1 Copyright (C) 1989-2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008,
3 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
5 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
6 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
7 notice and this notice are preserved.
9 This file describes recent user-visible changes in groff. Bug fixes are not
10 described. There are more details in the man and info pages.
18 o XHTML support has been added to grohtml and can be specified by
19 -Txhtml. This option also utilizes the MathML capability of
20 eqn and combines the outputs of both in the final XHTML file.
21 Users can also specify the `-P-V' option together with `-Txhtml'
22 in groff. This has the effect of creating an XHTML validator
23 button at the bottom of each page.
25 o Some options have been added to control a new preprocessor,
26 `preconv' (see below): `-k' activates it, `-K' sets the input
27 encoding, and `-D' sets the default encoding.
29 o A new environment variable `GROFF_ENCODING' sets the encoding
30 of input files; it implies command option `-k'.
35 o Two new requests `device' and `devicem' have been added which are
36 equivalents to the \X and \Y escapes, respectively.
38 o A new read-only number register `.br' is available which is set to 1
39 if a macro is called as .foo and to 0 if called as 'foo. This allows to
40 reliably modify requests.
45 . ie \\n[.br] .bp@orig
50 o A new request `fzoom' has been added to adjust the optical size of a
51 font in relation to the others. The zoom factor is given in integer
52 multiples of 1/1000th. In the following example, the CR font is
53 magnified by 10% (the zoom factor is 1.1).
58 Palatino and \f[CR]Courier\f[]
60 The new number register `.zoom' holds the zoom value of the current font,
61 in multiples of 1/1000th.
63 o The `cflags' request has been extended with a new flag value 64, to be
64 used in combination with values 2 (break before character) and 4 (break
65 after character). If set, the hyphenation codes of the surrounding
66 characters are ignored.
68 o A new debugging request, `pev', has been added to print all of the current
69 known environments to stderr. It first prints the state of the current
70 environment, then iterates through all of the known environments, printing
71 each except the one that is current.
73 o A new escape `\$^' has been added. It represents the parameters of a
74 macro as if they were an argument to the `ds' request. This is used by
77 o A new read-only number register `.O' is available which returns the
78 current suppression level as set by the `\O' escape.
80 o The space width emitted by the `\|' and `\^' escape sequences can be
81 controlled on a per-font basis. If there is a glyph named `\|' or `\^',
82 respectively (note the leading backslash), defined in the current font
83 file, use this glyph's width instead of the default value.
85 This behaviour is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
90 o Two new command line options `-w' and `-W' are accepted and passed to
91 groff to enable and disable warning messages, respectively.
96 o This is a new preprocessor to convert various input encodings to something
97 groff understands (this is, ASCII and \[uXXXX] entities, with `XXXX' a
98 hexadecimal number with 4 to 6 digits, representing a Unicode input code).
99 Normally, preconv should be invoked with options `-k' and `-K' of groff.
100 See the preconv man page for details.
105 o int(x) now really behaves as documented: It truncates the non-integer part
106 of x, this is, it rounds towards zero and not towards the next integer
107 less than or equal to x.
109 o Pic now supports up to 32 macro arguments (and up to 16 on EBCDIC
112 o Heinz-Jürgen Örtel contributed code for two new keywords, `xslanted' and
113 `yslanted', which can change the shape of boxes into arbitrary
119 o Latest versions of DWB tbl introduced an `x' column specifier for a single
120 column expanded to the line width. GNU tbl has now been extended to
121 support even multiple `x' specifiers within a table.
123 o To avoid collision with the new `x' specifier, a block formatting macro
124 must now be selected with specifier letter `m'.
129 o Eric S. Raymond has added a new device type to eqn, MathML. When
130 -TMathML is enabled, eqn now emits MathML formula markup rather than
131 groff commands. The new groff -Txhtml device uses this.
136 o The preprocessor `chem' was added. `chem' is a roff language to generate
137 chemical structure diagrams. It generates `pic' output.
