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 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.
75 o Two new command line options `-w' and `-W' are accepted and passed to
76 groff to enable and disable warning messages, respectively.
81 o int(x) now really behaves as documented: It truncates the non-integer part
82 of x, this is, it rounds towards zero and not towards the next integer
83 less than or equal to x.
85 o Pic now supports up to 32 macro arguments (and up to 16 on EBCDIC
88 o Heinz-Jürgen Örtel contributed code for two new keywords, `xslanted' and
89 `yslanted', which can change the shape of boxes into arbitrary
95 o Eric S. Raymond has added a new device type to eqn, MathML. When
96 -TMathML is enabled, eqn now emits MathML formula markup rather than
97 groff commands. The new groff -Txhtml device uses this.
102 o The preprocessor `chem' was added. `chem' is a roff language to generate
103 chemical structure diagrams. It generates `pic' output.
108 o The PS font definition files have been regenerated with newer AFM versions
109 from Adobe's 35 core fonts as present in most Level 2 PS printers. The
110 changes are minor (most notably, the addition of the `Euro' glyph and an
111 extended set of kerning values).
113 For backwards compatibility, the old set of font definition files is still
114 available; for details please read the man page of `grops(1)'.
119 o \D'p...' is now supported if the polygon consists entirely of horizontal
125 o XHTML support has been added.
127 o New command line option `-V' (to be used in XHTML mode) to produce an
128 XHTML validator button.
130 o New command line option `-y' to produce a right-justified groff signature
131 at the end of the document (in combination with option `-V').
136 o Support for keyboard navigation has been improved.
138 o Similar to other X11 applications, there are now two resource files,
139 `GXditview' and `GXditview-color'.
144 o `groffer' version 1.* exists now in a shell and a Perl version.
149 o New option `-c' to output more font information as comments.
154 o Fabrice Ménard contributed locales support. In particular, it is now
155 possible to get French localization of the main macro packages (-ms, -mm,
156 -me, and -mom, but not -man and -mdoc which are localized differently) by
157 appending `-mfr' to the list of macro packages. Example:
159 groff -ms -mfr foo > foo.ps
161 Note that latin-9 input encoding is used for French (to support the `oe'
164 o Swedish macro localization (with `-msv') has been added.
166 o German macro localization (with `-mde' and `-mden' for traditional and
167 new orthography, respectively) has been added.
169 o Czech macro localization (with `-mcs') has been added.
171 Note that latin-2 input encoding is used for Czech.
173 o A new macro `Dx' has been added to the mdoc package which identifies the
176 o -mtrace has been considerably improved, now showing number and string
177 register assignments, among other things.
179 o The PSPIC macro now works with all devices (producing a hollow
180 rectangle on devices which don't support inclusion of PS images) and
181 is loaded in troffrc at start-up.
183 o A new auxiliary macro package `62bit' has been added which provides some
184 macros for adding, multiplying, and dividing signed 62bit integers (mainly
185 to handle normal groff number operations without risking overflow errors).
187 o For -ms, Eric S. Raymond contributed support for ancient Bell Labs
188 localisms `.SC', `.UC', `.P1', and `.P2'. The latter three are enabled
189 only after .SC is called.
191 o A new string, `SN-STYLE', has been added to the ms macros, controlling
192 the formatting of section numbers in headings defined by `.NH'.
201 o Analogously to the .ft and \f pair, two new requests `gcolor' and
202 `fcolor' (which pair with \m and \M, respectively) have been added to
203 set the glyph and background colours.
205 o A new read-only, string-valued register `.sty' returns the name of the
208 o Two new conditional operators `F <name>' and `S <name>' have been added.
209 `F' is true if a font <name> exists. `S' is true if a style <name> has
212 o Cyrillic characters have been added to the `utf8' and `html' output
218 o The `by' argument in a `for' loop can now be negative if it is additive.
