MAN1EXT@)
                                   @MDATE@



           tab($); Li Lx.  @g@tbl$lays out tables; @g@eqn$typesets
           mathematics; @g@pic$draws diagrams; @g@refer$processes
           bibliographic references; @g@soelim$preprocesses [lq]sourced[rq]
           input files; @g@grn$T{ renders diagrams; T} @g@chem$T{ draws
           chemical structural formul[ae] using pic; T} gperl$T{ populates
           groff registers and strings using T} glilypond$T{ embeds LilyPond
           sheet music; and T} gpinyin$T{ eases Mandarin Chinese input using
           Hanyu Pinyin.  T}

      A preprocessor unique to GNU roff is which converts various input
      encodings to something GNU troff can understand.  When used, it is run
      before any other preprocessors.

      Most preprocessors enclose content between a pair of characteristic
      tokens.  Such a token must occur at the beginning of an input line and
      use the dot control character.  Spaces and tabs must not follow the
      control character or precede the end of the input line.  Deviating
      from these rules defeats a token's recognition by the preprocessor.
      Tokens are generally preserved in preprocessor output and interpreted
      as macro calls subsequently by @g@troff.  The @g@ideal preprocessor is
      not yet available in groff.

      box center tab(^); C   | C      | C CfI | Cf(CR) | Cf(CR).
      preprocessor^starting token^ending token = @g@chem^.cstart^.cend
      @g@eqn^.EQ^.EN grap^.G1^.G2 @g@grn^.GS^.GE @g@ideal^.IS^.IE ^^.IF
      @g@pic^.PS^.PE ^^.PF ^^.PY @g@refer^.R1^.R2 @g@tbl^.TS^.TE _
      glilypond^.lilypond start^.lilypond stop gperl^.Perl start^.Perl stop
      gpinyin^.pinyin start^.pinyin stop

    Macro packages
      Macro files are roff input files designed to produce no output
      themselves but instead ease the preparation of other roff documents.
      When a macro file is installed at a standard location and suitable for
      use by a general audience, it is termed a macro package.

      The -m~option loads a macro package prior to any roff input documents,
      and after performing any string and register assignments directed by
      -d and -r options.  The GNU roff system implements most well-known
      macro packages for AT&T troff in a compatible way and extends them.
      These have one- or two-letter names arising from intense practices of
      naming economy in early Unix culture, a laconic approach that led to
      many of the packages being identified in general usage with the nroff
      and troff option letter used to invoke them, sometimes to punning
      effect, as with [lq]man[rq] (short for [lq]manual[rq]), and even with
      the option dash, as in the case of the s package, much better known as
      ms or even -ms.

      Macro packages serve a variety of purposes.  Some are [lq]full-
      service[rq] packages, adopting responsibility for page layout among
      other fundamental tasks, and defining their own lexicon of macros for
      document composition; each such package stands alone and a given



                                    - 7 -         Formatted:  March 20, 2026






 groff(@MAN1EXT@)              groff @VERSION@              groff(@MAN1EXT@)
                                   @MDATE@



      document can use at most one.

      an   is used to compose man pages in the format originating in
           Version~7 Unix (1979); see It can be specified on the command
           line as -man.

      doc  is used to compose man pages in the format originating in
           4.3BSD-Reno (1990); see It can be specified on the command line
           as -mdoc.

      e    is the Berkeley general-purpose macro suite, developed as an
           alternative to AT&T's s; see It can be specified on the command
           line as -me.

      m    implements the format used by the second-generation AT&T macro
           suite for general documents, a successor to s; see It can be
           specified on the command line as -mm.

      om   (invariably called [lq]mom[rq]) is a modern package written by
           Peter Schaffter specifically for GNU roff.  Consult the mom HTML
           manual for extensive documentation.  She[em]for mom takes the
           female pronoun[em]can be specified on the command line as -mom.

      s    is the original AT&T general-purpose document format; see It can
           be specified on the command line as -ms.

      Others are supplemental.  For instance, andoc is a wrapper package
      specific to GNU roff that recognizes whether a document uses man or
      mdoc format and loads the corresponding macro package.  It can be
      specified on the command line as -mandoc.  A librarian may use this
      macro file to delegate loading of the correct macro package; it is
      thus unnecessary for man itself to scan the contents of a document to
      decide the issue.

