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 Two new requests `device' and `devicem' have been added which are
11 equivalents to the \X and \Y escapes, respectively.
13 o A new read-only number register `.br' is available which is set to 1
14 if a macro is called as .foo and to 0 if called as 'foo. This allows to
15 reliably modify requests.
20 . ie \\n[.br] .bp@orig
25 o A new request `fzoom' has been added to adjust the optical size of a
26 font in relation to the others. The zoom factor is given in integer
27 multiples of 1/1000th. In the following example, the CR font is
28 magnified by 10% (the zoom factor is 1.1).
33 Palatino and \f[CR]Courier\f[]
35 The new number register `.zoom' holds the zoom value of the current font,
36 in multiples of 1/1000th.
38 o The `cflags' request has been extended with a new flag value 64, to be
39 used in combination with values 2 (break before character) and 4 (break
40 after character). If set, the hyphenation codes of the surrounding
41 characters are ignored.
43 o A new debugging request, `pev', has been added to print all of the current
44 known environments to stderr. It first prints the state of the current
45 environment, then iterates through all of the known environments, printing
46 each except the one that is current.
48 o A new escape `\$^' has been added. It represents the parameters of a
49 macro as if they were an argument to the `ds' request. This is used by
52 o The PS font definition files have been regenerated with newer AFM versions
53 from Adobe's 35 core fonts as present in most Level 2 PS printers. The
54 changes are minor (most notably, the addition of the `Euro' glyph and an
55 extended set of kerning values).
57 For backwards compatibility, the old set of font definition files is still
58 available; for details please read the man page of `grops(1)'.
63 o int(x) now really behaves as documented: It truncates the non-integer part
64 of x, this is, it rounds towards zero and not towards the next integer
65 less than or equal to x.
67 o Pic now supports up to 32 macro arguments (and up to 16 on EBCDIC
73 o Eric S. Raymond has added a new device type to eqn, MathML. When
74 -TMathML is enabled, eqn now emits MathML formula markup rather than
80 o The preprocessor `chem' was added. `chem' is a roff language to generate
81 chemical structure diagrams. It generates `pic' output.
86 o \D'p...' is now supported if the polygon consists entirely of horizontal
92 o Support for keyboard navigation has been improved.
94 o Similar to other X11 applications, there are now two resource files,
95 `GXditview' and `GXditview-color'.
100 o `groffer' version 1.* exists now in a shell and a Perl version.
105 o New option `-c' to output more font information as comments.
110 o Fabrice Ménard contributed locales support. In particular, it is now
111 possible to get French localization of the main macro packages (-ms, -mm,
112 -me, and -mom, but not -man and -mdoc which are localized differently) by
113 appending `-mfr' to the list of macro packages. Example:
115 groff -ms -mfr foo > foo.ps
117 Note that latin-9 input encoding is used for French (to support the `oe'
120 o Swedish macro localization (with `-msv') has been added.
122 o German macro localization (with `-mde' and `-mden' for traditional and
123 new orthography, respectively) has been added.
125 o A new macro `Dx' has been added to the mdoc package which identifies the
128 o -mtrace has been considerably improved, now showing number and string
129 register assignments, among other things.
131 o The PSPIC macro now works with all devices (producing a hollow
132 rectangle on devices which don't support inclusion of PS images) and
133 is loaded in troffrc at start-up.
135 o A new auxiliary macro package `62bit' has been added which provides some
136 macros for adding, multiplying, and dividing signed 62bit integers (mainly
137 to handle normal groff number operations without risking overflow errors).
139 o For -ms, Eric S. Raymond contributed support for ancient Bell Labs
140 localisms `.SC', `.UC', `.P1', and `.P2'. The latter three are enabled
141 only after .SC is called.
143 o A new string, `SN-STYLE', has been added to the ms macros, controlling
144 the formatting of section numbers in headings defined by `.NH'.
153 o Analogously to the .ft and \f pair, two new requests `gcolor' and
154 `fcolor' (which pair with \m and \M, respectively) have been added to
155 set the glyph and background colours.
157 o A new read-only, string-valued register `.sty' returns the name of the
160 o Two new conditional operators `F <name>' and `S <name>' have been added.
