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 Eric S. Raymond has added a new device type to eqn, MathML. When
103 -TMathML is enabled, eqn now emits MathML formula markup rather than
104 groff commands. The new groff -Txhtml device uses this.
109 o The preprocessor `chem' was added. `chem' is a roff language to generate
110 chemical structure diagrams. It generates `pic' output.
115 o The PS font definition files have been regenerated with newer AFM versions
116 from Adobe's 35 core fonts as present in most Level 2 PS printers. The
117 changes are minor (most notably, the addition of the `Euro' glyph and an
118 extended set of kerning values).
120 For backwards compatibility, the old set of font definition files is still
121 available; for details please read the man page of `grops(1)'.
126 o \D'p...' is now supported if the polygon consists entirely of horizontal
132 o XHTML support has been added.
134 o New command line option `-V' (to be used in XHTML mode) to produce an
135 XHTML validator button.
137 o New command line option `-y' to produce a right-justified groff signature
138 at the end of the document (in combination with option `-V').
143 o Support for keyboard navigation has been improved.
145 o Similar to other X11 applications, there are now two resource files,
146 `GXditview' and `GXditview-color'.
151 o `groffer' version 1.* exists now in a shell and a Perl version.
156 o New option `-c' to output more font information as comments.
158 o New option `-k' to suppress output of kerning data.
160 o New option `-f NAME' to set the internal name of the groff font.
165 o -mandoc now supports multiple man pages (in either man or mdoc format).
167 o Fabrice Ménard contributed locales support. In particular, it is now
168 possible to get French localization of the main macro packages (-ms, -mm,
169 -me, and -mom, but not -man and -mdoc which are localized differently) by
170 appending `-mfr' to the list of macro packages. Example:
172 groff -ms -mfr foo > foo.ps
174 Note that latin-9 input encoding is used for French (to support the `oe'
177 o Swedish macro localization (with `-msv') has been added.
179 o German macro localization (with `-mde' and `-mden' for traditional and
180 new orthography, respectively) has been added.
182 o Czech macro localization (with `-mcs') has been added.
184 Note that latin-2 input encoding is used for Czech.
186 o A new macro `Dx' has been added to the mdoc package which identifies the
189 o If mdoc is used to print multiple man pages (together with the -rcR=0
190 command line option), each man page now starts a new page.
192 o -mtrace has been considerably improved, now showing number and string
193 register assignments, among other things. See the groff_trace man page
196 o The PSPIC macro now works with all devices (producing a hollow
197 rectangle on devices which don't support inclusion of PS images) and
198 is loaded in troffrc at start-up.
200 o A new auxiliary macro package `62bit' has been added which provides some
201 macros for adding, multiplying, and dividing signed 62bit integers (mainly
202 to handle normal groff number operations without risking overflow errors).
204 o For -ms, Eric S. Raymond contributed support for ancient Bell Labs
205 localisms `.SC', `.UC', `.P1', and `.P2'. The latter three are enabled
206 only after .SC is called.
208 o A new string, `SN-STYLE', has been added to the ms macros, controlling
209 the formatting of section numbers in headings defined by `.NH'.
218 o Analogously to the .ft and \f pair, two new requests `gcolor' and
219 `fcolor' (which pair with \m and \M, respectively) have been added to
220 set the glyph and background colours.
222 o A new read-only, string-valued register `.sty' returns the name of the
225 o Two new conditional operators `F <name>' and `S <name>' have been added.
226 `F' is true if a font <name> exists. `S' is true if a style <name> has
229 o Cyrillic characters have been added to the `utf8' and `html' output
235 o The `by' argument in a `for' loop can now be negative if it is additive.
236 For the multiplicative case, it must be greater than zero.
241 o The following keywords aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
243 undef NAME (to undefine a macro)
244 copy "FILE" (a synonym for `include')
245 space n (to modify the vertical spacing before and after
248 o The following macros aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
250 Alpha, ..., Omega (the same as `ALPHA', ..., `OMEGA')
251 ldots (three dots on the base line)
252 dollar (a dollar glyph)
254 o The following keywords have been extended. Again, this isn't new but
255 hasn't been documented previously:
264 cpile n { ... } (set vertical spacing between rows to N)
269 o This device driver has been raised to beta stage; its set of tags should
272 o New command line option `-s' to set the base point size.