219 For the multiplicative case, it must be greater than zero.
224 o The following keywords aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
226 undef NAME (to undefine a macro)
227 copy "FILE" (a synonym for `include')
228 space n (to modify the vertical spacing before and after
231 o The following macros aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
233 Alpha, ..., Omega (the same as `ALPHA', ..., `OMEGA')
234 ldots (three dots on the base line)
235 dollar (a dollar glyph)
237 o The following keywords have been extended. Again, this isn't new but
238 hasn't been documented previously:
247 cpile n { ... } (set vertical spacing between rows to N)
252 o This device driver has been raised to beta stage; its set of tags should
255 o New command line option `-s' to set the base point size.
257 o New command line option `-S' to set the split level while generating
263 o Experimental support for zero-width and double-width characters.
268 o On platforms which have the X Window System this program is now built and
269 installed automatically.
274 o This program to create font definition files for xditview isn't new but
275 hasn't been installed previously.
280 o A security problem (reported as CAN-2004-0969) has been fixed.
285 o A new script contributed by Mike Bianchi. It compares two groff, nroff,
286 or troff documents and creates an output with added margin characters
287 (using `.mc') to indicate the differences.
292 o A new wrapper script contributed by Keith Marshall to easily create PDF
293 documents with groff.
300 . Support for fractional point sizes: A value for the `PS', `VS', `FPS',
301 and `VPS' register larger than or equal to 1000 is always divided by
302 1000. For example, `.nr PS 10250' sets the document's font size to
305 . The `Ds' and `De' macros provided in ms since groff version 1.19 have
306 been removed; the equivalent `DS' and `DE' macros should be used
307 instead. X11 documents which actually use `Ds' and `De' always load a
308 specific macro file from the X11 distribution (`macros.t') which
309 provides proper definitions for the two macros.
311 . The following registers have been added for improving layout control:
314 Defines number of lines following `LP', `PP', `QP', `IP' or `XP' which
315 must be kept together, before any automatic page break.
318 Sets number of lines of following paragraph which must be kept with a
319 heading, defined by `NH' or `SH', before any automatic page break.
322 Sets the first level of heading (set with `NH') which keeps the
323 same point size as body text.
326 Sets the point size increment for each level of heading (set with
327 `NH'), below the threshold level set by `GROWPS'; e.g., if
328 \n[PS] = 10, \n[GROWPS] = 3 and \n[PSINCR] = 2.0p, then `.NH 1'
329 produces 14pt headings, `.NH 2' produces 12pt, and all other
330 levels remain at 10pt (because \n[PS] = 10).
332 . The `SH' macro now accepts a numeric argument, to make heading size
333 match that of `NH' with same argument value when the `GROWPS'/`PSINCR'
336 Please refer to the documentation of the ms package for other, minor
341 The section type set with the `++' request is available in the `_M'
342 register. This isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
346 The `HR' macro no longer causes an empty line for non-HTML devices.
348 A new macro `HEAD' has been added to directly add data to the
349 <head>...</head> block.
351 New macros `OLS' and `OLE' to start and end an ordered list.
353 New macros `DLS' and `DLE' to start and end a definition list.
358 o A new macro package contributed by Keith Marshall which implements PDF
359 marks. This is in alpha stage currently.
364 o Two new keywords to the DESC file have been added which are needed for
365 grohtml: `image_generator' and `unscaled_charwidths'. The former gives
366 the name of the program which creates PNG images, and the latter makes
367 troff always use unscaled character widths.
376 o The argument of the command line option `-I' is now also passed to troff
377 and grops, specifying a directory to search for files on the command line,
378 files named in `so' and `psbb' requests, and files named in \X'ps: file'
379 and \X'ps: import' escapes.
381 o If option `-V' is used more than once, the commands are both printed
382 on standard error and run.
387 o Two new read-only, string-valued registers `.m' and `.M' return the
388 name of the current drawing and background color, respectively.
390 o New read-only register `.U' which is set to 1 if in safer mode and set
391 to 0 if in unsafe mode.
393 o An input encoding file for latin-5 (a.k.a. ISO 8859-9) has been added.
