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groff/NEWS
G. Branden Robinson 4201c8d106 [build]: Add "--without-urw-fonts" option (1/2). 
* m4/groff.m4 (GROFF_URW_FONTS_SUPPORT): New Autoconf macro creates a
  "with" configuration option, permitting the host environment to easily
  switch off the search for URW fonts and defeat all of the consequent
  features without the "configure" script issuing a lengthy warning
  about failure to find the aforementioned fonts.  New shell variable
  `urwfontsupport` indicates the configuration's desired status (which
  still defaults on).

  (GROFF_URW_FONTS_CHECK): Add dependency on the foregoing macro.
  Initialize `urwfontsdir` shell variable to empty unconditionally,
  permitting it to be updated later if the URW font feature isn't
  disabled.  Nest most of the work of this macro inside a conditional on
  `urwfontsupprt`.  Continue to unconditionally populate and
  `AC_SUBST`-itute `groff_have_urw_fonts` and `urwfontsdir`, because
  "configure.ac", "test-mom.sh.in", "mom.am", "font/devpdf/Foundry.in",
  "devpdf.am", and "check-urw-foundry.sh.in" variously rely on them to
  behave appropriately for the configuration.

NEWS: Add item.

This commit omits an indentation update to clarify the change in flow of
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Copyright 1992-2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2018-2026 G. Branden Robinson
2022 Ingo Schwarze
Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
notice and this notice are preserved.
This file describes recent user-visible changes in groff. Bug fixes are
not described. There are more details in the man and info pages.
VERSION 1.24.0 release candidate
================================
Noteworthy incompatible changes
-------------------------------
* If your roff(7) documents follow any of the requests `cf`, `hpf`,
`hpfa`, `mso`, `msoquiet`, `nx`, `open`, `opena`, `so`, `soquiet`, or
`trf` with a comment after their file name argument, and did not
place that comment immediately after the file name, you are likely to
get a diagnostic message resembling the following.
warning: cannot open macro file 'e.tmac ': No such file or directory
Or, less likely, the formatter will open the wrong file, one with
spaces at the end of its name. That is because these requests are
now able to process file names containing space characters. (This
change also makes the request syntax consistent with that of `ds`,
`as`, and others.) A quick fix is to place the comment escape
sequence as early as possible. For example, we would change:
.mso e.tmac \" Load Eric Allman's package.
to:
.mso e.tmac\" Load Eric Allman's package.
to tell the formatter to load the "e.tmac" file rather than
"e.tmac ". See the items below for further details.
* If your roff(7) documents specify a file name that starts with a
neutral double quote (") to any of the requests `cf`, `hpf`,
`hpfa`, `mso`, `msoquiet`, `nx`, `open`, `opena`, `so`, `soquiet`, or
`trf`, you are likely to get a diagnostic message, or the formatter
will open a file of the same name except for the leading neutral
double quote. That is because these requests are now able to process
file names containing leading space characters. (This change also
makes the request syntax consistent with that of `ds`, `as`, and
others.) The solution is to add an additional neutral double quote
to the start of the file name argument. For example, we would
change:
.so "5150".lrc
to:
.so ""5150".lrc
to tell the formatter to read a file named '"5150".lrc', where the
neutral single quotes bracket the file name.
* groff mdoc(7)'s font customization feature, undocumented but
analogous to that of 4.4BSD mdoc, now expects the strings that
designate font names to be precisely that: font _names_ (or abstract
styles, or mounting positions), rather than arbitrary *roff syntax.
(String interpolations remain acceptable, as long as what they
interpolate is a valid argument to the `ft` request or `\f[xxx]`
escape sequence.)
* Support for terminal devices using the CCSID 1047 (EBCDIC) encoding
has been withdrawn. See below for motivation and a workaround.
troff
-----
* troff now recognizes an -S option, which "locks" safer mode,
rejecting any subsequent specification of -U on the command line with
an error diagnostic.
* The `cf` request is now disabled in safer mode; as with `pi` and
`sy`, you must specify troff's "unsafe mode" option `-U` to use it.
Alternatively, use the `trf` request, available since groff 0.6
(circa 1990), to embed a file in GNU troff's output while discarding
characters (most C0 and C1 controls) that are invalid as GNU troff
input--and incidentally also undefined in GNU troff output.
* The `hpfcode` request now emits an error when used, advising of its
planned withdrawal, but then proceeds with normal behavior. The
documented replacement mechanism, the `hcode` request, has existed
since groff 1.02 (June 1991) at the latest.
* The `mso` request no longer attempts to open a macro file named, say,
"tmac.s" if "s.tmac" was specified as the argument and not found, nor
vice versa. This feature was a convenience for some old AT&T troff
installations, but few of those remain in the field, and of those
that we know to survive, few use a macro file naming convention for
which this feature is any help. (DWB 3.3 and Solaris do not, and we
think other System V troffs don't, either. Only Plan 9 troff does.)
`mso` now simply processes the macro search path for a file name
matching the request argument, and succeeds or fails depending on an
exact match.
If you desire this functionality for portability (keeping in mind
that `mso` is itself a groff extension), consider the following.
.\" Load the ms package, whatever it might be named.
.\" troffs without groff extensions must know its full path.
.if !\n(.g .so /path/to/tmac.s
.\" The following requests do nothing on non-GNU troffs.
.do msoquiet s.tmac\" If file present, defines `LP` macro.
.do if !d LP .msoquiet tmac.s
* GNU troff no longer accepts nonpositive page lengths. Attempting to
set one with the `pl` request clamps the page length to the vertical
motion quantum as `ll` does with the horizontal motion quantum in
AT&T and GNU troffs.
* GNU troff no longer accepts a newline as a delimiter for the
parameterized escape sequences `\A`, `\b`, `\o`, `\w`, `\X`, and
`\Z`.
* GNU troff no longer accepts C0 controls or Latin-1 Supplement
characters in identifiers. We prohibit C0 controls to make the
language less tolerant of unreadable input, and Latin-1 Supplement
code points to enable us to pivot to reading UTF-8-encoded input in a
future release. (Thus, we plan for Latin-1 Supplement characters to
again be accepted in identifiers, but only as components of multibyte
UTF-8 sequences.)
* The `color`, `cp`, `kern`, `linetabs`, and `vpt` requests now
interpret arguments with negative values as instructions to disable
the corresponding feature, using the *roff integer-to-Boolean
conversion idiom instead of the C/C++ one. Thus, if you invoke these
requests with a register interpolation as an argument, the outcome
agrees with an `if` test of the register's value.
* GNU troff now implements saturating rather than wrapping integer
arithmetic. Where before overflow would cause an error diagnostic
and abort evaluation of the expression, the formatter now emits a
warning diagnostic in the "range" category and continues evaluation.
* GNU troff now strips a leading neutral double quote from the argument
to the `cf`, `hpf`, `hpfa`, `lf`, `mso`, `msoquiet`, `nx`, `pi`,
`pso`, `so`, `soquiet`, `sy`, and `trf` requests, and the second
argument to the `open` and `opena` requests, allowing it to contain
embedded leading spaces.
* GNU troff now accepts space characters in the argument to the `cf`,
`hpf`, `hpfa`, `lf`, `mso`, `msoquiet`, `nx`, `so`, `soquiet`, and
`trf` requests, and the second argument to the `open` and `opena`
requests. See "soelim" below.
* The "number" warning category has been withdrawn. The diagnostic
that formerly used it has been promoted to an error.
* The "el" warning category has been withdrawn. If enabled (which it
was not by default), the formatter would emit a diagnostic if it
inferred an imbalance between `ie` and `el` requests. Unfortunately
its technique wasn't reliable and sometimes spuriously issued these
warnings, and making it perfectly reliable did not look tractable.
We recommend using brace escape sequences `\{` and `\}` to ensure
that your control flow structures remain maintainable.
* The "right-brace" warning category has been withdrawn. If enabled
(which it was not by default), the formatter would emit a diagnostic
in exactly one circumstance: when a numeric expression was expected
(as, for instance, the second argument to an `nr` request) but a
right brace escape sequence `\}` was encountered instead. This
diagnostic still issues, but it is now an error.
* GNU troff now performs some limited processing/transformation of the
argument to the `\X` escape sequence and its counterpart `device`
request, to address the requirement that some documents have to pass
metadata that must encode non-ASCII characters in device extension
commands. (For example, a document author may desire a document's
section headings containing non-ASCII code points to appear correctly
in PDF bookmarks. Further, GNU troff encodes its output page
description language only in ASCII.) This change is expected to be
of significance mainly to developers of output drivers for groff;
groff_diff(7) describes the transformations. If you have been using
`\X` or `.device` to pass ASCII data to the output driver as a device
extension command and require that it remain precisely as-is, use the
`\!` escape sequence or `output` request, and prefix your data with
"x X ", the device-independent troff means of expressing a device
extension command (see groff_out(5)).
* In nroff mode (in other words, when producing output for devices that
claim to be terminals), the formatter now reports warning diagnostics
regarding certain output problems using units of lines (vertically)
and character cells [ens] (horizontally) instead of inches (or the
unit configured with the `warnscale` request) to describe the drawing
position where the problem occurred.
* The device-independent page description language produced by GNU
troff now reports unbreakable spaces (those produced with the `\~`
escape sequence) as word boundaries with the documentary 'w' command,
just as it does for regular breakable spaces.
* A new request, `hydefault`, and read-only register, `.hydefault`,
manage the default automatic hyphenation mode of an environment.
This resolves a long-standing problem of *roff formatting.
When processing input like this,
.nh
and we temporarily shut off automatic hyphenation,
.hy
the foregoing request would not do exactly what we expect.
AT&T and other troffs apply a hyphenation mode of 1 to the final
input line (and subsequent ones), rather than restoring the mode in
use before the `nh` request. Apart from overturning user
expectations, for GNU troff "1" is not an appropriate mode for its
English hyphenation patterns. (For example, "alibi" would break as
"ali-bi" instead of "al-ibi" after this argumentless `hy`
invocation.) With updates to groff's localization files accompanying
this release, the foregoing input now works as desired.
* A new read-only, string-valued register, `.trap`, interpolates the
name of the next page location trap after the drawing position.
* New registers `.it`, `.itc`, and `.itm` are available. These
read-only (and, in the case of `.itm`, string-valued) registers
report the number of lines remaining in a pending input trap, a
Boolean indication of whether that pending input trap honors output
line continuation (cf. the `it` and `itc` requests), and the name of
the macro associated with the pending input trap, respectively.
* A new request, `pchar`, reports to the standard error stream details
of any class or ordinary, special, or indexed character arguments.
* A new request, `pcolor`, reports to the standard error stream details
of each color name specified as an argument, including its color
space identifier and channel value assignments. Without arguments,
all defined colors are listed. (A device's default stroke and/or
fill colors, "default", are not listed since they are immutable and
their details unknown to the formatter.)
* A new request, `pcomposite`, reports to the standard error stream the
list of configured composite character mappings.
* A new request, `pfp`, reports to the standard error stream the
list of occupied font mounting positions and the corresponding
abstract style name or font information.
* A new request, `pftr`, reports to the standard error stream the
list of configured font translations.
* A new request, `phw`, reports to the standard error stream the
list of hyphenation exceptions associated with the current
hyphenation language.
* A new request, `pline`, reports to the standard error stream the list
of output nodes (an internal data structure) corresponding to the
pending output line. The list is empty if no such nodes exist.
* The `pm` request now interprets any arguments as a sequence of macro,
string, or diversion names, and reports their contents.
* The `pnr` request now additionally reports the autoincrementation
amount and interpolation format of each register (if it is not
string-valued).
* The `pnr` request now accepts arguments. It treats each as
identifying a register and reports its properties to the standard
error stream.
* A new request, `pstream`, reports to the standard error stream the
name of each stream opened with the `open` or `opena` requests, the
name of the file backing it, and its mode (writing or appending).
* The `ptr` request has been renamed to `pwh` (mnemonic: "Print WHen
traps will spring"). As a rule, debugging requests starting with `p`
correspond to a request name that manipulates the objects reported on
when the `p` is removed. However, `ptr` had nothing to do with the
`tr` request. The only exceptions to the stated rule of `p`-removal
are now `line`, `m`, and `stream`, none of which are request names.
* The `hla` request, when invoked with no arguments, now clears the
hyphenation language, disabling automatic hyphenation.
* The read-only registers `.m` and `.M` now interpolate "default" when
the default color is selected as the stroke or fill color,
respectively, rather than interpolating nothing.
* Numeric expression contexts that accept the `z` and `u` scaling
units, such as the `ps` request and `\s` escape sequence, now also
accept `p` and `s`.
* troff's `-c` command-line option now also removes the `color`
request's ability to enable multi-color output.
eqn
---
* The "gifont" primitive replaces "gfont" as the means of configuring
the global italic face in preprocessed equations. "gfont" remains
recognized as a synonym for backward compatibility. The new name is
intended to ease acquisition of the eqn language in light of GNU
eqn's thirty-year-old extensions "gbfont" and "grfont".
* New parameters tunable with the GNU eqn "set" primitive, "half_space"
and "full_space", enable a document to configure the space widths
produced by the eqn tokens '^' and '~', respectively. Previously,
their widths were determined by the "thin_space" and "thick_space"
parameters used to tune GNU eqn's automatic spacing computations.
* The new "reset" primitive restores a named parameter to its default.
groff
-----
* The groff command now encodes the fate of failing processes in the
pipeline it constructs and runs so that this information cannot be
confused with groff's own error conditions (such as a usage error,
which now produces an exit status of 2). See the section "Exit
status" of groff(1) for details.
* groff now passes the -S option to pic and troff if it is specified.
nroff
-----
* nroff now recognizes the -a, -D, -I, and -Z options and passes them
to groff.
* nroff now supports clustered options ("-tzms", for example) as groff,
troff, and other GNU getopt-using programs do.
pic
---
* A new command, `polygon`, supports drawing polygons using arbitrary
vertices. The command furthermore accepts the `fill[ed]` modifier.
You can address a polygon's vertices and the midpoints of its edges
with the new `.v[er[tex]]` and `.mid[point]` syntax suffixed to an
object identifier, analogously to the existing compass point and
`.c[enter]` feature. Thanks to Duncan Losin.
* pic's -S option now "locks" safer mode, rejecting any subsequent
specification of -U on the command line with an error diagnostic.
soelim
------
* soelim no longer requires embedded space characters in `so` arguments
to be backslash-escaped. (It continues to support that syntax, even
though neither the AT&T nor GNU troff formatters ever have.) You can
now embed a sequence of leading spaces in the argument by prefixing
it with a with a neutral double quote character ("), which the
program discards. These changes are to better align this program's
parsing rules with the language of the formatter; consider the `ds`
and `as` requests.
Macro packages
--------------
* Keith Marshall's pdfmark package is no longer distributed with groff,
but is now separately maintained. Please visit
<https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/groff-pdfmark> for the latest
version.