161 `F' is true if a font <name> exists. `S' is true if a style <name> has
164 o Cyrillic characters have been added to the `utf8' and `html' output
170 o The `by' argument in a `for' loop can now be negative if it is additive.
171 For the multiplicative case, it must be greater than zero.
176 o The following keywords aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
178 undef NAME (to undefine a macro)
179 copy "FILE" (a synonym for `include')
180 space n (to modify the vertical spacing before and after
183 o The following macros aren't new but haven't been documented previously:
185 Alpha, ..., Omega (the same as `ALPHA', ..., `OMEGA')
186 ldots (three dots on the base line)
187 dollar (a dollar glyph)
189 o The following keywords have been extended. Again, this isn't new but
190 hasn't been documented previously:
199 cpile n { ... } (set vertical spacing between rows to N)
204 o This device driver has been raised to beta stage; its set of tags should
207 o New command line option `-s' to set the base point size.
209 o New command line option `-S' to set the split level while generating
215 o Experimental support for zero-width and double-width characters.
220 o On platforms which have the X Window System this program is now built and
221 installed automatically.
226 o This program to create font definition files for xditview isn't new but
227 hasn't been installed previously.
232 o A security problem (reported as CAN-2004-0969) has been fixed.
237 o A new script contributed by Mike Bianchi. It compares two groff, nroff,
238 or troff documents and creates an output with added margin characters
239 (using `.mc') to indicate the differences.
244 o A new wrapper script contributed by Keith Marshall to easily create PDF
245 documents with groff.
252 . Support for fractional point sizes: A value for the `PS', `VS', `FPS',
253 and `VPS' register larger than or equal to 1000 is always divided by
254 1000. For example, `.nr PS 10250' sets the document's font size to
257 . The `Ds' and `De' macros provided in ms since groff version 1.19 have
258 been removed; the equivalent `DS' and `DE' macros should be used
259 instead. X11 documents which actually use `Ds' and `De' always load a
260 specific macro file from the X11 distribution (`macros.t') which
261 provides proper definitions for the two macros.
263 . The following registers have been added for improving layout control:
266 Defines number of lines following `LP', `PP', `QP', `IP' or `XP' which
267 must be kept together, before any automatic page break.
270 Sets number of lines of following paragraph which must be kept with a
271 heading, defined by `NH' or `SH', before any automatic page break.
274 Sets the first level of heading (set with `NH') which keeps the
275 same point size as body text.
278 Sets the point size increment for each level of heading (set with
279 `NH'), below the threshold level set by `GROWPS'; e.g., if
280 \n[PS] = 10, \n[GROWPS] = 3 and \n[PSINCR] = 2.0p, then `.NH 1'
281 produces 14pt headings, `.NH 2' produces 12pt, and all other
282 levels remain at 10pt (because \n[PS] = 10).
284 . The `SH' macro now accepts a numeric argument, to make heading size
285 match that of `NH' with same argument value when the `GROWPS'/`PSINCR'
288 Please refer to the documentation of the ms package for other, minor
293 The section type set with the `++' request is available in the `_M'
294 register. This isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
298 The `HR' macro no longer causes an empty line for non-HTML devices.
300 A new macro `HEAD' has been added to directly add data to the
301 <head>...</head> block.
303 New macros `OLS' and `OLE' to start and end an ordered list.
305 New macros `DLS' and `DLE' to start and end a definition list.
310 o A new macro package contributed by Keith Marshall which implements PDF
311 marks. This is in alpha stage currently.
316 o Two new keywords to the DESC file have been added which are needed for
317 grohtml: `image_generator' and `unscaled_charwidths'. The former gives
318 the name of the program which creates PNG images, and the latter makes
319 troff always use unscaled character widths.
328 o The argument of the command line option `-I' is now also passed to troff
329 and grops, specifying a directory to search for files on the command line,
330 files named in `so' and `psbb' requests, and files named in \X'ps: file'
331 and \X'ps: import' escapes.
333 o If option `-V' is used more than once, the commands are both printed
334 on standard error and run.
339 o Two new read-only, string-valued registers `.m' and `.M' return the
340 name of the current drawing and background color, respectively.