142 o The PS font definition files have been regenerated with newer AFM versions
143 from Adobe's 35 core fonts as present in most Level 2 PS printers. The
144 changes are minor (most notably, the addition of the `Euro' glyph and an
145 extended set of kerning values).
147 For backwards compatibility, the old set of font definition files is still
148 available; for details please read the man page of grops.
153 o \D'p...' is now supported if the polygon consists entirely of horizontal
159 o XHTML support has been added.
161 o New command line option `-V' (to be used in XHTML mode) to produce an
162 XHTML validator button.
164 o New command line option `-y' to produce a right-justified groff signature
165 at the end of the document (in combination with option `-V').
170 o Support for keyboard navigation has been improved.
172 o Similar to other X11 applications, there are now two resource files,
173 `GXditview' and `GXditview-color'.
178 o `groffer' version 1.* exists now in a shell and a Perl version.
183 o New option `-c' to output more font information as comments.
185 o New option `-k' to suppress output of kerning data.
187 o New option `-f NAME' to set the internal name of the groff font.
192 o Joachim Walsdorff contributed the `hdtbl' package for the generation of
193 tables, using a syntax very similar to the HTML table model. For
194 example, a table with two cells and two rows looks like this:
201 Here the same table using a more expanded syntax:
212 Tables can be nested; `hdtbl' works without a preprocessor so that the
213 full capability of groff's macro engine is available.
215 This package currently works with `-Tps' only.
217 o -mandoc now supports multiple man pages (in either man or mdoc format).
219 o Fabrice Ménard contributed locales support. In particular, it is now
220 possible to get French localization of the main macro packages (-ms, -mm,
221 -me, and -mom, but not -man and -mdoc which are localized differently) by
222 appending `-mfr' to the list of macro packages. Example:
224 groff -ms -mfr foo > foo.ps
226 Note that latin-9 input encoding is used for French (to support the `oe'
229 o Swedish macro localization (with `-msv') has been added.
231 o German macro localization (with `-mde' and `-mden' for traditional and
232 new orthography, respectively) has been added.
234 o Czech macro localization (with `-mcs') has been added.
236 Note that latin-2 input encoding is used for Czech.
238 o A new macro `Dx' has been added to the mdoc package which identifies the
241 o If mdoc is used to print multiple man pages (together with the -rcR=0
242 command line option), each man page now starts a new page.
244 o -mtrace has been considerably improved, now showing number and string
245 register assignments, among other things. See the groff_trace man page
248 o The PSPIC macro now works with all devices (producing a hollow
249 rectangle on devices which don't support inclusion of PS images) and
250 is loaded in troffrc at start-up.
252 o A new auxiliary macro package `62bit' has been added which provides some
253 macros for adding, multiplying, and dividing signed 62bit integers (mainly
254 to handle normal groff number operations without risking overflow errors).
256 o For -ms, Eric S. Raymond contributed support for ancient Bell Labs
257 localisms `.SC', `.UC', `.P1', and `.P2'. The latter three are enabled
258 only after .SC is called.
260 o A new string, `SN-STYLE', has been added to the ms macros, controlling
261 the formatting of section numbers in headings defined by `.NH'.
263 o The new macro package `ptx' provides a template definition for the `.xx'
264 macro as needed by GNU ptx (for creating permuted indices).
273 o Analogously to the .ft and \f pair, two new requests `gcolor' and
274 `fcolor' (which pair with \m and \M, respectively) have been added to
275 set the glyph and background colours.
277 o A new read-only, string-valued register `.sty' returns the name of the
280 o Two new conditional operators `F <name>' and `S <name>' have been added.
281 `F' is true if a font <name> exists. `S' is true if a style <name> has
284 o Cyrillic characters have been added to the `utf8' and `html' output
290 o The `by' argument in a `for' loop can now be negative if it is additive.