* mom version 2.6 is distributed with this release. It supports
multi-line headings. Thanks to Peter Schaffter.
* The device-specific macro files loaded by "troffrc" automatically on
startup, such as "html.tmac", no longer perform font translations for
some font names used by varieties of AT&T troff ('C', 'Hb', 'HX', and
several others).
These names are not portable: in AT&T troff, the font repertoire,
like the special character repertoire, was device-dependent. Since
groff 1.23.0, GNU troff diagnoses attempts to use nonexistent font
names. We recommend addressing such portability issues wherever
suits you: (1) in a document, perhaps by using `ie` and `el` requests
and the `.g` register to test whether the formatter claims support
for groff extensions, then `ie` and `el` again with the `F` groff
conditional expression operator to check for font availability, and
to perform font remappings with the groff `ftr` request as desired;
(2) doing so in your "troffrc" file; or (3) by modifying these macro
files similarly. Users of the "dvi" and "lbp" output devices should
be aware that these devices don't supply full families of monospaced
fonts (and never have). See grodvi(1) and grolbp(1) for lists of
font names supported by each device.
The legacy names are retained for the "pdf" and "ps" devices for this
release; however, use of them prompts one warning in the "font"
category from the formatter per deprecated name. We expect to
withdraw support for the names completely in a future groff release.
See gropdf(1) and grops(1) for lists of font names supported by each
device.
* Hyperlink support is now enabled by default on PDF and terminal
devices for an (man) and doc (mdoc) documents. Instructions and
commented code for disabling it are in the "man.local" and
"mdoc.local" files.
* The `PDFPIC` macro implemented in the "pdfpic.tmac" macro file now
uses identify(1) (from ImageMagick/GraphicsMagick) and file(1), if
available, to attempt to determine the dimensions of an image to be
embedded in a PDF document. See also the item regarding gropdf(1)
below. Thanks to Deri James.
* The an (man) package now supports use of its hyperlink macros (`UR`,
`UE`, `MT`, and `ME`) in paragraph tags (that is, on the next line
after a `TP` macro call). Use of the `MR` man page cross reference
macro in a tag was already supported in groff 1.23.0.
* The behavior of the an (man) package's `SY` and `YS` macros has been
expanded to enable greater user control over vertical spacing and to
make them convenient for synopsizing C language functions, not just
commands. `SY` no longer puts vertical space on the output, and
initially breaks the output line _only_ if it is encountered
repeatedly without a preceding `YS` call. The computed indentation
of synopsis lines after the first now also includes the width of
anything already on the output line, so that you can precede the `SY`
call with, for instance, the C language data type used for the return
value in a function prototype. The `SY` macro now accepts an
optional second argument. This second argument is typeset in bold,
replaces the fixed-width space that is appended to the synopsis
keyword in `SY`'s single-argument form, and is used in computation of
the indentation of non-initial synopsis lines. However, this
computed indentation can now also be overridden with that of the
previous synopsis item. To do this, give any argument to the `YS`
macro call "closing" the synopsis whose indentation you want to
reuse. When you're done with such a grouped synopsis, leave the
argument off the final `YS` call.
In a "Synopsis" section of a man page, existing synopses consisting
of a single item require no migration. This is the most common case.
For others, where before you would write...
.SY mv
.I source
.I destination
.YS
.
.SY mv
.I source
\&.\|.\|.\&
.I destination-directory
.YS
...you would now write the following.
.SY mv
.I source
.I destination
.YS
.
.P
.SY mv
.I source
\&.\|.\|.\&
.I destination-directory
.YS
(That is, simply add a paragraphing macro.)
And where before you would write...
.SY mv
.B \-h
.
.SY mv
.B \-\-help
.YS
...you would now write the following.
.SY mv
.B \-h
.YS
.
.SY mv
.B \-\-help
.YS
(That is, simply add `YS` after the first synopsis item.)
Likely the biggest benefit of these changes is that it is now much
easier to format C function prototypes with these macros. Here's how
we would synopsize a somewhat complex standard C library function.
.B "#include <stdio.h>"
.P
.B void *\c
.SY bsearch (
.BI const\~void\~*\~ key ,
.BI const\~void\~*\~ base ,
.BI size_t\~ nmemb ,
.BI int\~(* compar )\c
.B (const\~void\~*, const\~void\~*));
.YS
* The an (man), doc (mdoc), and doc-old (mdoc-old) macro packages have
changed the default line length when formatting on terminals from 78n
to 80n. The latter is a vastly more common device configuration, but
that line length had been avoided since the groff 1.18 release in
July 2002 (prior to that, the line length was 65n, as in AT&T nroff),
for an undocumented reason. That reason appears to have been the
interaction of bugs in GNU tbl(1) with an aspect of grotty(1)'s
design. Those bugs have been resolved. A man(1) program can still
instruct groff to format for any desired line length by setting the
`LL` register on {g,n,t}roff's command line.
* The an (man) and doc (mdoc) macro packages use slightly different
vertical margins than previously, to align more closely with the
traditional implementations of these packages. Per man(7) in the
AT&T Unix System III manual (June 1980), the text area was 6.5 by 10
inches (on typesetters). When formatting for terminals with
continuous rendering disabled (by default, it is enabled), the page
footer now sets one line higher than before.
* The an (man) and doc (mdoc) macro packages have added additional
registers `BP`, `PO`, and `TS` for user configuration of man page
rendering at formatting time. As noted in groff_man(7) and
groff_mdoc(7), documents should never manipulate these.
* The an (man) and doc (mdoc) macro packages now support a `BP`
register to configure the ("base") paragraph inset amount; that is
the amount used by man(7) for paragraphs not within an `RS`/`RE`
relative inset, and in mdoc(7) for all paragraphs. Formerly, the
`IN` register configured this amount with other indentation and inset
amount parameters used by man(7). (In mdoc(7), it had no other
purpose.) The base paragraph indentation default is now 5n,
corresponding to that used by historical man(7) and mdoc(7)
implementations going back to Unix Version 7 (1979) and 4.3BSD-Reno
(1990), respectively.
* The an (man) and doc (mdoc) macro packages now support a `PO`
register to configure the page offset used by the formatter.
* The an (man) macro package now supports a `TS` register to configure
the minimum space required between the tag of a `TP` paragraph and
its body. (If the width of the tag's formatted text plus this space
exceeds the paragraph indentation, the line is broken after the tag.)
This parameter, formerly hard-coded as `1n`, now defaults to `2n`.
* The an (man) macro package's `IP` macro no longer honors the formerly
hard-coded 1n tag separation noted in the previous item. This means
that the first argument to the `IP` macro can abut the text of the
paragraph with no intervening space. If you use a word instead of
punctuation or a list enumerator for `IP`'s first argument, consider
migrating to `TP`.
* The "an-ext.tmac" macro file, loaded automatically by the an (man)
macro package, no longer defines `DS` and `DE` macros. It had
defined them as empty (undocumentedly) since groff 1.20 (2009).
* The doc (mdoc) macro package's `Mt` macro now sets its argument in
roman, not italics (or whatever the string `doc-Pa-font` was
configured to use). A new string, `doc-Mt-font`, for use in
"mdoc.local" files and similar, supports configuration of this face.
* The doc (mdoc) macro package now performs font family switches
inline (that is, on the same output line) to Courier much less
frequently when formatting for typesetters, affecting the `Ar`, `Cm`,
`Er`, `Fa`, `Fd`, `Fl`, `Fn`, `Ft`, `Ic`, `Li`, and `Nm` macros.
This change was made to reduce the ambiguity of space widths when
typesetting the monospaced Courier and proportional Times fonts
adjacently. Bear in mind that you can use the "mdoc.local" file to
customize the font used to render nearly any mdoc(7) macro's
arguments; this mechanism has been in place since 1992.
* The doc (mdoc) macro package's `Ql` macro now operates more simply;
it no longer (ever) quotes its arguments when formatting for
typesetters. In practice, it does not seem difficult to distinguish
even single characters in Courier from those in Times. (If it is, an
_explicit_ quoting macro like `Sq` or `Dq` should be used.)
* The doc (mdoc) macro package's `Lk`, `Mt`, and `Xr` macros now
produce hyperlinks on HTML, PDF, and terminal devices. See above
regarding hyperlink support being enabled by default.
* The doc (mdoc) macro package now honors the `U` register and `MF`
string as the an (man) package does.
* The new macro file "koi8-r.tmac" supports the KOI8-R character
encoding, which supports the new Russian locale for groff.
* The m (mm) macro package now uses a 3v bottom margin rather than 2v.
(Using the default type size and vertical spacing, the result is a
half-inch margin, just like the existing top margin.) When
formatting for terminals, content aligned to the bottom of the page
(footers, footnotes, `BS`/`BE` bottom blocks, and similar) now sets
one line higher than before. Further, the margin between the body
text and any page footers is now 2v, like that between the body text
and page headers, not 1v.
* The m (mm) macro package's `Limsp` register (a GNU extension) has
been removed; see the item regarding the `LI` macro below.
* The m (mm) macro package's `Le` register now defaults to `1`,
consistently with the `Lf`, `Lt`, and `Lx` registers of similar
purpose, but inconsistently with DWB 3.3 mm. Explicitly assigning
the `Le` register in a document's preamble works as it always has.
* The m (mm) macro package's `AST` macro (a GNU extension) is
deprecated, warns upon usage, and is slated for withdrawal in a
future release. Assign to the new string `Abstract` instead.
* The m (mm) macro package's `ISODATE` macro (a GNU extension) is
deprecated, warns upon usage, and is slated for withdrawal in a
future release. Assign to the new register `Isodate` instead.
* The m (mm) macro package's `EPIC` macro (a GNU extension) now
interprets its "width" argument in ens by default, and its "height"
argument in vees, instead of basic units, for consistency with the
rest of the package.
* Similarly, the m (mm) macro package's `PIC` macro (a GNU extension)
now interprets an argument to its `-I` option in ens instead of ems
by default.
* The m (mm) macro package no longer superscripts _and_ brackets a
reference mark (the `Rf` string). Instead, the new `Rfstyle`
register controls its formatting. The default, 0, selects bracketing
in nroff mode and superscripting in troff mode. Set `Rfstyle` to 3
in a document to obtain groff mm's previous mark formatting behavior.
* The m (mm) macro package's `Li` register now defaults to 5 ens (not
6) to align with the `Pi` register default.
* The m (mm) macro package's `Li` register now configures the text
indentation of items in `RL` lists (as it long has for `AL` lists)
instead of hard-coding a value of 6 ens as DWB 3.3 mm does.
* The m (mm) macro package's `BVL` (a GNU extension) and `VL` macros'
first arguments are now optional. If omitted, the paragraph
indentation amount (register `Pi`) is used for list items' text
indentations.
* The m (mm) macro package's `DL` macro now uses the `EM` string as the
mark instead of an em dash special character literal. (The latter
remains the default definition of the `EM` string.)
* The m (mm) macro package's `DS` macro now interprets its third
argument (a right-hand indentation) in ens by default, for
consistency with the rest of the package. This is a difference from
DWB mm (which passed the value unprocessed to the `ll` request, which
itself uses ems), and groff mm's own historical behavior, which used
basic units.
* The m (mm) macro package's `HU` macro now supports an optional second
argument as a GNU extension. It corresponds to the optional third
argument of the `H` macro.
* The m (mm) macro package's `IND` macro (a GNU extension), now calls
`SK` only if no `TXIND` macro is defined, instead of performing this
action as part of the fallback when no `TYIND` macro is defined.
* The m (mm) macro package now supports a user-definable hook macro
`AFX`, which if defined is called by `AF` in lieu of the latter's
normal operation. Applications include customization of letterhead.
* The m (mm) macro package now supports a user-definable hook macro
`RPX`, which if defined is called by `RP` in lieu of the latter's
normal operation (breaking the page [potentially], and formatting the
reference list caption string `Rp`).
* The m (mm) macro package's `LI` macro now interprets its second
argument as a Boolean value indicating whether a space should
separate the list item mark from its prefix (the first argument).
Thus, where you formerly specified "2" to indicate no such
separation, you would now use "0", matching the semantics of the
former `Limsp` register. "2" continues to be recognized and handled
as before, but prompts a warning; migrate your documents.
* The m (mm) macro package now supports an `Aumt` string to suppress
the appearance of positional arguments to the `AU` macro in the
document heading used by memorandum types 0-3 and 6. By default, all
such arguments appear, except the second (author initials). For
example, a value of "3 4" more accurately reproduces London &
Reiser's 1978 paper describing the porting of Unix to the VAX-11/780.
* The m (mm) macro package now supports an `Rpfmt` string specifying
the `LB` macro arguments that the package uses to format the items in
an `RP` reference list.
* The m (mm) macro package now supports the `E` register as DWB mm did.
* The m (mm) macro package now supports DWB mm's `Rg` string.
* The m (mm) macro package's `nP` macro now behaves more like DWB mm's.
It applies a temporary indentation to the second output line of a
paragraph to align it with the start of the paragraph text (not the
tag/label) in the first, and resets the paragraph counter when the
first- or second-level section heading number increments.
* The m (mm) macro package's `Iso` register is now named `Isodate` to
make its meaning less ambiguous. The old name remains as an alias.
* The m (mm) macro package's `Rpe` register is now named `Rpej` for
better symmetry with `Ej`. The old name remains as an alias.
* The m (mm) macro package has renamed several strings to make their
purposes less obscure; they determine the content of captions, not
list items.
`Licon` -> `Captc`
`Liec` -> `Capec`
`Liex` -> `Capex`
`Lifg` -> `Capfg`
`Litb` -> `Captb`
The old names remain as aliases.
* The m (mm) macro package has renamed the `Tcst` string to `Tcstatus`
to make its purpose less obscure. The old name remains as an alias.
* The m (mm) macro package recognizes new register names `Ftnum` and
`Rfnum` for the automatically incrementing footnote and reference
counters. The old, DWB-compatible but cryptic, names `:p` and `:R`
remain supported.
* The s (ms) macro package now sets the vertical spacing register
defaults for normal (`VS`) and footnote (`FVS`) text to 120% of the
type size configured in the `PS` and `FPS` registers, respectively,
rather than 2 points larger, to comport with generally accepted
typesetting principles. Thus, when formatting a document with a type
size of 20 points, the vertical spacing now defaults to 24 points
rather than 22.
* The s (ms) macro package now subtracts one vee from the footer trap
location computed using the `FM` register. When using the default
`FM` value of `1i`, this makes the size of the margin from the footer
baseline to the bottom of the page 3 vees or one half-inch,
consistently with that between the header baseline and the page top.
While a bug fix, and consistent with DWB 3.3 ms, this computation is
inconsistent with Seventh Edition Unix ms and Heirloom Doctools ms.
When formatting for terminals, footers now set one line higher than
before. The size of the footnote area is not affected; instead there
is a 1v smaller margin between its bottom and the footer baseline.
