1 Copyright (C) 1989-2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
2 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
5 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
6 notice and this notice are preserved.
8 This file describes recent user-visible changes in groff. Bug fixes are not
9 described. There are more details in the man and info pages.
17 o XHTML support has been added to grohtml and can be specified by
18 -Txhtml. This option also utilizes the MathML capability of
19 eqn and combines the outputs of both in the final XHTML file.
20 Users can also specify the `-P-V' option together with `-Txhtml'
21 in groff. This has the effect of creating an XHTML validator
22 button at the bottom of each page.
27 o Two new requests `device' and `devicem' have been added which are
28 equivalents to the \X and \Y escapes, respectively.
30 o A new read-only number register `.br' is available which is set to 1
31 if a macro is called as .foo and to 0 if called as 'foo. This allows to
32 reliably modify requests.
37 . ie \\n[.br] .bp@orig
42 o A new request `fzoom' has been added to adjust the optical size of a
43 font in relation to the others. The zoom factor is given in integer
44 multiples of 1/1000th. In the following example, the CR font is
45 magnified by 10% (the zoom factor is 1.1).
50 Palatino and \f[CR]Courier\f[]
52 The new number register `.zoom' holds the zoom value of the current font,
53 in multiples of 1/1000th.
55 o The `cflags' request has been extended with a new flag value 64, to be
56 used in combination with values 2 (break before character) and 4 (break
57 after character). If set, the hyphenation codes of the surrounding
58 characters are ignored.
60 o A new debugging request, `pev', has been added to print all of the current
61 known environments to stderr. It first prints the state of the current
62 environment, then iterates through all of the known environments, printing
63 each except the one that is current.
65 o A new escape `\$^' has been added. It represents the parameters of a
66 macro as if they were an argument to the `ds' request. This is used by
69 o A new read-only number register `.O' is available which returns the
70 current suppression level as set by the `\O' escape.
72 o The space width emitted by the `\|' and `\^' escape sequences can be
73 controlled on a per-font basis. If there is a glyph named `\|' or `\^',
74 respectively (note the leading backslash), defined in the current font
75 file, use this glyph's width instead of the default value.
77 This behaviour is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
83 o Two new command line options `-w' and `-W' are accepted and passed to
84 groff to enable and disable warning messages, respectively.
89 o int(x) now really behaves as documented: It truncates the non-integer part
90 of x, this is, it rounds towards zero and not towards the next integer
91 less than or equal to x.
93 o Pic now supports up to 32 macro arguments (and up to 16 on EBCDIC
96 o Heinz-Jürgen Örtel contributed code for two new keywords, `xslanted' and
97 `yslanted', which can change the shape of boxes into arbitrary
103 o Eric S. Raymond has added a new device type to eqn, MathML. When
104 -TMathML is enabled, eqn now emits MathML formula markup rather than
105 groff commands. The new groff -Txhtml device uses this.
110 o The preprocessor `chem' was added. `chem' is a roff language to generate
111 chemical structure diagrams. It generates `pic' output.
116 o The PS font definition files have been regenerated with newer AFM versions
117 from Adobe's 35 core fonts as present in most Level 2 PS printers. The
118 changes are minor (most notably, the addition of the `Euro' glyph and an
119 extended set of kerning values).
121 For backwards compatibility, the old set of font definition files is still
122 available; for details please read the man page of `grops(1)'.
127 o \D'p...' is now supported if the polygon consists entirely of horizontal
133 o XHTML support has been added.
135 o New command line option `-V' (to be used in XHTML mode) to produce an
136 XHTML validator button.
138 o New command line option `-y' to produce a right-justified groff signature
139 at the end of the document (in combination with option `-V').
144 o Support for keyboard navigation has been improved.
146 o Similar to other X11 applications, there are now two resource files,
147 `GXditview' and `GXditview-color'.
152 o `groffer' version 1.* exists now in a shell and a Perl version.
157 o New option `-c' to output more font information as comments.
159 o New option `-k' to suppress output of kerning data.
161 o New option `-f NAME' to set the internal name of the groff font.
166 o Fabrice Ménard contributed locales support. In particular, it is now
167 possible to get French localization of the main macro packages (-ms, -mm,
168 -me, and -mom, but not -man and -mdoc which are localized differently) by
169 appending `-mfr' to the list of macro packages. Example:
171 groff -ms -mfr foo > foo.ps
173 Note that latin-9 input encoding is used for French (to support the `oe'
176 o Swedish macro localization (with `-msv') has been added.