291 For the multiplicative case, it must be greater than zero.
296 o The following keywords aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
298 undef NAME (to undefine a macro)
299 copy "FILE" (a synonym for `include')
300 space n (to modify the vertical spacing before and after
303 o The following macros aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
305 Alpha, ..., Omega (the same as `ALPHA', ..., `OMEGA')
306 ldots (three dots on the base line)
307 dollar (a dollar glyph)
309 o The following keywords have been extended. Again, this isn't new but
310 hasn't been documented previously:
319 cpile n { ... } (set vertical spacing between rows to N)
324 o This device driver has been raised to beta stage; its set of tags should
327 o New command line option `-s' to set the base point size.
329 o New command line option `-S' to set the split level while generating
335 o Experimental support for zero-width and double-width characters.
340 o On platforms which have the X Window System this program is now built and
341 installed automatically.
346 o This program to create font definition files for xditview isn't new but
347 hasn't been installed previously.
352 o A security problem (reported as CAN-2004-0969) has been fixed.
357 o A new script contributed by Mike Bianchi. It compares two groff, nroff,
358 or troff documents and creates an output with added margin characters
359 (using `.mc') to indicate the differences.
364 o A new wrapper script contributed by Keith Marshall to easily create PDF
365 documents with groff.
372 . Support for fractional point sizes: A value for the `PS', `VS', `FPS',
373 and `VPS' register larger than or equal to 1000 is always divided by
374 1000. For example, `.nr PS 10250' sets the document's font size to
377 . The `Ds' and `De' macros provided in ms since groff version 1.19 have
378 been removed; the equivalent `DS' and `DE' macros should be used
379 instead. X11 documents which actually use `Ds' and `De' always load a
380 specific macro file from the X11 distribution (`macros.t') which
381 provides proper definitions for the two macros.
383 . The following registers have been added for improving layout control:
386 Defines number of lines following `LP', `PP', `QP', `IP' or `XP' which
387 must be kept together, before any automatic page break.
390 Sets number of lines of following paragraph which must be kept with a
391 heading, defined by `NH' or `SH', before any automatic page break.
394 Sets the first level of heading (set with `NH') which keeps the
395 same point size as body text.
398 Sets the point size increment for each level of heading (set with
399 `NH'), below the threshold level set by `GROWPS'; e.g., if
400 \n[PS] = 10, \n[GROWPS] = 3 and \n[PSINCR] = 2.0p, then `.NH 1'
401 produces 14pt headings, `.NH 2' produces 12pt, and all other
402 levels remain at 10pt (because \n[PS] = 10).
404 . The `SH' macro now accepts a numeric argument, to make heading size
405 match that of `NH' with same argument value when the `GROWPS'/`PSINCR'
408 Please refer to the documentation of the ms package for other, minor
413 The section type set with the `++' request is available in the `_M'
414 register. This isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
418 The `HR' macro no longer causes an empty line for non-HTML devices.
420 A new macro `HEAD' has been added to directly add data to the
421 <head>...</head> block.
423 New macros `OLS' and `OLE' to start and end an ordered list.
425 New macros `DLS' and `DLE' to start and end a definition list.
430 o A new macro package contributed by Keith Marshall which implements PDF
431 marks. This is in alpha stage currently.
436 o Two new keywords to the DESC file have been added which are needed for
437 grohtml: `image_generator' and `unscaled_charwidths'. The former gives
438 the name of the program which creates PNG images, and the latter makes
439 troff always use unscaled character widths.
448 o The argument of the command line option `-I' is now also passed to troff
449 and grops, specifying a directory to search for files on the command line,
450 files named in `so' and `psbb' requests, and files named in \X'ps: file'
451 and \X'ps: import' escapes.
453 o If option `-V' is used more than once, the commands are both printed
454 on standard error and run.
459 o Two new read-only, string-valued registers `.m' and `.M' return the
460 name of the current drawing and background color, respectively.
462 o New read-only register `.U' which is set to 1 if in safer mode and set
463 to 0 if in unsafe mode.
465 o An input encoding file for latin-5 (a.k.a. ISO 8859-9) has been added.
468 groff -Tdvi -mlatin5 my_file > my_file.dvi
470 Note that some output devices don't support all glyphs of this encoding.
472 o If the `return' request is called with an argument, it exits twice,
473 namely the current macro and the macro one level higher. This is
474 used to define a wrapper macro for `return' in trace.tmac.
