man groffer - Man page for groffer

June 1, 2007 – 1:44 am

GROFFER

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: 02 June 2004
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NAME

groffer – display groff files and man~pages on X and tty
 

SYNOPSIS

nopsis groffer

[option...]

[t_[––]]

[filespecEllipsis]]

nopsis groffer

[t_alt –– apropos –– apropos–data –– apropos–devel –– apropos–progs name]

nopsis groffer

[t_alt – h –– help]

nopsis groffer

[t_alt – v –– version]

 

DESCRIPTION

The
groffer

program is the easiest way to use
groff(1).

It can display arbitrary documents written in the
groff(7)

language or other
roff(7)

languages that are compatible to the original troff language.
The
groffer

program also includes many of the features for finding and displaying
the UNIX manual pages
(man~pages),

such that it can be used as a replacement for a
man(1)

program.
Moreover, compressed files that can be handled by
gzip(1)

or
bzip2(1)

are decompressed on–the–fly.

The normal usage is quite simple by supplying a file name or name of a
man~page without further options.
But the option handling has many possibilities for creating special
behaviors.
This can be done in configuration files, with the shell environment
variable
$GROFFER_OPT,

or on the command line.

The output can be generated and viewed in several different ways
available for
groff.

This includes the groff native X viewer
gxditview(1),

each Postcript or dvi display program, a web browser by generating
html in www–mode, or several text modes in text terminals.

Most of the options that must be named when running
groff

directly are determined automatically for
groffer,

due to the internal usage of the
grog(1)

program.
But all parts can also be controlled manually by arguments.

Several file names can be specified on the command line arguments.
They are transformed into a single document in the normal way of
groff.

 

OPTION OVERVIEW

breaking options

[t_[alt] –– apropos name]

[t_[alt] –– apropos–data name]

[t_[alt] –– apropos–devel name]

[t_[alt] –– apropos–progs name]

[t_[alt] – h –– help]

[t_[alt] – v –– version]

groffer mode options

[t_[alt] –– auto]

[t_[alt] –– default]

[t_[alt] –– default–modes mode1,mode2,Ellipsis]]

[t_[alt] –– dvi]

[t_[alt] –– dvi–viewer prog]

[t_[alt] –– groff]

[t_[alt] –– html]

[t_[alt] –– html–viewer prog]

[t_[alt] –– man]

[t_[alt] –– mode display_mode]

[t_[alt] –– no–man]

[t_[alt] –– pdf]

[t_[alt] –– pdf–viewer prog]

[t_[alt] –– ps]

[t_[alt] –– ps–viewer prog]

[t_[alt] –– text]

[t_[alt] –– tty]

[t_[alt] –– tty–viewer prog]

[t_[alt] –– www]

[t_[alt] –– www–viewer prog]

[t_[alt] –– x –– X]

[t_[alt] –– x–viewer –– X–viewer prog]

development options

[t_[alt] –– debug]

[t_[alt] –– shell]

options related to groff

[t_[alt] – P –– postproc–arg opt_or_arg]

[t_[alt] – Q –– source]

[t_[alt] – T –– device device]

[t_[alt] – Z –– intermediate–output –– ditroff]

All further
groff

short options are accepted.

X Window toolkit options

[t_[alt] –– bd pixels]

[t_[alt] –– bg –– background color]

[t_[alt] –– bw pixels]

[t_[alt] –– display X–display]

[t_[alt] –– fg –– foreground color]

[t_[alt] –– ft –– font font_name]

[t_[alt] –– geometry size_pos]

[t_[alt] –– resolution value]

[t_[alt] –– rv]

[t_[alt] –– title string]

[t_[alt] –– xrm X_resource]

options from man

[t_[alt] –– all]

[t_[alt] –– ascii]

[t_[alt] –– ditroff]

[t_[alt] –– extension suffix]

[t_[alt] –– locale language]

[t_[alt] –– local–file]

[t_[alt] –– manpath dir1:dir2:Ellipsis]]

[t_[alt] –– pager program]

[t_[alt] –– sections sec1:sec2:Ellipsis]]

[t_[alt] –– systems sys1,sys2,Ellipsis]]

[t_[alt] –– troff–device device]

[t_[alt] –– whatis]

Further long options of GNU
man

are accepted as well.

filespec argument

No
filespec

parameters means standard input.

