1 Copyright (C) 1989-2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
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 combine 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 The PS font definition files have been regenerated with newer AFM versions
70 from Adobe's 35 core fonts as present in most Level 2 PS printers. The
71 changes are minor (most notably, the addition of the `Euro' glyph and an
72 extended set of kerning values).
74 For backwards compatibility, the old set of font definition files is still
75 available; for details please read the man page of `grops(1)'.
77 o A new read-only number register `.O' is available which returns the
78 current suppression level as set by the `\O' escape.
83 o int(x) now really behaves as documented: It truncates the non-integer part
84 of x, this is, it rounds towards zero and not towards the next integer
85 less than or equal to x.
87 o Pic now supports up to 32 macro arguments (and up to 16 on EBCDIC
93 o Eric S. Raymond has added a new device type to eqn, MathML. When
94 -TMathML is enabled, eqn now emits MathML formula markup rather than
95 groff commands. The new groff -Txhtml device uses this.
100 o The preprocessor `chem' was added. `chem' is a roff language to generate
101 chemical structure diagrams. It generates `pic' output.
106 o \D'p...' is now supported if the polygon consists entirely of horizontal
112 o XHTML support has been added.
114 o New command line option `-V' (to be used in XHTML mode) to produce an
115 XHTML validator button.
117 o New command line option `-y' to produce a right-justified groff signature
118 at the end of the document (in combination with option `-V').
124 o Support for keyboard navigation has been improved.
126 o Similar to other X11 applications, there are now two resource files,
127 `GXditview' and `GXditview-color'.
132 o `groffer' version 1.* exists now in a shell and a Perl version.
137 o New option `-c' to output more font information as comments.
142 o Fabrice Ménard contributed locales support. In particular, it is now
143 possible to get French localization of the main macro packages (-ms, -mm,
144 -me, and -mom, but not -man and -mdoc which are localized differently) by
145 appending `-mfr' to the list of macro packages. Example:
147 groff -ms -mfr foo > foo.ps
149 Note that latin-9 input encoding is used for French (to support the `oe'
152 o Swedish macro localization (with `-msv') has been added.
154 o German macro localization (with `-mde' and `-mden' for traditional and
155 new orthography, respectively) has been added.
157 o A new macro `Dx' has been added to the mdoc package which identifies the
160 o -mtrace has been considerably improved, now showing number and string
161 register assignments, among other things.
163 o The PSPIC macro now works with all devices (producing a hollow
164 rectangle on devices which don't support inclusion of PS images) and
165 is loaded in troffrc at start-up.
167 o A new auxiliary macro package `62bit' has been added which provides some
168 macros for adding, multiplying, and dividing signed 62bit integers (mainly
169 to handle normal groff number operations without risking overflow errors).
171 o For -ms, Eric S. Raymond contributed support for ancient Bell Labs
172 localisms `.SC', `.UC', `.P1', and `.P2'. The latter three are enabled
173 only after .SC is called.
175 o A new string, `SN-STYLE', has been added to the ms macros, controlling
176 the formatting of section numbers in headings defined by `.NH'.
185 o Analogously to the .ft and \f pair, two new requests `gcolor' and
186 `fcolor' (which pair with \m and \M, respectively) have been added to
187 set the glyph and background colours.
189 o A new read-only, string-valued register `.sty' returns the name of the
192 o Two new conditional operators `F <name>' and `S <name>' have been added.
193 `F' is true if a font <name> exists. `S' is true if a style <name> has
196 o Cyrillic characters have been added to the `utf8' and `html' output
202 o The `by' argument in a `for' loop can now be negative if it is additive.
203 For the multiplicative case, it must be greater than zero.
208 o The following keywords aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
210 undef NAME (to undefine a macro)
211 copy "FILE" (a synonym for `include')
212 space n (to modify the vertical spacing before and after
215 o The following macros aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
217 Alpha, ..., Omega (the same as `ALPHA', ..., `OMEGA')
218 ldots (three dots on the base line)
219 dollar (a dollar glyph)
221 o The following keywords have been extended. Again, this isn't new but
222 hasn't been documented previously:
231 cpile n { ... } (set vertical spacing between rows to N)
236 o This device driver has been raised to beta stage; its set of tags should
239 o New command line option `-s' to set the base point size.