Output drivers
--------------
* grohtml(1), the (X)HTML output driver, supports a new `-k` command-
line option that takes a mandatory argument, either "ascii" or
"utf-8", which it recognizes case-insensitively. This feature
configures representation of character entities in the output. Based
on work by TANAKA Takuji.
* gropdf(1), the PDF output driver, now allows embedding of JFIF/JPEG
and JPEG 2000 image file formats. If PerlMagick is installed, many
more image file formats, including PNG, PAM, and GIF, can be
embedded. See also the item regarding `PDFPIC` above. Thanks to
Deri James.
* gropdf now supplies its own "SS" (slanted symbol) font to improve
rendering of documents requiring slanted lowercase Greek letters,
such as those employing the eqn(1) preprocessor. groff supplies the
font in PFB format, and gropdf automatically embeds it, as it is not
a standard PDF font. Formerly, groff's "pdf.tmac" file defined
fallback characters for lowercase Greek letters, applying a slant of
16 degrees to the upright glyphs available in the standard symbol
font "S". That technique produced glyphs slightly larger than those
in grops's "SS" font. Thanks to Deri James.
* gropdf now subsets embedded fonts by default, meaning that it stores
only the glyphs a document actually uses. Font subsetting usually
reduces the size of the PDF gropdf creates. Thanks to Deri James.
* gropdf supports a new `--opt` command-line option, permitting a few
features, including font subsetting, to be selectively enabled.
Thanks to Deri James.
* gropdf now emits PDFs that conform to the PDF 1.7 standard (also
known as ISO 32000). Its new `--pdfver` command-line option permits
production of PDF 1.4-conformant output instead. Thanks to Deri
James.
* gropdf supports a new `pdf: pagenumbering` device extension command
and `pdfpagenumbering` convenience macro, allowing control of the
page numbers in a PDF reader's overview panel. It is common for a
document to number early pages with Roman numerals and then restart
page enumeration at decimal 1 for its main matter. Thanks to Deri
James.
* gropdf now offers its own implementations of the "pdfmark" macro
package's "pdfhref" and other macros, supporting internal (bookmarks,
named destinations) and external (URL) hyperlinks, and the
specification of hotspots for link text. For example, when bundling
multiple man pages into a collection, as the supplied
groff-man-pages.pdf document and the Linux man-pages project do,
references to man pages within the collection are supported with
internal hyperlinks, and those outside with external ones. Thanks to
Deri James.
* gropdf now supports characters outside the Unicode Basic Latin subset
in bookmarks, named destinations, and external hyperlinks. (They
must be encoded using groff's Unicode special character escape
sequences; the preconv preprocessor is helpful to simply this
requirement.) Thanks to Deri James.
* gropdf now recognizes a `GROPDF_OPTIONS` environment variable,
interpreting it as a space-separated list of command-line options.
Explicit command-line options override any settings from this
environment variable. You can use this variable to obviate passing
options to gropdf via groff's `-P` option. Thanks to Deri James.
* grops(1), the PostScript output driver, now supports fonts encoded
using UTF-16. Indicate the encoding by including the string
"-UTF16-" within the font's name as specified by the "internalname"
directive in its font description file. Thanks to TANAKA Takuji.
* The PostScript output driver grops(1) no longer accepts spaces as
field separators in its "download" file; this is so that spaces can
appear in font file names, and to better align the syntax of this
file with that used by gropdf(1). The download file for grops
shipped by groff has long used tabs rather than spaces for field
separation.
* The PostScript output driver grops(1)'s macro file "ps.tmac" no
longer defines fallback special characters `\[S ,]` and `\[S ,]` to
simulate support for what Unicode calls LATIN {CAPITAL,SMALL} LETTER
S WITH COMMA BELOW. The file's definition constructed these glyphs
by overstriking the Basic Latin "S" (or "s") with a cedilla accent,
which is regarded as less orthographically acceptable than in the
past. A user's document or macro file can still do exactly what
"ps.tmac" used to.
.fchar \[S ,] \o'S\[ac]'
.hcode \[S ,]s
.fchar \[s ,] \o's\[ac]'
.hcode \[s ,]s
* The PostScript output driver grops(1) once again accepts a file name
containing slashes as a document prolog or resource (such as a font
to be downloaded into the document). This is a restoration of groff
1.22.4 and earlier behavior; groff's 1.23.0 change of not accepting a
file name containing slashes as an encoding or font description
remains in place. (We impose this restriction because the output
driver interprets the contents of these files; it does not interpret
the PostScript prolog or resource files.)
* grotty(1) now supports devices recognizing ECMA-48/ISO 6429 SGR 38
and 48 escape sequences that select RGB colors using 8 bits per color
channel. A new command-line option, `-t`, configures emission of
these escape sequences instead of the SGR 30-37 and 40-47 sequences
supporting 3- or 4-bit color. Thanks to Deri James.
Example:
$ groff -T utf8 -P -t <<EOF
.defcolor pink rgb #ffc0cb
.defcolor springgreen rgb #00ff7f
Hello, \f[B]\m[pink]colorful \m[springgreen]world\m[default]\f[]!
.pl \n[nl]u
EOF
* gxditview(1), the X11 output driver and document previewer, now
accepts the option `-v` as a synonym of `--version` (and `-version`).
This change aligns it with other groff output drivers, and makes it
work correctly with "groff -vX".
Utilities
---------
* afmtodit now recognizes a '-q' option to suppress diagnostics
reporting duplicate mappings in favor of a count thereof, and the
"BuildFoundries" script uses it. Recent versions of the URW fonts
have tons of duplicate mappings (for groff's purposes) and to our
knowledge these are all harmless.
* grog no longer supports the `--ligatures` and `--run` options.
Simulate the former (which was specific to the "pdf" output device)
with the option sequence "-P -U -P y", and the latter by using the
command substitution feature of your shell; see section "Examples" of
groff(1).
* groff now offers install-font.bash, a shell script that interactively
assists the configuration of fonts for use with the GNU troff
formatter and the gropdf and grops output drivers. For now, it is
provided as an example, as it lacks a man page. You can change to
its directory and run "bash install-font.bash -H" for a man page-like
description of its features and operation.
Miscellaneous
-------------
* The contributed programs gperl and gpinyin no longer accept
abbreviated forms of the long options `--help` and `--version`. The
respective synonymous short options `-h` and `-v` remain.
* Font description files now support a variant of the "charset"
directive: "charset-range" works like the existing "charset"
directive except that the glyph descriptions use a `name` of the form
"uEEEE..uFFFF" (where "EEEE" and "FFFF" are hexadecimal digit
sequences), and apply the metrics identically to all glyphs in the
designated range. Thanks to TANAKA Takuji.
* groff now ships font description files usable with the "ps", "html",
"xhtml", and "utf8" output devices to support East Asian fonts.
(Caveat: with few exceptions, groff does not ship font files
themselves.) These are intended as abstractions of faces to permit
consistent naming while allowing custom font selections, just as with
the 12 text typefaces supported across output devices for Latin
scripts in groff (three families of four styles each). These CJK
font descriptions are not organized into groff font families, but are
similarly arranged.
CSH: Simplified Chinese, Hei style
CSS: Simplified Chinese, Song style
CTH: Traditional Chinese, Hei style
CTS: Traditional Chinese, Song style
JPG: Japanese, Gothic style
JPM: Japanese, Mincho style
KOG: Korean, Gothic style
KOM: Korean, Mincho style
Thanks to TANAKA Takuji.
* The commands addftinfo, grodvi, post-grohtml, grolbp, grolj4, grops,
grotty, eqn, pre-grohtml, gxditview, pic, preconv, refer, soelim,
tbl, groff, troff, hpftodit, indxbib, lkbib, lookbib, tfmtodit, and
xtotroff now exit with status 2 instead of 1 on usage errors. grn
now exits with status 2 on a usage error instead of a successful
status (0).
* Support for terminal devices using the CCSID 1047 (EBCDIC) encoding
has been withdrawn. This change partially clears the way for GNU
troff to interpret UTF-8 input directly (without preconv(1)
preprocessor usage) in the future. Use iconv(1) to covert a code
page 1047 document to US-ASCII or ISO Latin-1 prior to its input to
GNU troff. preconv(1), and therefore groff(1)'s `-k` and `-K`
options, can do this as well if preconv is built with iconv support.
Use `preconv -v` to determine this fact.
* groff's "configure" script now tries harder to determine an
appropriate paper format for the system; its output reports how it
made its determination. Any existing "/etc/papersize" file is one of
the resources it consults.
* groff's "configure" script now supports a "--without-urw-fonts"
option, for use on systems where the URW replacement fonts for
PostScript and PDF standard fonts are unavailable or not desired. It
also silences the lengthy warning the script issues when these fonts
and their metric files are not found. Configuring without URW font
support reduces the gropdf(1) output driver's functionality; see
subsection "URW font support" of that man page for details.
* You can now specify any paper format you like--including the file
specification "/etc/papersize" for systems using "libpaper"--as the
default that the groff build writes to generated device description
files ("DESC") for the "dvi", "lbp", "lj4", "pdf", and "ps" output
drivers. (The paper format must still be valid; see groff_font(5).)
Example: ./configure PAGE=/etc/papersize --prefix=/opt/gnu
* Building groff no longer requires the PSUtils package.
* Building groff no longer requires the makeinfo command. Since groff
1.23.0, we ship groff's Texinfo manual in several formats as part of
groff's distribution archive. We ask that distributors provide their
users with all formats appropriate to the platform (GNU Info, HTML,
plain text, TeX DVI, and PDF). Thanks to onf.
* Russian language input documents using the KOI8-R encoding are now
supported, including hyphenation patterns from the ruhyphen project
and localized strings for the man, ms, me, mm, and mom packages.
Thanks to Nikita Ivanov.
* Spanish language input documents are now supported, including
hyphenation patterns from the hyph-utf8 project and localized strings
for the man, ms, me, mm, and mom packages. Thanks to Eloi Monta<74><61>s.
* The localization macro files now set up an appropriate hyphenation
mode default. For Chinese and Japanese, this is zero.
* If groff programs have their current time overridden by the
SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment variable, then that time is always
displayed in UTC. That environment variable is normally only set
when specifically requesting build systems to produce reproducible
output, and it is useful for reproducibility test harnesses to vary
the TZ environment variable and ensure that it does not affect the
output of the build; those harnesses have no way to set TZ=UTC only
for groff programs. People setting SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH are likely to
be more in the "system programmer" camp as described in the release
notes for 1.23.0, so it is easier to defend time-zone-invariant
output to them. In all other cases, the current time remains
displayed in local time. Thanks to Colin Watson.
* The minimum version of Perl required to build groff is now 5.8 (18
July 2002), incremented from 5.6.1.
* groff now looks for the Netpbm program pamcut(1) rather than
pnmcut(1). Per its developers, the former was introduced in 2001
ago and the latter withdrawn in 2009.
* The Makefile macro `DEVICE` has been renamed to `DEFAULT_DEVICE`; be
aware if your builds don't use "ps" as the default output device.
* The groff_diff(7) man page no longer contains examples. They remain
in groff's Texinfo manual.
VERSION 1.23.0
==============
troff
-----
* The `troffrc` file now loads an English localization file instead of
directly housing configuration parameters appropriate to the English
language. See "Macro Packages" below.
* A new read-only register `.cp` is implemented. Within a `do`
request, "\n[.cp]" holds the saved value of compatibility mode. See
groff_diff(7) or the groff Texinfo manual for rationale and example.
* New read-only registers `.nm` and `.nn` are implemented. `.nm` is of
Boolean sense, reporting the enablement status of output line
numbering (caused by the `nm` request) irrespective of the temporary
suspension of numbering with the `nn` request. `.nn` holds the count
of numbered output lines still to have that numbering suppressed.
These registers were introduced because there was no way for the
formatter (and thus a document) to introspect their state, tbl(1)
needs to be able to do so, and the writable line number register `ln`
is not a reliable proxy for this information.
* Type size escape sequences of the form "\sNN", where NN is in the
range 10-39, are now recognized only in compatibility mode ("groff
-C"); when encountered, an error diagnostic is emitted. Otherwise,
"\sN" is interpreted as setting the type size to the single-digit
value N (in scaled points), which ends the escape sequence. This
change eliminates a quirk in the language grammar that dates back to
the mid-1970s (AT&T troff by Ossanna) but was not documented in the
Troff User's Manual until 1992 when Kernighan updated CSTR #54 for
device-independent AT&T troff.
The form "\s(NN" is accepted for two-digit sizes in all known troffs.
The form "\s[NNN]" accepts a numeric expression of variable length;
it has been supported by groff since version 1.01 (March 1991) or
earlier, by Heirloom Doctools troff since its 2005-08-16 release, and
by neatroff, but not by Plan 9 troff. The form "\s'NNN'" is also
widely supported.
Summary: in your documents, rewrite escape sequences beginning with
"\s1", "\s2", or "\s3" in an unambiguous and portable form. For
instance, "\s36" can become any of:
\s(36
\s[36]
\s'36'
You can use
grep '\\s[123]'
to find instances in your documents.
Those who have changed the escape character with the `ec` request
(an advanced usage) are expected to be able to cope; ask the
development team for support if you need it.
* New requests `soquiet` and `msoquiet` are available. They operate as
`so` and `mso`, respectively, except that they do not emit a warning
diagnostic if the file named in their argument does not exist.
* New requests `stringdown` and `stringup` are available. These change
the string named in their argument by replacing each of its bytes
with its lowercase or uppercase version (if any), respectively.
groff special characters (see the groff_char(7) man page) in the
string will often transform in the expected way due to the regular
naming convention for accented letters. When they do not, use
substrings and/or catenation.
* The `ab` request no longer writes "User Abort." to the standard error
stream if given no arguments.
* The `fp` request no longer accepts file or font names with slashes in
them as arguments. All font description files are expected to be
accessible within the directory of the output device for which they
were prepared.
nroff
-----
* The new option -P takes an argument to pass to the output driver
(always grotty(1)). "-P-i" directs the terminal device to display
real italic (oblique) characters instead of underlining: it is up to
your terminal (emulator) to support italics (xterm does since patch
#314 [2014-12-28]). "-P-h" can now be used instead of -h; the latter
may eventually be deprecated and repurposed.
* The new option -V emits the constructed groff command that nroff
would run to standard output instead of executing it. Arguments to
nroff that contain shell metacharacters may not be sufficiently
escaped for the output of nroff -V to be copied and pasted to the
shell prompt; this is a historical deficiency of the Bourne shell
family not yet corrected by the POSIX standard.
* nroff now recognizes the -b, -E, -k, -K, -R, and -z options and
passes them to groff.
* nroff now supports spaces and tabs between option flag letters and
arguments to options, like groff and troff themselves.
groff
-----
* The -I option now implies -g (run the grn(1) preprocessor), and
supplies grn an -M option with the argument to -I.
eqn
---
* The GNU extension
delim on
is now recognized even in AT&T compatibility mode (the -C option) in
order to reliably integrate with tbl. Few eqn documents are expected
to use 'o' and 'n' as left and right delimiters, respectively. If
yours does, consider swapping them, or select others.
