1 This file describes recent user-visible changes in groff. Bug fixes are not
2 described. There are more details in the man and info pages.
10 o The argument of the command line option `-I' is now also passed to troff
11 and grops, specifying a directory to search for files on the command line,
12 files named in `so' and `psbb' requests, and files named in \X'ps: file'
13 and \X'ps: import' escapes.
15 o If option `-V' is used more than once, the commands will be both printed
16 on standard error and run.
21 o If the `return' request is called with an argument, it exits twice,
22 namely the current macro and the macro one level higher. This is
23 used to define a wrapper macro for `return' in trace.tmac.
25 o For completeness, two new requests have been added: `dei1' and `ami1'.
26 They are equivalent to `dei' and `ami', respectively, but the macros
27 are executed with compatibility mode off (similar to `de1' and `am1').
29 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory for files (both
30 those on the command line and those named in `psbb' requests). This is
31 also handled by the groff wrapper program.
33 o Since version 1.19 you can say `.vs 0'. Older versions emit a warning
34 and convert this to `.vs \n[.V]'.
36 This hasn't been documented properly. Note that `.vs 0' isn't saved in a
37 diversion since it doesn't result in vertical motion.
42 o Dashed and dotted ellipses have been implemented.
47 o New key character `x' to make tbl call a user-defined macro on a table
48 cell. Patch by Heinz-Jürgen Oertel <hj.oertel@surfeu.de>.
53 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
54 converts a grap diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the
55 PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
60 o New option `-j' to emit output splitted into multiple files.
66 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory to search for files
67 on the command line and files named in \X'ps: import' and \X'ps: file'
68 escapes. This is also handled by the groff wrapper program.
73 o www.tmac: New macro `JOBNAME' to split output into multiple files.
75 o In mdoc, multiple calls to `.Lb' are now supported in the LIBRARY
85 o Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
86 latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added. Example use:
88 groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi
90 You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs. Out of the box,
91 the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and -Tutf8,
92 and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.
94 o Composite glyphs are now supported. To do this, a subset of the Adobe
95 Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in
97 http://partners.adobe.com/asn/tech/type/unicodegn.jsp
99 is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes. The
100 existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't be
101 constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.
103 The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple glyph
108 this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.
110 Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong' Unicode
111 code points. For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a spacing
112 ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for composite
113 glyphs. The new request
117 will change the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed.
118 To make \[A ho] yield the expected result,
122 is needed. [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
123 contains proper calls to `.composite'.]
125 Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man page
128 o A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific fallback
129 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
130 `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts declared with `special'.
132 o Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
133 new `rfschar' request.
135 o A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
136 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
137 `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.
139 o In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
140 point horizontally. Despite of being silly, this change has been
141 reverted for backwards compatibility. Consequently, the intermediate
142 output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.
144 \D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal resolution of
145 the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the DESC file).
146 Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.
148 o For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
155 \D'Fd' (default color)
157 The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request. The current
158 position is *not* changed.
160 o The values set with \H and \S are now available in number registers
161 \n[.height] and \n[.slant], respectively.
163 o The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
164 It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp' request.
166 o The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.
168 o The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL.
169 (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously supported by
170 grolj4.) The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol font has been
171 changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon, `*e', has the
172 same glyph shape as with other devices.
177 o The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default glyph
178 shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.
180 o It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only 256
181 (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries). grops
182 constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.
184 o The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
185 mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
186 about the paper size. The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
187 (the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
188 extension) -- if you intend to further process grops output to get an
189 encapsulated PS (EPS) file you must also use this option.
191 Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>.
193 o Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no longer
194 contain negative left italic correction values. This assures correct
200 o The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI fonts.
201 It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.
203 o New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper size.
204 grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by DVI drivers
207 Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.
209 o The glyph shapes for \[*f] and \[*e] have been exchanged with \[+f] and
210 \[+e], respectively, to be in sync with all other devices.
212 o Glyphs \[HE] and \[DI] have been replaced with \[u2662] and \[u2661],
213 respectively, since the former two glyphs have a black (filled) shape
214 which grodvi doesn't provide by default (it never has actually).
219 o The glyphs \[*e] and \[+e] have been exchanged to be in sync with
222 o The glyph \[~=] is now called \[|=]. Similar to other devices, \[~=]
223 is now another name for glyph \[~~].
228 o New option `-r'. It is similar to the -i option except it tells grotty to
229 use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.
234 o New command `figname' to set the name of a picture's output box in TeX
240 o The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
241 database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
246 o New option `-r' to avoid emission of `.lf' lines.