396 groff -Tdvi -mlatin5 my_file > my_file.dvi
398 Note that some output devices don't support all glyphs of this encoding.
400 o If the `return' request is called with an argument, it exits twice,
401 namely the current macro and the macro one level higher. This is
402 used to define a wrapper macro for `return' in trace.tmac.
404 o For completeness, two new requests have been added: `dei1' and `ami1'.
405 They are equivalent to `dei' and `ami', respectively, but the macros
406 are executed with compatibility mode off (similar to `de1' and `am1').
408 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory for files (both
409 those on the command line and those named in `psbb' requests). This is
410 also handled by the groff wrapper program.
412 o Since version 1.19 you can say `.vs 0'. Older versions emit a warning
413 and convert this to `.vs \n[.V]'.
415 This hasn't been documented properly. Note that `.vs 0' isn't saved in a
416 diversion since it doesn't result in vertical motion.
421 o Dashed and dotted ellipses have been implemented.
426 o New key character `x' to make tbl call a user-defined macro on a table
427 cell. Patch by Heinz-Jürgen Oertel <hj.oertel@surfeu.de>.
432 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
433 converts a grap diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the
434 PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
435 [Note that the grap program itself isn't part of the groff package;
436 see the file MORE.STUFF how to obtain grap.]
441 o New option `-j' to emit output split into multiple files.
446 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory to search for files
447 on the command line and files named in \X'ps: import' and \X'ps: file'
448 escapes. This is also handled by the groff wrapper program.
450 o The default value for the `broken' keyword in the DESC file is now 0.
455 o A new man page `lj4_font(5)' documents how fonts are accessed with
458 o The built-in fonts for LJ4 and newer PCL 5 devices have been completely
459 revised, mainly to access as much glyphs as possible. The provided
460 metric files should be compatible with recent PCL 5 printers also.
461 Additionally, font description files have been added for the Arial and
462 Times New Roman family, the MS symbol, and Wingdings fonts.
467 o New option `-x' to prevent use of built-in Adobe Glyph List.
472 o Completely revised to handle HP TrueType metric files also. See the
473 hpftodit manual page for more details.
478 o This version is a rewrite of groffer in many parts, but it is kept in
479 the old single script style.
481 New options: --text, --mode text, --tty-viewer, --X, --mode X,
482 --X-viewer, --html, --mode html, --html-view, --apropos-data,
483 --apropos-devel, --apropos-progs.
485 New documentation file: README_SH.
487 Enhancement of the configuration files and the `apropos' handling.
492 o www.tmac: New macro `JOBNAME' to split output into multiple files.
494 o In mdoc, multiple calls to `.Lb' are now supported in the LIBRARY
504 o Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
505 latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added. Example use:
507 groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi
509 You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs. Out of the box,
510 the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and -Tutf8,
511 and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.
513 o Composite glyphs are now supported. To do this, a subset of the Adobe
514 Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in
516 http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/opentype/index_glyph.html
518 is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes. The
519 existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't be
520 constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.
522 The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple glyph
527 this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.
529 Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong' Unicode
530 code points. For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a spacing
531 ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for composite
532 glyphs. The new request
536 changes the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed.
537 To make \[A ho] yield the expected result,
541 is needed. [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
542 contains proper calls to `.composite'.]
544 Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man page
547 o A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific fallback
548 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
549 `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts declared with `special'.
551 o Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
552 new `rfschar' request.
554 o A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
555 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
556 `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.
558 o In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
559 point horizontally. Despite of being silly, this change has been
560 reverted for backwards compatibility. Consequently, the intermediate
561 output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.
563 \D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal resolution of
564 the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the DESC file).
565 Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.
567 o For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
574 \D'Fd' (default color)
576 The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request. The current
577 position is *not* changed.
579 o The values set with \H and \S are now available in number registers
580 \n[.height] and \n[.slant], respectively.
582 o The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
583 It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp' request.
585 o The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.
587 o The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL.
588 (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously supported by
589 grolj4.) The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol font has been
590 changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon, `*e', has the
591 same glyph shape as with other devices.
596 o The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default glyph
597 shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.