[t_short ]

stands for standard input (can occur several times).

filename

the path name of an existing file.

man:name(section)

name(section)

search the man~page
name

in man~section~section.

man:name.s

name.s

if
s

is a character in
[1–9on],

search for a man~page
name

in man~section
s.

man:name

man~page in the lowest man~section that has
name.

s name

if
s

is a character in
[1–9on],

search for a man~page
name

in man~section
s.

name

if
name

is not an existing file search for the man~page
name

in the lowest man~section.

 

OPTION DETAILS

The
groffer

program can usually be run with very few options.
But for special purposes, it supports many options.
These can be classified in 5 option classes.

All short options of
groffer

are compatible with the short options of
groff(1).

All long options of
groffer

are compatible with the long options of
man(1).

 

groffer breaking Options

As soon as one of these options is found on the command line it is
executed, printed to standard output, and the running
groffer

is terminated thereafter.
All other arguments are ignored.
[t_def –– apropos name]

Start the
apropos(1)

command for searching within man page
descriptions.
That slightly differs from the strange behavior of the
[t_long apropos]

program of
man(1),

which has no argument of its own, but takes the file arguments
instead.
Practically both concepts are compatible.
[t_def –– apropos–data name]

Show only the
apropos(1)

descriptions for data documents, in the
man(7)

sections 4, 5, and 7.
[t_def –– apropos–devel name]

Show only the
apropos(1)

descriptions for development documents, in the
man(7)

sections 2, 3, and 9.
[t_def –– apropos–progs name]

Show only the
apropos(1)

descriptions for documents on programs, in the
man(7)

sections 1, 6, and 8.
[t_def – h –– help]

Print a helping information with a short explanation of option sto
standard output.
[t_def – v –– version]

Print version information to standard output.

 

groffer Mode Options

The display mode and the viewer programs are determined by these
options.
If none of these mode and viewer options is specified
groffer

tries to find a suitable display mode automatically.
[t_def –– auto]

Equivalent to
[t_long_arg mode auto]

[t_def –– default]

Reset all configuration from previously processed command line options
to the default values.
This is useful to wipe out all former options of the configuration, in

and restart option processing using only the rest of the command line.
[t_def –– default–modes mode1,mode2,Ellipsis]]

Set the sequence of modes for
auto mode

to the comma separated list given in the argument.
See
[t_long mode]

for details on modes. Display in the default manner; actually, this
means to try the modes
x,

ps,

and
tty

in this sequence.
[t_def –– dvi]

Equivalent to
[t_long_arg mode dvi]

[t_def –– dvi–viewer prog]

Set the viewer program for dvi mode.
This can be a file name or a program to be searched in

Known dvi viewers inlude
xdvi(1)

and
dvilx(1)

In each case, arguments can be provided additionally.
[t_def –– groff]

Equivalent to
[t_long_arg mode groff]

[t_def –– html]

Equivalent to
[t_long_arg mode html]

[t_def –– html–viewer]

Equivalent to
[t_long www–viewer]

[t_def –– mode value]

Set the display mode.
The following mode values are recognized:

Select the automatic determination of the display mode.
The sequence of modes that are tried can be set with the
[t_long default–modes]

option.
Useful for restoring the default mode when a different mode was
specified before.

Display formatted input in a
dvi

viewer program.
By default, the formatted input is displayed with the
xdvi(1)

program.
[t_long dvi]

After the file determination, switch
groffer

to process the input like
groff(1)

would do .
This disables the
groffer

viewing features.

Translate the input into html format and display the result in a web
browser program.
By default, the existence of a sequence of standard web browsers is
tested, starting with
konqueror(1)

and
mozilla(1).

The text html viewer is
lynx(1).

Display formatted input in a
PDF

(Portable Document Format) viewer
program.
By default, the input is formatted by groff using the Postscript
device, then it is transformed into the PDF file format using
gs(1),

and finally displayed either with the
xpdf(1)

or the
acroread(1)

program.
PDF has a big advantage because the text is displayed graphically and
is searchable as well.
But as the transformation takes a considerable amount of time, this
mode is not suitable as a default device for the auto mode.

Display formatted input in a Postscript viewer program.
By default, the formatted input is displayed with the
ghostview(1)

program.