241 o New command line option `-S' to set the split level while generating
247 o Experimental support for zero-width and double-width characters.
252 o On platforms which have the X Window System this program is now built and
253 installed automatically.
258 o This program to create font definition files for xditview isn't new but
259 hasn't been installed previously.
264 o A security problem (reported as CAN-2004-0969) has been fixed.
269 o A new script contributed by Mike Bianchi. It compares two groff, nroff,
270 or troff documents and creates an output with added margin characters
271 (using `.mc') to indicate the differences.
276 o A new wrapper script contributed by Keith Marshall to easily create PDF
277 documents with groff.
284 . Support for fractional point sizes: A value for the `PS', `VS', `FPS',
285 and `VPS' register larger than or equal to 1000 is always divided by
286 1000. For example, `.nr PS 10250' sets the document's font size to
289 . The `Ds' and `De' macros provided in ms since groff version 1.19 have
290 been removed; the equivalent `DS' and `DE' macros should be used
291 instead. X11 documents which actually use `Ds' and `De' always load a
292 specific macro file from the X11 distribution (`macros.t') which
293 provides proper definitions for the two macros.
295 . The following registers have been added for improving layout control:
298 Defines number of lines following `LP', `PP', `QP', `IP' or `XP' which
299 must be kept together, before any automatic page break.
302 Sets number of lines of following paragraph which must be kept with a
303 heading, defined by `NH' or `SH', before any automatic page break.
306 Sets the first level of heading (set with `NH') which keeps the
307 same point size as body text.
310 Sets the point size increment for each level of heading (set with
311 `NH'), below the threshold level set by `GROWPS'; e.g., if
312 \n[PS] = 10, \n[GROWPS] = 3 and \n[PSINCR] = 2.0p, then `.NH 1'
313 produces 14pt headings, `.NH 2' produces 12pt, and all other
314 levels remain at 10pt (because \n[PS] = 10).
316 . The `SH' macro now accepts a numeric argument, to make heading size
317 match that of `NH' with same argument value when the `GROWPS'/`PSINCR'
320 Please refer to the documentation of the ms package for other, minor
325 The section type set with the `++' request is available in the `_M'
326 register. This isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
330 The `HR' macro no longer causes an empty line for non-HTML devices.
332 A new macro `HEAD' has been added to directly add data to the
333 <head>...</head> block.
335 New macros `OLS' and `OLE' to start and end an ordered list.
337 New macros `DLS' and `DLE' to start and end a definition list.
342 o A new macro package contributed by Keith Marshall which implements PDF
343 marks. This is in alpha stage currently.
348 o Two new keywords to the DESC file have been added which are needed for
349 grohtml: `image_generator' and `unscaled_charwidths'. The former gives
350 the name of the program which creates PNG images, and the latter makes
351 troff always use unscaled character widths.
360 o The argument of the command line option `-I' is now also passed to troff
361 and grops, specifying a directory to search for files on the command line,
362 files named in `so' and `psbb' requests, and files named in \X'ps: file'
363 and \X'ps: import' escapes.
365 o If option `-V' is used more than once, the commands are both printed
366 on standard error and run.
371 o Two new read-only, string-valued registers `.m' and `.M' return the
372 name of the current drawing and background color, respectively.
374 o New read-only register `.U' which is set to 1 if in safer mode and set
375 to 0 if in unsafe mode.
377 o An input encoding file for latin-5 (a.k.a. ISO 8859-9) has been added.
380 groff -Tdvi -mlatin5 my_file > my_file.dvi
382 Note that some output devices don't support all glyphs of this encoding.
384 o If the `return' request is called with an argument, it exits twice,
385 namely the current macro and the macro one level higher. This is
386 used to define a wrapper macro for `return' in trace.tmac.