* The command-line option -D is no longer supported. It has been
undocumented, and issued a warning of its obsolescence upon use, for
30 years, since groff 1.06 (September 1992).
pic
---
* The token `.PY` is now recognized as a synonym of `.PF` to work
around a name space collision with the m (mm) macro package, which
defines `PF` as a page footer management macro. (This problem dates
back at least to Unix System V Release 2, 1983.) You should continue
to use `.PF` to end pictures with flyback unless a similar problem
faces your document.
tbl
---
* GNU tbl now suspends output line numbering while formatting tables,
saving and restoring its status before and after each table region,
including the count of lines for which numbering is suppressed.
Historical tbl implementations did not, with bizarre consequences
when text blocks were used in tables.
Macro packages
--------------
* mom version 2.5 is distributed with this release. New features
include shaded backgrounds, frames, and colored pages. Thanks to
Peter Schaffter.
* English localization has been split into a dedicated macro file,
`en.tmac`, for better parallelism with other localization files and
to improve support for multilingual documents. Those who want a
different default input language should edit the troffrc file to
source the desired groff locale macro file (`cs.tmac`, `de.tmac`,
`den.tmac`, `fr.tmac`, `it.tmac`, `ja.tmac`, `sv.tmac`, or `zh.tmac`)
instead of `en.tmac`.
The default hyphenation mode (as given to the `hy` request) for users
of English has changed from "1", which was inappropriate for the
TeX-based hyphenation patterns groff has used since at least 1991, to
"4". However, invoking ".hy" without an argument remains synonymous
with ".hy 1".
* The hyphenation patterns for English have been updated using the
`hyph-en-us.tex` patterns file from the TeX hyph-utf8 project. The
new patterns likely _will_ change the automatic hyphenation break
points of your English documents.
* The `PDFPIC` macro (provided by the `pdfpic` package) no longer
aborts upon encountering trouble. Instead, it reports an error and
abandons processing of its argument(s). It is also more sensitive to
other kinds of problems and handles them the same way, by issuing a
diagnostic and returning. If you wish `PDFPIC` to abort document
processing immediately upon error, you can append an `ab` request to
the package's error-handling macro.
.am pdfpic@error
. ab
..
* The pspic package now also has an error hook macro, which you can use
to make failed image loads fatal (or attempt fallback or recovery).
.am pspic@error-hook
. ab
..
* The new rfc1345 macro package, contributed by Dorai Sitaram, defines
special character identifiers implementing RFC 1345 mnemonics (plus
some additions from Vim, which itself uses RFC 1345 for its
digraphs). It is documented in the groff_rfc1345(7) man page.
* The new sboxes macro package, contributed by Deri James, offers a
simple interface to the new gropdf(1) "background" feature. Using
it, ms documents can draw colored rectangles beneath any groff
output. See "Using PDF boxes with groff and the ms macros",
installed as `msboxes.ms` and `msboxes.pdf` for instructions and a
demonstration.
* The an (man) and doc (mdoc) macro packages no longer remap the -, ',
and ` input characters to Basic Latin code points on UTF-8 devices,
but treat them as groff normally does (and AT&T troff before it did)
for typesetting devices, where they become the hyphen, apostrophe or
right single quotation mark, and left single quotation mark,
respectively. This change is expected to expose glyph usage errors
in man pages. See the "PROBLEMS" file for a recipe that will conceal
these errors. A better long-term approach is for man pages to adopt
correct input practices; the man pages groff_man_style(7),
groff_char(7), and man-pages(7) (subsection "Generating optimal
glyphs"; from the Linux man-pages project) contain such instructions.
Doing so also improves man page typography when formatting for PDF.
If you maintain a generator of man(7) or mdoc(7) documents (such as a
tool that converts other formats to them), and need assistance,
please contact the groff@gnu.org mailing list and describe your
situation.
* The an (man) macro package can now produce clickable hyperlinks
within terminal emulators, using the OSC 8 support added to grotty(1)
(see below). The groff man(7) extension macros `UR` and `MT`,
present since 2007, expose this feature. At present the feature is
disabled by default in `man.local` pending more widespread
recognition of OSC 8 sequences in pager programs. The package now
recognizes a `U` register to enable hyperlinks in any output driver
supporting them.
Use a command like
printf '\033]8;;man:grotty(1)\033\\grotty(1)\033]8;;\033\\\n'|more
to check your terminal and pager for OSC 8 support. If you see
"grotty(1)" and no additional garbage characters, then you may wish
to edit "man.local" to remove the lines that disable this feature.
* The an (man) macro package supports a new macro, `MR`, intended for
use by man page cross references in preference to the font style
alternation macros historically used. Where before you would write
.BR ls (1).
or
.IR ls (1).
you should now write
.MR ls 1 .
(the third argument, typically used for trailing punctuation, is
optional). Because the macro semantically identifies a man page, it
can create a clickable hyperlink ("man:ls(1)" for the above example)
on supporting devices. Furthermore, a new string, `MF`, defines the
font to be used for setting the man page identifier (the first
argument to the `MR` and `TH` macros), permitting configuration by
distributions, sites, and users.
Inclusion of the `MR` macro was prompted by its introduction to
Plan 9 from User Space's troff in August 2020. Its purpose is to
ameliorate several long-standing problems with man page cross
references: (1) the package's lack of inherent hyperlink support for
them; (2) false-positive identification of strings resembling man
page cross references (as can happen with "exit(1)", "while(1)",
"sleep(5)", "time(0)" and others) by terminal emulators and other
programs; (3) the unwanted intrusion of hyphens into man page topics,
which frustrates copy-and-paste operations (this problem has always
been avoidable through use of the \% escape sequence, but cross
references are frequent in man pages and some page authors are
inexpert *roff users); and (4) deep divisions in man page maintenance
communities over which typeface should be used to set the man page
topic (italics, roman, or bold).
* Part of the an (man) macro package has been renamed from
"an-old.tmac" to "an.tmac", replacing a file that sourced the
"andoc.tmac" wrapper. This means that the "-man" argument to groff
(or nroff, or troff) will no longer load the andoc wrapper, and not
successfully format mdoc(7) man pages. If you are not sure which
macro package a given man page uses, or you wish to batch-process a
series of man pages written variously in the man and mdoc formats, be
sure to call the formatter with the "-mandoc" option explicitly, as
"-man" will no longer do this. The man-db man(1) implementation has,
since 2001, used "-mandoc" preferentially if available when man-db is
configured.
* The an (man) and doc (mdoc) macro packages support a new `AD` string
to put the default adjustment mode under user control at rendering
time. The default is "b" (adjust lines to both margins) as has been
the Unix man(7) default for typesetters since 1979.
* The an (man) and doc (mdoc) macro packages support new `CS` and `CT`
registers to control rendering of man page section headings and
topics (seen in the page header), respectively, in full capitals.
These default off (with no visible effect on pages that already fully
capitalize such text in man page sources). The rationale is to
encourage man page authors to preserve case distinction information
in (or restore it to) their topics and section headings, while giving
users (including system administrators, distributors, integrators,
and maintainers of man(1) implementations) a way to view the rendered
page elements in full capitals if desired.
* The an (man) macro package no longer honors an `ll` request to set
the line length on nroff devices prior to processing a man page.
This was deprecated in groff 1.18 (July 2002), and all known man
program and macro package implementations either have set an LL
register since 2002 (man-db man) or 2005 (Brouwer/Lucifredi man);
don't let the user vary the line length freely (DWB troff, Solaris
troff, Plan 9 troff); or don't permit its configuration via the `ll`
request (mandoc) or at all (Heirloom Doctools troff).
* The an (man) macro package now interprets the value of the `HY`
register as a Boolean; using it to set a specific hyphenation mode is
no longer supported. The groff command-line option `-rHY=0`
continues to disable automatic hyphenation of man page text as
before.
* The an (man) macro package's `TS` macro no longer inserts vertical
space. It was not documented to do so, but had since groff 1.18
(July 2002). Man page authors may freely use paragraphing macros
around tables if vertical space is desired.
* The an (man) macro package no longer attempts to detect misuse of the
`R` string as a macro. The `R` string itself is a legacy feature,
not required in modern man pages; see groff_man_style(7).
* The groff_man(7) man page documenting the groff implementation of the
an (man) macro package has been split into two pages. The original
page remains as a terser reference for experienced users. A new
page, groff_man_style(7), is a tutorial and style guide containing
the same material supplemented with explanations, examples, and
advice for the reader who is not an expert in *roff systems or in
writing man pages.
* The doc (mdoc) macro package now honors the `C`, `FT`, `HY`, `IN`,
`P`, `SN`, and `X` registers and `HF` string as the an (man) package
does.
* The doc (mdoc) macro package now renders man page (sub)section cross
references cited with the `Sx` macro by quoting them instead of
setting them in italics.
* The e (me) macro package has changed its default line length on
typesetting devices from 6i to the output device's default (for
example, 6.5i on the 'ps' and 'pdf' devices). You can use
"papersize.tmac" to override this length, as in "groff -d paper=a4l"
to select A4 paper in landscape orientation, without needing to alter
the document.
* The e (me) macro package has changed its support for output line
numbering with the `n1` and `n2` macros to resolve several bugs in
the previous implementation. The `n1` macro now accepts an optional
`C` argument to set the line number at the existing page offset
instead of reducing the page offset to make the line number appear in
the left margin. A second argument to the `n2` macro is no longer
supported. A new register `no` makes configurable the amount of
horizontal space to be used for the line number (the default is
unchanged).
* The e (me) macro package now uses strings `wa` and `wc` to store the
terms the package produces in chapter headings created by the `$c`
macro. The strings, which default to "Appendix" and "Chapter",
respectively, ease localization of the package and replacement of the
terms used without requiring the `$c` macro to be redefined.
* The e (me) macro package has a new macro, `ld`, which "re-localizes
the date"; if you modify troff registers `dw`, `mo`, and `yr` (to
record a document's date of revision, for instance), call `ld`
afterward to update the package's `y2` and `y4` registers and the
localized strings `dw` and `mo` for the names of the weekday and
month. `ld` is also used internally to simplify the use of the
package with languages other than English; it thus updates the `wa`
and `wc` strings as well. If you want to customize these strings, do
so after any `ld` call you make.
* The e (me) macro package now has a register `sx` that eases the
configuration of space added to the line height above/below when
super/subscripting is used. It defaults to 0.2m, the value used
literally in past definitions of the super/subscripting strings.
groff's own 'me' documents redefine it to zero.
* The e (me) macro package's `$v` and `$V` registers have been renamed
to `tv` and `dv`--they control the vertical spacing used for text and
displays/annotations, respectively. The old names are still
supported as aliases. The new names reflect the fact that users are
expected to set them if desired, unlike other registers and strings
beginning with "$".
* The e (me) and s (ms) macro packages now offer a `PF` macro,
supporting the pic(1) preprocessor's "flyback" feature. Thanks to
Dave Kemper.
* The m (mm) and s (ms) macro packages no longer implement the `IX`
macro. This undocumented 4.2BSD ms extension was similarly
undocumented by groff mm and ms. No documents applying it are
attested. groff mm documents its own indexing feature, `INITI`. We
otherwise suggest makeindex(1), which supports troff and is available
with most TeX distributions, for your mm/ms document indexing needs.
A document can define its own `IX` macro to suit the requirements of
the indexing tool. groff mm and ms formerly used the following.
.de IX
.tm \\$1\t\\$2\t\\$3\t\\$4 ... \\n[%]
..
* The m (mm) macro package now adapts to the paper format selected when
the macro file "papersize.tmac" is used (by specifying the groff "-d
paper" command-line option). A consequence is that "groff -mm" and
"groff -d paper=letter -mm" are _not_ synonymous (when groff is
configured to use U.S. letter as the default paper format), because
groff mm(7) uses a page offset of 0.963 inches on typesetting devices
for compatibility with DWB mm. If the `W` or `O` registers are also
set on the command line, the line length and page offset,
respectively, are not overridden by "papersize.tmac".
* The m (mm) macro package now recognizes a `V` register to set the
vertical spacing for the document. Like the existing `S`, it must be
set from the command line. Further, both registers are interpreted
correctly if suffixed with a scaling unit, instead of requiring an
unscaled value assumed to be points.
* The m (mm) macro package now supports DWB mm's `Sm` string.
* The m (mm) macro package now requires a title to be declared when
memorandum type 5 is used (".MT 5"), just as type 4 has since groff
1.10 (November 1995).
* The m (mm) and s (ms) macro packages no longer manipulate the set of
enabled warning categories. If you want all warnings on, use the
`warn` request with no arguments in your document or pass "-w w" to
groff (see troff(1) or the groff Texinfo manual for more on
warnings).
* The m (mm) and s (ms) macro packages' `R` macros now work analogously
to their `B` and `I` macros instead of ignoring their arguments.
* The m (mm) package now offers a `PY` macro, which serves the function
of `PF` (end pic(1) picture with flyback) from other macro packages.
* The "ptx.tmac" macro file, a counterpart to the GNU coreutils ptx(1)
command for generating permuted indexes, is now installed. It has
long been part of the source distribution.
* The s (ms) macro package now enables the formatter's "no-space mode"
after ending displays (`DE`), equations (`EN`), tables (`TE`), and
pictures without flyback (`PE`). This means that display distance
spacing (the `DD` register) overrides the spacing that may follow in
a subsequent paragraph, section heading, or display instead of
accumulating with that distance. This change is to make the behavior
of the package more predictable; you can fine-tune such spacing by
setting the `DD` register in desired places. It has also helped us
to improve groff ms's rendering of historical ms(7) documents such as
Kernighan & Cherry's "Typesetting Mathematics". This change also
suppresses the `bp` page break request; you may wish to define a
macro (the name `BP` is not in use by the package) to restore spacing
with the `rs` request and break the page with `bp`.
* The s (ms) macro package supports a new string, `FR`, which defines
the ratio of the footnote line length to the current line length.
The default expression is "11/12", eleven twelfths of the normal line
length, adopted for better compatibility with ms documents prepared
with AT&T ms or its descendant implementations in Heirloom Doctools
and neatroff. This is a change from previous groff releases, which
used a ratio of five sixths.
You may wish to set the `FR` string to "1" to align with contemporary
typesetting practices. In Unix Version 7 ms, its descendants, and
groff prior to this release, an `FL` register was used for the line
length in footnotes; however, setting this register at document
initialization time had no effect on the footnote line length in
multi-column arrangements.
`FR` should be used in preference to the old `FL` register in
contemporary documents; see the groff Texinfo manual or the "Using
groff with the ms macros" document, also part of this release.
Thanks to T. Kurt Bond.