248 o New option `-t' to emit TeX comment lines (giving current file and the
249 line number) instead of `.lf' lines.
254 o Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now emit
255 multiple encoding vectors for a single font).
257 o New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.
259 o The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now searched
260 in the default font directory also. Please refer to the man page of
261 afmtodit for more details.
266 o Larry Kollar <kollar@alltel.net> and others made the man macros more
269 . New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
270 location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
271 sub-subheading indentation.
273 . New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
276 . New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
277 They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.
279 . The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
282 . Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if not
283 explicitly specified on the command line.
285 o troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
286 the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.
288 Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined `papersize'
289 values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the groff_font man page)
290 except a7-d7. An appended `l' (ell) character denotes landscape
291 orientation. Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.
293 Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
294 `-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
295 the driver specific DESC file.
297 For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
300 groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
309 o The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
310 include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a
311 glyph (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,' and appending `\/' to the
312 glyph) sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal
313 bounding box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the
314 particular glyph is used (which can differ considerably).
316 Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
317 existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely for
318 italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
321 This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
326 o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
332 o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
333 drivers) to set the default line width.
338 o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
343 o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.
348 o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
349 compatibility with NetBSD.
351 o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
354 o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
355 and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
358 o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
363 o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
364 It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
365 used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.
369 papersize /etc/papersize a4
371 o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
372 defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the normal
373 font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
376 /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
378 for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
384 ***************************************************************************
386 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
388 ***************************************************************************
393 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
394 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
395 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
396 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
397 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
398 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
399 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
400 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
403 Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
404 read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
407 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
408 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
411 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
412 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
413 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
415 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
416 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
417 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
420 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
423 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
424 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
426 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
427 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
429 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
430 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
432 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
433 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
435 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
436 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
438 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
440 o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
443 .ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
446 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
447 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
453 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
454 . nop I will now define `bar'.
456 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
460 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
461 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
463 o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
464 the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
465 control their output format.
467 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
468 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
469 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
470 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
471 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
472 before checking special fonts.
474 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
475 doesn't emit a final newline.
477 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
478 with \c counts as one input line.
480 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
481 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
484 o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
485 character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
486 Note that this is an incompatible change.
488 o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
489 request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
491 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
492 pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
493 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
494 for more information.
496 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
499 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
500 already existing patterns).
502 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
503 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
504 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
505 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
507 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
508 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
509 final `0' can be omitted.
511 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
512 the exception that the `asciify' request will use the character code (if
513 any) before the character translation. Example:
525 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
527 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
528 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
529 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
530 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
531 post-vertical line space.
533 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
543 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
544 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
546 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
547 they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
548 single space characters.
550 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
553 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
554 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
555 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
556 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
557 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
562 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
563 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
564 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
565 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
566 for PostScript output only.
568 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
569 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
571 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
572 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
573 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
574 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
575 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
577 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
578 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
579 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
581 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
584 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
585 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
588 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
589 works in compatibility mode.
591 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
592 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
594 o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
597 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
598 reference to the ms macros.
600 o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
602 o Changes in www.tmac:
604 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
605 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
606 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
609 The following macros have been renamed:
615 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
616 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
618 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
619 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
621 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
622 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
624 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
625 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
627 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
628 generation to headings.
630 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
633 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it will automatically
634 convert it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
636 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
637 (it will automatically convert it into an EPS file if not
640 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
642 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
644 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
646 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
647 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
652 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
653 disabled in compatibility mode).
658 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
659 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
660 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
665 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
666 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
667 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
669 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
671 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
673 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
678 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
679 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
680 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
685 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
686 converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
687 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
692 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
693 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
699 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
704 o Color support has been added.
706 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
707 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
712 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
713 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
714 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
717 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
718 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
720 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
721 extended) has been added.
723 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
725 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
726 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
727 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
729 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
730 doesn't take care of hcode values.
732 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
733 to gray values currently.
738 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
739 ANSI color) escape sequences.
741 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
742 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
743 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
745 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
746 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
747 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
748 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
749 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
751 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
752 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable; alternatively, you can use
753 `man's `-P' option (or adapt its configuration file accordingly). See
754 man(1) for more details.
756 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
757 reverting to the old behaviour.
759 o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
760 enable SGR output (the default).
762 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
763 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
764 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
765 for this (including xterm).
770 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
772 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
774 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
776 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
777 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
780 o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
785 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
786 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
787 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
792 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
794 o The groff texinfo manual will now be installed, together with a bunch
797 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
800 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
802 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
803 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
805 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
807 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
808 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
809 currently. troff completely ignores it.
