1 Copyright (C) 1989-2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
2 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
5 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
6 notice and this notice are preserved.
8 This file describes recent user-visible changes in groff. Bug fixes are not
9 described. There are more details in the man and info pages.
17 o XHTML support has been added to grohtml and can be specified by
18 -Txhtml. This option also utilizes the MathML capability of
19 eqn and combines the outputs of both in the final XHTML file.
20 Users can also specify the `-P-V' option together with `-Txhtml'
21 in groff. This has the effect of creating an XHTML validator
22 button at the bottom of each page.
27 o Two new requests `device' and `devicem' have been added which are
28 equivalents to the \X and \Y escapes, respectively.
30 o A new read-only number register `.br' is available which is set to 1
31 if a macro is called as .foo and to 0 if called as 'foo. This allows to
32 reliably modify requests.
37 . ie \\n[.br] .bp@orig
42 o A new request `fzoom' has been added to adjust the optical size of a
43 font in relation to the others. The zoom factor is given in integer
44 multiples of 1/1000th. In the following example, the CR font is
45 magnified by 10% (the zoom factor is 1.1).
50 Palatino and \f[CR]Courier\f[]
52 The new number register `.zoom' holds the zoom value of the current font,
53 in multiples of 1/1000th.
55 o The `cflags' request has been extended with a new flag value 64, to be
56 used in combination with values 2 (break before character) and 4 (break
57 after character). If set, the hyphenation codes of the surrounding
58 characters are ignored.
60 o A new debugging request, `pev', has been added to print all of the current
61 known environments to stderr. It first prints the state of the current
62 environment, then iterates through all of the known environments, printing
63 each except the one that is current.
65 o A new escape `\$^' has been added. It represents the parameters of a
66 macro as if they were an argument to the `ds' request. This is used by
69 o A new read-only number register `.O' is available which returns the
70 current suppression level as set by the `\O' escape.
72 o The space width emitted by the `\|' and `\^' escape sequences can be
73 controlled on a per-font basis. If there is a glyph named `\|' or `\^',
74 respectively (note the leading backslash), defined in the current font
75 file, use this glyph's width instead of the default value.
77 This behaviour is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
82 o Two new command line options `-w' and `-W' are accepted and passed to
83 groff to enable and disable warning messages, respectively.
88 o int(x) now really behaves as documented: It truncates the non-integer part
89 of x, this is, it rounds towards zero and not towards the next integer
90 less than or equal to x.
92 o Pic now supports up to 32 macro arguments (and up to 16 on EBCDIC
95 o Heinz-Jürgen Örtel contributed code for two new keywords, `xslanted' and
96 `yslanted', which can change the shape of boxes into arbitrary
102 o Latest versions of DWB tbl introduced an `x' column specifier for a single
103 column expanded to the line width. GNU tbl has now been extended to
104 support even multiple `x' specifiers within a table.
106 o To avoid collision with the new `x' specifier, a block formatting macro
107 must now be selected with specifier letter `m'.
112 o Eric S. Raymond has added a new device type to eqn, MathML. When
113 -TMathML is enabled, eqn now emits MathML formula markup rather than
114 groff commands. The new groff -Txhtml device uses this.
119 o The preprocessor `chem' was added. `chem' is a roff language to generate
120 chemical structure diagrams. It generates `pic' output.
125 o The PS font definition files have been regenerated with newer AFM versions
126 from Adobe's 35 core fonts as present in most Level 2 PS printers. The
127 changes are minor (most notably, the addition of the `Euro' glyph and an
128 extended set of kerning values).
130 For backwards compatibility, the old set of font definition files is still
131 available; for details please read the man page of `grops(1)'.
136 o \D'p...' is now supported if the polygon consists entirely of horizontal
142 o XHTML support has been added.
144 o New command line option `-V' (to be used in XHTML mode) to produce an
145 XHTML validator button.
147 o New command line option `-y' to produce a right-justified groff signature
148 at the end of the document (in combination with option `-V').
153 o Support for keyboard navigation has been improved.
155 o Similar to other X11 applications, there are now two resource files,
156 `GXditview' and `GXditview-color'.
161 o `groffer' version 1.* exists now in a shell and a Perl version.
166 o New option `-c' to output more font information as comments.
168 o New option `-k' to suppress output of kerning data.
170 o New option `-f NAME' to set the internal name of the groff font.
175 o -mandoc now supports multiple man pages (in either man or mdoc format).