      Many macro files augment the function of the full-service packages, or
      of roff documents that do not employ such a package[em]the latter are
      sometimes characterized as [lq]raw[rq].  These auxiliary packages are
      described, along with details of macro file naming and placement, in

    Formatters
      The formatter, the program that interprets roff language input, is It
      provides the features of the AT&T troff and nroff programs as well as
      many extensions.  The command-line option -C switches @g@troff into
      compatibility mode, which tries to emulate AT&T troff as closely as is
      practical to enable the formatting of documents written for the older
      system.

      A shell script, emulates the behavior of AT&T nroff.  It attempts to
      correctly encode the output based on the locale, relieving the user of
      the need to specify an output device with the -T option and is
      therefore convenient for use with terminal output devices, described



                                    - 8 -         Formatted:  March 20, 2026






 groff(@MAN1EXT@)              groff @VERSION@              groff(@MAN1EXT@)
                                   @MDATE@



      in the next subsection.

      GNU troff generates output in a device-independent, but not device-
      agnostic, page description language detailed in

    Output devices
      @g@troff output is formatted for a particular output device, typically
      specified by the -T option to the formatter or a front end.  If
      neither this option nor the GROFF_TYPESETTER environment variable is
      used, the default output device is @DEFAULT_DEVICE@.  An output device
      may be any of the following.

      ascii     for terminals using the ISO 646 1991:IRV character set and
                encoding, also known as US-ASCII.

      dvi       for TeX DVI format.

      html      xhtml for HTML and XHTML output, respectively.

      latin1    for terminals using the ISO~Latin-1 (8859-1) character set
                and encoding.

      lbp       for Canon CaPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
                printers).

      lj4       for HP LaserJet4-compatible (or other PCL5-compatible)
                printers.

      pdf       for PDF output.

      ps        for PostScript output.

      utf8      for terminals using the ISO 10646 ([lq]Unicode[rq])
                character set in UTF-8 encoding.

      X75       for previewing with gxditview using 75 dpi resolution and a
                10-point base type size.

      X75-12    for previewing with gxditview using 75 dpi resolution and a
                12-point base type size.

      X100      for previewing with gxditview using 100 dpi resolution and a
                10-point base type size.

      X100-12   for previewing with gxditview using 100 dpi resolution and a
                12-point base type size.

    Postprocessors
      Any program that interprets the output of GNU troff is a
      postprocessor.  The postprocessors provided by GNU roff are output
      drivers, which prepare a document for viewing or printing.



                                    - 9 -         Formatted:  March 20, 2026






 groff(@MAN1EXT@)              groff @VERSION@              groff(@MAN1EXT@)
                                   @MDATE@



      Postprocessors for other purposes, such as page resequencing or
      statistical measurement of a document, are conceivable.

      An output driver supports one or more output devices, each with its
      own device description file.  A device determines its postprocessor
      with the postpro directive in its device description file; see The -X
      option overrides this selection, causing gxditview to serve as the
      output driver.

      provides
           dvi.

      provides
           html and xhtml.

      provides
           lbp.

      provides
           lj4.

      provides
           pdf.

      provides
           ps.

      provides
           ascii, latin1, and utf8.

      provides
           X75, X75-12, X100, and X100-12, and additionally can preview ps.

    Utilities
      GNU roff includes a suite of utilities.

      marks differences between a pair of
           roff input files.

      infers the
           groff command a document requires.

      Several utilities prepare descriptions of fonts, enabling the
      formatter to use them when producing output for a given device.

      adds information to AT&T
           troff font description files to enable their use with GNU troff.

      creates font description files for PostScript Type~1 fonts.





                                   - 10 -         Formatted:  March 20, 2026






 groff(@MAN1EXT@)              groff @VERSION@              groff(@MAN1EXT@)
                                   @MDATE@



      translates a PostScript Type~1 font in PFB
           (Printer Font Binary) format to PFA (Printer Font ASCII), which
           can then be interpreted by afmtodit.

      creates font description files for the HP LaserJet~4 family of
           printers.

      creates font description files for the TeX DVI device.

      creates font description files for X Window System core fonts.

      A trio of tools transform material constructed using roff preprocessor
      languages into graphical image files.

      converts an
           eqn equation into a cropped image.

      converts a
           grap diagram into a cropped image.

      converts a
           pic diagram into a cropped image.

