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 Fabrice Ménard contributed locales support. In particular, it is now
11 possible to get French localization of the main macro packages (-ms, -mm,
12 -me, and -mom, but not -man and -mdoc which are localized differently) by
13 appending `-mfr' to the list of macro packages. Example:
15 groff -ms -mfr foo > foo.ps
17 Note that latin-9 input encoding is used for French (to support the `oe'
20 o Swedish macro localization (with `-msv') has been added.
22 o German macro localization (with `-mde' and `-mden' for traditional and
23 new orthography, respectively) has been added.
25 o Two new requests `device' and `devicem' have been added which are
26 equivalents to the \X and \Y escapes, respectively.
28 o A new read-only number register `.br' is available which is set to 1
29 if a macro is called as .foo and to 0 if called as 'foo. This allows to
30 reliably modify requests.
35 . ie \\n[.br] .bp@orig
40 o A new request `fzoom' has been added to adjust the optical size of a
41 font in relation to the others. The zoom factor is given in integer
42 multiples of 1/1000th. In the following example, the CR font is
43 magnified by 10% (the zoom factor is 1.1).
48 Palatino and \f[CR]Courier\f[]
50 The new number register `.zoom' holds the zoom value of the current font,
51 in multiples of 1/1000th.
53 o The `cflags' request has been extended with a new flag value 64, to be
54 used in combination with values 2 (break before character) and 4 (break
55 after character). If set, the hyphenation codes of the surrounding
56 characters are ignored.
58 o A new debugging request, `pev', has been added to print all of the current
59 known environments to stderr. It first prints the state of the current
60 environment, then iterates through all of the known environments, printing
61 each except the one that is current.
63 o A new escape `\$^' has been added. It represents the parameters of a
64 macro as if they were an argument to the `ds' request. This is used by
67 o The PS font definition files have been regenerated with newer AFM versions
68 from Adobe's 35 core fonts as present in most Level 2 PS printers. The
69 changes are minor (most notably, the addition of the `Euro' glyph and an
70 extended set of kerning values).
72 For backwards compatibility, the old set of font definition files is still
73 available; for details please read the man page of `grops(1)'.
78 o int(x) now really behaves as documented: It truncates the non-integer part
79 of x, this is, it rounds towards zero and not towards the next integer
80 less than or equal to x.
82 o Pic now supports up to 32 macro arguments (and up to 16 on EBCDIC
88 o Eric S. Raymond has added a new device type to eqn, MathML. When
89 -TMathML is enabled, eqn now emits MathML formula markup rather than
95 o The preprocessor `chem' was added. `chem' is a roff language to generate
96 chemical structure diagrams. It generates `pic' output.
101 o \D'p...' is now supported if the polygon consists entirely of horizontal
107 o `groffer' version 1.* exists now in a shell and a Perl version.
112 o New option `-c' to output more font information as comments.
117 o A new macro `Dx' has been added to the mdoc package which identifies the
120 o -mtrace has been considerably improved, now showing number and string
121 register assignments, among other things.
123 o The PSPIC macro now works with all devices (producing a hollow
124 rectangle on devices which don't support inclusion of PS images) and
125 is loaded in troffrc at start-up.
127 o A new auxiliary macro package `62bit' has been added which provides some
128 macros for adding, multiplying, and dividing signed 62bit integers (mainly
129 to handle normal groff number operations without risking overflow errors).
131 o For -ms, Eric S. Raymond contributed support for ancient Bell Labs
132 localisms `.SC', `.UC', `.P1', and `.P2'. The latter three are enabled
133 only after .SC is called.
135 o A new string, `SN-STYLE', has been added to the ms macros, controlling
136 the formatting of section numbers in headings defined by `.NH'.
145 o Analogously to the .ft and \f pair, two new requests `gcolor' and
146 `fcolor' (which pair with \m and \M, respectively) have been added to
147 set the glyph and background colours.
149 o A new read-only, string-valued register `.sty' returns the name of the
152 o Two new conditional operators `F <name>' and `S <name>' have been added.