178 o German macro localization (with `-mde' and `-mden' for traditional and
179 new orthography, respectively) has been added.
181 o Czech macro localization (with `-mcs') has been added.
183 Note that latin-2 input encoding is used for Czech.
185 o A new macro `Dx' has been added to the mdoc package which identifies the
188 o -mtrace has been considerably improved, now showing number and string
189 register assignments, among other things.
191 o The PSPIC macro now works with all devices (producing a hollow
192 rectangle on devices which don't support inclusion of PS images) and
193 is loaded in troffrc at start-up.
195 o A new auxiliary macro package `62bit' has been added which provides some
196 macros for adding, multiplying, and dividing signed 62bit integers (mainly
197 to handle normal groff number operations without risking overflow errors).
199 o For -ms, Eric S. Raymond contributed support for ancient Bell Labs
200 localisms `.SC', `.UC', `.P1', and `.P2'. The latter three are enabled
201 only after .SC is called.
203 o A new string, `SN-STYLE', has been added to the ms macros, controlling
204 the formatting of section numbers in headings defined by `.NH'.
213 o Analogously to the .ft and \f pair, two new requests `gcolor' and
214 `fcolor' (which pair with \m and \M, respectively) have been added to
215 set the glyph and background colours.
217 o A new read-only, string-valued register `.sty' returns the name of the
220 o Two new conditional operators `F <name>' and `S <name>' have been added.
221 `F' is true if a font <name> exists. `S' is true if a style <name> has
224 o Cyrillic characters have been added to the `utf8' and `html' output
230 o The `by' argument in a `for' loop can now be negative if it is additive.
231 For the multiplicative case, it must be greater than zero.
236 o The following keywords aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
238 undef NAME (to undefine a macro)
239 copy "FILE" (a synonym for `include')
240 space n (to modify the vertical spacing before and after
243 o The following macros aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
245 Alpha, ..., Omega (the same as `ALPHA', ..., `OMEGA')
246 ldots (three dots on the base line)
247 dollar (a dollar glyph)
249 o The following keywords have been extended. Again, this isn't new but
250 hasn't been documented previously:
259 cpile n { ... } (set vertical spacing between rows to N)
264 o This device driver has been raised to beta stage; its set of tags should
267 o New command line option `-s' to set the base point size.
269 o New command line option `-S' to set the split level while generating
275 o Experimental support for zero-width and double-width characters.
280 o On platforms which have the X Window System this program is now built and
281 installed automatically.
286 o This program to create font definition files for xditview isn't new but
287 hasn't been installed previously.
292 o A security problem (reported as CAN-2004-0969) has been fixed.
297 o A new script contributed by Mike Bianchi. It compares two groff, nroff,
298 or troff documents and creates an output with added margin characters
299 (using `.mc') to indicate the differences.
304 o A new wrapper script contributed by Keith Marshall to easily create PDF
305 documents with groff.
312 . Support for fractional point sizes: A value for the `PS', `VS', `FPS',
313 and `VPS' register larger than or equal to 1000 is always divided by
314 1000. For example, `.nr PS 10250' sets the document's font size to
317 . The `Ds' and `De' macros provided in ms since groff version 1.19 have
318 been removed; the equivalent `DS' and `DE' macros should be used
319 instead. X11 documents which actually use `Ds' and `De' always load a
320 specific macro file from the X11 distribution (`macros.t') which
321 provides proper definitions for the two macros.
323 . The following registers have been added for improving layout control:
326 Defines number of lines following `LP', `PP', `QP', `IP' or `XP' which
327 must be kept together, before any automatic page break.
330 Sets number of lines of following paragraph which must be kept with a
331 heading, defined by `NH' or `SH', before any automatic page break.
334 Sets the first level of heading (set with `NH') which keeps the
335 same point size as body text.
338 Sets the point size increment for each level of heading (set with
339 `NH'), below the threshold level set by `GROWPS'; e.g., if
340 \n[PS] = 10, \n[GROWPS] = 3 and \n[PSINCR] = 2.0p, then `.NH 1'
341 produces 14pt headings, `.NH 2' produces 12pt, and all other
342 levels remain at 10pt (because \n[PS] = 10).