274 o New command line option `-S' to set the split level while generating
280 o Experimental support for zero-width and double-width characters.
285 o On platforms which have the X Window System this program is now built and
286 installed automatically.
291 o This program to create font definition files for xditview isn't new but
292 hasn't been installed previously.
297 o A security problem (reported as CAN-2004-0969) has been fixed.
302 o A new script contributed by Mike Bianchi. It compares two groff, nroff,
303 or troff documents and creates an output with added margin characters
304 (using `.mc') to indicate the differences.
309 o A new wrapper script contributed by Keith Marshall to easily create PDF
310 documents with groff.
317 . Support for fractional point sizes: A value for the `PS', `VS', `FPS',
318 and `VPS' register larger than or equal to 1000 is always divided by
319 1000. For example, `.nr PS 10250' sets the document's font size to
322 . The `Ds' and `De' macros provided in ms since groff version 1.19 have
323 been removed; the equivalent `DS' and `DE' macros should be used
324 instead. X11 documents which actually use `Ds' and `De' always load a
325 specific macro file from the X11 distribution (`macros.t') which
326 provides proper definitions for the two macros.
328 . The following registers have been added for improving layout control:
331 Defines number of lines following `LP', `PP', `QP', `IP' or `XP' which
332 must be kept together, before any automatic page break.
335 Sets number of lines of following paragraph which must be kept with a
336 heading, defined by `NH' or `SH', before any automatic page break.
339 Sets the first level of heading (set with `NH') which keeps the
340 same point size as body text.
343 Sets the point size increment for each level of heading (set with
344 `NH'), below the threshold level set by `GROWPS'; e.g., if
345 \n[PS] = 10, \n[GROWPS] = 3 and \n[PSINCR] = 2.0p, then `.NH 1'
346 produces 14pt headings, `.NH 2' produces 12pt, and all other
347 levels remain at 10pt (because \n[PS] = 10).
349 . The `SH' macro now accepts a numeric argument, to make heading size
350 match that of `NH' with same argument value when the `GROWPS'/`PSINCR'
353 Please refer to the documentation of the ms package for other, minor
358 The section type set with the `++' request is available in the `_M'
359 register. This isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
363 The `HR' macro no longer causes an empty line for non-HTML devices.
365 A new macro `HEAD' has been added to directly add data to the
366 <head>...</head> block.
368 New macros `OLS' and `OLE' to start and end an ordered list.
370 New macros `DLS' and `DLE' to start and end a definition list.
375 o A new macro package contributed by Keith Marshall which implements PDF
376 marks. This is in alpha stage currently.
381 o Two new keywords to the DESC file have been added which are needed for
382 grohtml: `image_generator' and `unscaled_charwidths'. The former gives
383 the name of the program which creates PNG images, and the latter makes
384 troff always use unscaled character widths.
393 o The argument of the command line option `-I' is now also passed to troff
394 and grops, specifying a directory to search for files on the command line,
395 files named in `so' and `psbb' requests, and files named in \X'ps: file'
396 and \X'ps: import' escapes.
398 o If option `-V' is used more than once, the commands are both printed
399 on standard error and run.
404 o Two new read-only, string-valued registers `.m' and `.M' return the
405 name of the current drawing and background color, respectively.
407 o New read-only register `.U' which is set to 1 if in safer mode and set
408 to 0 if in unsafe mode.
410 o An input encoding file for latin-5 (a.k.a. ISO 8859-9) has been added.
413 groff -Tdvi -mlatin5 my_file > my_file.dvi
415 Note that some output devices don't support all glyphs of this encoding.
417 o If the `return' request is called with an argument, it exits twice,
418 namely the current macro and the macro one level higher. This is
419 used to define a wrapper macro for `return' in trace.tmac.