      Another set of programs works with the bibliographic data files used
      by the preprocessor.

      makes inverted indices for bibliographic databases,
           speeding lookup operations on them.

      searches the databases.

      interactively searches
           the databases.

 Exit status
      groff exits successfully (with status~0) if either of the options -h
      or --help is specified, status~2 if the program cannot interpret its
      command-line arguments, and status~1 if it encounters an error during
      operation.  Otherwise, groff runs a pipeline to process its input; if
      all commands within the pipeline exit successfully, groff does
      likewise.  If not, groff's exit status encodes a summary of problems
      encountered, setting bit~2 if a command exited with a failure status,
      bit~3 if a command was terminated with a signal, and bit~4 if a
      command could not be executed.  (Thus, if all three misfortunes befall
      one's pipeline, groff exits with status 2[ha]2 + 2[ha]3 + 2[ha]4 =
      4+8+16 = 28.) To troubleshoot pipeline problems, re-run the groff
      command with the -V option and break the reported pipeline down into
      separate stages, inspecting the exit status of, and diagnostic
      messages emitted by, each command.





                                   - 11 -         Formatted:  March 20, 2026






 groff(@MAN1EXT@)              groff @VERSION@              groff(@MAN1EXT@)
                                   @MDATE@



 Environment
      Environment variables in the host system affect the behavior of
      programs supplied by groff as follows.  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
           Locate groff commands in these directories, followed by those in
           PATH.  If not set, the installation directory of GNU roff
           executables, @BINDIR@, is searched before PATH.

      GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX
           Apply a prefix to certain GNU roff commands.  groff can be
           configured at compile time to apply a prefix to the names of
           programs it provides that had counterparts in AT&T troff, so that
           name collisions are avoided at run time.  The default prefix is
           empty.

           When used, this prefix is conventionally the letter [lq]g[rq].
           For example, GNU troff would be installed as gtroff.  Besides
           troff, the prefix applies to the formatter wrapper nroff; the
           preprocessors eqn, grn, pic, refer, tbl, and soelim; and the
           utilities indxbib and lookbib.

      GROFF_ENCODING
           Specify the assumed character encoding of the input.  groff
           passes its value as an argument to preconv(@MAN1EXT@)
           preprocessor's -e option.  This variable's existence implies the
           groff option -k.  If set but empty, groff runs preconv without an
           -e option.  groff's -K option overrides GROFF_ENCODING.

      GROFF_FONT_PATH
           Seek the selected output device's directory of device and font
           description files in this list of directories.  See and

      GROFF_TMAC_PATH
           Seek macro packages in this list of directories.  See and

      GROFF_TMPDIR
           Create temporary files in this directory.  If not set, but TMPDIR
           is, the latter is used instead.  On Windows systems, if neither
           of the foregoing are set, the environment variables TMP and TEMP
           (in that order) are checked also.  Otherwise, temporary files are
           created in /tmp.  The and commands use temporary files.

      GROFF_TYPESETTER
           Set the default output device.  If empty or not set,
           @DEFAULT_DEVICE@ is used.  The -T option overrides -
           GROFF_TYPESETTER.




                                   - 12 -         Formatted:  March 20, 2026






 groff(@MAN1EXT@)              groff @VERSION@              groff(@MAN1EXT@)
                                   @MDATE@



      SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
           Declare a time stamp (expressed as seconds since the Unix epoch)
           to use as the output creation time stamp in place of the current
           time.  The time is converted to human-readable form using and
           when the formatter starts up and stored in registers usable by
           documents and macro packages.

      TZ   Declare the time zone to use when converting the current time to
           human-readable form; see If SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH is used, it is
           always converted to human-readable form using UTC.

 Examples
      roff systems are best known for formatting man pages.  A librarian
      program, having located a page, might render it with a groff command.
           groff -t -man -Tutf8 /usr/share/man/man1/groff.1
      The librarian will also pipe the output through a pager, which might
      not interpret terminal escape sequences groff emits for boldface,
      underlining, italics, or hyperlinking; see section [lq]Limitations[rq]
      below.

      To process a roff input file using the preprocessors @g@tbl and @g@pic
      and the me macro package in the way to which AT&T troff users were
      accustomed, one would type (or script) a pipeline.