388 o For completeness, two new requests have been added: `dei1' and `ami1'.
389 They are equivalent to `dei' and `ami', respectively, but the macros
390 are executed with compatibility mode off (similar to `de1' and `am1').
392 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory for files (both
393 those on the command line and those named in `psbb' requests). This is
394 also handled by the groff wrapper program.
396 o Since version 1.19 you can say `.vs 0'. Older versions emit a warning
397 and convert this to `.vs \n[.V]'.
399 This hasn't been documented properly. Note that `.vs 0' isn't saved in a
400 diversion since it doesn't result in vertical motion.
405 o Dashed and dotted ellipses have been implemented.
410 o New key character `x' to make tbl call a user-defined macro on a table
411 cell. Patch by Heinz-Jürgen Oertel <hj.oertel@surfeu.de>.
416 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
417 converts a grap diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the
418 PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
419 [Note that the grap program itself isn't part of the groff package;
420 see the file MORE.STUFF how to obtain grap.]
425 o New option `-j' to emit output split into multiple files.
430 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory to search for files
431 on the command line and files named in \X'ps: import' and \X'ps: file'
432 escapes. This is also handled by the groff wrapper program.
434 o The default value for the `broken' keyword in the DESC file is now 0.
439 o A new man page `lj4_font(5)' documents how fonts are accessed with
442 o The built-in fonts for LJ4 and newer PCL 5 devices have been completely
443 revised, mainly to access as much glyphs as possible. The provided
444 metric files should be compatible with recent PCL 5 printers also.
445 Additionally, font description files have been added for the Arial and
446 Times New Roman family, the MS symbol, and Wingdings fonts.
451 o New option `-x' to prevent use of built-in Adobe Glyph List.
456 o Completely revised to handle HP TrueType metric files also. See the
457 hpftodit manual page for more details.
462 o This version is a rewrite of groffer in many parts, but it is kept in
463 the old single script style.
465 New options: --text, --mode text, --tty-viewer, --X, --mode X,
466 --X-viewer, --html, --mode html, --html-view, --apropos-data,
467 --apropos-devel, --apropos-progs.
469 New documentation file: README_SH.
471 Enhancement of the configuration files and the `apropos' handling.
476 o www.tmac: New macro `JOBNAME' to split output into multiple files.
478 o In mdoc, multiple calls to `.Lb' are now supported in the LIBRARY
488 o Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
489 latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added. Example use:
491 groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi
493 You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs. Out of the box,
494 the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and -Tutf8,
495 and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.
497 o Composite glyphs are now supported. To do this, a subset of the Adobe
498 Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in
500 http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/opentype/index_glyph.html
502 is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes. The
503 existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't be
504 constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.
506 The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple glyph
511 this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.
513 Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong' Unicode
514 code points. For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a spacing
515 ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for composite
516 glyphs. The new request
520 changes the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed.
521 To make \[A ho] yield the expected result,
525 is needed. [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
526 contains proper calls to `.composite'.]
528 Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man page
531 o A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific fallback
532 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
533 `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts declared with `special'.
535 o Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
536 new `rfschar' request.
538 o A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
539 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
540 `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.
542 o In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
543 point horizontally. Despite of being silly, this change has been
544 reverted for backwards compatibility. Consequently, the intermediate
545 output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.
547 \D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal resolution of
548 the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the DESC file).
549 Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.
551 o For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
558 \D'Fd' (default color)
560 The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request. The current
561 position is *not* changed.
563 o The values set with \H and \S are now available in number registers
564 \n[.height] and \n[.slant], respectively.
566 o The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
567 It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp' request.
569 o The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.
571 o The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL.
572 (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously supported by
573 grolj4.) The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol font has been
574 changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon, `*e', has the
575 same glyph shape as with other devices.
580 o The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default glyph
581 shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.
583 o It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only 256
584 (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries). grops
585 constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.
