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.
7 ***************************************************************************
9 * PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
11 ***************************************************************************
16 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
17 grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
18 follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
19 `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
20 background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
21 `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
22 correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
23 `DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
26 The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
27 commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
30 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
31 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
32 for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
34 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
35 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
36 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
39 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
42 o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
43 (and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
45 o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
46 family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
48 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
49 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
51 o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
52 `+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
54 o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
55 got the troff glyph name `mc'.
57 o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
59 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
60 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
66 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
67 . nop I will now define `bar'.
69 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
73 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
74 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
76 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
77 has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
78 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
79 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
80 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
81 before checking special fonts.
83 o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
84 doesn't emit a final newline.
86 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
87 with \c counts as one input line.
89 o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
90 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
93 o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
94 patterns file without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
95 \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
98 o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
101 o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
102 already existing patterns).
104 o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
105 second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
106 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
107 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
109 o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
110 It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
111 final `0' can be omitted.
113 o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
114 the exception that the `asciify' request will use the character code (if
115 any) before the character translation. Example:
127 The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
129 o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
130 adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
131 alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
132 The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
133 post-vertical line space.
135 o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
145 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
146 output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
148 o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
149 they are ignored now.
151 o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
154 o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
155 request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
156 the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
157 \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
158 glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
163 o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
164 called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
165 many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
166 format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
167 for PostScript output only.
169 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
170 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
172 o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
173 setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
174 registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
175 in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
176 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
178 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
179 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
180 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
182 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
185 o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
186 now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
189 o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
190 works in compatibility mode.
192 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
193 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
195 o `groff_mwww.1' has been renamed to `groff_www.1'. The file mwww.tmac
198 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
199 reference to the ms macros.
201 o Changes in www.tmac:
203 Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
204 that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
205 mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
208 The following macros have been renamed:
214 For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
215 address as the first parameter followed by the description.
217 By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
218 of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
220 For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
221 new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
223 The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
224 bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
226 The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
227 generation to headings.
229 The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
232 New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it will automatically
233 convert it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
235 New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
236 (it will automatically convert it into an EPS file if not
239 New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
241 New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
243 New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
245 New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
246 macro `LI' inserts a list item.
251 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
252 disabled in compatibility mode).
257 o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
258 grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
259 groff (enabling compatibility mode).
264 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
265 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
266 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
268 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
270 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
272 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
277 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
278 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
279 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
284 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
285 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
291 o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
296 o Color support has been added.
298 o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
299 the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
304 o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
305 to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
306 values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
309 . sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
310 1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
312 o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
313 extended) has been added.
315 o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
317 o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
318 ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
319 the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
321 Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
322 doesn't take care of hcode values.
324 o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
325 to gray values currently.
330 o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
331 ANSI color) escape sequences.
333 o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
334 printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
335 to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
337 Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
338 display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
339 `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
340 output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
341 work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
343 For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
344 `less' to the $PAGER environment variable; alternatively, you can use
345 `man's `-P' option (or adapt its configuration file accordingly). See
346 man(1) for more details.
348 o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
349 reverting to the old behaviour.
351 o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
352 sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
353 attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
354 for this (including xterm).
359 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
361 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
363 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
365 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
366 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
372 o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
373 in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
374 `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
379 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
381 o The groff texinfo manual will now be installed, together with a bunch
384 o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
387 . a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
389 . a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
390 specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
392 . a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
394 See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
395 physical dimensions of the output medium; grops and grolbp use it
396 currently. troff completely ignores it.
401 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
406 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
407 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
408 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
413 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
418 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
419 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
422 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
424 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
425 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
427 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
433 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
435 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
441 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
443 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
444 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
452 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
453 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
454 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
455 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
456 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
458 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
459 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
460 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
461 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
462 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
463 environment variables to groff.
468 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
469 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
470 supported). Most important changes are:
473 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
474 . `.Lb': prints library names
475 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
477 . Updated `.St' command
478 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
479 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
480 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
481 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
482 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
483 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
484 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
485 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
488 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
489 documents the mdoc package.
491 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
492 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
494 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
495 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
496 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
499 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
501 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
508 can now be written as
514 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
515 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
516 ending the diversion).