153 `F' is true if a font <name> exists. `S' is true if a style <name> has
156 o Cyrillic characters have been added to the `utf8' and `html' output
162 o The `by' argument in a `for' loop can now be negative if it is additive.
163 For the multiplicative case, it must be greater than zero.
168 o The following keywords aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
170 undef NAME (to undefine a macro)
171 copy "FILE" (a synonym for `include')
172 space n (to modify the vertical spacing before and after
175 o The following macros aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
177 Alpha, ..., Omega (the same as `ALPHA', ..., `OMEGA')
178 ldots (three dots on the base line)
179 dollar (a dollar glyph)
181 o The following keywords have been extended. Again, this isn't new but
182 hasn't been documented previously:
191 cpile n { ... } (set vertical spacing between rows to N)
196 o This device driver has been raised to beta stage; its set of tags should
199 o New command line option `-s' to set the base point size.
201 o New command line option `-S' to set the split level while generating
207 o Experimental support for zero-width and double-width characters.
212 o On platforms which have the X Window System this program is now built and
213 installed automatically.
218 o This program to create font definition files for xditview isn't new but
219 hasn't been installed previously.
224 o A security problem (reported as CAN-2004-0969) has been fixed.
229 o A new script contributed by Mike Bianchi. It compares two groff, nroff,
230 or troff documents and creates an output with added margin characters
231 (using `.mc') to indicate the differences.
236 o A new wrapper script contributed by Keith Marshall to easily create PDF
237 documents with groff.
244 . Support for fractional point sizes: A value for the `PS', `VS', `FPS',
245 and `VPS' register larger than or equal to 1000 is always divided by
246 1000. For example, `.nr PS 10250' sets the document's font size to
249 . The `Ds' and `De' macros provided in ms since groff version 1.19 have
250 been removed; the equivalent `DS' and `DE' macros should be used
251 instead. X11 documents which actually use `Ds' and `De' always load a
252 specific macro file from the X11 distribution (`macros.t') which
253 provides proper definitions for the two macros.
255 . The following registers have been added for improving layout control:
258 Defines number of lines following `LP', `PP', `QP', `IP' or `XP' which
259 must be kept together, before any automatic page break.
262 Sets number of lines of following paragraph which must be kept with a
263 heading, defined by `NH' or `SH', before any automatic page break.
266 Sets the first level of heading (set with `NH') which keeps the
267 same point size as body text.
270 Sets the point size increment for each level of heading (set with
271 `NH'), below the threshold level set by `GROWPS'; e.g., if
272 \n[PS] = 10, \n[GROWPS] = 3 and \n[PSINCR] = 2.0p, then `.NH 1'
273 produces 14pt headings, `.NH 2' produces 12pt, and all other
274 levels remain at 10pt (because \n[PS] = 10).
276 . The `SH' macro now accepts a numeric argument, to make heading size
277 match that of `NH' with same argument value when the `GROWPS'/`PSINCR'
280 Please refer to the documentation of the ms package for other, minor
285 The section type set with the `++' request is available in the `_M'
286 register. This isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
290 The `HR' macro no longer causes an empty line for non-HTML devices.
292 A new macro `HEAD' has been added to directly add data to the
293 <head>...</head> block.
295 New macros `OLS' and `OLE' to start and end an ordered list.
297 New macros `DLS' and `DLE' to start and end a definition list.
302 o A new macro package contributed by Keith Marshall which implements PDF
303 marks. This is in alpha stage currently.
308 o Two new keywords to the DESC file have been added which are needed for
309 grohtml: `image_generator' and `unscaled_charwidths'. The former gives
310 the name of the program which creates PNG images, and the latter makes
311 troff always use unscaled character widths.
320 o The argument of the command line option `-I' is now also passed to troff
321 and grops, specifying a directory to search for files on the command line,
322 files named in `so' and `psbb' requests, and files named in \X'ps: file'
323 and \X'ps: import' escapes.
325 o If option `-V' is used more than once, the commands are both printed
326 on standard error and run.
331 o Two new read-only, string-valued registers `.m' and `.M' return the
332 name of the current drawing and background color, respectively.