344 . The `SH' macro now accepts a numeric argument, to make heading size
345 match that of `NH' with same argument value when the `GROWPS'/`PSINCR'
348 Please refer to the documentation of the ms package for other, minor
353 The section type set with the `++' request is available in the `_M'
354 register. This isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
358 The `HR' macro no longer causes an empty line for non-HTML devices.
360 A new macro `HEAD' has been added to directly add data to the
361 <head>...</head> block.
363 New macros `OLS' and `OLE' to start and end an ordered list.
365 New macros `DLS' and `DLE' to start and end a definition list.
370 o A new macro package contributed by Keith Marshall which implements PDF
371 marks. This is in alpha stage currently.
376 o Two new keywords to the DESC file have been added which are needed for
377 grohtml: `image_generator' and `unscaled_charwidths'. The former gives
378 the name of the program which creates PNG images, and the latter makes
379 troff always use unscaled character widths.
388 o The argument of the command line option `-I' is now also passed to troff
389 and grops, specifying a directory to search for files on the command line,
390 files named in `so' and `psbb' requests, and files named in \X'ps: file'
391 and \X'ps: import' escapes.
393 o If option `-V' is used more than once, the commands are both printed
394 on standard error and run.
399 o Two new read-only, string-valued registers `.m' and `.M' return the
400 name of the current drawing and background color, respectively.
402 o New read-only register `.U' which is set to 1 if in safer mode and set
403 to 0 if in unsafe mode.
405 o An input encoding file for latin-5 (a.k.a. ISO 8859-9) has been added.
408 groff -Tdvi -mlatin5 my_file > my_file.dvi
410 Note that some output devices don't support all glyphs of this encoding.
412 o If the `return' request is called with an argument, it exits twice,
413 namely the current macro and the macro one level higher. This is
414 used to define a wrapper macro for `return' in trace.tmac.
416 o For completeness, two new requests have been added: `dei1' and `ami1'.
417 They are equivalent to `dei' and `ami', respectively, but the macros
418 are executed with compatibility mode off (similar to `de1' and `am1').
420 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory for files (both
421 those on the command line and those named in `psbb' requests). This is
422 also handled by the groff wrapper program.
424 o Since version 1.19 you can say `.vs 0'. Older versions emit a warning
425 and convert this to `.vs \n[.V]'.
427 This hasn't been documented properly. Note that `.vs 0' isn't saved in a
428 diversion since it doesn't result in vertical motion.
433 o Dashed and dotted ellipses have been implemented.
438 o New key character `x' to make tbl call a user-defined macro on a table
439 cell. Patch by Heinz-Jürgen Oertel <hj.oertel@surfeu.de>.
444 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
445 converts a grap diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the
446 PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
447 [Note that the grap program itself isn't part of the groff package;
448 see the file MORE.STUFF how to obtain grap.]
453 o New option `-j' to emit output split into multiple files.
458 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory to search for files
459 on the command line and files named in \X'ps: import' and \X'ps: file'
460 escapes. This is also handled by the groff wrapper program.
462 o The default value for the `broken' keyword in the DESC file is now 0.
467 o A new man page `lj4_font(5)' documents how fonts are accessed with
470 o The built-in fonts for LJ4 and newer PCL 5 devices have been completely
471 revised, mainly to access as much glyphs as possible. The provided
472 metric files should be compatible with recent PCL 5 printers also.
473 Additionally, font description files have been added for the Arial and
474 Times New Roman family, the MS symbol, and Wingdings fonts.
479 o New option `-x' to prevent use of built-in Adobe Glyph List.
484 o Completely revised to handle HP TrueType metric files also. See the
485 hpftodit manual page for more details.
490 o This version is a rewrite of groffer in many parts, but it is kept in
491 the old single script style.
493 New options: --text, --mode text, --tty-viewer, --X, --mode X,
494 --X-viewer, --html, --mode html, --html-view, --apropos-data,
495 --apropos-devel, --apropos-progs.
497 New documentation file: README_SH.
499 Enhancement of the configuration files and the `apropos' handling.
504 o www.tmac: New macro `JOBNAME' to split output into multiple files.
506 o In mdoc, multiple calls to `.Lb' are now supported in the LIBRARY
516 o Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
517 latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added. Example use:
519 groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi
521 You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs. Out of the box,
522 the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and -Tutf8,
523 and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.