599 o It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only 256
600 (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries). grops
601 constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.
603 o The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
604 mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
605 about the paper size. The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
606 (the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
607 extension) -- if you intend to further process grops output to get an
608 encapsulated PS (EPS) file you must also use this option.
610 Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>.
612 o Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no longer
613 contain negative left italic correction values. This assures correct
619 o The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI fonts.
620 It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.
622 o New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper size.
623 grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by DVI drivers
626 Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.
628 o The glyph shapes for \[*f] and \[*e] have been exchanged with \[+f] and
629 \[+e], respectively, to be in sync with all other devices.
631 o Glyphs \[HE] and \[DI] have been replaced with \[u2662] and \[u2661],
632 respectively, since the former two glyphs have a black (filled) shape
633 which grodvi doesn't provide by default (it never has actually).
638 o The glyphs \[*e] and \[+e] have been exchanged to be in sync with
641 o The glyph \[~=] is now called \[|=]. Similar to other devices, \[~=]
642 is now another name for glyph \[~~].
647 o New option `-r'. It is similar to the -i option except it tells grotty to
648 use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.
653 o New command `figname' to set the name of a picture's output box in TeX
659 o The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
660 database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
665 o New option `-r' to avoid emission of `.lf' lines.
667 o New option `-t' to emit TeX comment lines (giving current file and the
668 line number) instead of `.lf' lines.
673 o Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now emit
674 multiple encoding vectors for a single font).
676 o New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.
678 o The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now searched
679 in the default font directory also. Please refer to the man page of
680 afmtodit for more details.
685 o Larry Kollar <kollar@alltel.net> and others made the man macros more
688 . New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
689 location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
690 sub-subheading indentation.
692 . New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
695 . New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
696 They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.
698 . The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
701 . Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if not
702 explicitly specified on the command line.
704 o troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
705 the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.
707 Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined `papersize'
708 values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the groff_font man page)
709 except a7-d7. An appended `l' (ell) character denotes landscape
710 orientation. Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.
712 Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
713 `-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
714 the driver specific DESC file.
716 For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
719 groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
728 o The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
729 include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a
730 glyph (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,' and appending `\/' to the
731 glyph) sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal
732 bounding box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the
733 particular glyph is used (which can differ considerably).
735 Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
736 existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely for
737 italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
740 This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
745 o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
751 o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
752 drivers) to set the default line width.
757 o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
762 o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.
767 o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
768 compatibility with NetBSD.
770 o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
773 o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
774 and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
777 o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
782 o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
783 It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
784 used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.
788 papersize /etc/papersize a4
790 o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
791 defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the normal
792 font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
795 /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
797 for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
803 ***************************************************************************
805 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
807 ***************************************************************************
812 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
813 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
814 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
815 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
816 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
817 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
818 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
819 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
822 Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
823 read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
826 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
827 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
830 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
831 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
832 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
834 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
835 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
836 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
839 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
842 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
843 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
845 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
846 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
848 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
849 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
851 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
852 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
854 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
855 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
857 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
859 o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
862 .ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
865 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
866 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
872 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
873 . nop I will now define `bar'.
875 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
879 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
880 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
882 o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
883 the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
884 control their output format.
886 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
887 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
888 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
889 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
890 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
891 before checking special fonts.
893 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
894 doesn't emit a final newline.
896 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
897 with \c counts as one input line.
899 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
900 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
903 o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
904 character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
905 Note that this is an incompatible change.
907 o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
908 request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
910 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
911 pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
912 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
913 for more information.
915 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
918 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
919 already existing patterns).
921 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
922 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
923 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
924 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
926 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
927 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
928 final `0' can be omitted.
930 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
931 the exception that the `asciify' request uses the character code (if
932 any) before the character translation. Example:
944 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
946 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
947 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
948 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
949 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
950 post-vertical line space.
952 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
962 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
963 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
965 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
966 they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
967 single space characters.
969 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
972 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
973 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
974 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
975 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
976 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
981 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
982 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
983 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
984 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
985 for PostScript output only.