421 o For completeness, two new requests have been added: `dei1' and `ami1'.
422 They are equivalent to `dei' and `ami', respectively, but the macros
423 are executed with compatibility mode off (similar to `de1' and `am1').
425 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory for files (both
426 those on the command line and those named in `psbb' requests). This is
427 also handled by the groff wrapper program.
429 o Since version 1.19 you can say `.vs 0'. Older versions emit a warning
430 and convert this to `.vs \n[.V]'.
432 This hasn't been documented properly. Note that `.vs 0' isn't saved in a
433 diversion since it doesn't result in vertical motion.
438 o Dashed and dotted ellipses have been implemented.
443 o New key character `x' to make tbl call a user-defined macro on a table
444 cell. Patch by Heinz-Jürgen Oertel <hj.oertel@surfeu.de>.
449 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
450 converts a grap diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the
451 PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
452 [Note that the grap program itself isn't part of the groff package;
453 see the file MORE.STUFF how to obtain grap.]
458 o New option `-j' to emit output split into multiple files.
463 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory to search for files
464 on the command line and files named in \X'ps: import' and \X'ps: file'
465 escapes. This is also handled by the groff wrapper program.
467 o The default value for the `broken' keyword in the DESC file is now 0.
472 o A new man page `lj4_font(5)' documents how fonts are accessed with
475 o The built-in fonts for LJ4 and newer PCL 5 devices have been completely
476 revised, mainly to access as much glyphs as possible. The provided
477 metric files should be compatible with recent PCL 5 printers also.
478 Additionally, font description files have been added for the Arial and
479 Times New Roman family, the MS symbol, and Wingdings fonts.
484 o New option `-x' to prevent use of built-in Adobe Glyph List.
489 o Completely revised to handle HP TrueType metric files also. See the
490 hpftodit manual page for more details.
495 o This version is a rewrite of groffer in many parts, but it is kept in
496 the old single script style.
498 New options: --text, --mode text, --tty-viewer, --X, --mode X,
499 --X-viewer, --html, --mode html, --html-view, --apropos-data,
500 --apropos-devel, --apropos-progs.
502 New documentation file: README_SH.
504 Enhancement of the configuration files and the `apropos' handling.
509 o www.tmac: New macro `JOBNAME' to split output into multiple files.
511 o In mdoc, multiple calls to `.Lb' are now supported in the LIBRARY
521 o Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
522 latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added. Example use:
524 groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi
526 You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs. Out of the box,
527 the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and -Tutf8,
528 and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.
530 o Composite glyphs are now supported. To do this, a subset of the Adobe
531 Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in
533 http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/opentype/index_glyph.html
535 is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes. The
536 existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't be
537 constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.
539 The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple glyph
544 this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.
546 Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong' Unicode
547 code points. For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a spacing
548 ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for composite
549 glyphs. The new request
553 changes the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed.
554 To make \[A ho] yield the expected result,
558 is needed. [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
559 contains proper calls to `.composite'.]
561 Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man page
564 o A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific fallback
565 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
566 `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts declared with `special'.
568 o Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
569 new `rfschar' request.
571 o A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
572 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
573 `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.
575 o In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
576 point horizontally. Despite of being silly, this change has been
577 reverted for backwards compatibility. Consequently, the intermediate
578 output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.
580 \D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal resolution of
581 the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the DESC file).
582 Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.
584 o For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
591 \D'Fd' (default color)
593 The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request. The current
594 position is *not* changed.
596 o The values set with \H and \S are now available in number registers
597 \n[.height] and \n[.slant], respectively.
599 o The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
600 It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp' request.
602 o The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.
604 o The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL.
605 (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously supported by
606 grolj4.) The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol font has been
607 changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon, `*e', has the
608 same glyph shape as with other devices.
613 o The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default glyph
614 shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.
616 o It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only 256
617 (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries). grops
618 constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.