476 o For completeness, two new requests have been added: `dei1' and `ami1'.
477 They are equivalent to `dei' and `ami', respectively, but the macros
478 are executed with compatibility mode off (similar to `de1' and `am1').
480 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory for files (both
481 those on the command line and those named in `psbb' requests). This is
482 also handled by the groff wrapper program.
484 o Since version 1.19 you can say `.vs 0'. Older versions emit a warning
485 and convert this to `.vs \n[.V]'.
487 This hasn't been documented properly. Note that `.vs 0' isn't saved in a
488 diversion since it doesn't result in vertical motion.
493 o Dashed and dotted ellipses have been implemented.
498 o New specifier `x' to make tbl call a user-defined macro on a table
499 cell. Patch by Heinz-Jürgen Oertel <hj.oertel@surfeu.de>.
504 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
505 converts a grap diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the
506 PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
507 [Note that the grap program itself isn't part of the groff package;
508 see the file MORE.STUFF how to obtain grap.]
513 o New option `-j' to emit output split into multiple files.
518 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory to search for files
519 on the command line and files named in \X'ps: import' and \X'ps: file'
520 escapes. This is also handled by the groff wrapper program.
522 o The default value for the `broken' keyword in the DESC file is now 0.
527 o A new man page `lj4_font(5)' documents how fonts are accessed with
530 o The built-in fonts for LJ4 and newer PCL 5 devices have been completely
531 revised, mainly to access as much glyphs as possible. The provided
532 metric files should be compatible with recent PCL 5 printers also.
533 Additionally, font description files have been added for the Arial and
534 Times New Roman family, the MS symbol, and Wingdings fonts.
539 o New option `-x' to prevent use of built-in Adobe Glyph List.
544 o Completely revised to handle HP TrueType metric files also. See the
545 hpftodit manual page for more details.
550 o This version is a rewrite of groffer in many parts, but it is kept in
551 the old single script style.
553 New options: --text, --mode text, --tty-viewer, --X, --mode X,
554 --X-viewer, --html, --mode html, --html-view, --apropos-data,
555 --apropos-devel, --apropos-progs.
557 New documentation file: README_SH.
559 Enhancement of the configuration files and the `apropos' handling.
564 o www.tmac: New macro `JOBNAME' to split output into multiple files.
566 o In mdoc, multiple calls to `.Lb' are now supported in the LIBRARY
576 o Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
577 latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added. Example use:
579 groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi
581 You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs. Out of the box,
582 the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and -Tutf8,
583 and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.
585 o Composite glyphs are now supported. To do this, a subset of the Adobe
586 Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in
588 http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/opentype/index_glyph.html
590 is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes. The
591 existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't be
592 constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.
594 The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple glyph
599 this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.
601 Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong' Unicode
602 code points. For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a spacing
603 ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for composite
604 glyphs. The new request
608 changes the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed.
609 To make \[A ho] yield the expected result,
613 is needed. [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
614 contains proper calls to `.composite'.]
616 Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man page
619 o A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific fallback
620 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
621 `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts declared with `special'.
623 o Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
624 new `rfschar' request.
626 o A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
627 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
628 `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.
630 o In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
631 point horizontally. Despite of being silly, this change has been
632 reverted for backwards compatibility. Consequently, the intermediate
633 output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.
635 \D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal resolution of
636 the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the DESC file).
637 Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.
639 o For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
646 \D'Fd' (default color)
648 The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request. The current
649 position is *not* changed.
651 o The values set with \H and \S are now available in number registers
652 \n[.height] and \n[.slant], respectively.
654 o The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
655 It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp' request.
657 o The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.
659 o The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL.
660 (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously supported by
661 grolj4.) The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol font has been
662 changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon, `*e', has the
663 same glyph shape as with other devices.
668 o The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default glyph
669 shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.
671 o It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only 256
672 (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries). grops
673 constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.