342 o New read-only register `.U' which is set to 1 if in safer mode and set
343 to 0 if in unsafe mode.
345 o An input encoding file for latin-5 (a.k.a. ISO 8859-9) has been added.
348 groff -Tdvi -mlatin5 my_file > my_file.dvi
350 Note that some output devices don't support all glyphs of this encoding.
352 o If the `return' request is called with an argument, it exits twice,
353 namely the current macro and the macro one level higher. This is
354 used to define a wrapper macro for `return' in trace.tmac.
356 o For completeness, two new requests have been added: `dei1' and `ami1'.
357 They are equivalent to `dei' and `ami', respectively, but the macros
358 are executed with compatibility mode off (similar to `de1' and `am1').
360 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory for files (both
361 those on the command line and those named in `psbb' requests). This is
362 also handled by the groff wrapper program.
364 o Since version 1.19 you can say `.vs 0'. Older versions emit a warning
365 and convert this to `.vs \n[.V]'.
367 This hasn't been documented properly. Note that `.vs 0' isn't saved in a
368 diversion since it doesn't result in vertical motion.
373 o Dashed and dotted ellipses have been implemented.
378 o New key character `x' to make tbl call a user-defined macro on a table
379 cell. Patch by Heinz-Jürgen Oertel <hj.oertel@surfeu.de>.
384 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
385 converts a grap diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the
386 PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
387 [Note that the grap program itself isn't part of the groff package;
388 see the file MORE.STUFF how to obtain grap.]
393 o New option `-j' to emit output split into multiple files.
398 o New command line option `-I' to specify a directory to search for files
399 on the command line and files named in \X'ps: import' and \X'ps: file'
400 escapes. This is also handled by the groff wrapper program.
402 o The default value for the `broken' keyword in the DESC file is now 0.
407 o A new man page `lj4_font(5)' documents how fonts are accessed with
410 o The built-in fonts for LJ4 and newer PCL 5 devices have been completely
411 revised, mainly to access as much glyphs as possible. The provided
412 metric files should be compatible with recent PCL 5 printers also.
413 Additionally, font description files have been added for the Arial and
414 Times New Roman family, the MS symbol, and Wingdings fonts.
419 o New option `-x' to prevent use of built-in Adobe Glyph List.
424 o Completely revised to handle HP TrueType metric files also. See the
425 hpftodit manual page for more details.
430 o This version is a rewrite of groffer in many parts, but it is kept in
431 the old single script style.
433 New options: --text, --mode text, --tty-viewer, --X, --mode X,
434 --X-viewer, --html, --mode html, --html-view, --apropos-data,
435 --apropos-devel, --apropos-progs.
437 New documentation file: README_SH.
439 Enhancement of the configuration files and the `apropos' handling.
444 o www.tmac: New macro `JOBNAME' to split output into multiple files.
446 o In mdoc, multiple calls to `.Lb' are now supported in the LIBRARY
456 o Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
457 latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added. Example use:
459 groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi
461 You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs. Out of the box,
462 the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and -Tutf8,
463 and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.
465 o Composite glyphs are now supported. To do this, a subset of the Adobe
466 Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in
468 http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/opentype/index_glyph.html
470 is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes. The
471 existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't be
472 constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.
474 The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple glyph
479 this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.
481 Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong' Unicode
482 code points. For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a spacing
483 ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for composite
484 glyphs. The new request
488 changes the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed.
489 To make \[A ho] yield the expected result,
493 is needed. [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
494 contains proper calls to `.composite'.]
496 Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man page
499 o A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific fallback
500 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
501 `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts declared with `special'.
503 o Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
504 new `rfschar' request.
506 o A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
507 characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with the
508 `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.
510 o In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
511 point horizontally. Despite of being silly, this change has been
512 reverted for backwards compatibility. Consequently, the intermediate
513 output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.
515 \D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal resolution of
516 the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the DESC file).
517 Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.
519 o For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
526 \D'Fd' (default color)
528 The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request. The current
529 position is *not* changed.
531 o The values set with \H and \S are now available in number registers
532 \n[.height] and \n[.slant], respectively.