587 o The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
588 mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
589 about the paper size. The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
590 (the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
591 extension) -- if you intend to further process grops output to get an
592 encapsulated PS (EPS) file you must also use this option.
594 Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>.
596 o Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no longer
597 contain negative left italic correction values. This assures correct
603 o The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI fonts.
604 It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.
606 o New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper size.
607 grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by DVI drivers
610 Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.
612 o The glyph shapes for \[*f] and \[*e] have been exchanged with \[+f] and
613 \[+e], respectively, to be in sync with all other devices.
615 o Glyphs \[HE] and \[DI] have been replaced with \[u2662] and \[u2661],
616 respectively, since the former two glyphs have a black (filled) shape
617 which grodvi doesn't provide by default (it never has actually).
622 o The glyphs \[*e] and \[+e] have been exchanged to be in sync with
625 o The glyph \[~=] is now called \[|=]. Similar to other devices, \[~=]
626 is now another name for glyph \[~~].
631 o New option `-r'. It is similar to the -i option except it tells grotty to
632 use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.
637 o New command `figname' to set the name of a picture's output box in TeX
643 o The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
644 database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
649 o New option `-r' to avoid emission of `.lf' lines.
651 o New option `-t' to emit TeX comment lines (giving current file and the
652 line number) instead of `.lf' lines.
657 o Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now emit
658 multiple encoding vectors for a single font).
660 o New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.
662 o The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now searched
663 in the default font directory also. Please refer to the man page of
664 afmtodit for more details.
669 o Larry Kollar <kollar@alltel.net> and others made the man macros more
672 . New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
673 location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
674 sub-subheading indentation.
676 . New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
679 . New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
680 They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.
682 . The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
685 . Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if not
686 explicitly specified on the command line.
688 o troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
689 the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.
691 Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined `papersize'
692 values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the groff_font man page)
693 except a7-d7. An appended `l' (ell) character denotes landscape
694 orientation. Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.
696 Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
697 `-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
698 the driver specific DESC file.
700 For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
703 groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
712 o The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
713 include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a
714 glyph (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,' and appending `\/' to the
715 glyph) sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal
716 bounding box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the
717 particular glyph is used (which can differ considerably).
719 Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
720 existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely for
721 italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
724 This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
729 o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
735 o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
736 drivers) to set the default line width.
741 o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
746 o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.
751 o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
752 compatibility with NetBSD.
754 o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
757 o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
758 and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
761 o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
766 o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
767 It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
768 used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.
772 papersize /etc/papersize a4
774 o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
775 defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the normal
776 font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
779 /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
781 for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
787 ***************************************************************************
789 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
791 ***************************************************************************
796 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
797 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
798 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
799 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
800 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
801 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
802 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
803 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
806 Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
807 read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
810 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
811 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
814 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
815 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
816 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
818 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
819 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
820 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
823 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
826 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
827 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
829 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
830 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
832 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
833 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
835 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
836 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
838 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
839 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
841 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
843 o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
846 .ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
849 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
850 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
856 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
857 . nop I will now define `bar'.
859 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
863 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
864 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
866 o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
867 the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
868 control their output format.
870 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
871 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
872 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
873 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
874 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
875 before checking special fonts.
877 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
878 doesn't emit a final newline.
880 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
881 with \c counts as one input line.
883 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
884 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
887 o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
888 character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
889 Note that this is an incompatible change.
891 o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
892 request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
894 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
895 pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
896 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
897 for more information.
899 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
902 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
903 already existing patterns).
905 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
906 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
907 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
908 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
910 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
911 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
912 final `0' can be omitted.
914 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
915 the exception that the `asciify' request uses the character code (if
916 any) before the character translation. Example:
928 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
930 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
931 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
932 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
933 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
934 post-vertical line space.
936 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
946 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
947 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
949 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
950 they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
951 single space characters.
953 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
956 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
957 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
958 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
959 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
960 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
965 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
966 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
967 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
968 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
969 for PostScript output only.
971 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
972 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
974 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
975 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
976 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
977 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
978 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
980 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
981 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
982 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
984 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
987 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
988 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
991 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
992 works in compatibility mode.