814 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
819 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
820 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
821 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
826 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
831 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
832 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
835 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
837 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
838 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
840 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
846 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
848 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
854 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
856 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
857 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
865 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
866 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
867 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
868 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
869 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
871 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
872 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
873 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
874 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
875 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
876 environment variables to groff.
881 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
882 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
883 supported). Most important changes are:
886 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
887 . `.Lb': prints library names
888 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
890 . Updated `.St' command
891 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
892 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
893 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
894 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
895 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
896 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
897 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
898 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
901 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
902 documents the mdoc package.
904 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
905 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
907 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
908 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
909 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
912 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
914 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
921 can now be written as
927 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
928 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
929 ending the diversion).
931 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
932 and some other escape sequences also.
934 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
935 unbreakable space character.
937 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
938 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
939 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
944 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
949 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
954 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
961 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
962 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
963 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
964 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
967 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
968 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
970 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
971 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
972 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
973 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
976 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
977 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
978 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
993 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
997 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
998 mode, and 0 otherwise.
1000 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
1001 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
1002 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
1004 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
1005 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
1006 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
1007 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
1009 o The new `spreadwarn' request will make troff warn if spaces in an output
1010 line are widened by a given limit or more.
1012 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff will use for
1015 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
1016 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
1017 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
1018 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
1020 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
1021 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
1023 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
1024 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
1027 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
1028 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
1030 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
1032 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
1033 previous font family.
1035 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
1036 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
1038 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
1039 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
1040 macro or string is written to a stream.
1042 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
1043 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
1046 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
1048 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
1049 underlines spaces also).
1054 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
1055 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
1060 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
1061 been added to select a different prologue file.
1063 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
1064 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
1065 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
1070 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
1072 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
1073 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
1074 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
1077 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
1078 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
1079 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
1080 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
1081 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
1082 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
1084 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
1085 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
1088 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
1089 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
1090 variable if you really need the current directory.
1092 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
1093 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
1094 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
1095 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
1096 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
1097 is searched before the local tmac directory.
1099 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
1100 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
1101 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
1106 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1114 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
1115 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
1116 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
1118 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
1120 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
1122 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
1123 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
1124 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
1130 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
1131 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
1132 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
1134 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
1135 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
1136 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
1137 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
1138 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
1139 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
1141 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
1142 contains the current year.
1144 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
1145 number of the groff package.
1147 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
1148 font `foo' is undefined:
1151 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
1153 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
1155 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1157 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
1158 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1160 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
1163 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
1164 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
1166 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
1167 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
1168 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
1170 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
1172 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
1173 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
1176 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
1177 (which is an alias to character `"').
1179 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
1180 (which is an alias to character "'").
1182 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
1183 better support of HTML output:
1185 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
1188 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
1190 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
1191 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
1192 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
1193 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
1195 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
1198 use_charnames_in_special
1199 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
1200 inside special commands.
1203 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
1204 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
1209 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
1214 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
1216 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
1218 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
1219 will be immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
1220 punctuation, for example).
1225 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
1227 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
1233 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
1234 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
1235 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
1240 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
1241 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
1242 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
1243 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
1248 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
1249 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
1254 Simplified installation: The Imakefile will now be configured (by groff's
1260 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
1261 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
1262 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
1267 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
1268 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
1269 <blake@florida-software.com>.
1271 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
1272 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
1274 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
1275 ========================
1277 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1282 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
1283 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
1284 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
1287 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
1288 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
1290 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
1291 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
1294 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
1295 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
1297 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
1298 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
1300 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
1303 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
1304 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
1306 Following the GNU standards, groff will now use the prefix `/usr/local/' as
1307 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
1309 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
1310 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
1316 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
1317 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
1318 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
1319 reports are highly welcome.
1324 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
1330 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
1331 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
1336 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
1337 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
1339 Will now support 8 gray levels.
1344 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
1349 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
1350 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
1351 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
1352 half a dozen other projects.
1357 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
1358 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
1359 latest GNU coding standards.
1361 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
1362 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
1364 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
1365 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
1366 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
1367 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
1368 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
1369 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
1370 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
1371 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
1372 always installed as -me.
1374 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
1380 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
1381 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
1387 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
1393 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
1398 The -m option enables manual feed.
1403 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
1404 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
1405 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
1406 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
1412 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1418 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1419 graphic to be specified.
1427 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
1428 environment variable xxx.
1433 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1434 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1443 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1444 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1450 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1451 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1452 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1454 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1455 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1457 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1458 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1463 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1464 try to keep the table on one page.