675 o The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
676 mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
677 about the paper size. The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
678 (the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
679 extension) -- if you intend to further process grops output to get an
680 encapsulated PS (EPS) file you must also use this option.
682 Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>.
684 o Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no longer
685 contain negative left italic correction values. This assures correct
691 o The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI fonts.
692 It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.
694 o New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper size.
695 grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by DVI drivers
698 Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.
700 o The glyph shapes for \[*f] and \[*e] have been exchanged with \[+f] and
701 \[+e], respectively, to be in sync with all other devices.
703 o Glyphs \[HE] and \[DI] have been replaced with \[u2662] and \[u2661],
704 respectively, since the former two glyphs have a black (filled) shape
705 which grodvi doesn't provide by default (it never has actually).
710 o The glyphs \[*e] and \[+e] have been exchanged to be in sync with
713 o The glyph \[~=] is now called \[|=]. Similar to other devices, \[~=]
714 is now another name for glyph \[~~].
719 o New option `-r'. It is similar to the -i option except it tells grotty to
720 use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.
725 o New command `figname' to set the name of a picture's output box in TeX
731 o The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
732 database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
737 o New option `-r' to avoid emission of `.lf' lines.
739 o New option `-t' to emit TeX comment lines (giving current file and the
740 line number) instead of `.lf' lines.
745 o Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now emit
746 multiple encoding vectors for a single font).
748 o New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.
750 o The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now searched
751 in the default font directory also. Please refer to the man page of
752 afmtodit for more details.
757 o Larry Kollar <kollar@alltel.net> and others made the man macros more
760 . New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
761 location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
762 sub-subheading indentation.
764 . New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
767 . New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
768 They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.
770 . The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
773 . Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if not
774 explicitly specified on the command line.
776 o troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
777 the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.
779 Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined `papersize'
780 values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the groff_font man page)
781 except a7-d7. An appended `l' (ell) character denotes landscape
782 orientation. Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.
784 Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
785 `-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
786 the driver specific DESC file.
788 For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
791 groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
800 o The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
801 include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a
802 glyph (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,' and appending `\/' to the
803 glyph) sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal
804 bounding box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the
805 particular glyph is used (which can differ considerably).
807 Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
808 existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely for
809 italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
812 This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
817 o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
823 o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
824 drivers) to set the default line width.
829 o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
834 o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.
839 o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
840 compatibility with NetBSD.
842 o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
845 o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
846 and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
849 o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
854 o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
855 It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
856 used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.
860 papersize /etc/papersize a4
862 o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
863 defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the normal
864 font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
867 /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
869 for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
875 ***************************************************************************
877 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
879 ***************************************************************************
884 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
885 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
886 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
887 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
888 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
889 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
890 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
891 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
894 Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
895 read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
898 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
899 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
902 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
903 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
904 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
906 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
907 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
908 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
911 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
914 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
915 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
917 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
918 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
920 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
921 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
923 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
924 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
926 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
927 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
929 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
931 o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
934 .ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
937 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
938 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
944 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
945 . nop I will now define `bar'.
947 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
951 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
952 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
954 o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
955 the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
956 control their output format.
958 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
959 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
960 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
961 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
962 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
963 before checking special fonts.
965 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
966 doesn't emit a final newline.
968 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
969 with \c counts as one input line.
971 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
972 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
975 o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
976 character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
977 Note that this is an incompatible change.
979 o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
980 request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
982 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
983 pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
984 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
985 for more information.
987 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
990 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
991 already existing patterns).
993 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
994 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
995 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
996 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
998 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
999 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
1000 final `0' can be omitted.
1002 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
1003 the exception that the `asciify' request uses the character code (if
1004 any) before the character translation. Example:
1016 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
1018 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
1019 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
1020 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
1021 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
1022 post-vertical line space.
1024 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
1030 is now equivalent to
1034 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
1035 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
1037 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
1038 they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
1039 single space characters.
1041 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
1044 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
1045 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
1046 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
1047 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
1048 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
1053 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
1054 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
1055 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
1056 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
1057 for PostScript output only.