334 o New read-only register `.U' which is set to 1 if in safer mode and set
335 to 0 if in unsafe mode.
337 o An input encoding file for latin-5 (a.k.a. ISO 8859-9) has been added.
340 groff -Tdvi -mlatin5 my_file > my_file.dvi
342 Note that some output devices don't support all glyphs of this encoding.
344 o If the `return' request is called with an argument, it exits twice,
345 namely the current macro and the macro one level higher. This is
346 used to define a wrapper macro for `return' in trace.tmac.
348 o For completeness, two new requests have been added: `dei1' and `ami1'.
349 They are equivalent to `dei' and `ami', respectively, but the macros
350 are executed with compatibility mode off (similar to `de1' and `am1').
352 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory for files (both
353 those on the command line and those named in `psbb' requests). This is
354 also handled by the groff wrapper program.
356 o Since version 1.19 you can say `.vs 0'. Older versions emit a warning
357 and convert this to `.vs \n[.V]'.
359 This hasn't been documented properly. Note that `.vs 0' isn't saved in a
360 diversion since it doesn't result in vertical motion.
365 o Dashed and dotted ellipses have been implemented.
370 o New key character `x' to make tbl call a user-defined macro on a table
371 cell. Patch by Heinz-Jürgen Oertel <hj.oertel@surfeu.de>.
376 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
377 converts a grap diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the
378 PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
379 [Note that the grap program itself isn't part of the groff package;
380 see the file MORE.STUFF how to obtain grap.]
385 o New option `-j' to emit output split into multiple files.
390 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory to search for files
391 on the command line and files named in \X'ps: import' and \X'ps: file'
392 escapes. This is also handled by the groff wrapper program.
394 o The default value for the `broken' keyword in the DESC file is now 0.
399 o A new man page `lj4_font(5)' documents how fonts are accessed with
402 o The built-in fonts for LJ4 and newer PCL 5 devices have been completely
403 revised, mainly to access as much glyphs as possible. The provided
404 metric files should be compatible with recent PCL 5 printers also.
405 Additionally, font description files have been added for the Arial and
406 Times New Roman family, the MS symbol, and Wingdings fonts.
411 o New option `-x' to prevent use of built-in Adobe Glyph List.
416 o Completely revised to handle HP TrueType metric files also. See the
417 hpftodit manual page for more details.
422 o This version is a rewrite of groffer in many parts, but it is kept in
423 the old single script style.
425 New options: --text, --mode text, --tty-viewer, --X, --mode X,
426 --X-viewer, --html, --mode html, --html-view, --apropos-data,
427 --apropos-devel, --apropos-progs.
429 New documentation file: README_SH.
431 Enhancement of the configuration files and the `apropos' handling.
436 o www.tmac: New macro `JOBNAME' to split output into multiple files.
438 o In mdoc, multiple calls to `.Lb' are now supported in the LIBRARY
448 o Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
449 latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added. Example use:
451 groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi
453 You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs. Out of the box,
454 the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and -Tutf8,
455 and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.
457 o Composite glyphs are now supported. To do this, a subset of the Adobe
458 Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in
460 http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/opentype/index_glyph.html
462 is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes. The
463 existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't be
464 constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.
466 The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple glyph
471 this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.
473 Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong' Unicode
474 code points. For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a spacing
475 ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for composite
476 glyphs. The new request
480 changes the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed.
481 To make \[A ho] yield the expected result,
485 is needed. [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
486 contains proper calls to `.composite'.]
488 Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man page
491 o A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific fallback
492 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
493 `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts declared with `special'.
495 o Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
496 new `rfschar' request.
498 o A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
499 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
500 `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.
502 o In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
503 point horizontally. Despite of being silly, this change has been
504 reverted for backwards compatibility. Consequently, the intermediate
505 output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.
507 \D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal resolution of
508 the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the DESC file).
509 Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.
511 o For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
518 \D'Fd' (default color)
520 The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request. The current
521 position is *not* changed.
523 o The values set with \H and \S are now available in number registers
524 \n[.height] and \n[.slant], respectively.