Format in a
groff

text mode and write the result to standard output without a pager or
viewer program.
The text device,
latin1

by default, can be chosen with option
[t_short T]

Format in a
groff

text mode and write the result to standard output using a text pager
program, even when in X Window.

Equivalent to
[t_long www]

Display formatted input in a native roff viewer.
By default, the formatted input is displayed with the
gxditview(1)

program, being distributed together with groff, or with
xditview(1),

which is distributed as a standard X tool.

Equivalent to
[t_long_arg mode X]

The following modes do not use the
groffer

viewing features.
They are only interesting for advanced applications.

Generate device output with plain
groff

without using the special viewing features of
groffer.

If no device was specified by option
[t_short T]

the
groff

default
ps

is assumed.

Display the source code of the input without formatting; equivalent to
[t_short Q]

[t_def –– pdf]

Equivalent to
[t_long_arg mode pdf]

[t_def –– pdf–viewer prog]

Set the viewer program for
pdf

mode.
This can be a file name or a program to be searched in

In each case, arguments can be provided additionally.
[t_def –– ps]

Equivalent to
[t_long_arg mode ps]

[t_def –– ps–viewer prog]

Set the viewer program for
ps

mode.
This can be a file name or a program to be searched in

Common Postscript viewers inlude
gv(1),

ghostview(1),

and
gs(1),

In each case, arguments can be provided additionally.
[t_def –– text]

Equivalent to
[t_long_arg mode text]

[t_def –– tty]

Equivalent to
[t_long_arg mode tty]

[t_def –– tty–viewer]

Choose tty display mode, that means displaying in a text pager even
when in X; eqivalent to
[t_long_arg mode tty]

[t_def –– www]

Equivalent to
[t_long_arg mode www]

[t_def –– www–viewer prog]

Set the web browser program for viewing in
www

mode.
Each program that accepts html input and allows the
file://localhost/dir/file

syntax on the command line is suitable as viewer program; it can be
the path name of an executable file or a program in

In each case, arguments can be provided additionally.
[t_def – X –– X –– x]

Equivalent to
[t_long_arg mode X]

[t_def –– X–viewer –– x–viewer prog]

Set the viewer program for
x

mode.
Suitable viewer programs are
gxditview(1)

and
xditview(1).

But the argument can be any executable file or a program in

In each case, arguments can be provided additionally.

[t_––]

Signals the end of option processing; all remaining arguments are
interpreted as
filespec

parameters.

Besides these,
groffer

accepts all arguments that are valid for the
groff(1)

program.
All non–groffer options are sent unmodified via
grog

to
groff.

Postprocessors, macro packages, compatibility with classical
troff,

and much more can be manually specified.

 

Options for Development

[t_def –– debug]

Print debugging information for development only.
Actually, a function call stack is printed if an error occurs.
[t_def –– shell shell_program]

Specify the shell under which the groffer script should be run.
The script first tests whether this option is set (either by
configuration, within

or as a command line option); if so, the script is rerun under the
shell program specified with the option argument.
[t_def – Q –– source]

Output the roff source code of the input files without further
processing.
This is the equivalent
[t_long_arg mode source]

Other useful debugging options are the
groff

options
[t_short V]

and
[t_short Z]

and option
[t_long_arg mode groff]

 

Options related to groff

All short options of
groffer

are compatible with the short options of
groff(1).

The following of
groff

options have either an additional special meaning within
groffer

or make sense for normal usage.

Because of the special outputting behavior of the
groff

options
[t_short V]

and
[t_short Z]

groffer

was designed to be switched into
groff

mode by these; the
groffer

viewing features are disabled there.
The other
groff

options do not switch the mode, but allow to customize the formatting
process.
[t_def – a]

This generates an ascii approximation of output in text modes.
That could be important when the text pager has problems with control
sequences.
[t_def – m file]

Add
file

as a
groff

macro file.
This is useful in case it cannot be recognized automatically.
[t_def – P opt_or_arg]

Send the argument
opt_or_arg

as an option or option argument to the actual
groff

postprocessor.
[t_def – T –– device devname]

This option determines
groff’s

output device.
The most important devices are the text output devices for referring
to the different character sets, such as
ascii,

utf8,

latin1,

and others.
Each of these arguments switches
groffer

into a text mode using this device, to
mode tty

if the actual mode is not a text mode.
The following
devname

arguments are mapped to the corresponding
groffer

[t_long_arg mode devname]

option:
dvi,

html,

and
ps.