620 o The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
621 mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
622 about the paper size. The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
623 (the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
624 extension) -- if you intend to further process grops output to get an
625 encapsulated PS (EPS) file you must also use this option.
627 Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>.
629 o Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no longer
630 contain negative left italic correction values. This assures correct
636 o The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI fonts.
637 It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.
639 o New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper size.
640 grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by DVI drivers
643 Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.
645 o The glyph shapes for \[*f] and \[*e] have been exchanged with \[+f] and
646 \[+e], respectively, to be in sync with all other devices.
648 o Glyphs \[HE] and \[DI] have been replaced with \[u2662] and \[u2661],
649 respectively, since the former two glyphs have a black (filled) shape
650 which grodvi doesn't provide by default (it never has actually).
655 o The glyphs \[*e] and \[+e] have been exchanged to be in sync with
658 o The glyph \[~=] is now called \[|=]. Similar to other devices, \[~=]
659 is now another name for glyph \[~~].
664 o New option `-r'. It is similar to the -i option except it tells grotty to
665 use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.
670 o New command `figname' to set the name of a picture's output box in TeX
676 o The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
677 database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
682 o New option `-r' to avoid emission of `.lf' lines.
684 o New option `-t' to emit TeX comment lines (giving current file and the
685 line number) instead of `.lf' lines.
690 o Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now emit
691 multiple encoding vectors for a single font).
693 o New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.
695 o The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now searched
696 in the default font directory also. Please refer to the man page of
697 afmtodit for more details.
702 o Larry Kollar <kollar@alltel.net> and others made the man macros more
705 . New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
706 location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
707 sub-subheading indentation.
709 . New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
712 . New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
713 They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.
715 . The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
718 . Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if not
719 explicitly specified on the command line.
721 o troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
722 the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.
724 Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined `papersize'
725 values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the groff_font man page)
726 except a7-d7. An appended `l' (ell) character denotes landscape
727 orientation. Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.
729 Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
730 `-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
731 the driver specific DESC file.
733 For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
736 groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
745 o The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
746 include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a
747 glyph (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,' and appending `\/' to the
748 glyph) sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal
749 bounding box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the
750 particular glyph is used (which can differ considerably).
752 Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
753 existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely for
754 italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
757 This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
762 o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
768 o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
769 drivers) to set the default line width.
774 o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
779 o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.
784 o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
785 compatibility with NetBSD.
787 o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
790 o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
791 and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
794 o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
799 o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
800 It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
801 used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.
805 papersize /etc/papersize a4
807 o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
808 defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the normal
809 font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
812 /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
814 for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
820 ***************************************************************************
822 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
824 ***************************************************************************
829 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
830 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
831 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
832 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
833 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
834 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
835 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
836 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
839 Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
840 read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
843 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
844 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
847 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
848 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
849 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
851 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
852 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
853 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
856 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
859 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
860 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
862 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
863 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
865 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
866 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
868 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
869 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
871 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
872 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
874 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
876 o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
879 .ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
882 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
883 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
889 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
890 . nop I will now define `bar'.
892 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
896 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
897 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
899 o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
900 the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
901 control their output format.
903 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
904 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
905 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
906 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
907 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
908 before checking special fonts.
910 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
911 doesn't emit a final newline.
913 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
914 with \c counts as one input line.
916 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
917 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
920 o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
921 character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
922 Note that this is an incompatible change.
924 o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
925 request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
927 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
928 pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
929 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
930 for more information.
932 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
935 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
936 already existing patterns).
938 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
939 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
940 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
941 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
943 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
944 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
945 final `0' can be omitted.
947 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
948 the exception that the `asciify' request uses the character code (if
949 any) before the character translation. Example:
961 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
963 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
964 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
965 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
966 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
967 post-vertical line space.
969 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
979 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
980 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
982 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
983 they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
984 single space characters.
986 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
989 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
990 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
991 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
992 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
993 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
998 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
999 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
1000 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
1001 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
1002 for PostScript output only.
1004 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
1005 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
1007 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
1008 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
1009 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
1010 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
1011 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
1013 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
1014 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
1015 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
1017 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
1020 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
1021 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
1024 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
1025 works in compatibility mode.