534 o The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
535 It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp' request.
537 o The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.
539 o The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON SYMBOL.
540 (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously supported by
541 grolj4.) The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol font has been
542 changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon, `*e', has the
543 same glyph shape as with other devices.
548 o The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default glyph
549 shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.
551 o It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only 256
552 (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries). grops
553 constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.
555 o The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
556 mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
557 about the paper size. The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
558 (the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
559 extension) -- if you intend to further process grops output to get an
560 encapsulated PS (EPS) file you must also use this option.
562 Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>.
564 o Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no longer
565 contain negative left italic correction values. This assures correct
571 o The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI fonts.
572 It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.
574 o New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper size.
575 grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by DVI drivers
578 Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.
580 o The glyph shapes for \[*f] and \[*e] have been exchanged with \[+f] and
581 \[+e], respectively, to be in sync with all other devices.
583 o Glyphs \[HE] and \[DI] have been replaced with \[u2662] and \[u2661],
584 respectively, since the former two glyphs have a black (filled) shape
585 which grodvi doesn't provide by default (it never has actually).
590 o The glyphs \[*e] and \[+e] have been exchanged to be in sync with
593 o The glyph \[~=] is now called \[|=]. Similar to other devices, \[~=]
594 is now another name for glyph \[~~].
599 o New option `-r'. It is similar to the -i option except it tells grotty to
600 use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.
605 o New command `figname' to set the name of a picture's output box in TeX
611 o The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
612 database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
617 o New option `-r' to avoid emission of `.lf' lines.
619 o New option `-t' to emit TeX comment lines (giving current file and the
620 line number) instead of `.lf' lines.
625 o Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now emit
626 multiple encoding vectors for a single font).
628 o New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.
630 o The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now searched
631 in the default font directory also. Please refer to the man page of
632 afmtodit for more details.
637 o Larry Kollar <kollar@alltel.net> and others made the man macros more
640 . New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
641 location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
642 sub-subheading indentation.
644 . New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
647 . New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
648 They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.
650 . The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
653 . Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if not
654 explicitly specified on the command line.
656 o troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
657 the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.
659 Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined `papersize'
660 values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the groff_font man page)
661 except a7-d7. An appended `l' (ell) character denotes landscape
662 orientation. Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.
664 Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
665 `-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
666 the driver specific DESC file.
668 For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
671 groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
680 o The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been regenerated to
681 include left and right italic correction values. Applying those to a
682 glyph (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,' and appending `\/' to the
683 glyph) sets the glyph width to the real value given by the horizontal
684 bounding box values. Without those escapes, the advance width for the
685 particular glyph is used (which can differ considerably).
687 Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
688 existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely for
689 italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation with
692 This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
697 o Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces in
703 o The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
704 drivers) to set the default line width.
709 o Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
714 o New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall run.
719 o The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
720 compatibility with NetBSD.
722 o `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
725 o In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with horizontal
726 and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS for more
729 o New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
734 o The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple arguments.
735 It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid argument is
736 used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper size.
740 papersize /etc/papersize a4
742 o A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path; it
743 defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the normal
744 font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX subdirectory,
747 /usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
749 for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
755 ***************************************************************************
757 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
759 ***************************************************************************
764 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
765 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
766 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
767 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
768 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
769 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
770 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
771 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
774 Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
775 read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
778 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
779 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
782 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
783 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
784 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
786 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
787 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
788 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
791 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
794 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
795 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
797 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
798 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
800 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
801 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
803 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
804 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
806 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
807 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
809 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
811 o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
814 .ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
817 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
818 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
824 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
825 . nop I will now define `bar'.
827 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
831 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
832 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
834 o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
835 the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
836 control their output format.
838 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
839 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
840 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
841 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
842 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
843 before checking special fonts.
845 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
846 doesn't emit a final newline.
848 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
849 with \c counts as one input line.
851 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
852 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
855 o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
856 character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
857 Note that this is an incompatible change.
859 o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
860 request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
862 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
863 pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
864 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
865 for more information.
867 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
870 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
871 already existing patterns).
873 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
874 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
875 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
876 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
878 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
879 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
880 final `0' can be omitted.