994 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
995 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
997 o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
1000 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
1001 reference to the ms macros.
1003 o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
1005 o Changes in www.tmac:
1007 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
1008 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
1009 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
1012 The following macros have been renamed:
1018 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
1019 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
1021 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
1022 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
1024 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
1025 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
1027 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
1028 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
1030 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
1031 generation to headings.
1033 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
1036 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it automatically
1037 converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
1039 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
1040 (it automatically converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
1042 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
1044 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
1046 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
1048 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
1049 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
1054 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
1055 disabled in compatibility mode).
1060 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
1061 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
1062 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
1067 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
1068 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
1069 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
1071 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
1073 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
1075 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
1080 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
1081 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
1082 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
1087 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
1088 converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
1089 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
1094 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
1095 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
1101 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
1106 o Color support has been added.
1108 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
1109 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
1114 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
1115 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
1116 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
1119 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
1120 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
1122 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
1123 extended) has been added.
1125 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
1127 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
1128 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
1129 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
1131 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
1132 doesn't take care of hcode values.
1134 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
1135 to gray values currently.
1140 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
1141 ANSI color) escape sequences.
1143 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
1144 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
1145 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
1147 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
1148 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
1149 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
1150 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
1151 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
1153 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
1154 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable (or $MANPAGER, depending on the
1155 used `man' program); alternatively, you can use `man's `-P' option (or
1156 adapt its configuration file accordingly). See man(1) for more details.
1158 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
1159 reverting to the old behaviour.
1161 o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
1162 enable SGR output (the default).
1164 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
1165 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
1166 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
1167 for this (including xterm).
1172 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
1174 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
1176 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
1178 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
1179 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
1182 o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
1187 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
1188 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
1189 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
1194 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
1196 o The groff texinfo manual is installed now, together with a bunch
1199 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
1202 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
1204 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
1205 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
1207 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
1209 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
1210 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
1211 currently. troff completely ignores it.
1217 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
1222 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
1223 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
1224 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
1230 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
1235 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
1236 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
1239 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
1241 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
1242 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
1244 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
1250 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
1252 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
1258 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
1260 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
1261 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
1270 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
1271 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
1272 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
1273 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
1274 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
1276 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
1277 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
1278 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
1279 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
1280 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
1281 environment variables to groff.
1286 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
1287 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
1288 supported). Most important changes are:
1291 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
1292 . `.Lb': prints library names
1293 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
1295 . Updated `.St' command
1296 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
1297 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
1298 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
1299 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
1300 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
1301 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
1302 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
1303 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
1306 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
1307 documents the mdoc package.
1309 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
1310 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
1312 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
1313 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
1314 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
1317 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
1319 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
1320 `if 1'. For example,
1326 can now be written as
1332 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
1333 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
1334 ending the diversion).
1336 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
1337 and some other escape sequences also.
1339 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
1340 unbreakable space character.
1342 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
1343 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
1344 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
1349 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
1354 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
1359 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
1366 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1367 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1368 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1369 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1372 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
1373 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
1375 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1376 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1377 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1378 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1381 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
1382 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
1383 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
1398 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
1402 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
1403 mode, and 0 otherwise.
1405 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
1406 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
1407 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
1409 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
1410 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
1411 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
1412 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
1414 o The new `spreadwarn' request makes troff warn if spaces in an output
1415 line are widened by a given limit or more.
1417 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff uses for
1420 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
1421 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
1422 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
1423 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
1425 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
1426 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
1428 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
1429 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
1432 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
1433 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
1435 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
1437 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
1438 previous font family.
1440 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
1441 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
1443 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
1444 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
1445 macro or string is written to a stream.
1447 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
1448 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
1451 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
1453 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
1454 underlines spaces also).
1459 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
1460 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
1465 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
1466 been added to select a different prologue file.