* The s (ms) macro package has added strings, `<` and `>`, to perform
subscripting. They work analogously to the `{` and `}`
superscripting strings that have been present in groff ms since 1991
or earlier.
* The s (ms) macro package has added a hook macro, `FS-MARK`, which is
called automatically by the `FS` macro (with the same arguments given
to `FS`) before any other footnote processing. It is empty by
default but can be defined by the user to, for example, place a
hyperlink anchor so that a link within a footnote can return to its
referential context. "Portable Document Format Publishing with GNU
Troff", distributed with groff as `pdfmark.ms`, uses this technique.
Thanks to Keith Marshall.
* The s (ms) macro package's `RP` macro recognizes a new optional
argument, `no-renumber`, which suppresses the renumbering of the page
after the cover page as page 1. It furthermore recognizes the
optional argument `no-repeat-info`, which has the same effect as
`no`; the latter will continue to be supported for backward
compatibility. Optional arguments to `RP` can be given in any order.
* The s (ms) macro package supports new macros `XN` and `XH` to ease
the input of numbered and unnumbered section headings, respectively.
They internally call the `XS` and `XE` macros to produce table of
contents entries, and lay a foundation for inclusion of PDF
bookmarks, all without requiring retyping of the heading text as the
package previously encouraged. Thanks to Keith Marshall.
* The s (ms) macro package now uses a default line length of 6.5 inches
by default, resulting in 1-inch left and right margins. When the
"papersize.tmac" package is used by employing the "-d paper" groff(1)
option on typesetting devices, the default page offset and line
length are adjusted to maintain these margins.
* The "a4.tmac" file has been dropped from the distribution. Its
successor, "papersize.tmac", has been present and documented for
nearly 20 years. See subsection "Paper format" of groff(1).
* The "safer.tmac" file has been dropped from the distribution. It was
present only to support man(1) programs that unconditionally passed
the formatter the "-msafer" option, and had contained only comments
for over 20 years. If your man(1) program has this requirement, you
can create an empty file of this name in groff's macro file search
path (see troff(1)) or consider migrating to man-db man(1).
Output drivers
--------------
* On output devices using the Latin-1 character encoding ("groff -T
latin1" and the X11 devices) the special character escape sequence
\[oq] (opening quote) is now rendered as code point 0x27 (apostrophe)
instead of 0x60 (grave accent). The ISO 8859/ECMA-94 Latin character
sets do not define any glyphs for directional ("typographer's")
quotation marks, but the apostrophe is depicted in the defining
standard as a neutral (vertical) glyph, whereas the grave accent 0x60
and acute accent 0xB4 are mirror-symmetric diacritical marks.
This change has no effect on _input_ conventions for roff source
documents. You can still get directional single quotes on UTF-8,
PostScript, PDF, and other output devices supporting them by typing
sequences like `this' in the input (character remapping with 'char'
requests and similar notwithstanding).
* The grops driver (which produces PostScript), like the `fp` request
in the troff formatter (see above), no longer no longer accepts file
names with slashes in them as a document prologue, encoding file, or
resource (such as a font to be downloaded). All such files must be
accessible within the directory of the output device for which they
were prepared. Use the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment variable or
groff's "-F" command-line option to specify additional directories in
which such files should be sought.
gropdf
------
* A new device control command, "background", enables boxes to be drawn
underneath other page content. The boxes can be shaded with colors,
drawn with a colored border of configurable thickness, and
interrupted by page breaks with special support for breaking before
footnotes and similar material. For convenience, "pdf.tmac" exposes
a new macro, `pdfbackground`. Thanks to Deri James.
grotty
------
* The "utf8" output device now maps the input characters '^' (caret,
circumflex accent, or "hat") and '~' (tilde) to U+02C6 (modifier
letter circumflex accent) and U+02DC (small tilde), respectively, for
consistency with groff's other output devices. This change is
expected to expose glyph usage errors in man pages. See the
"PROBLEMS" file for a recipe that will conceal these errors. A
better long-term approach is for man pages to adopt correct input
practices; the man pages groff_man_style(7), groff_char(7), and
man-pages(7) (subsection "Generating optimal glyphs"; from the Linux
man-pages project) contain such instructions. Doing so also improves
man page typography when formatting for PDF.
If you maintain a generator of man(7) or mdoc(7) documents (such as a
tool that converts other formats to them), and need assistance,
please contact the groff@gnu.org mailing list and describe your
situation.
* A new device control command, "link", generates OSC 8 hyperlinks.
This means that groff documents can produce clickable links in the
terminal window for emulators that support such escape sequences.
* The "sgr" device control command, which dynamically configured
support for ISO 6429/ECMA-48 SGR escape sequences (and restored
traditional overstriking behavior if disabled), has been removed. It
took effect only at page boundaries. grotty's "-c" command-line
option and the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable remain supported.
Documentation
-------------
* groff's Texinfo manual is included in the distribution archive in
several formats, including GNU Info, HTML, TeX DVI, PDF, and plain
text. Many sections have been extensively revised and corrected, and
much material added to help the learner acquire the groff formatting
language (see, for instance, the section/node "Text").
* A compilation of all of groff's man pages in PDF and UTF-8-encoded
text (with SGR escape sequences) is produced by the build. Many of
the documents in this 380+-page collection have been heavily revised
or rewritten, including tbl(1), groff(1), groff_diff(7),
groff_font(5), groff(7), groff_char(7), and roff(7). The PDF version
uses pdfmark extensions to produce an internal bookmark for every man
page document, section heading, and subsection heading.
* Larry Kollar's "Using groff with the ms Macro Package" has been
resurrected after 20+ years, revised, and updated.
* Eric Allman's "me Reference Manual" has been revised in detail.
Miscellaneous
-------------
* Because all generated forms of groff's Texinfo manual are now
included in the distribution archive, building from that archive no
longer depends on GNU Texinfo or a TeX installation (the latter was
required only for the "doc" target, which had to be explicitly
named).
* Building groff from its distribution archive no longer requires byacc
(or GNU Bison) to be installed.
* m4 is now required to build. Any m4 that implements the features
documented in the Seventh Edition Unix m4(1) man page, and the `-D`
option, should suffice.
* New 'configure' options '--{en,dis}able-groff-allocator' control
whether groff uses its own malloc/free-wrapping allocator to
implement all C++ new/delete operations. groff has used this
allocator for over 30 years; C++ implementations are more mature now.
The default is now to rely on C++ language runtime support for
new/delete. When building groff, use
configure --enable-groff-allocator
to re-enable groff's traditional allocator.
* The 'configure' option '--with-appresdir' has been renamed to
'--with-appdefdir'.
* Italian language input documents are now supported, including
hyphenation patterns from the hyph-utf8 project and localized strings
for the ms, me, mm, and mom packages. Thanks to Edmond Orignac.
* Manual section titles for man pages (those that appear by default in
the page header, like "General Commands Manual") are now localized
for Czech, German, French, Italian, and Swedish.
* The semantics of the environment variable SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH to groff,
support for which was added in 1.22.4, were not established at that
time with respect to time zone selection, prompting divergent
interpretations; Debian and distributions derived from it have for
several years patched groff to implicitly use UTC as the time zone
when interpreting the current time (or SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH) as a local
time. While a convenient and defensible choice for reproducible
build efforts, it runs against the grain of user expectations.
Systems programmers like time zone-invariant, monotonically
increasing clocks; the broader user base usually prefers a clock that
follows an applicable civil calendar. groff programs now reckon
SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH with respect to the local time zone. Users of
SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH may wish to also set the TZ environment variable.
* xtotroff now supports a "-d" option to specify the directory in which
to generate font description files.
* The 'configure' option '--with-doc' that was introduced in version
1.22.3 has been deleted again. Its basic idea was misguided because
each of the documents is only available in a subset of the output
formats, so in contrast to the documentation, the option not only
affected which output formats were generated, but also restricted the
documentation content the user would get in erratic and surprising
ways. The option was also ill-designed insofar as the "examples"
keyword did not represent an output format. Some example files were
controlled by the "examples" keyword alone, some by the respective
format keywords alone, and some by a combination of both. The
implementation of the option was full of bugs, but few, if any, of
these bugs were ever reported by users, giving the impression that
few, if any, users ever attempted to use the option, and those who
did likely remained unaware that doing so deprived them of parts of
the content of the documentation. Experience has demonstrated that
properly maintaining and testing the option exceeds the amount of
effort the GNU troff team is able to invest. Finally, GNU standards
contain no recommendation to support this option, and indeed, few, if
any, GNU packages apart from groff support it.
* The 'doc' Make target has been eliminated. 'all' (the default Make
target) assumes responsibility for generating the groff Texinfo
manual in all formats supported by the build host. This change is
only significant when building from a Git checkout or if our Texinfo
manual's sources are modified; the distribution archive now provides
copies of the manual in Info, plain text, HTML, DVI, and PDF.
* afmtodit no longer writes file names with directory information in
them to the "name" directives of the font descriptions it generates.
(The `fp` request no longer accepts such names; see "troff" above.)
* afmtodit now exits with status 2 (not 1) upon usage errors.
* afmtodit now recognizes a '-w' option to specify the generated font
description's "spacewidth" parameter (see groff_font(5)). The
internal library "libgroff" now emits a diagnostic if a font
description file is missing such a directive. Adding this option
enables a well-formed font description to be produced by the tool
(without requiring editing by hand).
* pfbtops now exits with status 2 upon usage errors and the standard C
library's `EXIT_FAILURE` status (usually 1) on operational failures
instead of vice versa.
* groffer has been deleted from the distribution.
* grog no longer supports the "--warnings" option; the one diagnostic
message that it enabled has been removed.
* The ditroff(7) man page has been deleted. The "History" section of
roff(7) covers the same subject in greater depth.
* The groff_filenames(5) man page has been deleted. It had
inaccuracies and spurious content. The "File name conventions"
section of roff(7) covers the same subject.
* The lj4_font(5) man page has been deleted. Its content has moved
into the "Fonts" subsection of grolj4(1).
VERSION 1.22.4
==============
Troff
-----
* The `hy' request has been extended. Value 16 enables hyphenation
before the last character, and value 32 enables hyphenation after the
first character.
PDFPIC
------
* PDFPIC has been corrected so the behaviour is the same whether you
use the PostScript or PDF drivers. However, this means that any
documents which were written using the old behaviour will not be
rendered correctly if using the PDF driver with the new version.
The change would mean that documents which relied on the previous
behaviour are likely to have a gap underneath the image which was not
there before. If you see this effect there are three ways you can
restore the previous behaviour:
Add the line ".nr PDFPIC_NOSPACE 1" to the document before the first
call to .PDFPIC.
If it is just a single document which exhibits this behaviour you can
run groff adding "-rPDFPIC_NOSPACE=1" to the command line.
If you have many documents which rely on the previous behaviour you
can set an environment variable "export GROFF_PDFPIC_NOSPACE=1" which
will restore the previous behaviour for all runs.
This change has no effect if you were using .PDFPIC with the
PostScript driver--only if you used it with the PDF driver.
Gropdf
------
* Type 1 font loading is fixed to handle newer Ghostscript versions.
* Handling of glyphs above position 255 is improved to allow many more
glyphs to be used.
* New macros .pdftransition and .pdfpause are introduced to allow
creation of presentation slides. Partially backward-compatible with
present.tmac, specifically the PAUSE, BLOCKS and BLOCKE commands.
Supports all the transition types introduced in PDF v1.5 (see the
gropdf man page).
Miscellaneous
-------------
* A new 'configure' option --with-compatibility-wrappers controls how
groff compatibility wrappers for vendor-provided non-GNU macro sets
are installed (see ./configure --help).
* eqn2graph, grap2graph, and pic2graph now attempt to adapt to very old
installed versions of the ImageMagick and GraphicsMagick programs
"convert". They search the output of convert's "-help" option, and
use "-trim" if that string is found; otherwise, the old "-crop 0x0"
method (which produces incompatible results on versions that _do_
support "-trim") is used. The programs emit a warning to standard
error if the search fails and the old method is used.
* eqn2graph no longer supports the "-unsafe" option. It did nothing.
* groffer now supports the output of XHTML. Use the "--xhtml" or
"--mode=xhtml" command-line options to generate it.
* Much work has been done, and is ongoing, to make groff's man pages
better examples for man page writers to follow. groff_man(7) itself
has been expanded and largely rewritten to more precisely document
the macro package's behavior and to be more helpful and accessible to
man page writers who may never read any other groff documentation.
VERSION 1.22.3
==============
Gxditview
---------
* X11 resources for `gxditview', which were previously installed in
/usr/X11/lib/X11/app-defaults no matter which `prefix' was set, are
now installed in appresdir=$prefix/lib/X11/app-defaults. If
`appresdir' is not a standard X11 resource directory, the environment
variable XFILESEARCHPATH should be set to this path. The standard
default directories depends on the system `libXt'. Common
directories include:
/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults
/usr/share/X11/app-defaults
/etc/X11/app-defaults
Note that if the option `--with-appresdir' is passed to `configure',
the `prefix' will not be added to `appresdir'.
Glilypond
---------
* This new preprocessor (contributed by Bernd Warken) allows embedding
of code for GNU LilyPond (http://www.lilypond.org), a music
typesetter. The data gets automatically processed and embedded as
EPS images.
Gperl
-----
* Bernd Warken contributed a new preprocessor to handle Perl code that
can be evaluated and then processed by groff.
Gpinyin
-------
* Another preprocessor from Bernd Warken to pretty-print Pinyin
syllables like `guo2wang2' as `gu<67>w<EFBFBD>ng'.
Pdfroff
-------
* The pdfroff utility script now activates its `--no-toc-relocation'
option by default, unless a request similar to:
.if !\n[PHASE] .tm pdfroff-option:set toc_relocation=enabled
is invoked during input file processing; (`.if !\n[PHASE] ...'
ensures that the effect of the `.tm' request is restricted to the
document setup phase of processing, as pdfroff sets it to 1 or 2 in
the output phase, but leaves it unset in the setup phase).
The bundled `spdf.tmac' macro package, which implicitly activates
`-mpdfmark' for `ms' macro users, ensures that TOC relocation is
appropriately enabled, when the `.TC' macro is invoked.
Macro Packages
--------------
* New default values for hyphenation. The previous values were too
strict, suppressing some hyphenation points unnecessarily.
* The -mom macro package now has full support for eqn, pic, and tbl, as
well as captioning and labelling of PDF images and preprocessor
output. Lists of Figures, Equations, and Tables can now be
autogenerated. PDF_IMAGE has a new FRAME option.
* A French introduction to the -me macro package has been added (file
`meintro_fr.me').
* In -mdoc, command %C is now available, providing a city or place
reference.
VERSION 1.22.2
==============
Tbl
---
* The character `#' can now be used as an eqn delimiter within tables.
Eqn
---
* A GNU extension
delim on
has been added to reactivate delimiters which have been disabled with
`delim off'.
VERSION 1.22.1
==============
(There was no release 1.22.)