177 o Fabrice Ménard contributed locales support. In particular, it is now
178 possible to get French localization of the main macro packages (-ms, -mm,
179 -me, and -mom, but not -man and -mdoc which are localized differently) by
180 appending `-mfr' to the list of macro packages. Example:
182 groff -ms -mfr foo > foo.ps
184 Note that latin-9 input encoding is used for French (to support the `oe'
187 o Swedish macro localization (with `-msv') has been added.
189 o German macro localization (with `-mde' and `-mden' for traditional and
190 new orthography, respectively) has been added.
192 o Czech macro localization (with `-mcs') has been added.
194 Note that latin-2 input encoding is used for Czech.
196 o A new macro `Dx' has been added to the mdoc package which identifies the
199 o If mdoc is used to print multiple man pages (together with the -rcR=0
200 command line option), each man page now starts a new page.
202 o -mtrace has been considerably improved, now showing number and string
203 register assignments, among other things. See the groff_trace man page
206 o The PSPIC macro now works with all devices (producing a hollow
207 rectangle on devices which don't support inclusion of PS images) and
208 is loaded in troffrc at start-up.
210 o A new auxiliary macro package `62bit' has been added which provides some
211 macros for adding, multiplying, and dividing signed 62bit integers (mainly
212 to handle normal groff number operations without risking overflow errors).
214 o For -ms, Eric S. Raymond contributed support for ancient Bell Labs
215 localisms `.SC', `.UC', `.P1', and `.P2'. The latter three are enabled
216 only after .SC is called.
218 o A new string, `SN-STYLE', has been added to the ms macros, controlling
219 the formatting of section numbers in headings defined by `.NH'.
228 o Analogously to the .ft and \f pair, two new requests `gcolor' and
229 `fcolor' (which pair with \m and \M, respectively) have been added to
230 set the glyph and background colours.
232 o A new read-only, string-valued register `.sty' returns the name of the
235 o Two new conditional operators `F <name>' and `S <name>' have been added.
236 `F' is true if a font <name> exists. `S' is true if a style <name> has
239 o Cyrillic characters have been added to the `utf8' and `html' output
245 o The `by' argument in a `for' loop can now be negative if it is additive.
246 For the multiplicative case, it must be greater than zero.
251 o The following keywords aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
253 undef NAME (to undefine a macro)
254 copy "FILE" (a synonym for `include')
255 space n (to modify the vertical spacing before and after
258 o The following macros aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
260 Alpha, ..., Omega (the same as `ALPHA', ..., `OMEGA')
261 ldots (three dots on the base line)
262 dollar (a dollar glyph)
264 o The following keywords have been extended. Again, this isn't new but
265 hasn't been documented previously:
274 cpile n { ... } (set vertical spacing between rows to N)
279 o This device driver has been raised to beta stage; its set of tags should
282 o New command line option `-s' to set the base point size.
284 o New command line option `-S' to set the split level while generating
290 o Experimental support for zero-width and double-width characters.
295 o On platforms which have the X Window System this program is now built and
296 installed automatically.
301 o This program to create font definition files for xditview isn't new but
302 hasn't been installed previously.
307 o A security problem (reported as CAN-2004-0969) has been fixed.
312 o A new script contributed by Mike Bianchi. It compares two groff, nroff,
313 or troff documents and creates an output with added margin characters
314 (using `.mc') to indicate the differences.
319 o A new wrapper script contributed by Keith Marshall to easily create PDF
320 documents with groff.
327 . Support for fractional point sizes: A value for the `PS', `VS', `FPS',
328 and `VPS' register larger than or equal to 1000 is always divided by
329 1000. For example, `.nr PS 10250' sets the document's font size to
332 . The `Ds' and `De' macros provided in ms since groff version 1.19 have
333 been removed; the equivalent `DS' and `DE' macros should be used
334 instead. X11 documents which actually use `Ds' and `De' always load a
335 specific macro file from the X11 distribution (`macros.t') which
336 provides proper definitions for the two macros.
338 . The following registers have been added for improving layout control:
341 Defines number of lines following `LP', `PP', `QP', `IP' or `XP' which
342 must be kept together, before any automatic page break.
345 Sets number of lines of following paragraph which must be kept with a
346 heading, defined by `NH' or `SH', before any automatic page break.
349 Sets the first level of heading (set with `NH') which keeps the
350 same point size as body text.