882 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
883 the exception that the `asciify' request uses the character code (if
884 any) before the character translation. Example:
896 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
898 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
899 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
900 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
901 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
902 post-vertical line space.
904 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
914 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
915 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
917 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
918 they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
919 single space characters.
921 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
924 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
925 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
926 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
927 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
928 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
933 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
934 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
935 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
936 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
937 for PostScript output only.
939 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
940 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
942 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
943 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
944 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
945 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
946 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
948 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
949 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
950 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
952 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
955 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
956 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
959 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
960 works in compatibility mode.
962 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
963 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
965 o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
968 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
969 reference to the ms macros.
971 o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
973 o Changes in www.tmac:
975 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
976 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
977 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
980 The following macros have been renamed:
986 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
987 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
989 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
990 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
992 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
993 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
995 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
996 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
998 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
999 generation to headings.
1001 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
1004 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it automatically
1005 converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
1007 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
1008 (it automatically converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
1010 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
1012 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
1014 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
1016 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
1017 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
1022 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
1023 disabled in compatibility mode).
1028 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
1029 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
1030 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
1035 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
1036 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
1037 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
1039 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
1041 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
1043 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
1048 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
1049 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
1050 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
1055 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
1056 converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
1057 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
1062 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
1063 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
1069 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
1074 o Color support has been added.
1076 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
1077 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
1082 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
1083 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
1084 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
1087 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
1088 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
1090 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
1091 extended) has been added.
1093 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
1095 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
1096 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
1097 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
1099 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
1100 doesn't take care of hcode values.
1102 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
1103 to gray values currently.
1108 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
1109 ANSI color) escape sequences.
1111 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
1112 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
1113 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
1115 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
1116 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
1117 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
1118 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
1119 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
1121 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
1122 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable (or $MANPAGER, depending on the
1123 used `man' program); alternatively, you can use `man's `-P' option (or
1124 adapt its configuration file accordingly). See man(1) for more details.
1126 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
1127 reverting to the old behaviour.
1129 o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
1130 enable SGR output (the default).
1132 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
1133 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
1134 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
1135 for this (including xterm).
1140 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
1142 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
1144 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
1146 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
1147 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
1150 o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
1155 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
1156 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
1157 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
1162 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
1164 o The groff texinfo manual is installed now, together with a bunch
1167 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
1170 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
1172 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
1173 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
1175 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
1177 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
1178 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
1179 currently. troff completely ignores it.
1185 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
1190 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
1191 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
1192 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
1198 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
1203 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
1204 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
1207 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
1209 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
1210 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
1212 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
1218 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
1220 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
1226 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
1228 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
1229 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
1238 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
1239 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
1240 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
1241 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
1242 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
1244 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
1245 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
1246 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
1247 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
1248 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
1249 environment variables to groff.
1254 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
1255 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
1256 supported). Most important changes are:
1259 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
1260 . `.Lb': prints library names
1261 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
1263 . Updated `.St' command
1264 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
1265 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
1266 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
1267 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
1268 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
1269 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
1270 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
1271 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
1274 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
1275 documents the mdoc package.
1277 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
1278 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
1280 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
1281 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
1282 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
1285 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
1287 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
1288 `if 1'. For example,
1294 can now be written as
1300 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
1301 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
1302 ending the diversion).
1304 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
1305 and some other escape sequences also.
1307 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
1308 unbreakable space character.
1310 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
1311 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
1312 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
1317 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
1322 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
1327 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
1334 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1335 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1336 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1337 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1340 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
1341 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
1343 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
1344 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
1345 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
1346 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
1349 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
1350 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
1351 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
1366 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
1370 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
1371 mode, and 0 otherwise.
1373 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
1374 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
1375 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
1377 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
1378 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
1379 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
1380 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
1382 o The new `spreadwarn' request makes troff warn if spaces in an output
1383 line are widened by a given limit or more.
1385 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff uses for
1388 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
1389 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
1390 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
1391 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
1393 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
1394 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
1396 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
1397 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
1400 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
1401 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
1403 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
1405 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
1406 previous font family.
1408 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
1409 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
1411 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
1412 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
1413 macro or string is written to a stream.