           @g@pic foo.me | @g@tbl | @g@troff -me -Tutf8 | grotty

      Shorten this pipeline to an equivalent command using groff.

           groff -p -t -me -T utf8 foo.me

      An even easier way to do this is to use to guess the preprocessor and
      macro options and execute the result by using the command substitution
      feature of the shell.

           $(grog -Tutf8 foo.me)

      Each command-line option to a postprocessor must be specified with any
      required leading dashes [lq]-[rq] because groff passes the arguments
      as-is to the postprocessor; this permits arbitrary arguments to be
      transmitted.  For example, to pass a title to the gxditview
      postprocessor, the shell commands
           groff -X -P -title -P [aq]trial run[aq] mydoc.t
      and
           groff -X -Z mydoc.t | gxditview -title [aq]trial run[aq] -
      are equivalent.

 Limitations
      When paging output for the ascii, latin1, and utf8 devices, programs
      like and may require command-line options to correctly handle some
      terminal escape sequences; see




                                   - 13 -         Formatted:  March 20, 2026






 groff(@MAN1EXT@)              groff @VERSION@              groff(@MAN1EXT@)
                                   @MDATE@



 Installation directories
      GNU roff installs files in varying locations depending on its
      compile-time configuration.  On this installation, the following
      locations are used.

      @APPDEFDIR@
           Application defaults directory for

      @BINDIR@
           Directory containing groff's executable commands.

      @COMMON_WORDS_FILE@
           List of common words for

      @DATASUBDIR@
           Directory for data files.

      @DEFAULT_INDEX@
           Default index for and

      @DOCDIR@
           Documentation directory.

      @EXAMPLEDIR@
           Example directory.

      @FONTDIR@
           Font directory.

      @HTMLDOCDIR@
           HTML documentation directory.

      @LEGACYFONTDIR@
           Legacy font directory.

      @LOCALFONTDIR@
           Local font directory.

      @LOCALMACRODIR@
           Local macro package (tmac file) directory.

      @MACRODIR@
           Macro package (tmac file) directory.

      @OLDFONTDIR@
           Font directory for compatibility with old versions of groff; see

      @PDFDOCDIR@
           PDF documentation directory.





                                   - 14 -         Formatted:  March 20, 2026






 groff(@MAN1EXT@)              groff @VERSION@              groff(@MAN1EXT@)
                                   @MDATE@



      @SYSTEMMACRODIR@
           System macro package (tmac file) directory.

    I]groff] macro directory
      Most macro files supplied with GNU roff are stored in @MACRODIR@ for
      the installation corresponding to this document.  As a rule, multiple
      directories are searched for macro files; see For a catalog of macro
      files GNU roff provides, see

    I]groff] device and font description directory
      Device and font description files supplied with GNU roff are stored in
      @FONTDIR@ for the installation corresponding to this document.  As a
      rule, multiple directories are searched for device and font
      description files; see For the formats of these files, see

 Availability
      Obtain links to groff releases for download, its source repository,
      discussion mailing lists, a support ticket tracker, and further
      information from the groff page of the GNU website

      A free implementation of the grap preprocessor, written by Ted Faber
      can be found at the grap website groff supports only this grap.

 Authors
      groff (both the front-end command and the overall system) was
      primarily written by James Clark Contributors to this document include
      Clark, Trent A. Fisher, Werner Lemberg Bernd Warken and G. Branden
      Robinson

 See also
      Groff: The GNU Implementation of troff, by Trent A. Fisher and Werner
      Lemberg, is the primary groff manual.  You can browse it interactively
      with [lq]info groff[rq].

      A list of all groff man pages follows.  A few (grohtml, gropdf,
      gxditview, and xtotroff) will be unavailable if their corresponding
      programs were disabled during compilation.

      Introduction,
           history, and further reading:

      Viewer for~groff~(and AT&T device-independent~troff)~documents:

      Preprocessors:

      Macro packages:

      Bibliographic database management tools:

      Language,
           conventions, and GNU extensions:



                                   - 15 -         Formatted:  March 20, 2026






 groff(@MAN1EXT@)              groff @VERSION@              groff(@MAN1EXT@)
                                   @MDATE@



      Device-independent page description language:

      Formatter program:

      Formatter wrappers:

      Postprocessors for output devices:

      Font support utilities:

      Graphics conversion utilities:

      Difference-marking utility:

      [lq]groff guess[rq] utility:







































                                   - 16 -         Formatted:  March 20, 2026