525 o Composite glyphs are now supported. To do this, a subset of the Adobe
526 Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in
528 http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/opentype/index_glyph.html
530 is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes. The
531 existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't be
532 constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.
534 The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple glyph
539 this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.
541 Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong' Unicode
542 code points. For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a spacing
543 ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for composite
544 glyphs. The new request
548 changes the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed.
549 To make \[A ho] yield the expected result,
553 is needed. [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
554 contains proper calls to `.composite'.]
556 Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man page
559 o A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific fallback
560 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
561 `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts declared with `special'.
563 o Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
564 new `rfschar' request.
566 o A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
567 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
568 `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.
570 o In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
571 point horizontally. Despite of being silly, this change has been
572 reverted for backwards compatibility. Consequently, the intermediate
573 output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.
575 \D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal resolution of
576 the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the DESC file).
577 Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.
579 o For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
586 \D'Fd' (default color)
588 The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request. The current
589 position is *not* changed.
591 o The values set with \H and \S are now available in number registers
592 \n[.height] and \n[.slant], respectively.
594 o The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
595 It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp' request.
597 o The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.
599 o The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL.
600 (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously supported by
601 grolj4.) The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol font has been
602 changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon, `*e', has the
603 same glyph shape as with other devices.
608 o The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default glyph
609 shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.
611 o It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only 256
612 (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries). grops
613 constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.
615 o The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
616 mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
617 about the paper size. The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
618 (the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
619 extension) -- if you intend to further process grops output to get an
620 encapsulated PS (EPS) file you must also use this option.
622 Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>.
624 o Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no longer
625 contain negative left italic correction values. This assures correct
631 o The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI fonts.
632 It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.
634 o New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper size.
635 grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by DVI drivers
638 Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.
640 o The glyph shapes for \[*f] and \[*e] have been exchanged with \[+f] and
641 \[+e], respectively, to be in sync with all other devices.
643 o Glyphs \[HE] and \[DI] have been replaced with \[u2662] and \[u2661],
644 respectively, since the former two glyphs have a black (filled) shape
645 which grodvi doesn't provide by default (it never has actually).
650 o The glyphs \[*e] and \[+e] have been exchanged to be in sync with
653 o The glyph \[~=] is now called \[|=]. Similar to other devices, \[~=]
654 is now another name for glyph \[~~].
659 o New option `-r'. It is similar to the -i option except it tells grotty to
660 use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.
665 o New command `figname' to set the name of a picture's output box in TeX
671 o The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
672 database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
677 o New option `-r' to avoid emission of `.lf' lines.
679 o New option `-t' to emit TeX comment lines (giving current file and the
680 line number) instead of `.lf' lines.
685 o Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now emit
686 multiple encoding vectors for a single font).
688 o New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.
690 o The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now searched
691 in the default font directory also. Please refer to the man page of
692 afmtodit for more details.
697 o Larry Kollar <kollar@alltel.net> and others made the man macros more
700 . New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
701 location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
702 sub-subheading indentation.
704 . New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
707 . New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
708 They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.
710 . The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
713 . Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if not
714 explicitly specified on the command line.
716 o troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
717 the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.
719 Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined `papersize'
720 values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the groff_font man page)
721 except a7-d7. An appended `l' (ell) character denotes landscape
722 orientation. Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.
724 Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
725 `-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
726 the driver specific DESC file.
728 For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
731 groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
740 o The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
741 include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a
742 glyph (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,' and appending `\/' to the
743 glyph) sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal
744 bounding box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the
745 particular glyph is used (which can differ considerably).
747 Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
748 existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely for
749 italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
752 This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
757 o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
763 o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
764 drivers) to set the default line width.
769 o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
774 o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.
779 o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
780 compatibility with NetBSD.
782 o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
785 o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
786 and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
789 o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
794 o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
795 It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
796 used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.
800 papersize /etc/papersize a4
802 o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
803 defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the normal
804 font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
807 /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
809 for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
815 ***************************************************************************
817 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
819 ***************************************************************************
824 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
825 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
826 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
827 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
828 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
829 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
830 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
831 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
834 Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
835 read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
838 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
839 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
842 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
843 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
844 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
846 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
847 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
848 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
851 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
854 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
855 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
857 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
858 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
860 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
861 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
863 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
864 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
866 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
867 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
869 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
871 o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
874 .ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
877 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
878 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
884 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
885 . nop I will now define `bar'.