518 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
519 and some other escape sequences also.
521 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
522 unbreakable space character.
524 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
525 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
526 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
531 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
536 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
541 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
548 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
549 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
550 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
551 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
554 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
555 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
557 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
558 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
559 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
560 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
563 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
564 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
565 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
580 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
584 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
585 mode, and 0 otherwise.
587 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
588 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
589 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
591 o For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
592 The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it directly
593 inserts its argument into the intermediate output format. The syntax
594 is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
596 o The new `spreadwarn' request will make troff warn if spaces in an output
597 line are widened by a given limit or more.
599 o Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff will use for
602 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
603 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
604 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
605 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
607 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
608 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
610 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
611 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
614 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
615 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
617 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
619 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
620 previous font family.
622 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
623 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
625 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
626 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
627 macro or string is written to a stream.
629 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
630 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
633 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
635 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
636 underlines spaces also).
641 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
642 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
647 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
648 been added to select a different prologue file.
650 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
651 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
652 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
657 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
659 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
660 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
661 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
664 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
665 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
666 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
667 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
668 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
669 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
671 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
672 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
675 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
676 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
677 variable if you really need the current directory.
679 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
680 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
681 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
682 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
683 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
684 is searched before the local tmac directory.
686 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
687 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
688 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
693 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
701 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
702 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
703 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
705 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
707 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
709 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
710 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
711 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
717 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
718 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
719 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
721 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
722 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
723 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
724 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
725 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
726 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
728 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
729 contains the current year.
731 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
732 number of the groff package.
734 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
735 font `foo' is undefined:
738 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
740 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
742 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
744 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
745 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
747 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
750 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
751 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
753 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
754 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
755 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
757 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
759 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
760 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
763 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
764 (which is an alias to character `"').
766 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
767 (which is an alias to character "'").
769 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
770 better support of HTML output:
772 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
775 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
777 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
778 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
779 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
780 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
782 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
785 use_charnames_in_special
786 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
787 inside special commands.
790 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
791 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
796 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
801 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
803 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
805 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
806 will be immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
807 punctuation, for example).
812 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
814 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
820 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
821 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
822 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
827 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
828 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
829 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
830 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
835 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
836 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
841 Simplified installation: The Imakefile will now be configured (by groff's
847 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
848 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
849 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
854 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
855 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
856 <blake@florida-software.com>.
858 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
859 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
861 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
862 ========================
864 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
869 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
870 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
871 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
874 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
875 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
877 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
878 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
881 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
882 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
884 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
885 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
887 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
890 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
891 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
893 Following the GNU standards, groff will now use the prefix `/usr/local/' as
894 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
896 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
897 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
903 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
904 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
905 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
906 reports are highly welcome.
911 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
917 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
918 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
923 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
924 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
926 Will now support 8 gray levels.
931 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
936 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
937 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
938 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
939 half a dozen other projects.
944 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
945 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
946 latest GNU coding standards.
948 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
949 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
951 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
952 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
953 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
954 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
955 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
956 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
957 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
958 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
959 always installed as -me.
961 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
967 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
968 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
974 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
980 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
985 The -m option enables manual feed.
990 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
991 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
992 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
993 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
999 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
1005 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
1006 graphic to be specified.
1014 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
1015 environment variable xxx.
1020 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
1021 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
1030 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
1031 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
1037 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
1038 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
1039 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
1041 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
1042 enabled by default) instead of an error.
1044 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
1045 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
1050 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
1051 try to keep the table on one page.
1056 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
1057 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
1058 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
1059 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
1064 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
1065 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
1066 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
1071 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
1072 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
1074 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
1076 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
1077 \(an. See groff_char(7).
1079 ^L is now a legal input character.
1084 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
1085 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
1086 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
1087 default device is ps.)
1089 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
1090 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
1091 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
1092 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
1094 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
1095 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
1096 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
1097 draw_lines parameter.
1099 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
1100 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
1101 always loaded by troff.
1103 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
1108 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
1110 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
1111 while a character definition is being processed.
1113 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
1116 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
1117 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
1119 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
1120 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
1121 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
1122 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
1123 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
1125 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
1126 with compatibility mode disabled.