353 Sets the point size increment for each level of heading (set with
354 `NH'), below the threshold level set by `GROWPS'; e.g., if
355 \n[PS] = 10, \n[GROWPS] = 3 and \n[PSINCR] = 2.0p, then `.NH 1'
356 produces 14pt headings, `.NH 2' produces 12pt, and all other
357 levels remain at 10pt (because \n[PS] = 10).
359 . The `SH' macro now accepts a numeric argument, to make heading size
360 match that of `NH' with same argument value when the `GROWPS'/`PSINCR'
363 Please refer to the documentation of the ms package for other, minor
368 The section type set with the `++' request is available in the `_M'
369 register. This isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
373 The `HR' macro no longer causes an empty line for non-HTML devices.
375 A new macro `HEAD' has been added to directly add data to the
376 <head>...</head> block.
378 New macros `OLS' and `OLE' to start and end an ordered list.
380 New macros `DLS' and `DLE' to start and end a definition list.
385 o A new macro package contributed by Keith Marshall which implements PDF
386 marks. This is in alpha stage currently.
391 o Two new keywords to the DESC file have been added which are needed for
392 grohtml: `image_generator' and `unscaled_charwidths'. The former gives
393 the name of the program which creates PNG images, and the latter makes
394 troff always use unscaled character widths.
403 o The argument of the command line option `-I' is now also passed to troff
404 and grops, specifying a directory to search for files on the command line,
405 files named in `so' and `psbb' requests, and files named in \X'ps: file'
406 and \X'ps: import' escapes.
408 o If option `-V' is used more than once, the commands are both printed
409 on standard error and run.
414 o Two new read-only, string-valued registers `.m' and `.M' return the
415 name of the current drawing and background color, respectively.
417 o New read-only register `.U' which is set to 1 if in safer mode and set
418 to 0 if in unsafe mode.
420 o An input encoding file for latin-5 (a.k.a. ISO 8859-9) has been added.
423 groff -Tdvi -mlatin5 my_file > my_file.dvi
425 Note that some output devices don't support all glyphs of this encoding.
427 o If the `return' request is called with an argument, it exits twice,
428 namely the current macro and the macro one level higher. This is
429 used to define a wrapper macro for `return' in trace.tmac.
431 o For completeness, two new requests have been added: `dei1' and `ami1'.
432 They are equivalent to `dei' and `ami', respectively, but the macros
433 are executed with compatibility mode off (similar to `de1' and `am1').
435 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory for files (both
436 those on the command line and those named in `psbb' requests). This is
437 also handled by the groff wrapper program.
439 o Since version 1.19 you can say `.vs 0'. Older versions emit a warning
440 and convert this to `.vs \n[.V]'.
442 This hasn't been documented properly. Note that `.vs 0' isn't saved in a
443 diversion since it doesn't result in vertical motion.
448 o Dashed and dotted ellipses have been implemented.
453 o New specifier `x' to make tbl call a user-defined macro on a table
454 cell. Patch by Heinz-Jürgen Oertel <hj.oertel@surfeu.de>.
459 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
460 converts a grap diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the
461 PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
462 [Note that the grap program itself isn't part of the groff package;
463 see the file MORE.STUFF how to obtain grap.]
468 o New option `-j' to emit output split into multiple files.
473 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory to search for files
474 on the command line and files named in \X'ps: import' and \X'ps: file'
475 escapes. This is also handled by the groff wrapper program.
477 o The default value for the `broken' keyword in the DESC file is now 0.
482 o A new man page `lj4_font(5)' documents how fonts are accessed with
485 o The built-in fonts for LJ4 and newer PCL 5 devices have been completely
486 revised, mainly to access as much glyphs as possible. The provided
487 metric files should be compatible with recent PCL 5 printers also.
488 Additionally, font description files have been added for the Arial and
489 Times New Roman family, the MS symbol, and Wingdings fonts.
494 o New option `-x' to prevent use of built-in Adobe Glyph List.
499 o Completely revised to handle HP TrueType metric files also. See the
500 hpftodit manual page for more details.
505 o This version is a rewrite of groffer in many parts, but it is kept in
506 the old single script style.
508 New options: --text, --mode text, --tty-viewer, --X, --mode X,
509 --X-viewer, --html, --mode html, --html-view, --apropos-data,
510 --apropos-devel, --apropos-progs.
512 New documentation file: README_SH.
514 Enhancement of the configuration files and the `apropos' handling.
519 o www.tmac: New macro `JOBNAME' to split output into multiple files.