1027 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
1028 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
1030 o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
1033 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
1034 reference to the ms macros.
1036 o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
1038 o Changes in www.tmac:
1040 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
1041 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
1042 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
1045 The following macros have been renamed:
1051 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
1052 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
1054 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
1055 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
1057 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
1058 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
1060 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
1061 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
1063 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
1064 generation to headings.
1066 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
1069 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it automatically
1070 converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
1072 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
1073 (it automatically converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
1075 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
1077 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
1079 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
1081 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
1082 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
1087 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
1088 disabled in compatibility mode).
1093 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
1094 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
1095 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
1100 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
1101 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
1102 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
1104 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
1106 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
1108 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
1113 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
1114 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
1115 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
1120 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
1121 converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
1122 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
1127 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
1128 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
1134 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
1139 o Color support has been added.
1141 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
1142 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
1147 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
1148 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
1149 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
1152 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
1153 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
1155 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
1156 extended) has been added.
1158 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
1160 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
1161 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
1162 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
1164 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
1165 doesn't take care of hcode values.
1167 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
1168 to gray values currently.
1173 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
1174 ANSI color) escape sequences.
1176 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
1177 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
1178 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
1180 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
1181 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
1182 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
1183 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
1184 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
1186 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
1187 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable (or $MANPAGER, depending on the
1188 used `man' program); alternatively, you can use `man's `-P' option (or
1189 adapt its configuration file accordingly). See man(1) for more details.
1191 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
1192 reverting to the old behaviour.
1194 o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
1195 enable SGR output (the default).
1197 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
1198 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
1199 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
1200 for this (including xterm).
1205 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
1207 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
1209 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
1211 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
1212 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
1215 o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
1220 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
1221 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
1222 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
1227 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
1229 o The groff texinfo manual is installed now, together with a bunch
1232 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
1235 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
1237 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
1238 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
1240 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
1242 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
1243 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
1244 currently. troff completely ignores it.
1250 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
1255 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
1256 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
1257 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
1263 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
1268 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
1269 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
1272 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
1274 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
1275 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
1277 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
1283 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
1285 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
1291 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
1293 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
1294 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
1303 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
1304 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
1305 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
1306 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
1307 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
1309 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
1310 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
1311 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
1312 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
1313 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
1314 environment variables to groff.
1319 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
1320 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
1321 supported). Most important changes are:
1324 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
1325 . `.Lb': prints library names
1326 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
1328 . Updated `.St' command
1329 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
1330 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
1331 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
1332 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
1333 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
1334 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
1335 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
1336 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
1339 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
1340 documents the mdoc package.
1342 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
1343 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
1345 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
1346 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
1347 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
1350 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
1352 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
1353 `if 1'. For example,
1359 can now be written as
1365 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
1366 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
1367 ending the diversion).
1369 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
1370 and some other escape sequences also.
1372 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
1373 unbreakable space character.
1375 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
1376 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
1377 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
1382 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
1387 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
1392 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
1399 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1400 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1401 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1402 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1405 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
1406 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
1408 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1409 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1410 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1411 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1414 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
1415 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
1416 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
1431 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
1435 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
1436 mode, and 0 otherwise.
1438 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
1439 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
1440 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
1442 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
1443 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
1444 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
1445 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
1447 o The new `spreadwarn' request makes troff warn if spaces in an output
1448 line are widened by a given limit or more.
1450 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff uses for
1453 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
1454 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
1455 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
1456 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
1458 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
1459 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
1461 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
1462 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
1465 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
1466 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
1468 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
1470 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
1471 previous font family.
1473 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
1474 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
1476 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
1477 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
1478 macro or string is written to a stream.
1480 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
1481 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
1484 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
1486 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
1487 underlines spaces also).
1492 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
1493 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
1498 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
1499 been added to select a different prologue file.