887 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
891 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
892 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
894 o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
895 the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
896 control their output format.
898 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
899 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
900 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
901 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
902 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
903 before checking special fonts.
905 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
906 doesn't emit a final newline.
908 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
909 with \c counts as one input line.
911 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
912 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
915 o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
916 character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
917 Note that this is an incompatible change.
919 o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
920 request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
922 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
923 pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
924 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
925 for more information.
927 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
930 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
931 already existing patterns).
933 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
934 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
935 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
936 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
938 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
939 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
940 final `0' can be omitted.
942 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
943 the exception that the `asciify' request uses the character code (if
944 any) before the character translation. Example:
956 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
958 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
959 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
960 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
961 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
962 post-vertical line space.
964 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
974 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
975 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
977 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
978 they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
979 single space characters.
981 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
984 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
985 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
986 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
987 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
988 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
993 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
994 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
995 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
996 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
997 for PostScript output only.
999 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
1000 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
1002 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
1003 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
1004 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
1005 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
1006 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
1008 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
1009 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
1010 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
1012 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
1015 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
1016 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
1019 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
1020 works in compatibility mode.
1022 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
1023 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
1025 o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
1028 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
1029 reference to the ms macros.
1031 o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
1033 o Changes in www.tmac:
1035 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
1036 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
1037 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
1040 The following macros have been renamed:
1046 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
1047 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
1049 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
1050 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
1052 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
1053 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
1055 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
1056 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
1058 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
1059 generation to headings.
1061 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
1064 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it automatically
1065 converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
1067 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
1068 (it automatically converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
1070 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
1072 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
1074 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
1076 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
1077 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
1082 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
1083 disabled in compatibility mode).
1088 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
1089 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
1090 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
1095 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
1096 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
1097 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
1099 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
1101 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
1103 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
1108 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
1109 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
1110 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
1115 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
1116 converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
1117 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
1122 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
1123 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
1129 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
1134 o Color support has been added.
1136 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
1137 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
1142 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
1143 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
1144 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
1147 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
1148 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
1150 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
1151 extended) has been added.
1153 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
1155 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
1156 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
1157 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
1159 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
1160 doesn't take care of hcode values.
1162 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
1163 to gray values currently.
1168 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
1169 ANSI color) escape sequences.
1171 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
1172 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
1173 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
1175 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
1176 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
1177 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
1178 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
1179 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
1181 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
1182 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable (or $MANPAGER, depending on the
1183 used `man' program); alternatively, you can use `man's `-P' option (or
1184 adapt its configuration file accordingly). See man(1) for more details.
1186 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
1187 reverting to the old behaviour.
1189 o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
1190 enable SGR output (the default).
1192 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
1193 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
1194 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
1195 for this (including xterm).
1200 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
1202 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
1204 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
1206 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
1207 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
1210 o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
1215 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
1216 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
1217 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
1222 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
1224 o The groff texinfo manual is installed now, together with a bunch
1227 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
1230 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
1232 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
1233 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
1235 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
1237 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
1238 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
1239 currently. troff completely ignores it.
1245 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
1250 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
1251 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
1252 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
1258 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
1263 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
1264 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
1267 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
1269 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
1270 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
1272 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
1278 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
1280 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
1286 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
1288 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
1289 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
1298 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
1299 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
1300 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
1301 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
1302 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
1304 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
1305 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
1306 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
1307 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
1308 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
1309 environment variables to groff.
1314 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
1315 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
1316 supported). Most important changes are:
1319 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
1320 . `.Lb': prints library names
1321 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
1323 . Updated `.St' command
1324 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
1325 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
1326 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
1327 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
1328 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
1329 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
1330 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
1331 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
1334 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
1335 documents the mdoc package.
1337 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
1338 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
1340 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
1341 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
1342 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
1345 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
1347 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
1348 `if 1'. For example,
1354 can now be written as
1360 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
1361 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
1362 ending the diversion).
1364 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
1365 and some other escape sequences also.
1367 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
1368 unbreakable space character.
1370 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
1371 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
1372 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
1377 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
1382 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
1387 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
1394 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1395 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1396 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1397 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1400 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
1401 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
1403 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1404 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1405 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1406 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1409 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
1410 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
1411 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
1426 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
1430 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
1431 mode, and 0 otherwise.