All
X*

arguments are mapped to mode
X.

Each other
devname

argument switches to
mode groff

using this device.
[t_def – V]

Switch into
groff

mode and show only the
groff

calling pipe without formatting the input.
This an advanced option from
groff(1),

only useful for debugging.
[t_def – X]

was made equivalent to
[t_long_arg mode x]

this slightly enhances the facility of
groff’s

option.
[t_def – Z –– intermediate–output –– ditroff]

Switch into
groff

mode and format the input with
groff

intermediate output without postprocessing; see
groff_out(1).

This is equivalent to option
[t_long ditroff]

of
man,

which can be used as well.

All other
groff

options are supported by
groffer,

but they are just transparently transferred to
groff

without any intervention.
The options that are not explicitly handled by
groffer

are transparently passed to
groff.

Therefore these transparent options are not documented here, but in
groff(1).

Due to the automatism in
groffer,

none of these
groff

options should be needed, except for advanced usage.

 

X Window toolkit Options

The following long options were adapted from the corresponding X
Toolkit options.
groffer

will pass them to the actual viewer program if it is an X Window
program.
Otherwise these options are ignored.

Unfortunately these options use the old style of a single minus for
long options.
For
groffer

that was changed to the standard with using a double minus for long
options, for example,
groffer

uses the option
[t_long font]

for the
X

option
[t_short font]

See
X(1),

X(7),

and the documentation on the X toolkit options for more details on
these options and their arguments.
[t_def –– background color]

Set the background color of the viewer window.
[t_def –– bd pixels]

Specifies the color of the border surrounding the viewer window.
[t_def –– bg color]

This is equivalent to
[t_long background]

[t_def –– bw pixels]

Specifies the width in pixels of the border surrounding the viewer
window.
[t_def –– display X–display]

Set the X display on which the viewer program shall be started, see the
X Window

documentation for the syntax of the argument.
[t_def –– foreground color]

Set the foreground color of the viewer window.
[t_def –– fg color]

This is equivalent to
[t_short foreground]

[t_def –– font font_name]

Set the font used by the viewer window.
The argument is an X font name.
[t_def –– ft font_name]

This is equivalent to
[t_long ft]

[t_def –– geometry size_pos]

Set the geometry of the display window, that means its size and its
starting position.
See
X(7)

for the syntax of the argument.
[t_def –– resolution value]

Set X resolution in dpi (dots per inch) in some viewer programs.
The only supported dpi values are
75

and
100.

Actually, the default resolution for
groffer

is set to
75.

[t_def –– rv]

Reverse foreground and background color of the viewer window.
[t_def –– title 'some text']

Set the title for the viewer window.
[t_def –– xrm 'resource']

Set X resource.

 

Options from man

The long options of
groffer

were synchronized with the long options of
GNUman.

All long options of
GNU man

are recognized, but not all of these options are important to
groffer,

so most of them are just ignored.

The following two options were added by
groffer

for choosing whether the file name arguments are interpreted as names
for local files or as a search pattern for man pages.
The default is looking up for local files.
[t_def –– man]

Check the non–option command line arguments
(filespecs)

first on being man~pages, then whether they represent an existing
file.
By default, a
filespec

is first tested whether it is an existing file.
[t_def –– no–man –– local–file]

Do not check for man~pages.
[t_long local–file]

is the corresponding
man

option.

In the following, the
man

options that have a special meaning for
groffer

are documented.

The full set of long and short options of the
GNU man

program can be passed via the environment variable

see
man(1)

if your system has
GNU man

installed.
[t_def –– all]

In searching man~pages, retrieve all suitable documents instead of
only one.
[t_def – 7 –– ascii]

In text modes, display ASCII translation of special characters.
[t_def –– ditroff]

Eqivalent to
groffer

[t_short Z]

[t_def –– extension suffix]

Restrict man~page search to file names that have
suffix

appended to their section element.
For example, in the file name
/usr/share/man/man3/terminfo.3ncurses.gz

the man~page extension is
ncurses.