Groff
-----
* A new option `-j' has been added to call the `chem' preprocessor.
Tbl
---
* Improved line numbering support.
Macro Packages
--------------
* Support for the `refer' preprocessor has been added to the -mm macro
package.
* In -me, the `TH' macro was changed for compatibility with line number
support in tables.
`bl' now works inside of blocks.
The behaviour of centered blocks has been improved.
Line numbering support has been improved.
* The -mom macro package has reached version 2.0, focusing on PDF
output with gropdf (using the new `pdfmom' wrapper script). See the
file `version-2.html' of the -mom documentation for a list of the
many changes.
* Some generic Unicode fallback characters (mainly Roman numerals) have
been added.
Gropdf
------
* A new driver for generating PDF output directly, contributed by Deri
James <deri@chuzzlewit.myzen.co.uk>. Note that this driver is
written in Perl, thus you need a working Perl installation to run
this output device.
Pdfmom
------
* A new wrapper around groff that facilitates the production of PDF
documents from files formatted with the -mom macros.
VERSION 1.21
============
Troff
-----
* The new `lsm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when leading
spaces in an input line are encountered (which are removed then).
Number registers `lsn' and `lss' hold the number of removed leading
spaces and the corresponding horizontal space, respectively.
* There is a new warning category `file', enabled by default. The
`mso' request emits warnings in this category when the requested
macro file does not exist.
* The new `class' request assigns a short name to a set of characters
which can be referred to in the `cflags' request. This is especially
useful to control line-breaking and hyphenation rules in CJK
languages.
* Three new values for the `cflags' request have been added, which are
needed for proper CJK support.
128 prohibit before but allow break after character
256 prohibit after but allow break before character
512 allow break before and after character
Tbl
---
* A new global option `nowarn' suppresses warnings if tables are longer
than the current line width.
Afmtodit
--------
* New option `-o' to specify the name of the output file.
Macro Packages
--------------
* A new macro `%U' has been added to the mdoc package to indicate a URL
reference within an .Rs/.Re environment.
* Rudimentary support for the Japanese script has been added, most
suitable for man page handling as output by grotty. The file
`ja.tmac' contains the necessary setup to allow line breaks before
and after CJK characters (with proper exceptions). Note, however,
that no inter-character spacing is implemented yet -- this usually
causes many warnings about bad line breaks.
VERSION 1.20.1
==============
A packaging error made it necessary to publish this release. No
user-visible changes.
VERSION 1.20
============
Groff
-----
* XHTML support has been added to grohtml and can be specified by
-Txhtml. This option also utilizes the MathML capability of eqn and
combines the outputs of both in the final XHTML file. Users can also
specify the `-P-V' option together with `-Txhtml' in groff. This has
the effect of creating an XHTML validator button at the bottom of
each page.
* Some options have been added to control a new preprocessor, `preconv'
(see below): `-k' activates it, `-K' sets the input encoding, and
`-D' sets the default encoding.
* A new environment variable `GROFF_ENCODING' sets the encoding of
input files; it implies command option `-k'.
Troff
-----
* Two new requests `device' and `devicem' have been added which are
equivalents to the \X and \Y escapes, respectively.
* A new read-only number register `.br' is available which is set to 1
if a macro is called as .foo and to 0 if called as 'foo. This allows
to reliably modify requests.
.als bp@orig bp
.de bp
. tm before bp
. ie \\n[.br] .bp@orig
. el 'bp@orig
. tm after bp
..
* A new request `fzoom' has been added to adjust the optical size of a
font in relation to the others. The zoom factor is given in integer
multiples of 1/1000th. In the following example, the CR font is
magnified by 10% (the zoom factor is 1.1).
.fam P
.fzoom CR 1100
.ps 12
Palatino and \f[CR]Courier\f[]
The new number register `.zoom' holds the zoom value of the current
font, in multiples of 1/1000th.
* The `cflags' request has been extended with a new flag value 64, to
be used in combination with values 2 (break before character) and 4
(break after character). If set, the hyphenation codes of the
surrounding characters are ignored.
* A new debugging request, `pev', has been added to print all of the
current known environments to stderr. It first prints the state of
the current environment, then iterates through all of the known
environments, printing each except the one that is current.
* A new escape `\$^' has been added. It represents the parameters of a
macro as if they were an argument to the `ds' request. This is used
by `trace.tmac'.
* A new read-only number register `.O' is available which returns the
current suppression level as set by the `\O' escape.
* The space width emitted by the `\|' and `\^' escape sequences can be
controlled on a per-font basis. If there is a glyph named `\|' or
`\^', respectively (note the leading backslash), defined in the
current font file, use this glyph's width instead of the default
value.
This behaviour is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
Nroff
-----
* Two new command line options `-w' and `-W' are accepted and passed to
groff to enable and disable warning messages, respectively.
Preconv
-------
* This is a new preprocessor to convert various input encodings to
something groff understands (this is, ASCII and \[uXXXX] entities,
with `XXXX' a hexadecimal number with 4 to 6 digits, representing a
Unicode input code). Normally, preconv should be invoked with
options `-k' and `-K' of groff. See the preconv man page for
details.
Pic
---
* int(x) now really behaves as documented: It truncates the non-integer
part of x, this is, it rounds toward zero and not toward the next
integer less than or equal to x.
* Pic now supports up to 32 macro arguments (and up to 16 on EBCDIC
platforms).
* Heinz-J<>rgen <20>rtel contributed code for two new keywords, `xslanted'
and `yslanted', which can change the shape of boxes into arbitrary
parallelograms.
Tbl
---
* Latest versions of DWB tbl introduced an `x' column specifier for a
single column expanded to the line width. GNU tbl has now been
extended to support even multiple `x' specifiers within a table.
* To avoid collision with the new `x' specifier, a block formatting
macro must now be selected with specifier letter `m'.
Eqn
---
* Eric S. Raymond has added a new device type to eqn, MathML. When
-TMathML is enabled, eqn now emits MathML formula markup rather than
groff commands. The new groff -Txhtml device uses this.
Chem
----
* The preprocessor `chem' was added. `chem' is a roff language to
generate chemical structure diagrams. It generates `pic' output.
Grops
-----
* The PS font definition files have been regenerated with newer AFM
versions from Adobe's 35 core fonts as present in most Level 2 PS
printers. The changes are minor (most notably, the addition of the
`Euro' glyph and an extended set of kerning values).
For backward compatibility, the old set of font definition files is
still available; for details please read the man page of grops.
Grotty
------
* \D'p...' is now supported if the polygon consists entirely of
horizontal and vertical lines.
Grohtml
-------
* XHTML support has been added.
* New command line option `-V' (to be used in XHTML mode) to produce an
XHTML validator button.
* New command line option `-y' to produce a right-justified groff
signature at the end of the document (in combination with option
`-V').
Gxditview
---------
* Support for keyboard navigation has been improved.
* Similar to other X11 applications, there are now two resource files,
`GXditview' and `GXditview-color'.
Groffer
-------
* `groffer' version 1.* exists now in a shell and a Perl version.
Afmtodit
--------
* New option `-c' to output more font information as comments.
* New option `-k' to suppress output of kerning data.
* New option `-f NAME' to set the internal name of the groff font.
Macro Packages
--------------
* Joachim Walsdorff contributed the `hdtbl' package for the generation
of tables, using a syntax very similar to the HTML table model. For
example, a table with two cells and two rows looks like this:
.TBL cols=2
. TR .TD 1*1 .TD 1*2
. TR .TD 2*1 .TD 2*2
.ETB
Here the same table using a more expanded syntax:
.TBL cols=2
. TR
. TD 1*1
. TD 1*2
. TR
. TD 2*1
. TD 2*2
.ETB
Tables can be nested; `hdtbl' works without a preprocessor so that
the full capability of groff's macro engine is available.
This package currently works with `-Tps' only.
* -mandoc now supports multiple man pages (in either man or mdoc
format).
* Fabrice M<>nard contributed locales support. In particular, it is now
possible to get French localization of the main macro packages (-ms,
-mm, -me, and -mom, but not -man and -mdoc which are localized
differently) by appending `-mfr' to the list of macro packages.
Example:
groff -ms -mfr foo > foo.ps
Note that latin-9 input encoding is used for French (to support the
`oe' ligature).
* Swedish macro localization (with `-msv') has been added.
* German macro localization (with `-mde' and `-mden' for traditional
and new orthography, respectively) has been added.
* Czech macro localization (with `-mcs') has been added.
Note that latin-2 input encoding is used for Czech.
* A new macro `Dx' has been added to the mdoc package which identifies
the DragonFly OS.
* If mdoc is used to print multiple man pages (together with the -rcR=0
command line option), each man page now starts a new page.
* -mtrace has been considerably improved, now showing number and string
register assignments, among other things. See the groff_trace man
page for details.
* The PSPIC macro now works with all devices (producing a hollow
rectangle on devices which don't support inclusion of PS images) and
is loaded in troffrc at start-up.
* A new auxiliary macro package `62bit' has been added which provides
some macros for adding, multiplying, and dividing signed 62bit
integers (mainly to handle normal groff number operations without
risking overflow errors).
* For -ms, Eric S. Raymond contributed support for ancient Bell Labs
localisms `.SC', `.UC', `.P1', and `.P2'. The latter three are
enabled only after .SC is called.
* A new string, `SN-STYLE', has been added to the ms macros,
controlling the formatting of section numbers in headings defined by
`.NH'.
* The new macro package `ptx' provides a template definition for the
`.xx' macro as needed by GNU ptx (for creating permuted indices).
VERSION 1.19.2
==============
Troff
-----
* Analogously to the .ft and \f pair, two new requests `gcolor' and
`fcolor' (which pair with \m and \M, respectively) have been added to
set the glyph and background colours.
* A new read-only, string-valued register `.sty' returns the name of
the current style.
* Two new conditional operators `F <name>' and `S <name>' have been
added. `F' is true if a font <name> exists. `S' is true if a style
<name> has been registered.
* Cyrillic characters have been added to the `utf8' and `html' output
devices.
Pic
---
* The `by' argument in a `for' loop can now be negative if it is
additive. For the multiplicative case, it must be greater than zero.
Eqn
---
* The following keywords aren't new but haven't been documented
previously:
undef NAME (to undefine a macro)
copy "FILE" (a synonym for `include')
space n (to modify the vertical spacing before and after
an equation)
* The following macros aren't new but haven't been documented
previously:
Alpha, ..., Omega (the same as `ALPHA', ..., `OMEGA')
ldots (three dots on the baseline)
dollar (a dollar glyph)
* The following keywords have been extended. Again, this isn't new but
hasn't been documented previously:
col n { ... }
lcol n { ... }
rcol n { ... }
ccol n { ... }
pile n { ... }
lpile n { ... }
rpile n { ... }
cpile n { ... } (set vertical spacing between rows to N)
Grohtml
-------
* This device driver has been raised to beta stage; its set of tags
should be stable now.
* New command line option `-s' to set the base point size.
* New command line option `-S' to set the split level while generating
multiple files.
Grotty
------
* Experimental support for zero-width and double-width characters.
Gxditview
---------
* On platforms which have the X Window System this program is now built
and installed automatically.
Xtotroff
--------
* This program to create font definition files for xditview isn't new
but hasn't been installed previously.
Groffer
-------
* A security problem (reported as CAN-2004-0969) has been fixed.
Gdiffmk
-------
* A new script contributed by Mike Bianchi. It compares two groff,
nroff, or troff documents and creates an output with added margin
characters (using `.mc') to indicate the differences.
Pdfroff
-------
* A new wrapper script contributed by Keith Marshall to easily create
PDF documents with groff.
Macro packages
--------------
* ms.tmac
. Support for fractional point sizes: A value for the `PS', `VS',
`FPS', and `VPS' register larger than or equal to 1000 is always
divided by 1000. For example, `.nr PS 10250' sets the document's
font size to 10.25 points.
. The `Ds' and `De' macros provided in ms since groff version 1.19
have been removed; the equivalent `DS' and `DE' macros should be
used instead. X11 documents which actually use `Ds' and `De'
always load a specific macro file from the X11 distribution
(`macros.t') which provides proper definitions for the two macros.
. The following registers have been added for improving layout
control:
PORPHANS
Defines number of lines following `LP', `PP', `QP', `IP' or `XP'
which must be kept together, before any automatic page break.
HORPHANS
Sets number of lines of following paragraph which must be kept
with a heading, defined by `NH' or `SH', before any automatic
page break.
GROWPS
Sets the first level of heading (set with `NH') which keeps the
same point size as body text.
PSINCR
Sets the point size increment for each level of heading (set
with `NH'), below the threshold level set by `GROWPS'; e.g., if
\n[PS] = 10, \n[GROWPS] = 3 and \n[PSINCR] = 2.0p, then `.NH 1'
produces 14pt headings, `.NH 2' produces 12pt, and all other
levels remain at 10pt (because \n[PS] = 10).
. The `SH' macro now accepts a numeric argument, to make heading
size match that of `NH' with same argument value when the
`GROWPS'/`PSINCR' feature is enabled.
Please refer to the documentation of the ms package for other, minor
improvements.
* me.tmac
The section type set with the `++' request is available in the `_M'
register. This isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
* www.tmac
The `HR' macro no longer causes an empty line for non-HTML devices.
A new macro `HEAD' has been added to directly add data to the
<head>...</head> block.
New macros `OLS' and `OLE' to start and end an ordered list.
New macros `DLS' and `DLE' to start and end a definition list.
Pdfmark
-------
* A new macro package contributed by Keith Marshall which implements
PDF marks. This is in alpha stage currently.
Miscellaneous
-------------
* Two new keywords to the DESC file have been added which are needed
for grohtml: `image_generator' and `unscaled_charwidths'. The former
gives the name of the program which creates PNG images, and the
latter makes troff always use unscaled character widths.
VERSION 1.19.1
==============
Groff
-----
* The argument of the command line option `-I' is now also passed to
troff and grops, specifying a directory to search for files on the
command line, files named in `so' and `psbb' requests, and files
named in \X'ps: file' and \X'ps: import' escapes.
* If option `-V' is used more than once, the commands are both printed
on standard error and run.
Troff
-----
* Two new read-only, string-valued registers `.m' and `.M' return the
name of the current drawing and background color, respectively.
* New read-only register `.U' which is set to 1 if in unsafe mode, and
0 otherwise.
* An input encoding file for latin-5 (a.k.a. ISO 8859-9) has been
* added. Example use:
groff -Tdvi -mlatin5 my_file > my_file.dvi
Note that some output devices don't support all glyphs of this
encoding.
* If the `return' request is called with an argument, it exits twice,
namely the current macro and the macro one level higher. This is
used to define a wrapper macro for `return' in trace.tmac.
* For completeness, two new requests have been added: `dei1' and
`ami1'. They are equivalent to `dei' and `ami', respectively, but
the macros are executed with compatibility mode off (similar to `de1'
and `am1').