1501 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
1502 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
1503 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
1508 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
1510 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
1511 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
1512 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
1515 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
1516 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
1517 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
1518 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
1519 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
1520 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
1522 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
1523 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
1526 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
1527 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
1528 variable if you really need the current directory.
1530 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
1531 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
1532 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
1533 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
1534 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
1535 is searched before the local tmac directory.
1537 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
1538 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
1539 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
1545 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1554 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
1555 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
1556 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
1558 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
1560 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
1562 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
1563 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
1564 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
1570 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
1571 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
1572 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
1574 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
1575 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
1576 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
1577 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
1578 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
1579 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
1581 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
1582 contains the current year.
1584 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
1585 number of the groff package.
1587 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
1588 font `foo' is undefined:
1591 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
1593 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
1595 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1597 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
1598 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1600 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
1603 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
1604 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
1606 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
1607 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
1608 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
1610 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
1612 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
1613 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
1616 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
1617 (which is an alias to character `"').
1619 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
1620 (which is an alias to character "'").
1622 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
1623 better support of HTML output:
1625 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
1628 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
1630 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
1631 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
1632 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
1633 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
1635 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
1638 use_charnames_in_special
1639 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
1640 inside special commands.
1643 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
1644 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
1649 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
1654 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
1656 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
1658 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
1659 is immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
1660 punctuation, for example).
1665 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
1667 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
1673 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
1674 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
1675 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
1680 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
1681 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
1682 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
1683 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
1688 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
1689 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
1694 Simplified installation: The Imakefile is now configured (by groff's
1700 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
1701 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
1702 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
1707 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
1708 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
1709 <blake@florida-software.com>.
1711 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
1712 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
1715 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
1716 ========================
1718 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1724 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
1725 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
1726 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
1729 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
1730 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
1732 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
1733 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
1736 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
1737 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
1739 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
1740 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
1742 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
1745 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
1746 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
1748 Following the GNU standards, groff now uses the prefix `/usr/local/' as
1749 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
1751 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
1752 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
1758 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
1759 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
1760 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
1761 reports are highly welcome.
1766 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
1772 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
1773 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
1778 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
1779 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
1781 Will now support 8 gray levels.
1786 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
1792 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
1793 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
1794 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
1795 half a dozen other projects.
1801 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
1802 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
1803 latest GNU coding standards.
1805 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
1806 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
1808 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
1809 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
1810 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
1811 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
1812 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
1813 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
1814 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
1815 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
1816 always installed as -me.
1818 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
1824 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
1825 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
1831 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
1837 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
1842 The -m option enables manual feed.
1848 \(rn now produces a character that has the traditional metrics,
1849 and form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it does not
1850 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
1851 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
1857 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1863 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1864 graphic to be specified.
1873 The escape sequence \V[xxx] interpolates the value of the
1874 environment variable xxx.
1879 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1880 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1890 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1891 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1897 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1898 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1899 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1901 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1902 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1904 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1905 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1910 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1911 try to keep the table on one page.
1916 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1917 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1918 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1919 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1924 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1925 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1926 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1932 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1933 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1935 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1937 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1938 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1940 ^L is now a valid input character.
1945 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1946 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1947 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1948 default device is ps.)
1950 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1951 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1952 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1953 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1955 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1956 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1957 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1958 draw_lines parameter.
1960 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1961 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1962 always loaded by troff.
1964 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1969 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1971 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1972 while a character definition is being processed.
1974 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1977 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1978 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1980 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file causes no font to be
1981 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1982 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1983 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1984 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1986 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1987 with compatibility mode disabled.
1989 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
1990 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
1991 for loading the device-specific macros.
1996 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
1997 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
1998 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
1999 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
2001 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
2002 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
2003 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
2005 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
2006 (the quotes are required).
2011 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
2012 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
2013 be prevented by the -R option.
2015 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
2016 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
2018 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
2021 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
2022 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
2028 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
2029 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
2030 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
2032 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
2035 With the -g option, grops generates PostScript code that guesses
2036 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
2037 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
2042 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
2043 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
2048 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
2054 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
2055 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
2056 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
2057 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
2058 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
2059 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
2060 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
2061 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
2062 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
2063 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register
2064 is derived from the $r or $R register.