1433 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
1434 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
1435 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
1437 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
1438 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
1439 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
1440 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
1442 o The new `spreadwarn' request makes troff warn if spaces in an output
1443 line are widened by a given limit or more.
1445 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff uses for
1448 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
1449 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
1450 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
1451 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
1453 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
1454 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
1456 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
1457 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
1460 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
1461 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
1463 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
1465 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
1466 previous font family.
1468 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
1469 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
1471 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
1472 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
1473 macro or string is written to a stream.
1475 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
1476 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
1479 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
1481 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
1482 underlines spaces also).
1487 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
1488 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
1493 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
1494 been added to select a different prologue file.
1496 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
1497 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
1498 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
1503 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
1505 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
1506 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
1507 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
1510 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
1511 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
1512 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
1513 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
1514 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
1515 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
1517 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
1518 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
1521 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
1522 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
1523 variable if you really need the current directory.
1525 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
1526 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
1527 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
1528 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
1529 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
1530 is searched before the local tmac directory.
1532 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
1533 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
1534 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
1540 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1549 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
1550 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
1551 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
1553 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
1555 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
1557 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
1558 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
1559 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
1565 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
1566 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
1567 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
1569 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
1570 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
1571 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
1572 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
1573 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
1574 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
1576 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
1577 contains the current year.
1579 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
1580 number of the groff package.
1582 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
1583 font `foo' is undefined:
1586 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
1588 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
1590 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1592 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
1593 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1595 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
1598 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
1599 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
1601 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
1602 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
1603 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
1605 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
1607 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
1608 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
1611 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
1612 (which is an alias to character `"').
1614 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
1615 (which is an alias to character "'").
1617 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
1618 better support of HTML output:
1620 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
1623 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
1625 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
1626 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
1627 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
1628 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
1630 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
1633 use_charnames_in_special
1634 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
1635 inside special commands.
1638 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
1639 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
1644 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
1649 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
1651 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
1653 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
1654 is immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
1655 punctuation, for example).
1660 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
1662 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
1668 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
1669 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
1670 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
1675 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
1676 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
1677 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
1678 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
1683 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
1684 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
1689 Simplified installation: The Imakefile is now configured (by groff's
1695 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
1696 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
1697 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
1702 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
1703 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
1704 <blake@florida-software.com>.
1706 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
1707 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
1710 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
1711 ========================
1713 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1719 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
1720 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
1721 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
1724 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
1725 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
1727 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
1728 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
1731 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
1732 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
1734 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
1735 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
1737 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
1740 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
1741 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
1743 Following the GNU standards, groff now uses the prefix `/usr/local/' as
1744 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
1746 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
1747 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
1753 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
1754 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
1755 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
1756 reports are highly welcome.
1761 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
1767 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
1768 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
1773 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
1774 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
1776 Will now support 8 gray levels.
1781 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
1787 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
1788 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
1789 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
1790 half a dozen other projects.
1796 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
1797 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
1798 latest GNU coding standards.
1800 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
1801 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
1803 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
1804 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
1805 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
1806 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
1807 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
1808 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
1809 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
1810 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
1811 always installed as -me.
1813 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
1819 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
1820 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
1826 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
1832 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
1837 The -m option enables manual feed.
1843 \(rn now produces a character that has the traditional metrics,
1844 and form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it does not
1845 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
1846 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
1852 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1858 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1859 graphic to be specified.
1868 The escape sequence \V[xxx] interpolates the value of the
1869 environment variable xxx.
1874 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1875 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1885 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1886 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1892 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1893 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1894 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1896 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1897 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1899 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1900 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1905 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1906 try to keep the table on one page.
1911 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1912 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1913 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1914 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1919 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1920 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1921 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1927 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1928 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1930 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1932 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1933 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1935 ^L is now a valid input character.
1940 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1941 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1942 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1943 default device is ps.)
1945 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1946 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1947 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1948 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1950 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1951 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1952 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1953 draw_lines parameter.
1955 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1956 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1957 always loaded by troff.
1959 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1964 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1966 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1967 while a character definition is being processed.
1969 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1972 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1973 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1975 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file causes no font to be
1976 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1977 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1978 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1979 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1981 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1982 with compatibility mode disabled.
1984 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
1985 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
1986 for loading the device-specific macros.
1991 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
1992 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
1993 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
1994 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
1996 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
1997 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
1998 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
2000 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
2001 (the quotes are required).