521 o In mdoc, multiple calls to `.Lb' are now supported in the LIBRARY
531 o Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
532 latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added. Example use:
534 groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi
536 You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs. Out of the box,
537 the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and -Tutf8,
538 and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.
540 o Composite glyphs are now supported. To do this, a subset of the Adobe
541 Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in
543 http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/opentype/index_glyph.html
545 is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes. The
546 existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't be
547 constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.
549 The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple glyph
554 this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.
556 Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong' Unicode
557 code points. For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a spacing
558 ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for composite
559 glyphs. The new request
563 changes the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed.
564 To make \[A ho] yield the expected result,
568 is needed. [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
569 contains proper calls to `.composite'.]
571 Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man page
574 o A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific fallback
575 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
576 `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts declared with `special'.
578 o Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
579 new `rfschar' request.
581 o A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
582 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
583 `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.
585 o In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
586 point horizontally. Despite of being silly, this change has been
587 reverted for backwards compatibility. Consequently, the intermediate
588 output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.
590 \D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal resolution of
591 the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the DESC file).
592 Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.
594 o For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
601 \D'Fd' (default color)
603 The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request. The current
604 position is *not* changed.
606 o The values set with \H and \S are now available in number registers
607 \n[.height] and \n[.slant], respectively.
609 o The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
610 It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp' request.
612 o The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.
614 o The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL.
615 (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously supported by
616 grolj4.) The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol font has been
617 changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon, `*e', has the
618 same glyph shape as with other devices.
623 o The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default glyph
624 shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.
626 o It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only 256
627 (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries). grops
628 constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.
630 o The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
631 mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
632 about the paper size. The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
633 (the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
634 extension) -- if you intend to further process grops output to get an
635 encapsulated PS (EPS) file you must also use this option.
637 Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>.
639 o Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no longer
640 contain negative left italic correction values. This assures correct
646 o The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI fonts.
647 It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.
649 o New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper size.
650 grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by DVI drivers
653 Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.
655 o The glyph shapes for \[*f] and \[*e] have been exchanged with \[+f] and
656 \[+e], respectively, to be in sync with all other devices.
658 o Glyphs \[HE] and \[DI] have been replaced with \[u2662] and \[u2661],
659 respectively, since the former two glyphs have a black (filled) shape
660 which grodvi doesn't provide by default (it never has actually).
665 o The glyphs \[*e] and \[+e] have been exchanged to be in sync with
668 o The glyph \[~=] is now called \[|=]. Similar to other devices, \[~=]
669 is now another name for glyph \[~~].
674 o New option `-r'. It is similar to the -i option except it tells grotty to
675 use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.
680 o New command `figname' to set the name of a picture's output box in TeX
686 o The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
687 database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
692 o New option `-r' to avoid emission of `.lf' lines.
694 o New option `-t' to emit TeX comment lines (giving current file and the
695 line number) instead of `.lf' lines.
700 o Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now emit
701 multiple encoding vectors for a single font).
703 o New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.
705 o The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now searched
706 in the default font directory also. Please refer to the man page of
707 afmtodit for more details.
712 o Larry Kollar <kollar@alltel.net> and others made the man macros more
715 . New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
716 location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
717 sub-subheading indentation.
719 . New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
722 . New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
723 They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.
725 . The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
728 . Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if not
729 explicitly specified on the command line.
731 o troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
732 the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.
734 Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined `papersize'
735 values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the groff_font man page)
736 except a7-d7. An appended `l' (ell) character denotes landscape
737 orientation. Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.
739 Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
740 `-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
741 the driver specific DESC file.
743 For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
746 groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
755 o The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
756 include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a
757 glyph (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,' and appending `\/' to the
758 glyph) sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal
759 bounding box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the
760 particular glyph is used (which can differ considerably).
762 Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
763 existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely for
764 italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
767 This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
772 o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
778 o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
779 drivers) to set the default line width.
784 o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
789 o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.
794 o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
795 compatibility with NetBSD.
797 o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
800 o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
801 and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
804 o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
809 o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
810 It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
811 used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.
815 papersize /etc/papersize a4
817 o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
818 defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the normal
819 font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
822 /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
824 for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
830 ***************************************************************************
832 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
834 ***************************************************************************
839 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
840 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
841 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
842 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
843 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
844 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
845 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
846 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
849 Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
850 read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
853 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
854 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
857 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
858 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
859 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
861 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
862 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
863 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
866 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
869 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
870 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
872 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
873 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
875 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
876 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
878 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
879 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
881 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
882 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
884 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
886 o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
889 .ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
892 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
893 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
899 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
900 . nop I will now define `bar'.