1059 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
1060 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
1062 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
1063 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
1064 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
1065 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
1066 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
1068 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
1069 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
1070 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
1072 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
1075 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
1076 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
1079 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
1080 works in compatibility mode.
1082 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
1083 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
1085 o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
1088 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
1089 reference to the ms macros.
1091 o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
1093 o Changes in www.tmac:
1095 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
1096 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
1097 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
1100 The following macros have been renamed:
1106 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
1107 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
1109 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
1110 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
1112 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
1113 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
1115 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
1116 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
1118 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
1119 generation to headings.
1121 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
1124 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it automatically
1125 converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
1127 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
1128 (it automatically converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
1130 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
1132 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
1134 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
1136 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
1137 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
1142 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
1143 disabled in compatibility mode).
1148 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
1149 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
1150 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
1155 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
1156 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
1157 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
1159 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
1161 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
1163 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
1168 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
1169 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
1170 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
1175 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
1176 converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
1177 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
1182 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
1183 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
1189 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
1194 o Color support has been added.
1196 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
1197 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
1202 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
1203 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
1204 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
1207 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
1208 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
1210 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
1211 extended) has been added.
1213 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
1215 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
1216 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
1217 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
1219 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
1220 doesn't take care of hcode values.
1222 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
1223 to gray values currently.
1228 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
1229 ANSI color) escape sequences.
1231 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
1232 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
1233 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
1235 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
1236 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
1237 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
1238 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
1239 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
1241 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
1242 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable (or $MANPAGER, depending on the
1243 used `man' program); alternatively, you can use `man's `-P' option (or
1244 adapt its configuration file accordingly). See man(1) for more details.
1246 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
1247 reverting to the old behaviour.
1249 o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
1250 enable SGR output (the default).
1252 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
1253 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
1254 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
1255 for this (including xterm).
1260 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
1262 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
1264 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
1266 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
1267 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
1270 o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
1275 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
1276 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
1277 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
1282 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
1284 o The groff texinfo manual is installed now, together with a bunch
1287 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
1290 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
1292 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
1293 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
1295 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
1297 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
1298 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
1299 currently. troff completely ignores it.
1305 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
1310 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
1311 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
1312 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
1318 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
1323 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
1324 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
1327 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
1329 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
1330 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
1332 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
1338 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
1340 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
1346 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
1348 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
1349 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
1358 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
1359 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
1360 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
1361 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
1362 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
1364 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
1365 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
1366 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
1367 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
1368 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
1369 environment variables to groff.
1374 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
1375 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
1376 supported). Most important changes are:
1379 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
1380 . `.Lb': prints library names
1381 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
1383 . Updated `.St' command
1384 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
1385 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
1386 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
1387 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
1388 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
1389 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
1390 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
1391 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
1394 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
1395 documents the mdoc package.
1397 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
1398 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
1400 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
1401 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
1402 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
1405 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
1407 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
1408 `if 1'. For example,
1414 can now be written as
1420 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
1421 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
1422 ending the diversion).
1424 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
1425 and some other escape sequences also.
1427 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
1428 unbreakable space character.
1430 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
1431 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
1432 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
1437 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
1442 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
1447 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
1454 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1455 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1456 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1457 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1460 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
1461 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
1463 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1464 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1465 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1466 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1469 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
1470 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
1471 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
1486 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
1490 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
1491 mode, and 0 otherwise.
1493 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
1494 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
1495 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
1497 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
1498 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
1499 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
1500 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
1502 o The new `spreadwarn' request makes troff warn if spaces in an output
1503 line are widened by a given limit or more.
1505 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff uses for
1508 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
1509 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
1510 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
1511 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
1513 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
1514 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
1516 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
1517 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
1520 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
1521 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
1523 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
1525 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
1526 previous font family.
1528 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
1529 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
1531 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
1532 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
1533 macro or string is written to a stream.
1535 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
1536 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
1539 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
1541 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
1542 underlines spaces also).
1547 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
1548 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
1553 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
1554 been added to select a different prologue file.