* New command line option `-I' to specify a directory for files (both
those on the command line and those named in `psbb' requests). This
is also handled by the groff wrapper program.
* Since version 1.19 you can say `.vs 0'. Older versions emit a
warning and convert this to `.vs \n[.V]'.
This hasn't been documented properly. Note that `.vs 0' isn't saved
in a diversion since it doesn't result in vertical motion.
Pic
---
* Dashed and dotted ellipses have been implemented.
Tbl
---
* New specifier `x' to make tbl call a user-defined macro on a table
cell. Patch by Heinz-J<>rgen Oertel <hj.oertel@surfeu.de>.
Grap2graph
----------
* A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
converts a grap diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and
the PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for
output. [Note that the grap program itself isn't part of the groff
package; see the file MORE.STUFF how to obtain grap.]
Grohtml
-------
* New option `-j' to emit output split into multiple files.
Grops
-----
* New command line option `-I' to specify a directory to search for
files on the command line and files named in \X'ps: import' and
\X'ps: file' escapes. This is also handled by the groff wrapper
program.
* The default value for the `broken' keyword in the DESC file is now 0.
Grolj4
------
* A new man page `lj4_font(5)' documents how fonts are accessed with
grolj4.
* The built-in fonts for LJ4 and newer PCL 5 devices have been
completely revised, mainly to access as much glyphs as possible. The
provided metric files should be compatible with recent PCL 5 printers
also. Additionally, font description files have been added for the
Arial and Times New Roman family, the MS symbol, and Wingdings fonts.
Afmtodit
--------
* New option `-x' to prevent use of built-in Adobe Glyph List.
Hpftodit
--------
* Completely revised to handle HP TrueType metric files also. See the
hpftodit manual page for more details.
Groffer
-------
* This version is a rewrite of groffer in many parts, but it is kept in
the old single script style.
New options: --text, --mode text, --tty-viewer, --X, --mode X,
--X-viewer, --html, --mode html, --html-view, --apropos-data,
--apropos-devel, --apropos-progs.
New documentation file: README_SH.
Enhancement of the configuration files and the `apropos' handling.
Macro Packages
--------------
* www.tmac: New macro `JOBNAME' to split output into multiple files.
* In mdoc, multiple calls to `.Lb' are now supported in the LIBRARY
section.
VERSION 1.19
============
Troff
-----
* Input encoding files for latin-9 (a.k.a. latin-0 and ISO 8859-15) and
latin-2 (ISO 8859-2) have been added. Example use:
groff -Tdvi -mlatin9 my_file > my_file.dvi
You still need proper fonts with the necessary glyphs. Out of the
box, the groff package supports latin-9 only for -Tps, -Tdvi, and
-Tutf8, and latin-2 only for -Tdvi and -Tutf8.
* Composite glyphs are now supported. To do this, a subset of the
Adobe Glyph List (AGL) Algorithm as described in
http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/opentype/index_glyph.html
is used to construct glyph names based on Unicode character codes.
The existing groff glyph names are frozen; no glyph names which can't
be constructed algorithmically will be added in the future.
The \[...] escape sequence has been extended to specify multiple
glyph components. Example:
\[A ho]
this accesses a glyph with the name `u0041_0328'.
Some groff glyphs which are useful as composites map to `wrong'
Unicode code points. For example, `ho' maps to U+02DB which is a
spacing ogonek, whereas a non-spacing ogonek U+0328 is needed for
composite glyphs. The new request
.composite from to
changes the mapping while a composite glyph name is constructed. To
make \[A ho] yield the expected result,
.composite ho u0328
is needed. [The new file `composite.tmac' loaded at start-up already
contains proper calls to `.composite'.]
Please refer to the info pages of groff and to the groff_char man
page for more details.
* A new request `fschar' has been added to define font-specific
fallback characters. They are searched after the list of fonts
declared with the `fspecial' request but before the list of fonts
declared with `special'.
* Fallback characters defined with `fschar' can be removed with the
new `rfschar' request.
* A new request `schar' has been added to define global fallback
characters. They are searched after the list of fonts declared with
the `special' request but before the already mounted special fonts.
* In groff versions 1.18 and 1.18.1, \D'f ...' didn't move the current
point horizontally. Despite of being silly, this change has been
reverted for backward compatibility. Consequently, the intermediate
output command `Df' also moves the position horizontally again.
\D'f ...' is deprecated since it depends on the horizontal motion
quantum of the output device (given with the `hor' parameter in the
DESC file). Use the new \D'Fg ...' escape instead.
* For orthogonality, new \D subcommands to change the fill color are
available:
\D'Fr ...' (rgb)
\D'Fc ...' (cmy)
\D'Fg ...' (gray)
\D'Fk ...' (cmyk)
\D'Fd' (default color)
The arguments are the same as with the `defcolor' request. The
current position is *not* changed.
* The values set with \H and \S are now available in number registers
\n[.height] and \n[.slant], respectively.
* The `.pe' number register isn't new but hasn't been documented
before. It is set to 1 during a page ejection caused by the `bp'
request.
* The new glyph symbol `tno' is a textual variant of `no'.
* The new glyph symbol `+e' represents U+03F5, GREEK LUNATE EPSILON
SYMBOL. (Well, it is not really new since it has been previously
supported by grolj4.) The mapping for both the dvi and lj4 symbol
font has been changed accordingly so that Greek small letter epsilon,
`*e', has the same glyph shape as with other devices.
Grops
-----
* The font `freeeuro.pfa' has been added to provide various default
glyph shapes for `eu' and `Eu'.
* It is now possible to access all glyphs in a Type 1 font, not only
256 (provided the font file created by afmtodit has proper entries).
grops constructs additional encoding vectors on the fly if necessary.
* The paper size is now emitted via the %%DocumentMedia and PageSize
mechanisms so that it is no longer required to tell `gv' or `ps2pdf'
about the paper size. The `broken' flag value 16 omits this feature
(the used PostScript command `setpagedevice' is a LanguageLevel 2
extension) -- if you intend to further process grops output to get an
encapsulated PS (EPS) file you must also use this option.
Patch by Egil Kvaleberg <egil@kvaleberg.no>.
* Non-slanted PostScript metrics have been changed again; they no
longer contain negative left italic correction values. This assures
correct spacing with eqn.
Grodvi
------
* The font cmtex10 has been added as the special font `SC' to the DVI
fonts. It is used as a font-specific special font for CW and CWI.
* New options -l and -p to set landscape orientation and the paper
size. grodvi now emits a `papersize' special which is understood by
DVI drivers like dvips.
Consequently, the DESC file should contain a `papersize' keyword.
* The glyph shapes for \[*f] and \[*e] have been exchanged with \[+f]
and \[+e], respectively, to be in sync with all other devices.
* Glyphs \[HE] and \[DI] have been replaced with \[u2662] and \[u2661],
respectively, since the former two glyphs have a black (filled) shape
which grodvi doesn't provide by default (it never has actually).
Grolj4
------
* The glyphs \[*e] and \[+e] have been exchanged to be in sync with all
other devices.
* The glyph \[~=] is now called \[|=]. Similar to other devices, \[~=]
is now another name for glyph \[~~].
Grotty
------
* New option `-r'. It is similar to the -i option except it tells
grotty to use the `reverse video' attribute to render italic fonts.
Pic
---
* New command `figname' to set the name of a picture's output box in
TeX mode.
Refer
-----
* The environment variable `REFER' to override the name of the default
database isn't new but hasn't been documented before.
Soelim
------
* New option `-r' to avoid emission of `.lf' lines.
* New option `-t' to emit TeX comment lines (giving current file and
the line number) instead of `.lf' lines.
Afmtodit
--------
* Unencoded glyphs in an AFM file are output also (since grops can now
emit multiple encoding vectors for a single font).
* New option `-m' to prevent negative left italic correction values.
* The mapping and encoding file together with file `DESC' are now
searched in the default font directory also. Please refer to the man
page of afmtodit for more details.
Macro Packages
--------------
* Larry Kollar <kollar@alltel.net> and others made the man macros more
customizable.
. New command line options -rFT, -rIN, and -rSN to set the vertical
location of the footer line, the body text indentation, and the
sub-subheading indentation.
. New command line option -rHY (similar to the ms macros) to control
hyphenation.
. New macros `.PT' and `.BT' to print the header and footer strings.
They can be replaced with a customized version in `man.local'.
. The string `HF' now holds the typeface to print headings and
subheadings.
. Similar to the ms macros, the LT register now defaults to LL if
not explicitly specified on the command line.
* troff's start-up file `troffrc' now includes `papersize.tmac' to set
the paper size with the command line option `-dpaper=<size>'.
Possible values for `<size>' are the same as the predefined
`papersize' values in the DESC file (only lowercase; see the
groff_font man page) except a7-d7. An appended `l' (ell) character
denotes landscape orientation. Examples: `a4', `c3l', `letterl'.
Most output drivers need additional command line switches `-p' and
`-l' to override the default paper length and orientation as set in
the driver specific DESC file.
For example, use the following for PS output on A4 paper in landscape
orientation:
groff -Tps -dpaper=a4l -P-pa4 -P-l -ms foo.ms > foo.ps
VERSION 1.18.1
==============
Troff
-----
* The non-slanted PostScript font definition files have been
regenerated to include left and right italic correction values.
Applying those to a glyph (this is, prepending the glyph with `\,'
and appending `\/' to the glyph) sets the glyph width to the real
value given by the horizontal bounding box values. Without those
escapes, the advance width for the particular glyph is used (which
can differ considerably).
Most users will neither need this feature nor notice a difference in
existing documents (provided \, and \/ is used as advertised, namely
for italic fonts only); its main goal is to improve image generation
with grohtml.
This is an experimental change, and feedback is welcome.
Tbl
---
* Added global option `nospaces' to ignore leading and trailing spaces
in data items.
Grolbp
------
* The option -w (--linewidth) has been added (similar to other device
drivers) to set the default line width.
Grn
---
* Support for b-spline and Bezier curves has been added.
Groffer
-------
* New option `--shell' to select the shell under which groffer shall
run.
Macro Packages
--------------
* The string `Am' (producing an ampersand) has been added to mdoc for
compatibility with NetBSD.
* `.IX' is now deprecated for mom; you should use `.IQ' (Indent Quit)
instead.
* In mom, new inlines `FWD', `BCK', `UP', and `DOWN' deal with
horizontal and vertical movements; please refer to contrib/mom/NEWS
for more details.
* New macro ENDNOTES_HDRFTR_CENTER for mom to better control headers.
Miscellaneous
-------------
* The `papersize' keyword in the DESC file now accepts multiple
arguments. It is scanned from left to the right, and the first valid
argument is used. This makes it possible to provide a fallback paper
size.
Example:
papersize /etc/papersize a4
* A local font directory has been prepended to the default font path;
it defaults to /usr/local/share/groff/site-font. Similar to the
normal font searching process, files must be placed into a devXXX
subdirectory, e.g.,
/usr/local/share/groff/site-font/devps/FOO
for a PostScript font definition file FOO.
VERSION 1.18
============
************************************************************************
PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND.
************************************************************************
Troff
-----
* Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device
drivers grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and
drivers will follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the
escape sequence `\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M'
specifies the background color for closed objects created with
\D'...' commands. `\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous
color. `\m' and `\M' correspond to the new troff output command sets
starting with `m' and `DF'. The device-specific default color is
called `default' and can't be redefined.
Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is
on); the read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active,
and non-zero otherwise.
The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
doesn't either).
Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option
-c (it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on
grotty for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new
scaling indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing
whether a color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional
operator `m' is available.
More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
groff.texinfo.
* Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
(and \f[P]) is still valid for backward compatibility.
* The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to
previous family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
* Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro
symbol; `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
* The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
`+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
* Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN)
has got the troff glyph name `mc'.
* -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
* Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
Example:
.ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
\*[xxx nice]
* It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second
dot (or the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition.
Example:
.de !
..
.
.de foo
. nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
. nop I will now define `bar'.
. de bar !
. nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
. !
..
* `.fn' is a new string-valued register that returns the resolved font
font name; a font family and abstract style are catenated.
* Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours'
contain the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af'
request to control their output format.
* The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters.
It has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is
that a character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same
name in the current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar'
is checked only if the particular glyph isn't found in the current
font. This test happens before checking special fonts.
* In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write'
but doesn't emit a final newline.
* The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line
interrupted with \c counts as one input line.
* Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as'
but with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings
defined by them.
* The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index
-1. Note that this is an incompatible change.
* To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
* `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands
\patterns, \hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer
to groff_diff.7 for more information.
* `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for
the `hpf' request.
* The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
already existing patterns).
* A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The
first and second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers
rather than directly; this very special request is needed to make
`trace.tmac' independent from the escape character (which might even
be disabled).
* The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC
files. It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single
line, and the final `0' can be omitted.
* `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr'
with the exception that the `asciify' request uses the character
code (if any) before the character translation. Example:
.trin ax
.di xxx
a
.br
.di
.xxx
.trin aa
.asciify xxx
.xxx
The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
* The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
post-vertical line space.
* For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
supported:
.pi foo
.pi bar
is now equivalent to
.pi foo | bar
* A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
* The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in
\X; they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted
to single space characters.
* The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
with Unix troff.
* Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the
glyph \[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists
to have glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
Macro Packages
--------------
* Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro
package called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes
care of many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference
(in HTML format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to
format documents for PostScript output only.
* Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added
to the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
* Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers
for setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line
or in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they
default to 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
* The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed.
Its functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'.
Similarly, `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality
also.
* A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document
an exit status.
* The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output
(`pspic.tmac' is now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips
special to load the EPS file.
* The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally,
it works in compatibility mode.
* `troff.1' has been split. Differences to Unix troff are now
documented in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
* `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
has been removed.
* `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a
complete reference to the ms macros.
* `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
* Changes in www.tmac:
Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather
likely that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of
the macros mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been
documented properly before.
The following macros have been renamed:
MAILTO -> MTO
IMAGE -> IMG
LINE -> HR
For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
address as the first parameter followed by the description.
By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the
top of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different
place.
For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top
and bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
generation to headings.
The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to
`-L', `-R', and `-C'.
New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it automatically
converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right
margin (it automatically converts it into an EPS file if not -Thtml
is used).
New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1
heading.
New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The
new macro `LI' inserts a list item.
Groff
-----
* The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is
always disabled in compatibility mode).
Nroff
-----
* Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C'
to groff (enabling compatibility mode).
Pic
---
* New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline'
(or `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the
color of the outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both.
Example:
circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
Pic2graph
---------
* A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and
the PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for
output.
Eqn2graph
---------
* A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and
the PNM library, virtually all graphics formats are available for
output.
Groffer
-------
* A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It
displays groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most
parameters automatically.
Grog
----
* Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
Grops
-----
* Color support has been added.