902 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
906 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
907 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
909 o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
910 the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
911 control their output format.
913 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
914 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
915 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
916 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
917 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
918 before checking special fonts.
920 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
921 doesn't emit a final newline.
923 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
924 with \c counts as one input line.
926 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
927 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
930 o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
931 character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
932 Note that this is an incompatible change.
934 o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
935 request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
937 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
938 pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
939 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
940 for more information.
942 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
945 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
946 already existing patterns).
948 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
949 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
950 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
951 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
953 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
954 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
955 final `0' can be omitted.
957 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
958 the exception that the `asciify' request uses the character code (if
959 any) before the character translation. Example:
971 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
973 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
974 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
975 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
976 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
977 post-vertical line space.
979 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
989 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
990 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
992 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
993 they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
994 single space characters.
996 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
999 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
1000 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
1001 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
1002 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
1003 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
1008 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
1009 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
1010 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
1011 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
1012 for PostScript output only.
1014 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
1015 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
1017 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
1018 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
1019 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
1020 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
1021 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
1023 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
1024 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
1025 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
1027 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
1030 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
1031 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
1034 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
1035 works in compatibility mode.
1037 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
1038 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
1040 o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
1043 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
1044 reference to the ms macros.
1046 o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
1048 o Changes in www.tmac:
1050 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
1051 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
1052 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
1055 The following macros have been renamed:
1061 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
1062 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
1064 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
1065 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
1067 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
1068 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
1070 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
1071 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
1073 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
1074 generation to headings.
1076 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
1079 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it automatically
1080 converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
1082 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
1083 (it automatically converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
1085 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
1087 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
1089 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
1091 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
1092 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
1097 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
1098 disabled in compatibility mode).
1103 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
1104 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
1105 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
1110 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
1111 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
1112 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
1114 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
1116 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
1118 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
1123 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
1124 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
1125 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
1130 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
1131 converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
1132 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
1137 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
1138 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
1144 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
1149 o Color support has been added.
1151 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
1152 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
1157 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
1158 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
1159 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
1162 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
1163 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
1165 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
1166 extended) has been added.
1168 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
1170 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
1171 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
1172 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
1174 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
1175 doesn't take care of hcode values.
1177 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
1178 to gray values currently.
1183 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
1184 ANSI color) escape sequences.
1186 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
1187 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
1188 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
1190 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
1191 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
1192 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
1193 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
1194 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
1196 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
1197 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable (or $MANPAGER, depending on the
1198 used `man' program); alternatively, you can use `man's `-P' option (or
1199 adapt its configuration file accordingly). See man(1) for more details.
1201 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
1202 reverting to the old behaviour.
1204 o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
1205 enable SGR output (the default).
1207 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
1208 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
1209 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
1210 for this (including xterm).
1215 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
1217 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
1219 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
1221 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
1222 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
1225 o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
1230 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
1231 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
1232 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
1237 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
1239 o The groff texinfo manual is installed now, together with a bunch
1242 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
1245 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
1247 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
1248 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
1250 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
1252 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
1253 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
1254 currently. troff completely ignores it.
1260 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
1265 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
1266 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
1267 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
1273 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
1278 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
1279 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
1282 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
1284 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
1285 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
1287 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
1293 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
1295 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
1301 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
1303 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
1304 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
1313 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
1314 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
1315 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
1316 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
1317 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
1319 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
1320 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
1321 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
1322 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
1323 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
1324 environment variables to groff.
1329 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
1330 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
1331 supported). Most important changes are:
1334 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
1335 . `.Lb': prints library names
1336 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
1338 . Updated `.St' command
1339 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
1340 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
1341 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
1342 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
1343 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
1344 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
1345 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
1346 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
1349 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
1350 documents the mdoc package.
1352 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
1353 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
1355 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
1356 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
1357 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
1360 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
1362 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
1363 `if 1'. For example,
1369 can now be written as
1375 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
1376 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
1377 ending the diversion).
1379 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
1380 and some other escape sequences also.
1382 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
1383 unbreakable space character.
1385 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
1386 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
1387 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
1392 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
1397 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
1402 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
1409 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1410 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1411 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1412 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1415 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
1416 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
1418 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1419 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1420 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1421 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1424 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
1425 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
1426 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
1441 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
1445 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
1446 mode, and 0 otherwise.
