Name

       nroff - format documents with groff for TTY (terminal) devices

Synopsis

       nroff [-bcCEhikpRStUVz] [-d ctext] [-d string=text] [-K fallback-encoding] [-m macro-package] [-M macro-
             directory] [-n page-number] [-o page-list] [-P postprocessor-argument] [-r cnumeric-expression]
             [-r register=numeric-expression] [-T output-device] [-w warning-category] [-W warning-category]
             [file ...]

       nroff --help

       nroff -v
       nroff --version

Description

       nroff  formats  documents  written  in the groff(7) language for typewriter-like devices such as terminal
       emulators.  GNU nroff emulates the AT&T  nroff  command  using  groff(1).   nroff  generates  output  via
       grotty(1),  groff's terminal output driver, which needs to know the character encoding scheme used by the
       device.  Consequently, acceptable arguments to the -T option are ascii, latin1,  utf8,  and  cp1047;  any
       others  are ignored.  If neither the GROFF_TYPESETTER environment variable nor the -T command-line option
       (which overrides the environment variable) specifies a (valid)  device,  nroff  consults  the  locale  to
       select  an  appropriate output device.  It first tries the locale(1) program, then checks several locale-
       related environment variables; see section “Environment” below.  If all of the foregoing fail, -Tascii is
       implied.

       The -b, -c, -C, -d, -E, -i, -m, -M, -n, -o, -r, -U, -w, -W, and -z options have the effects described  in
       troff(1).  -c and -h imply “-P-c” and “-P-h”, respectively; -c is also interpreted directly by troff.  In
       addition, this implementation ignores the AT&T nroff options -e, -q, and -s (which are not implemented in
       groff).   The  options  -k,  -K,  -p,  -P, -R, -t, and -S are documented in groff(1).  -V causes nroff to
       display the constructed groff command on the standard output stream, but does not  execute  it.   -v  and
       --version  show  version  information about nroff and the programs it runs, while --help displays a usage
       message; all exit afterward.

Exit status

       nroff exits with error status 2 if there was a problem parsing its arguments, with status 0 if any of the
       options -V, -v, --version, or --help were specified, and with the status of groff otherwise.

Environment

       Normally, the path separator in environment variables ending with  PATH  is  the  colon;  this  may  vary
       depending on the operating system.  For example, Windows uses a semicolon instead.

       GROFF_BIN_PATH
              is  a  colon-separated  list  of  directories  in  which to search for the groff executable before
              searching in PATH.  If unset, /usr/bin is used.

       GROFF_TYPESETTER
              specifies the default output device for groff.

       LC_ALL
       LC_CTYPE
       LANG
       LESSCHARSET
              are pattern-matched in this order for contents matching standard character encodings supported  by
              groff  in  the  event no -T option is given and GROFF_TYPESETTER is unset, or the values specified
              are invalid.

Files

       /usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/tty-char.tmac
              defines fallback definitions of roff special characters.  These definitions more poorly  optically
              approximate  typeset output than those of tty.tmac in favor of communicating semantic information.
              nroff loads it automatically.

Notes

       Pager programs like more(1) and less(1) may require command-line options to correctly handle some  output
       sequences; see grotty(1).

See also

       groff(1), troff(1), grotty(1), locale(1), roff(7)

groff 1.23.0                                      31 March 2024                                         nroff(1)