1 README 2 3 The `groffer' program is the easiest way to read documents written in 4 some `roff' language, such as the `man pages', the manual pages in 5 many operating systems. 6 7 8 Input 9 10 Input comes from either standard input or command line parameters that 11 represent names of exisiting roff files or standardized specifications 12 for searching man pages. All of these can be compressed in a format 13 that is decompressible by `gzip', including `.gz', `bz2', and `.Z'. 14 15 `groffer' has many built-in `man' functionalities to find and read the 16 manual pages on UNIX and similar operating systems. It accepts the 17 information from an installed `man' program, but tries to find a man 18 path by itself. 19 20 `groffer' bundles all filespec parameters into a single output file in 21 the same way as `groff'. The disadvantage of this is that all file 22 name arguments must use the same groff language. To change this, the 23 option parsing must be revised for large parts. It seems that this 24 would create incompatibilities, so the actual option strategy is kept. 25 26 27 Output 28 29 All input is first sent to `grog' to determine the necessary `groff' 30 options and then to `groff'. So no special `groff' arguments must be 31 given. But all `groff' options can be specified when this seems to be 32 appropriate. 33 34 The following displaying modes for the output are available: 35 - Display formatted input with 36 -- the X `roff' viewer `gxditview', 37 -- a Postcript viewer, 38 -- a PDF viewer, 39 -- a DVI viewer, 40 -- a web browser, 41 -- a pager in a text terminal (tty). 42 - Generate `groff' output on stdout without a viewer. 43 - Generate the `groff intermediate output' on standard output without 44 postprocessing. 45 - Output the source code without any `groff' processing. 46 - There are some information outputs without `groff' processing, such 47 as by option `-V' and the `man' like `whatis' and `apropos' 48 outputs. 49 50 By default, the program tries to display with `gxditview' as graphical 51 device in X; on non-X text terminals, the `tty' text mode with a pager 52 is tried by default. 53 54 55 Compatibility 56 57 `groffer' consists of two shell scripts. It should run on any POSIX 58 or Bourne style shell that supports shell functions. See file 59 `README_SH' for more information. 60 61 62 Mailing lists 63 64 For reporting bugs of `groffer', groff's free mailing list 65 <bug-groff (a] gnu.org> can be used. 66 67 For a general discussion, the mailing list <groff (a] gnu.org> is more 68 useful, but one has to subscribe to this list at 69 http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/groff. 70 71 See the `README' file in the top directory of the `groff' source 72 package for more details on these mailing lists. 73 74 75 ####### License 76 77 Last update: 2 August 2005 78 79 Copyright (C) 2003,2004,2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 80 Written by Bernd Warken 81 82 This file is part of `groffer', which is part of `groff'. 83 84 `groff' is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it 85 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by 86 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) 87 any later version. 88 89 `groff' is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT 90 ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or 91 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License 92 for more details. 93 94 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License 95 along with `groff'; see the files COPYING and LICENSE in the top 96 directory of the `groff' source. If not, write to the Free Software 97 Foundation, 51 Franklin St - Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA. 98 99 100 ####### Emacs settings 101 102 Local Variables: 103 mode: text 104 End: 105
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