1468 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
1469 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
1470 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
1475 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
1477 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
1478 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
1479 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
1482 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
1483 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
1484 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
1485 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
1486 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
1487 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
1489 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
1490 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
1493 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
1494 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
1495 variable if you really need the current directory.
1497 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
1498 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
1499 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
1500 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
1501 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
1502 is searched before the local tmac directory.
1504 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
1505 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
1506 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
1512 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1521 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
1522 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
1523 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
1525 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
1527 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
1529 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
1530 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
1531 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
1537 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
1538 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
1539 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
1541 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
1542 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
1543 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
1544 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
1545 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
1546 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
1548 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
1549 contains the current year.
1551 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
1552 number of the groff package.
1554 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
1555 font `foo' is undefined:
1558 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
1560 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
1562 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1564 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
1565 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1567 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
1570 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
1571 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
1573 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
1574 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
1575 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
1577 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
1579 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
1580 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
1583 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
1584 (which is an alias to character `"').
1586 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
1587 (which is an alias to character "'").
1589 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
1590 better support of HTML output:
1592 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
1595 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
1597 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
1598 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
1599 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
1600 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
1602 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
1605 use_charnames_in_special
1606 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
1607 inside special commands.
1610 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
1611 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
1616 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
1621 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
1623 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
1625 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
1626 is immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
1627 punctuation, for example).
1632 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
1634 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
1640 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
1641 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
1642 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
1647 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
1648 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
1649 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
1650 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
1655 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
1656 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
1661 Simplified installation: The Imakefile is now configured (by groff's
1667 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
1668 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
1669 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
1674 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
1675 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
1676 <blake@florida-software.com>.
1678 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
1679 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
1682 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
1683 ========================
1685 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1691 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
1692 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
1693 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
1696 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
1697 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
1699 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
1700 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
1703 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
1704 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
1706 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
1707 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
1709 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
1712 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
1713 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
1715 Following the GNU standards, groff now uses the prefix `/usr/local/' as
1716 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
1718 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
1719 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
1725 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
1726 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
1727 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
1728 reports are highly welcome.
1733 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
1739 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
1740 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
1745 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
1746 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
1748 Will now support 8 gray levels.
1753 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
1759 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
1760 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
1761 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
1762 half a dozen other projects.
1768 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
1769 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
1770 latest GNU coding standards.
1772 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
1773 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
1775 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
1776 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
1777 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
1778 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
1779 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
1780 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
1781 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
1782 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
1783 always installed as -me.
1785 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
1791 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
1792 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
1798 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
1804 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
1809 The -m option enables manual feed.
1815 \(rn now produces a character that has the traditional metrics,
1816 and form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it does not
1817 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
1818 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
1824 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1830 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1831 graphic to be specified.
1840 The escape sequence \V[xxx] interpolates the value of the
1841 environment variable xxx.
1846 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1847 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1857 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1858 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1864 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1865 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1866 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1868 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1869 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1871 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1872 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1877 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1878 try to keep the table on one page.
1883 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1884 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1885 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1886 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1891 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1892 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1893 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1899 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1900 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1902 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1904 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1905 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1907 ^L is now a valid input character.
1912 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1913 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1914 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1915 default device is ps.)
1917 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1918 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1919 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1920 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1922 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1923 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1924 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1925 draw_lines parameter.
1927 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1928 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1929 always loaded by troff.
1931 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1936 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1938 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1939 while a character definition is being processed.
1941 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1944 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1945 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1947 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file causes no font to be
1948 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1949 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1950 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1951 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1953 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1954 with compatibility mode disabled.
1956 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
1957 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
1958 for loading the device-specific macros.
1963 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
1964 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
1965 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
1966 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
1968 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
1969 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
1970 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
1972 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
1973 (the quotes are required).
1978 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
1979 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
1980 be prevented by the -R option.
1982 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
1983 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
1985 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
1988 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
1989 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
1995 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
1996 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
1997 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
1999 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
2002 With the -g option, grops generates PostScript code that guesses
2003 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
2004 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
2009 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
2010 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
2015 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
2021 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
2022 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
2023 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
2024 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
2025 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
2026 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
2027 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
2028 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
2029 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
2030 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register
2031 is derived from the $r or $R register.