1448 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
1449 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
1450 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
1452 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
1453 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
1454 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
1455 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
1457 o The new `spreadwarn' request makes troff warn if spaces in an output
1458 line are widened by a given limit or more.
1460 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff uses for
1463 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
1464 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
1465 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
1466 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
1468 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
1469 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
1471 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
1472 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
1475 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
1476 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
1478 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
1480 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
1481 previous font family.
1483 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
1484 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
1486 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
1487 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
1488 macro or string is written to a stream.
1490 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
1491 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
1494 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
1496 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
1497 underlines spaces also).
1502 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
1503 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
1508 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
1509 been added to select a different prologue file.
1511 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
1512 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
1513 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
1518 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
1520 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
1521 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
1522 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
1525 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
1526 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
1527 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
1528 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
1529 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
1530 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
1532 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
1533 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
1536 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
1537 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
1538 variable if you really need the current directory.
1540 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
1541 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
1542 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
1543 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
1544 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
1545 is searched before the local tmac directory.
1547 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
1548 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
1549 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
1555 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1564 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
1565 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
1566 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
1568 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
1570 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
1572 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
1573 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
1574 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
1580 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
1581 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
1582 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
1584 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
1585 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
1586 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
1587 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
1588 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
1589 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
1591 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
1592 contains the current year.
1594 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
1595 number of the groff package.
1597 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
1598 font `foo' is undefined:
1601 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
1603 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
1605 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1607 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
1608 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1610 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
1613 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
1614 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
1616 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
1617 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
1618 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
1620 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
1622 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
1623 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
1626 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
1627 (which is an alias to character `"').
1629 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
1630 (which is an alias to character "'").
1632 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
1633 better support of HTML output:
1635 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
1638 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
1640 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
1641 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
1642 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
1643 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
1645 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
1648 use_charnames_in_special
1649 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
1650 inside special commands.
1653 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
1654 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
1659 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
1664 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
1666 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
1668 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
1669 is immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
1670 punctuation, for example).
1675 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
1677 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
1683 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
1684 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
1685 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
1690 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
1691 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
1692 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
1693 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
1698 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
1699 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
1704 Simplified installation: The Imakefile is now configured (by groff's
1710 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
1711 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
1712 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
1717 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
1718 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
1719 <blake@florida-software.com>.
1721 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
1722 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
1725 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
1726 ========================
1728 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1734 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
1735 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
1736 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
1739 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
1740 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
1742 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
1743 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
1746 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
1747 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
1749 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
1750 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
1752 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
1755 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
1756 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
1758 Following the GNU standards, groff now uses the prefix `/usr/local/' as
1759 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
1761 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
1762 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
1768 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
1769 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
1770 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
1771 reports are highly welcome.
1776 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
1782 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
1783 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
1788 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
1789 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
1791 Will now support 8 gray levels.
1796 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
1802 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
1803 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
1804 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
1805 half a dozen other projects.
1811 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
1812 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
1813 latest GNU coding standards.
1815 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
1816 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
1818 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
1819 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
1820 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
1821 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
1822 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
1823 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
1824 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
1825 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
1826 always installed as -me.
1828 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
1834 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
1835 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
1841 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
1847 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
1852 The -m option enables manual feed.
1858 \(rn now produces a character that has the traditional metrics,
1859 and form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it does not
1860 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
1861 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
1867 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1873 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1874 graphic to be specified.
1883 The escape sequence \V[xxx] interpolates the value of the
1884 environment variable xxx.
1889 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1890 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1900 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1901 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1907 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1908 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1909 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1911 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1912 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1914 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1915 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1920 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1921 try to keep the table on one page.
1926 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1927 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1928 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1929 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1934 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1935 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1936 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1942 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1943 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1945 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1947 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1948 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1950 ^L is now a valid input character.
1955 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1956 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1957 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1958 default device is ps.)
1960 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1961 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1962 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1963 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1965 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1966 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1967 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1968 draw_lines parameter.
1970 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1971 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1972 always loaded by troff.
1974 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1979 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1981 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1982 while a character definition is being processed.
1984 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1987 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1988 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1990 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file causes no font to be
1991 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1992 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1993 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1994 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1996 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1997 with compatibility mode disabled.
1999 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
2000 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
2001 for loading the device-specific macros.