2066 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
2068 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
2069 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ is only usable
2072 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
2077 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
2078 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
2079 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
2081 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
2082 redisplays the current page.
2091 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
2092 differently with blocks.
2094 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
2095 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
2097 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
2099 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
2105 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' are rendered
2106 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
2107 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
2112 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
2113 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
2114 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
2115 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
2116 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
2118 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro produces a box
2119 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
2125 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
2127 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
2128 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
2133 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
2138 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
2139 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
2140 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
2146 Support for scalable fonts.
2152 No changes other than bug fixes.
2158 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
2159 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
2160 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
2161 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
2163 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
2165 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
2166 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
2167 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
2168 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi uses the
2169 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
2170 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
2172 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
2175 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
2176 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
2178 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
2183 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
2184 input level as the opening [.
2186 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
2187 suitable for use as a name.
2189 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
2192 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
2193 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
2194 the -mX option is given.
2196 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
2201 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
2202 constructs by writing a troff macro.
2207 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
2212 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
2213 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
2214 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
2215 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
2217 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
2218 Document Structuring Convention.
2220 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
2221 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
2222 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
2223 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
2224 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
2227 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
2228 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
2233 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
2234 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps runs gtroff -Tps with
2237 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
2238 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
2241 Xditview now uses imake.
2247 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
2249 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
2250 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
2251 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
2252 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
2253 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
2254 that the `n' condition is true.
2256 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
2257 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
2258 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
2260 groff -Tdvi -p now passes pic the -x flag; this enables filling
2261 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
2262 latest version of the tpic specials.
2267 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
2268 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
2269 delimiters. The groff command passes on a `-N' option to eqn.
2274 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
2275 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
2277 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
2278 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
2279 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
2284 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
2289 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
2290 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
2292 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
2293 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
2294 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
2301 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
2303 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
2309 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
2310 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
2311 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
2312 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
2313 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
2315 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
2317 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
2320 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
2321 adjustment mode is not `b' a line is not hyphenated if it is no
2322 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
2323 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line is not
2324 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
2325 amount of extra space to each word space.
2327 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
2329 A warning of type `space' is given when a call is made to an
2330 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
2331 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
2332 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
2333 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
2339 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
2341 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
2342 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
2348 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
2349 complicated equations inside pictures.
2351 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
2352 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
2358 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
2359 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
2366 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
2367 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
2368 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
2371 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
2372 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
2374 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
2375 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
2377 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
2378 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
2379 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
2380 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
2381 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
2382 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
2384 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
2385 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
2386 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
2387 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
2390 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer valid input
2391 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
2393 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
2394 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
2399 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
2400 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
2401 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
2403 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
2404 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
2405 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
2406 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
2407 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
2408 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
2409 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
2410 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
2411 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
2417 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
2418 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
2420 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
2423 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
2424 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
2425 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
2426 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
2427 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
2428 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
2429 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
2431 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
2432 diversion, it now arranges for the file to be copied to the output
2433 when the diversion is reread.
2435 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
2438 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
2439 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
2440 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
2441 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
2442 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
2443 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
2444 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
2446 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
2449 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
2452 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
2454 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
2455 containing the hyphenation patterns.
2457 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
2459 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
2460 of end of sentence recognition.
2462 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
2463 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
2465 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
2466 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
2468 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
2470 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
2471 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
2472 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
2477 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
2478 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
2480 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
2481 lines are drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
2484 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
2485 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
2487 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
2489 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
2490 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
2492 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
2493 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
2496 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
2497 wherever a quoted string can be used.
2499 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
2500 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
2501 of the `textht' variable.
2503 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
2504 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
2509 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
2510 has been applied to a table.
2515 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
2517 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
2518 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
2523 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
2524 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
2525 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
2526 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
2527 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
2528 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
2529 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
2531 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
2532 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
2533 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'
2537 version-control: never