526 o The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
527 It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp' request.
529 o The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.
531 o The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL.
532 (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously supported by
533 grolj4.) The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol font has been
534 changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon, `*e', has the
535 same glyph shape as with other devices.
540 o The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default glyph
541 shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.
543 o It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only 256
544 (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries). grops
545 constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.
547 o The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
548 mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
549 about the paper size. The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
550 (the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
551 extension) -- if you intend to further process grops output to get an
552 encapsulated PS (EPS) file you must also use this option.
554 Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>.
556 o Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no longer
557 contain negative left italic correction values. This assures correct
563 o The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI fonts.
564 It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.
566 o New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper size.
567 grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by DVI drivers
570 Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.
572 o The glyph shapes for \[*f] and \[*e] have been exchanged with \[+f] and
573 \[+e], respectively, to be in sync with all other devices.
575 o Glyphs \[HE] and \[DI] have been replaced with \[u2662] and \[u2661],
576 respectively, since the former two glyphs have a black (filled) shape
577 which grodvi doesn't provide by default (it never has actually).
582 o The glyphs \[*e] and \[+e] have been exchanged to be in sync with
585 o The glyph \[~=] is now called \[|=]. Similar to other devices, \[~=]
586 is now another name for glyph \[~~].
591 o New option `-r'. It is similar to the -i option except it tells grotty to
592 use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.
597 o New command `figname' to set the name of a picture's output box in TeX
603 o The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
604 database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
609 o New option `-r' to avoid emission of `.lf' lines.
611 o New option `-t' to emit TeX comment lines (giving current file and the
612 line number) instead of `.lf' lines.
617 o Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now emit
618 multiple encoding vectors for a single font).
620 o New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.
622 o The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now searched
623 in the default font directory also. Please refer to the man page of
624 afmtodit for more details.
629 o Larry Kollar <kollar@alltel.net> and others made the man macros more
632 . New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
633 location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
634 sub-subheading indentation.
636 . New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
639 . New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
640 They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.
642 . The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
645 . Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if not
646 explicitly specified on the command line.
648 o troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
649 the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.
651 Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined `papersize'
652 values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the groff_font man page)
653 except a7-d7. An appended `l' (ell) character denotes landscape
654 orientation. Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.
656 Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
657 `-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
658 the driver specific DESC file.
660 For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
663 groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
672 o The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
673 include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a
674 glyph (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,' and appending `\/' to the
675 glyph) sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal
676 bounding box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the
677 particular glyph is used (which can differ considerably).
679 Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
680 existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely for
681 italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
684 This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
689 o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
695 o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
696 drivers) to set the default line width.
701 o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
706 o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.
711 o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
712 compatibility with NetBSD.
714 o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
717 o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
718 and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
721 o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
726 o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
727 It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
728 used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.
732 papersize /etc/papersize a4
734 o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
735 defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the normal
736 font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
739 /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
741 for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
747 ***************************************************************************
749 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
751 ***************************************************************************
756 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
757 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
758 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
759 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
760 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
761 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
762 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
763 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
766 Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
767 read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
770 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
771 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
774 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
775 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
776 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
778 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
779 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
780 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
783 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
786 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
787 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
789 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
790 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
792 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
793 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
795 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
796 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
798 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
799 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
801 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
803 o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
806 .ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
809 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
810 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
816 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
817 . nop I will now define `bar'.
819 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
823 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
824 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
826 o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
827 the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
828 control their output format.
830 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
831 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
832 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
833 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
834 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
835 before checking special fonts.
837 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
838 doesn't emit a final newline.
840 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
841 with \c counts as one input line.
843 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
844 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
847 o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
848 character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
849 Note that this is an incompatible change.
851 o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
852 request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
854 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
855 pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
856 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
857 for more information.
859 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
862 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
863 already existing patterns).
865 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
866 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
867 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
868 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
870 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
871 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
872 final `0' can be omitted.
874 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
875 the exception that the `asciify' request uses the character code (if
876 any) before the character translation. Example:
888 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
890 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
891 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
892 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
893 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
894 post-vertical line space.