[t_def –– locale language]

Set the language for man pages.
This has the same effect, but overwrites

[t_def –– location]

Print the location of the retrieved files to standard error.
[t_def –– no–location]

Do not display the location of retrieved files; this resets a former
call to
[t_long location]

This was added by
groffer.

[t_def –– manpath 'dir1:dir2:Ellipsis]‘]

Use the specified search path for retrieving man~pages instead of the
program defaults.
If the argument is set to the empty string "" the search for man~page
is disabled.
[t_def –– pager]

Set the pager program in tty mode; default is
less.

This is equivalent to
[t_long tty–viewer]

[t_def –– sections 'sec1:sec2:Ellipsis]‘]

Restrict searching for man~pages to the given
sections,

a colon–separated list.
[t_def –– systems 'sys1,sys2,Ellipsis]‘]

Search for man pages for the given operating systems; the argument
systems

is a comma–separated list.
[t_def –– whatis]

Instead of displaying the content, get the one–liner description from
the retrieved man~page files [em] or say that it is not a man~page.
[t_def –– where]

Eqivalent to
[t_long location]

Additionally, the following short option of
man

is supported as well.

 

Filespec Arguments

A
filespec

parameter is an argument meaning an input source, such as a file name
or template for searching man~pages.
These input sources are collected and composed into a single output
file such as
groff

does.

The strange POSIX behavior that maps all arguments behind the first
non–option argument into
filespec

arguments is ignored.
The GNU behavior to recognize options even when mixed with
filespec

arguments is used througout.
But, as usual, the double minus argument
[t_long]

still takes all following arguments as
filespecs.

Each
filespec

parameters can have one of the following forms.

No
filespec

parameters means that
groffer

waits for standard input.
The minus option
[t_short ]

stands for standard input, too, but can occur several times.
Next
filespec

is tested whether it is the path name of an existing file.
Otherwise it is assumed as a searching pattern for a man~page.

On each system, the man pages are sorted according to their content
into several sections.
The
classical man sections

have a single–character name, either are a digit from
1

to
9

or one of the characters
n

or
o.

In the following, a stand–alone character
s

means this scheme.

The internal precedence of
man

for searching man pages with the same name within several sections
goes according to the classical single–character sequence.
On some systems, this single character can be extended by a following
string.
But the special
groffer

man page facility is based on the classical single character sections.

man:name(section)

and
name(section)

search the man~page
name

in man~section~section,

where
section

can be any string, but it must exist in the
man

system.

Next some patterns based on the
classical man sections

were constructed.
man:name.s

and
name.s

search for a man~page
name

in man~section
s

if
s

is a
classical man section

mentioned above.
Otherwise search for a man~page named
name.s

in the lowest
man

section.

Now
man:name

searches for a man~page in the lowest man~section that has a
document called
name.

The pattern
s name

originates from a strange argument parsing of the
man

program.
If
s

is a
classical man section

interpret it as a search for a man~page called
name

in man~section
s,

otherwise interpret
s

as a file argument and
name

as another
filespec

argument.

We are left with the argument
name

which is not an existing file.
So this searches for the man~page called
name

in the lowest man~section that has a document for this name.

Several file name arguments can be supplied.
They are mixed by
groff

into a single document.
Note that the set of option arguments must fit to all of these file
arguments.
So they should have at least the same style of the
groff

language.

 

OUTPUT MODES

By default, the
groffer

program collects all input into a single file, formats it with the
groff

program for a certain device, and then chooses a suitable viewer
program.
The device and viewer process in
groffer

is called a
mode.

The mode and viewer of a running
groffer

program is selected automatically, but the user can also choose it
with options.
The modes are selected by option the arguments of
[t_long_arg mode anymode]

Additionally, each of this argument can be specified as an option of
its own, such as
[t_long anymode]

Most of these modes have a viewer program, which can be chosen by an
option that is constructed like
[t_long anymode–viewer]

Several different modes are offered, graphical X modes, text modes,
and some direct
groff

modes for debugging and development.

By default,
groffer

first tries whether
x

mode is possible, then
ps

mode, and finally
tty

mode.
This mode testing sequence for
auto

mode can be changed by specifying a comma separated list of modes
with the option
[t_long default–modes.]

The searching for man~pages and the decompression of the input are
active in every mode.