1128 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
1129 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
1130 for loading the device-specific macros.
1135 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
1136 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
1137 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
1138 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
1140 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
1141 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
1142 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
1144 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
1145 (the quotes are required).
1150 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
1151 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
1152 be prevented by the -R option.
1154 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
1155 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
1157 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
1160 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
1161 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
1167 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
1168 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
1169 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
1171 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
1174 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
1175 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
1176 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
1181 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
1182 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
1187 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
1193 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
1194 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
1195 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
1196 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
1197 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
1198 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
1199 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
1200 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
1201 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
1202 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
1203 be derived from the $r or $R register.
1205 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
1207 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
1208 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
1211 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
1216 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
1217 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
1218 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
1220 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
1221 redisplays the current page.
1229 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
1230 differently with blocks.
1232 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
1233 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
1235 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
1237 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
1243 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
1244 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
1245 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
1250 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
1251 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
1252 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
1253 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
1254 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
1256 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
1257 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
1262 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
1264 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
1265 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
1270 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
1275 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
1276 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
1277 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
1283 Support for scalable fonts.
1288 No changes other than bug fixes.
1293 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
1294 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
1295 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
1296 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
1298 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
1300 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
1301 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
1302 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
1303 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
1304 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
1305 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
1307 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
1310 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
1311 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
1313 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
1318 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
1319 input level as the opening [.
1321 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
1322 suitable for use as a name.
1324 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
1327 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
1328 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
1329 the -mX option is given.
1331 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
1336 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
1337 constructs by writing a troff macro.
1342 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
1347 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
1348 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
1349 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
1350 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
1352 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
1353 Document Structuring Convention.
1355 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
1356 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
1357 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
1358 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
1359 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
1362 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
1363 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
1368 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
1369 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
1372 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
1373 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
1376 Xditview now uses imake.
1381 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
1383 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
1384 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
1385 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
1386 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
1387 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
1388 that the `n' condition will be true.
1390 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
1391 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
1392 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
1394 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
1395 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
1396 latest version of the tpic specials.
1401 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
1402 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
1403 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
1408 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
1409 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
1411 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
1412 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
1413 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
1418 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
1423 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
1424 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
1426 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
1427 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
1428 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
1434 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
1436 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
1442 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
1443 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
1444 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
1445 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
1446 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
1448 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
1450 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
1453 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
1454 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
1455 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
1456 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
1457 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
1458 amount of extra space to each word space.
1460 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
1462 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
1463 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
1464 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
1465 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
1466 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
1472 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
1474 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
1475 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
1481 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
1482 complicated equations inside pictures.
1484 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
1485 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
1491 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
1492 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
1498 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
1499 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
1500 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
1503 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
1504 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
1506 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
1507 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
1509 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
1510 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
1511 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
1512 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
1513 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
1514 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
1516 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
1517 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
1518 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
1519 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
1522 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
1523 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
1525 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
1526 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
1531 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
1532 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
1533 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
1535 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
1536 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
1537 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
1538 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
1539 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
1540 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
1541 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
1542 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
1543 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
1549 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
1550 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
1552 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
1555 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
1556 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
1557 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
1558 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
1559 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
1560 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
1561 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
1563 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
1564 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
1565 when the diversion is reread.
1567 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
1570 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
1571 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
1572 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
1573 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
1574 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
1575 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
1576 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
1578 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
1581 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
1584 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
1586 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
1587 containing the hyphenation patterns.
1589 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
1591 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
1592 of end of sentence recognition.
1594 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
1595 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
1597 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
1598 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
1600 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
1602 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
1603 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
1604 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
1609 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
1610 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
1612 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
1613 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
1616 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
1617 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
1619 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
1621 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
1622 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
1624 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
1625 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
1628 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
1629 wherever a quoted string can be used.
1631 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
1632 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
1633 of the `textht' variable.
1635 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
1636 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
1641 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
1642 has been applied to a table.
1647 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
1649 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
1650 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
1655 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
1656 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
1657 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
1658 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
1659 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
1660 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
1661 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
1663 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
1664 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
1665 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'