896 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
906 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
907 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
909 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
910 they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
911 single space characters.
913 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
916 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
917 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
918 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
919 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
920 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
925 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
926 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
927 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
928 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
929 for PostScript output only.
931 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
932 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
934 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
935 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
936 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
937 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
938 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
940 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
941 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
942 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
944 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
947 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
948 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
951 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
952 works in compatibility mode.
954 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
955 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
957 o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
960 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
961 reference to the ms macros.
963 o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
965 o Changes in www.tmac:
967 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
968 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
969 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
972 The following macros have been renamed:
978 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
979 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
981 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
982 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
984 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
985 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
987 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
988 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
990 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
991 generation to headings.
993 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
996 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it automatically
997 converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
999 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
1000 (it automatically converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
1002 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
1004 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
1006 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
1008 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
1009 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
1014 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
1015 disabled in compatibility mode).
1020 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
1021 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
1022 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
1027 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
1028 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
1029 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
1031 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
1033 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
1035 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
1040 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
1041 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
1042 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
1047 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
1048 converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
1049 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
1054 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
1055 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
1061 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
1066 o Color support has been added.
1068 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
1069 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
1074 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
1075 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
1076 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
1079 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
1080 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
1082 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
1083 extended) has been added.
1085 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
1087 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
1088 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
1089 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
1091 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
1092 doesn't take care of hcode values.
1094 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
1095 to gray values currently.
1100 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
1101 ANSI color) escape sequences.
1103 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
1104 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
1105 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
1107 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
1108 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
1109 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
1110 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
1111 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
1113 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
1114 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable (or $MANPAGER, depending on the
1115 used `man' program); alternatively, you can use `man's `-P' option (or
1116 adapt its configuration file accordingly). See man(1) for more details.
1118 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
1119 reverting to the old behaviour.
1121 o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
1122 enable SGR output (the default).
1124 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
1125 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
1126 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
1127 for this (including xterm).
1132 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
1134 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
1136 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
1138 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
1139 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
1142 o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
1147 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
1148 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
1149 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
1154 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
1156 o The groff texinfo manual is installed now, together with a bunch
1159 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
1162 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
1164 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
1165 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
1167 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
1169 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
1170 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
1171 currently. troff completely ignores it.
1176 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
1181 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
1182 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
1183 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
1188 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
1193 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
1194 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
1197 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
1199 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
1200 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
1202 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
1208 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
1210 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
1216 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
1218 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
1219 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
1227 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
1228 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
1229 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
1230 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
1231 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
1233 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
1234 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
1235 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
1236 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
1237 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
1238 environment variables to groff.
1243 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
1244 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
1245 supported). Most important changes are:
1248 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
1249 . `.Lb': prints library names
1250 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
1252 . Updated `.St' command
1253 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
1254 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
1255 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
1256 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
1257 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
1258 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
1259 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
1260 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
1263 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
1264 documents the mdoc package.
1266 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
1267 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
1269 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
1270 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
1271 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
1274 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
1276 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
1277 `if 1'. For example,
1283 can now be written as
1289 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
1290 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
1291 ending the diversion).
1293 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
1294 and some other escape sequences also.
1296 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
1297 unbreakable space character.
1299 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
1300 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
1301 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
1306 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
1311 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
1316 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
1323 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1324 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1325 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1326 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1329 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
1330 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
1332 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1333 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1334 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1335 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1338 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
1339 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
1340 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
1355 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
1359 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
1360 mode, and 0 otherwise.
1362 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
1363 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
1364 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
1366 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
1367 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
1368 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
1369 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
1371 o The new `spreadwarn' request makes troff warn if spaces in an output
1372 line are widened by a given limit or more.
1374 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff uses for
1377 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
1378 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
1379 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
1380 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
1382 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
1383 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
1385 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
1386 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
1389 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
1390 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
1392 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
1394 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
1395 previous font family.
1397 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
1398 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
1400 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
1401 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
1402 macro or string is written to a stream.
1404 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
1405 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
1408 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
1410 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
1411 underlines spaces also).