2006 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
2007 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
2008 be prevented by the -R option.
2010 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
2011 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
2013 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
2016 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
2017 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
2023 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
2024 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
2025 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
2027 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
2030 With the -g option, grops generates PostScript code that guesses
2031 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
2032 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
2037 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
2038 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
2043 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
2049 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
2050 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
2051 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
2052 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
2053 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
2054 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
2055 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
2056 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
2057 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
2058 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register
2059 is derived from the $r or $R register.
2061 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
2063 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
2064 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ is only usable
2067 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
2072 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
2073 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
2074 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
2076 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
2077 redisplays the current page.
2086 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
2087 differently with blocks.
2089 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
2090 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
2092 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
2094 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
2100 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' are rendered
2101 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
2102 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
2107 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
2108 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
2109 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
2110 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
2111 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
2113 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro produces a box
2114 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
2120 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
2122 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
2123 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
2128 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
2133 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
2134 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
2135 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
2141 Support for scalable fonts.
2147 No changes other than bug fixes.
2153 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
2154 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
2155 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
2156 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
2158 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
2160 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
2161 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
2162 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
2163 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi uses the
2164 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
2165 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
2167 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
2170 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
2171 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
2173 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
2178 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
2179 input level as the opening [.
2181 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
2182 suitable for use as a name.
2184 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
2187 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
2188 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
2189 the -mX option is given.
2191 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
2196 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
2197 constructs by writing a troff macro.
2202 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
2207 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
2208 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
2209 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
2210 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
2212 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
2213 Document Structuring Convention.
2215 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
2216 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
2217 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
2218 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
2219 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
2222 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
2223 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
2228 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
2229 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps runs gtroff -Tps with
2232 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
2233 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
2236 Xditview now uses imake.
2242 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
2244 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
2245 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
2246 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
2247 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
2248 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
2249 that the `n' condition is true.
2251 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
2252 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
2253 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
2255 groff -Tdvi -p now passes pic the -x flag; this enables filling
2256 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
2257 latest version of the tpic specials.
2262 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
2263 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
2264 delimiters. The groff command passes on a `-N' option to eqn.
2269 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
2270 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
2272 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
2273 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
2274 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
2279 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
2284 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
2285 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
2287 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
2288 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
2289 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
2296 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
2298 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
2304 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
2305 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
2306 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
2307 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
2308 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
2310 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
2312 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
2315 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
2316 adjustment mode is not `b' a line is not hyphenated if it is no
2317 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
2318 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line is not
2319 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
2320 amount of extra space to each word space.
2322 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
2324 A warning of type `space' is given when a call is made to an
2325 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
2326 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
2327 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
2328 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
2334 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
2336 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
2337 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
2343 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
2344 complicated equations inside pictures.
2346 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
2347 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
2353 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
2354 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
2361 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
2362 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
2363 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
2366 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
2367 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
2369 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
2370 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
2372 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
2373 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
2374 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
2375 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
2376 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
2377 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
2379 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
2380 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
2381 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
2382 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
2385 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer valid input
2386 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
2388 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
2389 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
2394 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
2395 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
2396 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
2398 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
2399 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
2400 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
2401 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
2402 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
2403 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
2404 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
2405 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
2406 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
2412 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
2413 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
2415 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
2418 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
2419 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
2420 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
2421 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
2422 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
2423 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
2424 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
2426 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
2427 diversion, it now arranges for the file to be copied to the output
2428 when the diversion is reread.
2430 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
2433 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
2434 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
2435 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
2436 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
2437 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
2438 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
2439 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
2441 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
2444 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
2447 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
2449 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
2450 containing the hyphenation patterns.
2452 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
2454 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
2455 of end of sentence recognition.
2457 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
2458 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
2460 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
2461 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
2463 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
2465 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
2466 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
2467 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
2472 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
2473 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
2475 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
2476 lines are drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
2479 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
2480 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
2482 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
2484 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
2485 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
2487 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
2488 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
2491 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
2492 wherever a quoted string can be used.
2494 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
2495 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
2496 of the `textht' variable.
2498 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
2499 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
2504 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
2505 has been applied to a table.
2510 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
2512 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
2513 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
2518 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
2519 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
2520 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
2521 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
2522 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
2523 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
2524 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
2526 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
2527 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
2528 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'
2532 version-control: never