1556 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
1557 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
1558 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
1563 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
1565 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
1566 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
1567 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
1570 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
1571 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
1572 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
1573 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
1574 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
1575 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
1577 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
1578 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
1581 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
1582 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
1583 variable if you really need the current directory.
1585 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
1586 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
1587 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
1588 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
1589 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
1590 is searched before the local tmac directory.
1592 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
1593 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
1594 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
1600 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1609 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
1610 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
1611 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
1613 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
1615 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
1617 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
1618 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
1619 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
1625 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
1626 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
1627 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
1629 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
1630 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
1631 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
1632 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
1633 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
1634 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
1636 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
1637 contains the current year.
1639 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
1640 number of the groff package.
1642 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
1643 font `foo' is undefined:
1646 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
1648 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
1650 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1652 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
1653 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1655 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
1658 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
1659 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
1661 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
1662 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
1663 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
1665 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
1667 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
1668 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
1671 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
1672 (which is an alias to character `"').
1674 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
1675 (which is an alias to character "'").
1677 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
1678 better support of HTML output:
1680 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
1683 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
1685 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
1686 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
1687 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
1688 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
1690 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
1693 use_charnames_in_special
1694 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
1695 inside special commands.
1698 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
1699 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
1704 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
1709 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
1711 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
1713 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
1714 is immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
1715 punctuation, for example).
1720 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
1722 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
1728 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
1729 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
1730 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
1735 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
1736 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
1737 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
1738 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
1743 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
1744 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
1749 Simplified installation: The Imakefile is now configured (by groff's
1755 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
1756 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
1757 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
1762 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
1763 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
1764 <blake@florida-software.com>.
1766 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
1767 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
1770 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
1771 ========================
1773 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1779 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
1780 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
1781 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
1784 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
1785 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
1787 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
1788 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
1791 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
1792 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
1794 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
1795 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
1797 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
1800 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
1801 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
1803 Following the GNU standards, groff now uses the prefix `/usr/local/' as
1804 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
1806 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
1807 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
1813 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
1814 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
1815 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
1816 reports are highly welcome.
1821 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
1827 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
1828 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
1833 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
1834 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
1836 Will now support 8 gray levels.
1841 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
1847 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
1848 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
1849 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
1850 half a dozen other projects.
1856 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
1857 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
1858 latest GNU coding standards.
1860 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
1861 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
1863 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
1864 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
1865 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
1866 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
1867 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
1868 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
1869 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
1870 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
1871 always installed as -me.
1873 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
1879 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
1880 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
1886 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
1892 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
1897 The -m option enables manual feed.
1903 \(rn now produces a character that has the traditional metrics,
1904 and form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it does not
1905 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
1906 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
1912 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1918 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1919 graphic to be specified.
1928 The escape sequence \V[xxx] interpolates the value of the
1929 environment variable xxx.
1934 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1935 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1945 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1946 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1952 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1953 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1954 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1956 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1957 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1959 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1960 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1965 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1966 try to keep the table on one page.
1971 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1972 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1973 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1974 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1979 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1980 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1981 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1987 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1988 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1990 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1992 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1993 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1995 ^L is now a valid input character.
2000 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
2001 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
2002 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
2003 default device is ps.)
2005 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
2006 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
2007 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
2008 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
2010 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
2011 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
2012 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
2013 draw_lines parameter.
2015 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
2016 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
2017 always loaded by troff.
2019 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
2024 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
2026 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
2027 while a character definition is being processed.
2029 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
2032 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
2033 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
2035 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file causes no font to be
2036 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
2037 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
2038 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
2039 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
2041 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
2042 with compatibility mode disabled.
2044 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
2045 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
2046 for loading the device-specific macros.
2051 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
2052 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
2053 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
2054 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
2056 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
2057 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
2058 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
2060 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
2061 (the quotes are required).
2066 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
2067 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
2068 be prevented by the -R option.
2070 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
2071 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
2073 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
2076 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
2077 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
2083 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
2084 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
2085 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
2087 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
2090 With the -g option, grops generates PostScript code that guesses
2091 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
2092 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
2097 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
2098 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
2103 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
2109 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
2110 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
2111 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
2112 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
2113 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
2114 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
2115 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
2116 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
2117 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
2118 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register
2119 is derived from the $r or $R register.