1416 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
1417 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
1422 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
1423 been added to select a different prologue file.
1425 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
1426 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
1427 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
1432 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
1434 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
1435 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
1436 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
1439 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
1440 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
1441 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
1442 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
1443 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
1444 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
1446 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
1447 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
1450 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
1451 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
1452 variable if you really need the current directory.
1454 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
1455 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
1456 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
1457 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
1458 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
1459 is searched before the local tmac directory.
1461 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
1462 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
1463 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
1468 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1476 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
1477 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
1478 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
1480 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
1482 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
1484 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
1485 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
1486 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
1492 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
1493 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
1494 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
1496 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
1497 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
1498 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
1499 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
1500 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
1501 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
1503 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
1504 contains the current year.
1506 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
1507 number of the groff package.
1509 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
1510 font `foo' is undefined:
1513 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
1515 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
1517 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1519 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
1520 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1522 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
1525 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
1526 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
1528 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
1529 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
1530 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
1532 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
1534 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
1535 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
1538 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
1539 (which is an alias to character `"').
1541 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
1542 (which is an alias to character "'").
1544 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
1545 better support of HTML output:
1547 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
1550 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
1552 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
1553 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
1554 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
1555 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
1557 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
1560 use_charnames_in_special
1561 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
1562 inside special commands.
1565 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
1566 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
1571 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
1576 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
1578 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
1580 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
1581 is immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
1582 punctuation, for example).
1587 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
1589 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
1595 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
1596 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
1597 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
1602 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
1603 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
1604 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
1605 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
1610 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
1611 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
1616 Simplified installation: The Imakefile is now configured (by groff's
1622 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
1623 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
1624 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
1629 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
1630 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
1631 <blake@florida-software.com>.
1633 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
1634 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
1636 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
1637 ========================
1639 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1644 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
1645 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
1646 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
1649 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
1650 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
1652 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
1653 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
1656 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
1657 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
1659 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
1660 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
1662 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
1665 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
1666 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
1668 Following the GNU standards, groff now uses the prefix `/usr/local/' as
1669 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
1671 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
1672 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
1678 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
1679 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
1680 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
1681 reports are highly welcome.
1686 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
1692 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
1693 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
1698 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
1699 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
1701 Will now support 8 gray levels.
1706 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
1711 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
1712 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
1713 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
1714 half a dozen other projects.
1719 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
1720 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
1721 latest GNU coding standards.
1723 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
1724 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
1726 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
1727 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
1728 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
1729 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
1730 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
1731 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
1732 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
1733 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
1734 always installed as -me.
1736 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
1742 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
1743 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
1749 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
1755 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
1760 The -m option enables manual feed.
1765 \(rn now produces a character that has the traditional metrics,
1766 and form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it does not
1767 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
1768 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
1774 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1780 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1781 graphic to be specified.
1789 The escape sequence \V[xxx] interpolates the value of the
1790 environment variable xxx.
1795 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1796 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1805 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1806 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1812 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1813 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1814 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1816 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1817 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1819 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1820 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1825 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1826 try to keep the table on one page.
1831 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1832 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1833 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1834 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1839 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1840 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1841 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1846 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1847 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1849 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1851 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1852 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1854 ^L is now a valid input character.
1859 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1860 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1861 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1862 default device is ps.)
1864 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1865 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1866 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1867 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1869 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1870 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1871 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1872 draw_lines parameter.
1874 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1875 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1876 always loaded by troff.
1878 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1883 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1885 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1886 while a character definition is being processed.
1888 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1891 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1892 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1894 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file causes no font to be
1895 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1896 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1897 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1898 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1900 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1901 with compatibility mode disabled.
1903 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
1904 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
1905 for loading the device-specific macros.
1910 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
1911 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
1912 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
1913 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
1915 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
1916 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
1917 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
1919 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
1920 (the quotes are required).
1925 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
1926 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
1927 be prevented by the -R option.