1415 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
1416 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
1419 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
1421 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
1422 underlines spaces also).
1427 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
1428 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
1433 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
1434 been added to select a different prologue file.
1436 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
1437 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
1438 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
1443 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
1445 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
1446 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
1447 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
1450 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
1451 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
1452 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
1453 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
1454 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
1455 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
1457 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
1458 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
1461 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
1462 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
1463 variable if you really need the current directory.
1465 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
1466 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
1467 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
1468 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
1469 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
1470 is searched before the local tmac directory.
1472 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
1473 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
1474 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
1480 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1489 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
1490 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
1491 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
1493 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
1495 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
1497 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
1498 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
1499 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
1505 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
1506 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
1507 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
1509 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
1510 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
1511 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
1512 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
1513 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
1514 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
1516 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
1517 contains the current year.
1519 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
1520 number of the groff package.
1522 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
1523 font `foo' is undefined:
1526 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
1528 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
1530 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1532 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
1533 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
1535 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
1538 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
1539 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
1541 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
1542 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
1543 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
1545 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
1547 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
1548 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
1551 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
1552 (which is an alias to character `"').
1554 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
1555 (which is an alias to character "'").
1557 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
1558 better support of HTML output:
1560 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
1563 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
1565 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
1566 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
1567 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
1568 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
1570 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
1573 use_charnames_in_special
1574 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
1575 inside special commands.
1578 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
1579 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
1584 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
1589 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
1591 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
1593 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
1594 is immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
1595 punctuation, for example).
1600 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
1602 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
1608 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
1609 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
1610 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
1615 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
1616 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
1617 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
1618 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
1623 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
1624 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
1629 Simplified installation: The Imakefile is now configured (by groff's
1635 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
1636 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
1637 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
1642 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
1643 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
1644 <blake@florida-software.com>.
1646 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
1647 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
1650 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
1651 ========================
1653 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
1659 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
1660 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
1661 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
1664 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
1665 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
1667 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
1668 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
1671 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
1672 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
1674 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
1675 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
1677 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
1680 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
1681 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
1683 Following the GNU standards, groff now uses the prefix `/usr/local/' as
1684 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
1686 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
1687 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
1693 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
1694 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
1695 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
1696 reports are highly welcome.
1701 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
1707 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
1708 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
1713 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
1714 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
1716 Will now support 8 gray levels.
1721 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
1727 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
1728 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
1729 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
1730 half a dozen other projects.
1736 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
1737 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
1738 latest GNU coding standards.
1740 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
1741 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
1743 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
1744 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
1745 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
1746 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
1747 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
1748 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
1749 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
1750 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
1751 always installed as -me.
1753 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
1759 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
1760 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
1766 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
1772 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
1777 The -m option enables manual feed.
1783 \(rn now produces a character that has the traditional metrics,
1784 and form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it does not
1785 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
1786 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
1792 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1798 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1799 graphic to be specified.
1808 The escape sequence \V[xxx] interpolates the value of the
1809 environment variable xxx.
1814 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1815 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1825 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1826 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1832 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1833 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1834 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1836 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1837 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1839 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1840 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1845 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1846 try to keep the table on one page.
1851 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1852 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1853 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1854 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1859 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1860 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1861 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1867 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1868 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1870 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1872 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1873 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1875 ^L is now a valid input character.
1880 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1881 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1882 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1883 default device is ps.)
1885 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1886 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1887 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1888 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1890 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1891 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1892 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1893 draw_lines parameter.
1895 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1896 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1897 always loaded by troff.
1899 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1904 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1906 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1907 while a character definition is being processed.
1909 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1912 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1913 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1915 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file causes no font to be
1916 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1917 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1918 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1919 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1921 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1922 with compatibility mode disabled.
1924 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
1925 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
1926 for loading the device-specific macros.
1931 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
1932 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
1933 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
1934 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
1936 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
1937 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
1938 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
1940 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
1941 (the quotes are required).
1946 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
1947 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
1948 be prevented by the -R option.