987 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
988 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
990 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
991 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
992 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
993 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
994 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
996 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
997 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
998 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
1000 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
1003 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
1004 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
1007 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
1008 works in compatibility mode.
1010 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
1011 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
1013 o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
1016 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
1017 reference to the ms macros.
1019 o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
1021 o Changes in www.tmac:
1023 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
1024 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
1025 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
1028 The following macros have been renamed:
1034 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
1035 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
1037 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
1038 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
1040 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
1041 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
1043 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
1044 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
1046 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
1047 generation to headings.
1049 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
1052 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it automatically
1053 converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
1055 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
1056 (it automatically converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
1058 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
1060 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
1062 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
1064 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
1065 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
1070 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
1071 disabled in compatibility mode).
1076 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
1077 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
1078 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
1083 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
1084 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
1085 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
1087 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
1089 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
1091 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
1096 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
1097 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
1098 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
1103 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
1104 converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
1105 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
1110 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
1111 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
1117 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
1122 o Color support has been added.
1124 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
1125 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
1130 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
1131 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
1132 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
1135 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
1136 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
1138 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
1139 extended) has been added.
1141 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
1143 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
1144 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
1145 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
1147 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
1148 doesn't take care of hcode values.
1150 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
1151 to gray values currently.
1156 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
1157 ANSI color) escape sequences.
1159 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
1160 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
1161 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
1163 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
1164 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
1165 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
1166 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
1167 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
1169 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
1170 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable (or $MANPAGER, depending on the
1171 used `man' program); alternatively, you can use `man's `-P' option (or
1172 adapt its configuration file accordingly). See man(1) for more details.
1174 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
1175 reverting to the old behaviour.
1177 o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
1178 enable SGR output (the default).
1180 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
1181 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
1182 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
1183 for this (including xterm).
1188 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
1190 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
1192 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
1194 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
1195 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
1198 o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
1203 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
1204 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
1205 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
1210 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
1212 o The groff texinfo manual is installed now, together with a bunch
1215 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
1218 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
1220 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
1221 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
1223 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
1225 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
1226 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
1227 currently. troff completely ignores it.
1233 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
1238 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
1239 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
1240 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
1246 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
1251 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
1252 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
1255 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
1257 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
1258 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
1260 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
1266 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
1268 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
1274 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
1276 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
1277 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
1286 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
1287 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
1288 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
1289 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
1290 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
1292 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
1293 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
1294 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
1295 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
1296 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
1297 environment variables to groff.
1302 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
1303 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
1304 supported). Most important changes are:
1307 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
1308 . `.Lb': prints library names
1309 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
1311 . Updated `.St' command
1312 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
1313 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
1314 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
1315 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
1316 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
1317 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
1318 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
1319 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
1322 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
1323 documents the mdoc package.
1325 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
1326 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
1328 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
1329 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
1330 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
1333 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
1335 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
1336 `if 1'. For example,
1342 can now be written as
1348 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
1349 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
1350 ending the diversion).
1352 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
1353 and some other escape sequences also.
1355 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
1356 unbreakable space character.
1358 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
1359 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
1360 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
1365 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
1370 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
1375 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
1382 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1383 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1384 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1385 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1388 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
1389 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
1391 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1392 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1393 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1394 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1397 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
1398 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
1399 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
1414 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
1418 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
1419 mode, and 0 otherwise.
1421 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
1422 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
1423 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
1425 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
1426 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
1427 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
1428 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
1430 o The new `spreadwarn' request makes troff warn if spaces in an output
1431 line are widened by a given limit or more.
1433 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff uses for
1436 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
1437 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
1438 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
1439 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
1441 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
1442 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
1444 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
1445 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
1448 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
1449 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
1451 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
1453 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
1454 previous font family.
1456 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
1457 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
1459 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
1460 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
1461 macro or string is written to a stream.
1463 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
1464 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
1467 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
1469 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
1470 underlines spaces also).
1475 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
1476 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
1481 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
1482 been added to select a different prologue file.