2121 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
2123 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
2124 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ is only usable
2127 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
2132 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
2133 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
2134 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
2136 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
2137 redisplays the current page.
2146 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
2147 differently with blocks.
2149 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
2150 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
2152 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
2154 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
2160 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' are rendered
2161 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
2162 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
2167 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
2168 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
2169 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
2170 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
2171 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
2173 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro produces a box
2174 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
2180 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
2182 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
2183 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
2188 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
2193 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
2194 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
2195 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
2201 Support for scalable fonts.
2207 No changes other than bug fixes.
2213 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
2214 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
2215 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
2216 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
2218 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
2220 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
2221 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
2222 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
2223 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi uses the
2224 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
2225 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
2227 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
2230 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
2231 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
2233 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
2238 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
2239 input level as the opening [.
2241 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
2242 suitable for use as a name.
2244 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
2247 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
2248 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
2249 the -mX option is given.
2251 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
2256 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
2257 constructs by writing a troff macro.
2262 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
2267 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
2268 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
2269 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
2270 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
2272 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
2273 Document Structuring Convention.
2275 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
2276 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
2277 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
2278 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
2279 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
2282 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
2283 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
2288 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
2289 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps runs gtroff -Tps with
2292 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
2293 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
2296 Xditview now uses imake.
2302 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
2304 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
2305 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
2306 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
2307 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
2308 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
2309 that the `n' condition is true.
2311 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
2312 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
2313 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
2315 groff -Tdvi -p now passes pic the -x flag; this enables filling
2316 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
2317 latest version of the tpic specials.
2322 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
2323 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
2324 delimiters. The groff command passes on a `-N' option to eqn.
2329 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
2330 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
2332 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
2333 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
2334 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
2339 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
2344 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
2345 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
2347 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
2348 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
2349 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
2356 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
2358 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
2364 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
2365 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
2366 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
2367 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
2368 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
2370 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
2372 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
2375 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
2376 adjustment mode is not `b' a line is not hyphenated if it is no
2377 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
2378 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line is not
2379 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
2380 amount of extra space to each word space.
2382 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
2384 A warning of type `space' is given when a call is made to an
2385 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
2386 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
2387 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
2388 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
2394 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
2396 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
2397 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
2403 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
2404 complicated equations inside pictures.
2406 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
2407 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
2413 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
2414 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
2421 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
2422 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
2423 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
2426 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
2427 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
2429 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
2430 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
2432 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
2433 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
2434 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
2435 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
2436 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
2437 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
2439 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
2440 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
2441 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
2442 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
2445 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer valid input
2446 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
2448 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
2449 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
2454 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
2455 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
2456 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
2458 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
2459 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
2460 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
2461 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
2462 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
2463 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
2464 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
2465 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
2466 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
2472 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
2473 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
2475 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
2478 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
2479 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
2480 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
2481 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
2482 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
2483 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
2484 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
2486 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
2487 diversion, it now arranges for the file to be copied to the output
2488 when the diversion is reread.
2490 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
2493 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
2494 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
2495 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
2496 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
2497 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
2498 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
2499 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
2501 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
2504 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
2507 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
2509 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
2510 containing the hyphenation patterns.
2512 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
2514 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
2515 of end of sentence recognition.
2517 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
2518 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
2520 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
2521 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
2523 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
2525 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
2526 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
2527 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
2532 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
2533 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
2535 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
2536 lines are drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
2539 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
2540 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
2542 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
2544 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
2545 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
2547 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
2548 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
2551 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
2552 wherever a quoted string can be used.
2554 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
2555 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
2556 of the `textht' variable.
2558 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
2559 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
2564 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
2565 has been applied to a table.
2570 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
2572 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
2573 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
2578 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
2579 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
2580 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
2581 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
2582 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
2583 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
2584 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
2586 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
2587 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
2588 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'
2592 version-control: never