1950 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
1951 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
1953 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
1956 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
1957 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
1963 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
1964 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
1965 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
1967 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
1970 With the -g option, grops generates PostScript code that guesses
1971 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
1972 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
1977 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
1978 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
1983 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
1989 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
1990 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
1991 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
1992 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
1993 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
1994 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
1995 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
1996 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
1997 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
1998 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register
1999 is derived from the $r or $R register.
2001 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
2003 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
2004 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ is only usable
2007 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
2012 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
2013 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
2014 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
2016 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
2017 redisplays the current page.
2026 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
2027 differently with blocks.
2029 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
2030 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
2032 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
2034 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
2040 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' are rendered
2041 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
2042 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
2047 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
2048 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
2049 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
2050 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
2051 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
2053 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro produces a box
2054 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
2060 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
2062 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
2063 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
2068 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
2073 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
2074 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
2075 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
2081 Support for scalable fonts.
2087 No changes other than bug fixes.
2093 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
2094 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
2095 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
2096 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
2098 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
2100 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
2101 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
2102 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
2103 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi uses the
2104 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
2105 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
2107 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
2110 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
2111 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
2113 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
2118 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
2119 input level as the opening [.
2121 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
2122 suitable for use as a name.
2124 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
2127 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
2128 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
2129 the -mX option is given.
2131 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
2136 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
2137 constructs by writing a troff macro.
2142 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
2147 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
2148 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
2149 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
2150 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
2152 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
2153 Document Structuring Convention.
2155 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
2156 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
2157 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
2158 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
2159 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
2162 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
2163 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
2168 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
2169 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps runs gtroff -Tps with
2172 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
2173 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
2176 Xditview now uses imake.
2182 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
2184 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
2185 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
2186 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
2187 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
2188 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
2189 that the `n' condition is true.
2191 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
2192 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
2193 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
2195 groff -Tdvi -p now passes pic the -x flag; this enables filling
2196 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
2197 latest version of the tpic specials.
2202 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
2203 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
2204 delimiters. The groff command passes on a `-N' option to eqn.
2209 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
2210 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
2212 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
2213 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
2214 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
2219 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
2224 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
2225 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
2227 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
2228 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
2229 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
2236 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
2238 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
2244 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
2245 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
2246 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
2247 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
2248 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
2250 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
2252 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
2255 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
2256 adjustment mode is not `b' a line is not hyphenated if it is no
2257 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
2258 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line is not
2259 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
2260 amount of extra space to each word space.
2262 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
2264 A warning of type `space' is given when a call is made to an
2265 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
2266 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
2267 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
2268 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
2274 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
2276 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
2277 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
2283 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
2284 complicated equations inside pictures.
2286 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
2287 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
2293 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
2294 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
2301 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
2302 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
2303 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
2306 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
2307 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
2309 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
2310 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
2312 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
2313 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
2314 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
2315 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
2316 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
2317 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
2319 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
2320 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
2321 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
2322 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
2325 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer valid input
2326 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
2328 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
2329 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
2334 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
2335 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
2336 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
2338 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
2339 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
2340 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
2341 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
2342 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
2343 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
2344 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
2345 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
2346 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
2352 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
2353 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
2355 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
2358 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
2359 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
2360 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
2361 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
2362 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
2363 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
2364 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
2366 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
2367 diversion, it now arranges for the file to be copied to the output
2368 when the diversion is reread.
2370 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
2373 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
2374 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
2375 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
2376 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
2377 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
2378 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
2379 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
2381 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
2384 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
2387 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
2389 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
2390 containing the hyphenation patterns.
2392 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
2394 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
2395 of end of sentence recognition.
2397 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
2398 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
2400 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
2401 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
2403 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
2405 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
2406 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
2407 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
2412 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
2413 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
2415 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
2416 lines are drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
2419 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
2420 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
2422 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
2424 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
2425 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
2427 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
2428 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
2431 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
2432 wherever a quoted string can be used.
2434 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
2435 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
2436 of the `textht' variable.
2438 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
2439 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
2444 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
2445 has been applied to a table.
2450 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
2452 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
2453 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
2458 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
2459 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
2460 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
2461 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
2462 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
2463 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
2464 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
2466 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
2467 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
2468 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'
2472 version-control: never