2006 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
2007 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
2008 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
2009 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
2011 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
2012 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
2013 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
2015 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
2016 (the quotes are required).
2021 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
2022 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
2023 be prevented by the -R option.
2025 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
2026 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
2028 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
2031 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
2032 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
2038 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
2039 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
2040 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
2042 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
2045 With the -g option, grops generates PostScript code that guesses
2046 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
2047 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
2052 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
2053 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
2058 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
2064 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
2065 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
2066 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
2067 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
2068 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
2069 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
2070 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
2071 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
2072 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
2073 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register
2074 is derived from the $r or $R register.
2076 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
2078 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
2079 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ is only usable
2082 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
2087 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
2088 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
2089 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
2091 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
2092 redisplays the current page.
2101 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
2102 differently with blocks.
2104 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
2105 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
2107 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
2109 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
2115 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' are rendered
2116 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
2117 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
2122 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
2123 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
2124 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
2125 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
2126 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
2128 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro produces a box
2129 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
2135 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
2137 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
2138 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
2143 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
2148 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
2149 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
2150 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
2156 Support for scalable fonts.
2162 No changes other than bug fixes.
2168 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
2169 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
2170 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
2171 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
2173 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
2175 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
2176 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
2177 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
2178 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi uses the
2179 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
2180 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
2182 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
2185 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
2186 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
2188 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
2193 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
2194 input level as the opening [.
2196 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
2197 suitable for use as a name.
2199 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
2202 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
2203 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
2204 the -mX option is given.
2206 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
2211 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
2212 constructs by writing a troff macro.
2217 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
2222 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
2223 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
2224 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
2225 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
2227 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
2228 Document Structuring Convention.
2230 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
2231 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
2232 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
2233 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
2234 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
2237 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
2238 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
2243 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
2244 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps runs gtroff -Tps with
2247 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
2248 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
2251 Xditview now uses imake.
2257 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
2259 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
2260 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
2261 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
2262 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
2263 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
2264 that the `n' condition is true.
2266 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
2267 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
2268 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
2270 groff -Tdvi -p now passes pic the -x flag; this enables filling
2271 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
2272 latest version of the tpic specials.
2277 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
2278 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
2279 delimiters. The groff command passes on a `-N' option to eqn.
2284 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
2285 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
2287 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
2288 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
2289 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
2294 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
2299 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
2300 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
2302 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
2303 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
2304 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
2311 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
2313 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
2319 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
2320 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
2321 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
2322 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
2323 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
2325 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
2327 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
2330 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
2331 adjustment mode is not `b' a line is not hyphenated if it is no
2332 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
2333 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line is not
2334 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
2335 amount of extra space to each word space.
2337 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
2339 A warning of type `space' is given when a call is made to an
2340 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
2341 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
2342 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
2343 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
2349 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
2351 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
2352 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
2358 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
2359 complicated equations inside pictures.
2361 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
2362 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
2368 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
2369 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
2376 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
2377 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
2378 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
2381 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
2382 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
2384 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
2385 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
2387 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
2388 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
2389 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
2390 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
2391 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
2392 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
2394 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
2395 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
2396 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
2397 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
2400 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer valid input
2401 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
2403 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
2404 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
2409 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
2410 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
2411 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
2413 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
2414 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
2415 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
2416 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
2417 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
2418 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
2419 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
2420 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
2421 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
2427 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
2428 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
2430 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
2433 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
2434 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
2435 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
2436 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
2437 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
2438 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
2439 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
2441 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
2442 diversion, it now arranges for the file to be copied to the output
2443 when the diversion is reread.
2445 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
2448 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
2449 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
2450 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
2451 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
2452 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
2453 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
2454 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
2456 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
2459 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
2462 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
2464 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
2465 containing the hyphenation patterns.
2467 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
2469 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
2470 of end of sentence recognition.
2472 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
2473 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
2475 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
2476 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
2478 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
2480 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
2481 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
2482 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
2487 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
2488 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
2490 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
2491 lines are drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
2494 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
2495 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
2497 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
2499 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
2500 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
2502 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
2503 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
2506 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
2507 wherever a quoted string can be used.
2509 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
2510 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
2511 of the `textht' variable.
2513 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
2514 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
2519 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
2520 has been applied to a table.
2525 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
2527 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
2528 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
2533 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
2534 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
2535 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
2536 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
2537 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
2538 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
2539 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
2541 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
2542 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
2543 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'
2547 version-control: never