* A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It
has the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
Grodvi
------
* By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt,
similar to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes
at discrete values only), insert the following at the start of your
document:
.if '\*[.T]'dvi' \
. sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
* A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
extended) has been added.
* Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
* EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage
of the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files;
it doesn't take care of hcode values.
* Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are
translated to gray values currently.
Grotty
------
* Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes
called ANSI color) escape sequences.
* SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To
revert to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR
escapes display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and
consoles like `xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can
directly display the output of grotty. Consequently, the options
`-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U' work only in combination with `-c' and are
ignored silently otherwise.
For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
`less' to the $PAGER environment variable (or $MANPAGER, depending on
the used `man' program); alternatively, you can use `man's `-P'
option (or adapt its configuration file accordingly). See man(1) for
more details.
* If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is
disabled, reverting to the old behaviour.
* A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or
missing, enable SGR output (the default).
* If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends
escape sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the
underline attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't
have support for this (including xterm).
Grohtml
-------
* Color support for glyphs has been added.
* New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
* New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
* New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for
anti-aliasing used for text and graphics, respectively. Default
value is 4; 0 means no anti-aliasing.
* groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character
entities.
Grolbp
------
* Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize'
keyword in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type
format `custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
Miscellaneous
-------------
* A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
* The groff texinfo manual is installed now, together with a bunch of
examples.
* A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format.
Its argument is either
. a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
. a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
. a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp
use it currently. troff completely ignores it.
VERSION 1.17.2
==============
This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
Troff
-----
* The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd
parameter gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or
right), and the optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
VERSION 1.17.1
==============
This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
Troff
-----
* Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am'
but with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros
defined by them.
* Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
* Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
diversions, not only in the top-level one.
* New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
0 otherwise.
Nroff
-----
* Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
* The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH
for finding groff.
Grohtml
-------
* New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are
placed.
* New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
`grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
VERSION 1.17
============
Groff
-----
* `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'.
The old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with
platforms which have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have
other versions of troff installed also. Additionally, all macro
files have been renamed using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name
clashes.
* The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs
groff is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before
PATH. If not set, it defaults to the directory where the groff
binary is located. Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script
only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH to find the groff binary but passes both the
GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH environment variables to groff.
Troff
-----
* The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power
of GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
supported). Most important changes are:
. No argument limit
. Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
. `.Lb': prints library names
. `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>'
has been withdrawn
. Updated `.St' command
. `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
. `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
. `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
. `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
. `.Bd -centered': center lines
. `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting
width
. Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
. Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command
line switches)
`groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
documents the mdoc package.
Great care has been taken to assure backward compatibility. If you
encounter any abnormal results, please report them to
bug-groff@gnu.org. [2018 UPDATE: This address no longer accepts bug
reports; please use the GNU Savannah bug tracker at
http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=groff.]
* A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff
mode) produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages.
`-rcR=0' deactivates it.
* The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a
macro.
* A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
`if 1'. For example,
.if t \{\
Hallo!
.\}
can now be written as
.if t \{\
. nop Hallo!
.\}
* `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di'
and `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored
after ending the diversion).
* The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space
characters and some other escape sequences also.
`\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
unbreakable space character.
* The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles
space characters and tabs specially if the diversion is interpolated,
retaining font information. This makes it possible to reformat
diversions; for example the following
.ll 3i
.
a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
.
.box box1
.ev 1
.nf
\f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
.br
.ev
.box
.
c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
.
.unformat box1
.box1
gives
a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
b09 b10.
Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to
word space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result
would be
a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
b09 b10.
* The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In
line-tabs mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current)
output line. Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line.
For example, the following
.ds x a\t\c
.ds y b\t\c
.ds z c
.ta 1i 3i
\*x
\*y
\*z
yields
a b c
In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
a b c
The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in
line-tabs mode, and 0 otherwise.
* Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows
leading whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a
final newline.
* For compatibility with sqtroff, the request `output' has been added.
The behaviour is similar to `\!' at the top-level, that is, it
directly inserts its argument into the intermediate output format.
The syntax is similar to .tm1, allowing leading whitespace.
* The new `spreadwarn' request makes troff warn if spaces in an output
line are widened by a given limit or more.
* Use `warnscale' to change the scaling indicator troff uses for
warning messages.
* A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
* It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two
new requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
* The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character
`1', and `0' otherwise.
* The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This
is similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
* The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
* Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
previous font family.
* The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the
last output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains
`\c').
* The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
This is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a
given macro or string is written to a stream.
* The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been
documented properly before.
* `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
* The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
underlines spaces also).
Grog
----
* The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is
the default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate
compatibility mode.
Grops
-----
* A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE'
has been added to select a different prologue file.
* The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1
characters is now the default and no longer available. To get the
old behaviour (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use
`-mpsold'.
Miscellaneous
-------------
* For security reasons the following changes have been done:
. The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution;
.open, .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer
mode (which is the default); to enable these requests the `-U'
command line flag must be used.
. Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m'
command line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf'
are no longer searched in the current directory by default
(besides the usual tmac path). Instead, the home directory is
used. To add the current directory, either use the `-U' or `-M'
command line option or set the GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment
variable to an appropriate value.
. troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the
current nor in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M
or GROFF_TMAC_PATH to change that.
. Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font
path. Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH
environment variable if you really need the current directory.
* groff now installs its data files into
/usr/local/share/groff/<version> by default, following the GNU
standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory (by default
/usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the standard tmac
directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages (if
necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this
directory is searched before the local tmac directory.
* All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they
exit immediately afterward, following the GNU standards.
Additionally, `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the
obvious actions.
VERSION 1.16.1
==============
Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
VERSION 1.16
============
Groff
-----
The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been
fixed; now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me',
`markup', `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code
page 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1
(and, for the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet
supported (but installed). [2024 update: This support was withdrawn in
groff 1.24.]
Troff
-----
A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx'
(with `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to
`xx' points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than
`.SS'.
To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The
values (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number
registers `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been
adapted to use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
contains the current year.
A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the
revision number of the groff package.
`\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
font `foo' is undefined:
.B bold text
normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the name of the output
device) is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
a number register.
The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and
`tmac.trace' (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked
after all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to
include tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff
glyph name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character
`md' (PS name `mathdot').
ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name
`dq' (which is an alias to character `"').
ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name
`cq' (which is an alias to character "'").
Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
better support of HTML output:
The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font
description files is
name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after
the entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two
hyphen characters are now necessary to start a comment.
Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
grohtml):
use_charnames_in_special
This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
inside special commands.
pass_filenames
requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
Grotty
------
Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8
output.
Grohtml
-------
Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
.URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument
which is immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
punctuation, for example).
Grodvi
------
The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
added.
Grolbp
------
A new driver for Canon CaPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
<pandres@dragonet.es>.
Grn
---
A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
<daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
Pic
---
Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
Gxditview
---------
Simplified installation: The Imakefile is now configured (by groff's
configure script).
Documentation
-------------
Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff
macros are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short
reference of the GNU roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU
troff).
Miscellaneous
-------------
A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now
part of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
<blake@florida-software.com>.
More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
========================
Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
VERSION 1.12
============
Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a
development repository are available also. See the file README for
details. Not all reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails
again if something is still not working.
Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most notably
the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of
the -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
<sgk@debian.org>.
A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man resp.
groff_msafer.man for consistency.
Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain
the word `UNIX'.
groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
<eggert@twinsun.com>).
Following the GNU standards, groff now uses the prefix `/usr/local/' as
the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is
now the default.
Grohtml
-------
This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by
Gaius Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been
included into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to
test it. Bug reports are highly welcome.
Grolj4
------
Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
<jeff@opennt.com>.
Soelim
------
Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
Gxditview
---------
Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
<larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
Will now support 8 gray levels.
mm
--
New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
VERSION 1.11
============
Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
*not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with half
a dozen other projects.
VERSION 1.10
============
The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
/usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the latest
GNU coding standards.
By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a "g"
prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to groff.
Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of directories
searched by groff, the installation process creates for each system
macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro directory that
references the system macro package. The groff macro packages are now
installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a system version of the
same macro package, and otherwise without the "g" prefix, with the
exception that the groff version of -me which is always installed as
-me.
There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
compatibles).
Groff
-----
groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros for
troff.
Troff
-----
The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
encountered.
Pic
---
A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
Grops
-----
The -m option enables manual feed.
VERSION 1.09
============
\(rn now produces a character that has the traditional metrics, and form
corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it does not align properly
with \(sr. Instead there's a new character \[radicalex] which aligns
with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing square roots.
Troff
-----
The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
command.
Grops
-----
The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
graphic to be specified.
VERSION 1.08
============
Troff
-----
The escape sequence \V[xxx] interpolates the value of the environment
variable xxx.
Tbl
---
The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
period.
VERSION 1.07
============
Groff
-----
The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarly for the
preprocessors.)
Troff
-----
Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
enabled by default) instead of an error.
There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
Tbl
---
There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to try
to keep the table on one page.
Eqn
---
Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by eqnrc
when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn' script
that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
Grotty
------
grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
VERSION 1.06
============
The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
\(an. See groff_char(7).
^L is now a valid input character.
Groff
-----
The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X option
that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual postprocessor.
(So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your default device is
ps.)
The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified by
a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled into
groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the -l
option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for eqn.
Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff command no
longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the draw_lines
parameter.
The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific macro
file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is always
loaded by troff.
The shell script version of groff has been removed.
Troff
-----
The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with
`char'.
Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
while a character definition is being processed.
The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
newline is ignored.
The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of the
default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file causes no font to be mounted on
the corresponding font position. This is useful for arranging that
special fonts are mounted on positions on which users are not likely
explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid initially
mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted with
compatibility mode disabled.
troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible for
loading the device-specific macros.
Pic
---
The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works with
ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
(the quotes are required).
Eqn
---
Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can be
prevented by the -R option.
Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to be
drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
`uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
`right'.
The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
parameters.
Grops
-----
Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files. You
can get access to the additional characters present in the text fonts in
newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command in
the DESC file.
With the -g option, grops generates PostScript code that guesses the
page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
(8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
Grodvi
------
ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
with groff -Tdvi for more information.
Grotty
------
The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for use
with grotty.
Macros
------
In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100. However,
this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this release, the
vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers which have the
same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases. In addition, if
the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be correct for the
BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not being used, then an
appropriate value for the $v or $V register is derived from the $r or $R
register.
The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ is only usable with -C.
The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
Xditview
--------
The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
`p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
redisplays the current page.
VERSION 1.05
============
Pic
---
There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
differently with blocks.
There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
to be passed to troff or TeX.
The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
contexts.
Grotty
------
Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' are rendered using -,
| and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable results with
boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
Macros
------
The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely compatible
with earlier versions; the old version is still available as -mdoc.old.
The grog script has been enhanced so that it can usually determine
whether a document requires the old or new versions.
With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro produces a box around
where the picture would appear with -Tps.
VERSION 1.04
============
An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled by
setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
Pic
---
Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
Grops
-----
There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis') which
make it possible to have substitute characters that are displayed when
previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with grops.
Xditview
--------
Support for scalable fonts.
VERSION 1.03
============
No changes other than bug fixes.
VERSION 1.02
============
There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing arguments
to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent commands which can
be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
The code field in lines in the charset section of font description files
is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it was
required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi use only
the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi uses the complete value;
however, this is unlikely to be useful with traditional TeX tools (.tfm
files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
respectively.
There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript fonts
in pfb format to ASCII.
A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
Troff
-----
In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
interpolation depth as the opening [.
The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
suitable for use as a name.
\~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line is
adjusted.
The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
the -mX option is given.
The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
Eqn
---
A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
constructs by writing a troff macro.
Pic
---
The implementation no longer uses gperf.
Grops
-----
The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over how
grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is a new
-b option that can change this at run-time.
Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
Document Structuring Convention.
The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
%%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
%%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
(or as well.)
tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
Xditview
--------
Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps runs gtroff -Tps with gxditview.
There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
printed.
Xditview now uses imake.
VERSION 1.01
============
The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
With the `m' and `n' scaling indicators, the scale factor is rounded
horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
-Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so that
the `n' condition is true.
The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X) have
been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the special
characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
groff -Tdvi -p now passes pic the -x flag; this enables filling of
arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the latest
version of the tpic specials.
Eqn
---
There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
delimiters. The groff command passes on a `-N' option to eqn.
Grops
-----
You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do not
recommend using psfig for new documents.
The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
Grodvi
------
There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
Macros
------
The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they may
also work with Unix nroff/troff.
In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as a
percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such as
X75 and X100.
VERSION 1.00
============
A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed from
\(-d to \(Sd.
Troff
-----
There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or \n(.V
or to use the `c' built-in condition.
The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
request.
There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
adjustment mode is not `b' a line is not hyphenated if it is no more
than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure that when
the current adjustment mode is `b' a line is not hyphenated if it can be
justified by adding no more than a given amount of extra space to each
word space.
There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
A warning of type `space' is given when a call is made to an undefined
request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and the first
two characters of the name make a name that is defined. This is
intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a request or
macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by default.
Pic
---
A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat lines
beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic (but
ugly).
Eqn
---
It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
complicated equations inside pictures.
`prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
`opprime'.
Xditview
--------
There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly 12
point text.
VERSION 0.6
===========
The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
details.
There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead any
unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers. If
you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of tfmtodit
or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current version.
Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer valid input
characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype' command
described in Kernighan and Pike.
Groff
-----
The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline instead
of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor, -L passes
an argument to the spooler.
There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child processes
other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally; its exit
status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child processes;
it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it searches for the
eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files are searched for,
rather than expecting to find it in one particular directory.
Gtroff
------
There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
.ftr H HR
This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to Helvetica.
There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
`.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be centered
in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical space
truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap, `.ne' the
amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request that caused a
vertical position trap to be sprung.
The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
diversion, it now arranges for the file to be copied to the output when
the diversion is interpolated.
There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
more like `\!'.
There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
`\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
\X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
escape sequences.
The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the
external name of the font.
The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in
troff.
The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
containing the hyphenation patterns.
There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the
purposes of end of sentence recognition.
There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can say
`.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
The limit on the number of font positions has been removed. Accordingly
`\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to guarantee
that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode. The `\R'
escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
Gpic
----
Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
`if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially), lines
are drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point size.
The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
`^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed by
`*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current direction
is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to `dir expr'
There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and
used wherever a quoted string can be used.
The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is the
number of text strings associated with the object times the value of the
`textht' variable.
The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
`maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
Gtbl
----
Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request has
been applied to a table.
Geqn
----
The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This defined
using a general `uaccent' primitive.
Grops
-----
There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the groff
font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says for each
PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops can also now
handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable font depends on
some other (possibly downloadable) font.
The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also been
removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'
definitions.
##### Editor settings
Local Variables:
coding: latin-1
fill-column: 72
mode: text
version-control: never
End:
# vim: set autoindent expandtab textwidth=72:
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