1484 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
1485 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
1486 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
1491 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
1493 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
1494 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
1495 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
1498 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
1499 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
1500 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
1501 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
1502 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
1503 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
1505 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
1506 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
1509 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
1510 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
1511 variable if you really need the current directory.
1513 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
1514 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
1515 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
1516 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
1517 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
1518 is searched before the local tmac directory.
1520 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
1521 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
1522 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
1528 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1537 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
1538 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
1539 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
1541 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
1543 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
1545 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
1546 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
1547 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
1553 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
1554 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
1555 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
1557 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
1558 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
1559 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
1560 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
1561 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
1562 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
1564 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
1565 contains the current year.
1567 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
1568 number of the groff package.
1570 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
1571 font `foo' is undefined:
1574 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
1576 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
1578 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1580 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
1581 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1583 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
1586 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
1587 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
1589 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
1590 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
1591 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
1593 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
1595 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
1596 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
1599 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
1600 (which is an alias to character `"').
1602 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
1603 (which is an alias to character "'").
1605 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
1606 better support of HTML output:
1608 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
1611 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
1613 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
1614 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
1615 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
1616 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
1618 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
1621 use_charnames_in_special
1622 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
1623 inside special commands.
1626 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
1627 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
1632 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
1637 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
1639 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
1641 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
1642 is immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
1643 punctuation, for example).
1648 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
1650 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
1656 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
1657 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
1658 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
1663 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
1664 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
1665 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
1666 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
1671 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
1672 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
1677 Simplified installation: The Imakefile is now configured (by groff's
1683 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
1684 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
1685 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
1690 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
1691 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
1692 <blake@florida-software.com>.
1694 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
1695 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
1698 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
1699 ========================
1701 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1707 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
1708 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
1709 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
1712 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
1713 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
1715 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
1716 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
1719 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
1720 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
1722 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
1723 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
1725 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
1728 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
1729 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
1731 Following the GNU standards, groff now uses the prefix `/usr/local/' as
1732 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
1734 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
1735 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
1741 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
1742 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
1743 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
1744 reports are highly welcome.
1749 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
1755 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
1756 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
1761 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
1762 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
1764 Will now support 8 gray levels.
1769 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
1775 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
1776 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
1777 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
1778 half a dozen other projects.
1784 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
1785 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
1786 latest GNU coding standards.
1788 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
1789 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
1791 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
1792 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
1793 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
1794 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
1795 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
1796 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
1797 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
1798 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
1799 always installed as -me.
1801 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
1807 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
1808 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
1814 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
1820 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
1825 The -m option enables manual feed.
1831 \(rn now produces a character that has the traditional metrics,
1832 and form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it does not
1833 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
1834 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
1840 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1846 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1847 graphic to be specified.
1856 The escape sequence \V[xxx] interpolates the value of the
1857 environment variable xxx.
1862 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1863 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1873 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1874 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1880 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1881 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1882 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1884 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1885 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1887 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1888 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1893 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1894 try to keep the table on one page.
1899 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1900 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1901 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1902 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1907 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1908 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1909 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1915 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1916 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1918 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1920 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1921 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1923 ^L is now a valid input character.
1928 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1929 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1930 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1931 default device is ps.)
1933 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1934 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1935 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1936 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1938 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1939 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1940 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1941 draw_lines parameter.
1943 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1944 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1945 always loaded by troff.
1947 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1952 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1954 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1955 while a character definition is being processed.
1957 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1960 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1961 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1963 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file causes no font to be
1964 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1965 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1966 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1967 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1969 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1970 with compatibility mode disabled.
1972 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
1973 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
1974 for loading the device-specific macros.
1979 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
1980 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
1981 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
1982 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
1984 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
1985 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
1986 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
1988 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
1989 (the quotes are required).
1994 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
1995 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
1996 be prevented by the -R option.
1998 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
1999 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
2001 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
2004 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
2005 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
2011 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
2012 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
2013 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
2015 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
2018 With the -g option, grops generates PostScript code that guesses
2019 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
2020 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
2025 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
2026 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
2031 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
2037 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
2038 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
2039 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
2040 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
2041 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
2042 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
2043 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
2044 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
2045 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
2046 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register
2047 is derived from the $r or $R register.