1929 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
1930 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
1932 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
1935 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
1936 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
1942 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
1943 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
1944 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
1946 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
1949 With the -g option, grops generates PostScript code that guesses
1950 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
1951 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
1956 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
1957 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
1962 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
1968 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
1969 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
1970 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
1971 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
1972 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
1973 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
1974 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
1975 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
1976 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
1977 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register
1978 is derived from the $r or $R register.
1980 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
1982 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
1983 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ is only usable
1986 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
1991 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
1992 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
1993 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
1995 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
1996 redisplays the current page.
2004 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
2005 differently with blocks.
2007 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
2008 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
2010 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
2012 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
2018 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' are rendered
2019 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
2020 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
2025 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
2026 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
2027 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
2028 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
2029 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
2031 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro produces a box
2032 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
2037 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
2039 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
2040 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
2045 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
2050 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
2051 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
2052 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
2058 Support for scalable fonts.
2063 No changes other than bug fixes.
2068 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
2069 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
2070 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
2071 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
2073 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
2075 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
2076 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
2077 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
2078 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi uses the
2079 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
2080 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
2082 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
2085 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
2086 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
2088 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
2093 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
2094 input level as the opening [.
2096 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
2097 suitable for use as a name.
2099 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
2102 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
2103 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
2104 the -mX option is given.
2106 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
2111 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
2112 constructs by writing a troff macro.
2117 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
2122 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
2123 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
2124 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
2125 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
2127 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
2128 Document Structuring Convention.
2130 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
2131 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
2132 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
2133 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
2134 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
2137 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
2138 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
2143 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
2144 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps runs gtroff -Tps with
2147 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
2148 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
2151 Xditview now uses imake.
2156 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
2158 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
2159 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
2160 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
2161 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
2162 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
2163 that the `n' condition is true.
2165 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
2166 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
2167 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
2169 groff -Tdvi -p now passes pic the -x flag; this enables filling
2170 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
2171 latest version of the tpic specials.
2176 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
2177 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
2178 delimiters. The groff command passes on a `-N' option to eqn.
2183 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
2184 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
2186 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
2187 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
2188 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
2193 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
2198 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
2199 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
2201 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
2202 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
2203 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
2209 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
2211 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
2217 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
2218 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
2219 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
2220 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
2221 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
2223 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
2225 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
2228 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
2229 adjustment mode is not `b' a line is not hyphenated if it is no
2230 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
2231 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line is not
2232 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
2233 amount of extra space to each word space.
2235 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
2237 A warning of type `space' is given when a call is made to an
2238 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
2239 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
2240 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
2241 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
2247 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
2249 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
2250 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
2256 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
2257 complicated equations inside pictures.
2259 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
2260 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
2266 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
2267 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
2273 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
2274 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
2275 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
2278 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
2279 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
2281 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
2282 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
2284 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
2285 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
2286 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
2287 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
2288 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
2289 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
2291 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
2292 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
2293 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
2294 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
2297 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer valid input
2298 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
2300 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
2301 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
2306 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
2307 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
2308 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
2310 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
2311 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
2312 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
2313 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
2314 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
2315 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
2316 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
2317 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
2318 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
2324 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
2325 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
2327 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
2330 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
2331 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
2332 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
2333 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
2334 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
2335 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
2336 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
2338 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
2339 diversion, it now arranges for the file to be copied to the output
2340 when the diversion is reread.
2342 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
2345 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
2346 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
2347 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
2348 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
2349 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
2350 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
2351 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
2353 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
2356 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
2359 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
2361 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
2362 containing the hyphenation patterns.
2364 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
2366 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
2367 of end of sentence recognition.
2369 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
2370 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
2372 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
2373 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
2375 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
2377 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
2378 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
2379 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
2384 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
2385 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
2387 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
2388 lines are drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
2391 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
2392 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
2394 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
2396 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
2397 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
2399 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
2400 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
2403 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
2404 wherever a quoted string can be used.
2406 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
2407 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
2408 of the `textht' variable.
2410 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
2411 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
2416 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
2417 has been applied to a table.
2422 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
2424 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
2425 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
2430 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
2431 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
2432 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
2433 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
2434 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
2435 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
2436 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
2438 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
2439 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
2440 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'
2444 version-control: never