2033 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
2035 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
2036 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ is only usable
2039 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
2044 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
2045 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
2046 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
2048 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
2049 redisplays the current page.
2058 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
2059 differently with blocks.
2061 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
2062 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
2064 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
2066 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
2072 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' are rendered
2073 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
2074 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
2079 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
2080 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
2081 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
2082 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
2083 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
2085 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro produces a box
2086 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
2092 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
2094 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
2095 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
2100 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
2105 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
2106 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
2107 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
2113 Support for scalable fonts.
2119 No changes other than bug fixes.
2125 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
2126 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
2127 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
2128 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
2130 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
2132 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
2133 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
2134 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
2135 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi uses the
2136 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
2137 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
2139 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
2142 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
2143 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
2145 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
2150 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
2151 input level as the opening [.
2153 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
2154 suitable for use as a name.
2156 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
2159 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
2160 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
2161 the -mX option is given.
2163 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
2168 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
2169 constructs by writing a troff macro.
2174 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
2179 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
2180 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
2181 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
2182 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
2184 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
2185 Document Structuring Convention.
2187 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
2188 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
2189 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
2190 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
2191 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
2194 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
2195 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
2200 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
2201 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps runs gtroff -Tps with
2204 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
2205 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
2208 Xditview now uses imake.
2214 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
2216 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
2217 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
2218 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
2219 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
2220 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
2221 that the `n' condition is true.
2223 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
2224 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
2225 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
2227 groff -Tdvi -p now passes pic the -x flag; this enables filling
2228 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
2229 latest version of the tpic specials.
2234 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
2235 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
2236 delimiters. The groff command passes on a `-N' option to eqn.
2241 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
2242 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
2244 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
2245 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
2246 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
2251 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
2256 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
2257 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
2259 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
2260 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
2261 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
2268 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
2270 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
2276 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
2277 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
2278 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
2279 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
2280 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
2282 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
2284 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
2287 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
2288 adjustment mode is not `b' a line is not hyphenated if it is no
2289 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
2290 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line is not
2291 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
2292 amount of extra space to each word space.
2294 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
2296 A warning of type `space' is given when a call is made to an
2297 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
2298 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
2299 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
2300 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
2306 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
2308 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
2309 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
2315 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
2316 complicated equations inside pictures.
2318 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
2319 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
2325 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
2326 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
2333 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
2334 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
2335 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
2338 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
2339 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
2341 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
2342 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
2344 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
2345 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
2346 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
2347 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
2348 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
2349 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
2351 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
2352 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
2353 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
2354 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
2357 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer valid input
2358 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
2360 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
2361 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
2366 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
2367 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
2368 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
2370 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
2371 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
2372 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
2373 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
2374 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
2375 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
2376 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
2377 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
2378 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
2384 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
2385 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
2387 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
2390 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
2391 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
2392 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
2393 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
2394 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
2395 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
2396 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
2398 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
2399 diversion, it now arranges for the file to be copied to the output
2400 when the diversion is reread.
2402 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
2405 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
2406 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
2407 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
2408 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
2409 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
2410 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
2411 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
2413 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
2416 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
2419 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
2421 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
2422 containing the hyphenation patterns.
2424 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
2426 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
2427 of end of sentence recognition.
2429 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
2430 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
2432 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
2433 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
2435 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
2437 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
2438 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
2439 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
2444 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
2445 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
2447 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
2448 lines are drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
2451 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
2452 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
2454 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
2456 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
2457 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
2459 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
2460 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
2463 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
2464 wherever a quoted string can be used.
2466 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
2467 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
2468 of the `textht' variable.
2470 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
2471 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
2476 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
2477 has been applied to a table.
2482 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
2484 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
2485 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
2490 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
2491 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
2492 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
2493 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
2494 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
2495 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
2496 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
2498 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
2499 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
2500 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'
2504 version-control: never