1469 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1470 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1471 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1472 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1477 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1478 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1479 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1484 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1485 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1487 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1489 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1490 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1492 ^L is now a legal input character.
1497 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1498 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1499 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1500 default device is ps.)
1502 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1503 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1504 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1505 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1507 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1508 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1509 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1510 draw_lines parameter.
1512 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1513 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1514 always loaded by troff.
1516 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1521 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1523 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1524 while a character definition is being processed.
1526 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1529 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1530 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1532 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
1533 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1534 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1535 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1536 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1538 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1539 with compatibility mode disabled.
1541 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
1542 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
1543 for loading the device-specific macros.
1548 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
1549 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
1550 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
1551 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
1553 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
1554 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
1555 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
1557 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
1558 (the quotes are required).
1563 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
1564 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
1565 be prevented by the -R option.
1567 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
1568 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
1570 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
1573 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
1574 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
1580 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
1581 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
1582 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
1584 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
1587 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
1588 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
1589 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
1594 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
1595 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
1600 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
1606 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
1607 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
1608 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
1609 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
1610 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
1611 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
1612 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
1613 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
1614 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
1615 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
1616 be derived from the $r or $R register.
1618 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
1620 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
1621 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
1624 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
1629 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
1630 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
1631 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
1633 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
1634 redisplays the current page.
1642 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
1643 differently with blocks.
1645 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
1646 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
1648 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
1650 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
1656 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
1657 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
1658 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
1663 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
1664 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
1665 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
1666 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
1667 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
1669 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
1670 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
1675 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
1677 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
1678 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
1683 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
1688 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
1689 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
1690 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
1696 Support for scalable fonts.
1701 No changes other than bug fixes.
1706 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
1707 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
1708 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
1709 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
1711 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
1713 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
1714 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
1715 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
1716 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
1717 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
1718 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
1720 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
1723 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
1724 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
1726 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
1731 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
1732 input level as the opening [.
1734 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
1735 suitable for use as a name.
1737 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
1740 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
1741 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
1742 the -mX option is given.
1744 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
1749 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
1750 constructs by writing a troff macro.
1755 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
1760 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
1761 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
1762 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
1763 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
1765 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
1766 Document Structuring Convention.
1768 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
1769 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
1770 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
1771 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
1772 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
1775 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
1776 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
1781 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
1782 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
1785 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
1786 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
1789 Xditview now uses imake.
1794 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
1796 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
1797 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
1798 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
1799 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
1800 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
1801 that the `n' condition will be true.
1803 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
1804 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
1805 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
1807 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
1808 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
1809 latest version of the tpic specials.
1814 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
1815 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
1816 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
1821 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
1822 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
1824 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
1825 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
1826 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
1831 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
1836 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
1837 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
1839 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
1840 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
1841 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
1847 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
1849 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
1855 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
1856 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
1857 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
1858 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
1859 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
1861 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
1863 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
1866 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
1867 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
1868 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
1869 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
1870 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
1871 amount of extra space to each word space.
1873 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
1875 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
1876 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
1877 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
1878 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
1879 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
1885 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
1887 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
1888 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
1894 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
1895 complicated equations inside pictures.
1897 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
1898 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
1904 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
1905 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
1911 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
1912 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
1913 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
1916 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
1917 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
1919 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
1920 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
1922 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
1923 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
1924 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
1925 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
1926 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
1927 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
1929 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
1930 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
1931 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
1932 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
1935 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
1936 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
1938 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
1939 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
1944 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
1945 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
1946 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
1948 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
1949 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
1950 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
1951 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
1952 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
1953 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
1954 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
1955 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
1956 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
1962 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
1963 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
1965 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
1968 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
1969 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
1970 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
1971 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
1972 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
1973 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
1974 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
1976 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
1977 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
1978 when the diversion is reread.
1980 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
1983 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
1984 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
1985 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
1986 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
1987 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
1988 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
1989 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
1991 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
1994 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
1997 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
1999 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
2000 containing the hyphenation patterns.
2002 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
2004 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
2005 of end of sentence recognition.
2007 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
2008 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
2010 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
2011 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
2013 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
2015 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
2016 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
2017 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
2022 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
2023 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
2025 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
2026 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
2029 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
2030 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
2032 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
2034 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
2035 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
2037 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
2038 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
2041 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
2042 wherever a quoted string can be used.
2044 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
2045 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
2046 of the `textht' variable.
2048 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
2049 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
2054 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
2055 has been applied to a table.
2060 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
2062 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
2063 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
2068 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
2069 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
2070 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
2071 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
2072 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
2073 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
2074 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
2076 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
2077 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
2078 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'