2049 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
2051 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
2052 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ is only usable
2055 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
2060 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
2061 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
2062 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
2064 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
2065 redisplays the current page.
2074 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
2075 differently with blocks.
2077 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
2078 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
2080 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
2082 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
2088 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' are rendered
2089 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
2090 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
2095 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
2096 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
2097 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
2098 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
2099 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
2101 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro produces a box
2102 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
2108 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
2110 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
2111 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
2116 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
2121 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
2122 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
2123 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
2129 Support for scalable fonts.
2135 No changes other than bug fixes.
2141 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
2142 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
2143 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
2144 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
2146 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
2148 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
2149 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
2150 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
2151 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi uses the
2152 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
2153 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
2155 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
2158 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
2159 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
2161 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
2166 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
2167 input level as the opening [.
2169 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
2170 suitable for use as a name.
2172 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
2175 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
2176 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
2177 the -mX option is given.
2179 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
2184 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
2185 constructs by writing a troff macro.
2190 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
2195 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
2196 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
2197 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
2198 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
2200 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
2201 Document Structuring Convention.
2203 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
2204 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
2205 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
2206 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
2207 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
2210 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
2211 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
2216 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
2217 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps runs gtroff -Tps with
2220 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
2221 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
2224 Xditview now uses imake.
2230 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
2232 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
2233 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
2234 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
2235 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
2236 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
2237 that the `n' condition is true.
2239 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
2240 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
2241 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
2243 groff -Tdvi -p now passes pic the -x flag; this enables filling
2244 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
2245 latest version of the tpic specials.
2250 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
2251 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
2252 delimiters. The groff command passes on a `-N' option to eqn.
2257 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
2258 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
2260 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
2261 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
2262 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
2267 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
2272 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
2273 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
2275 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
2276 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
2277 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
2284 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
2286 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
2292 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
2293 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
2294 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
2295 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
2296 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
2298 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
2300 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
2303 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
2304 adjustment mode is not `b' a line is not hyphenated if it is no
2305 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
2306 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line is not
2307 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
2308 amount of extra space to each word space.
2310 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
2312 A warning of type `space' is given when a call is made to an
2313 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
2314 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
2315 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
2316 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
2322 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
2324 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
2325 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
2331 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
2332 complicated equations inside pictures.
2334 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
2335 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
2341 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
2342 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
2349 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
2350 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
2351 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
2354 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
2355 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
2357 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
2358 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
2360 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
2361 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
2362 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
2363 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
2364 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
2365 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
2367 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
2368 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
2369 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
2370 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
2373 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer valid input
2374 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
2376 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
2377 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
2382 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
2383 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
2384 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
2386 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
2387 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
2388 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
2389 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
2390 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
2391 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
2392 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
2393 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
2394 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
2400 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
2401 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
2403 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
2406 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
2407 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
2408 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
2409 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
2410 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
2411 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
2412 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
2414 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
2415 diversion, it now arranges for the file to be copied to the output
2416 when the diversion is reread.
2418 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
2421 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
2422 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
2423 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
2424 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
2425 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
2426 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
2427 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
2429 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
2432 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
2435 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
2437 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
2438 containing the hyphenation patterns.
2440 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
2442 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
2443 of end of sentence recognition.
2445 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
2446 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
2448 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
2449 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
2451 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
2453 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
2454 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
2455 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
2460 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
2461 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
2463 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
2464 lines are drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
2467 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
2468 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
2470 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
2472 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
2473 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
2475 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
2476 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
2479 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
2480 wherever a quoted string can be used.
2482 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
2483 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
2484 of the `textht' variable.
2486 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
2487 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
2492 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
2493 has been applied to a table.
2498 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
2500 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
2501 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
2506 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
2507 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
2508 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
2509 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
2510 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
2511 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
2512 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
2514 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
2515 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
2516 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'
2520 version-control: never