 

Graphical Display Modes

The graphical display modes work only in the X Window environment (or
similar implementations within other windowing environments).
The environment variable

and the option
[t_long display]

are used for specifying the X display to be used.
If neither is given,
groffer

assumes that no X and changes to one text mode.
You can change this automatic behavior by the option
[t_long default–modes]

Known viewers for the graphical display modes and their standard X
Window viewer progams are

X Window roff viewers such as
gxditview(1)

or
xditview(1)

(in
x

or
X

mode),

in a Postscript viewer
(ps

mode),

in a dvi viewer program
(dvi

mode),

in a PDF viewer
(pdf

mode),

in a web browser
(html

or
www

mode),

The
pdf

mode has a major advantage [em] it is the only graphical diplay mode
that allows to search for text within the viewer; this can be a really
important feature.
Unfortunately, it takes some time to transform the input into the PDF
format, so it was not chosen as the major mode.

These graphical viewers can be customized by options of the X Window
Toolkit.
But the
groffer

options use a leading double minus instead of the single minus used by
the X Window Toolkit.

 

Text mode

There are to modes for text output, mode
text

for plain output without a pager and mode
tty

for a text output on a text terminal using some pager program.

If the variable

is not set or empty, groffer assumes that it should use
tty

mode.

In the actual implementation, the groff output device
latin1

is chosen for text modes.
This can be changed by specifying option
[t_short T]

or
[t_long device]

The pager to be used can be specified by one of the options
[t_long pager]

and
[t_long tty–viewer]

or by the environment variable

If all of this is not used the
less(1)

program with the option
[t_short r]

for correctly displaying control sequences is used as the default
pager.

 

Special Modes for Debugging and Development

These modes use the
groffer

file determination and decompression.
This is combined into a single input file that is fed directly into
groff

with different strategy without the
groffer

viewing facilities.
These modes are regarded as advanced, they are useful for debugging
and development purposes.

The
source

mode with just displays the generated input.
The
groff

mode passes the input to
groff

using only some suitable options provided to
groffer.

This enables the user to save the generated output into a file or pipe
it into another program.

In
groff

mode, the option
[t_short Z]

disables post–processing, thus producing the
groff intermediate

output.

In this mode, the input is formatted, but not postprocessed; see
groff_out(5)

for details.

All
groff

short options are supported by
groffer.

 

MAN~PAGE~SEARCHING

The default behavior of groffer is to first test whether a file
parameter represents a local file; if it is not an existing file name,
it is assumed to represent a name of a man~page.
This behavior can be modified by the following options.

[t_long man]

forces to interpret all file parameters as filespecs for searching
man~pages.

[t_long no–man]

[t_long local–file]

disable the man searching; so only local files are displayed.

If neither a local file nor a man~page was retrieved for some file
parameter a warning is issued on standard error, but processing is
continued.

The groffer program provides a search facility for man~pages.
All long options, all environment variables, and most of the
functionality of the GNU
man(1)

program were implemented.
This inludes the extended file names of man~pages, for example,
the man~page of
groff

in man~section 7 may be stored under

where

is part of the man~path, the subdirectory
man7

and the file extension
.7

refer to the man~section 7;
.gz

shows the compression of the file.

The
cat~pages

(preformatted man~pages) are intentionally excluded from the search
because groffer is a roff program that wants to format by its own.
With the excellent performance of the actual computers, the
preformatted man~pages aren’t necessary any longer.

The algorithm for retrieving man~pages uses five search methods.
They are successively tried until a method works.

The search path can be manually specified by using the option
[t_long manpath]

An empty argument disables the man~page searching.
This overwrites the other methods.

If this is not available the environment variable

is searched.

If this is empty, the program tries to read it from the environment
variable

If this does not work a reasonable default path from

is searched for man~pages.

If this does not work, the
manpath(1)

program for determining a path of man directories is tried.

After this, the path elements for the language (locale) and operating
system specific man~pages are added to the man~path; their sequence
is determined automatically.
For example, both
/usr/share/man/linux/fr

and
/usr/share/man/fr/linux

for french linux man~pages are found.
The language and operating system names are determined from both
environment variables and command line options.

The locale (language) is determined like in GNU man, that is from
highest to lowest precedence:

[t_long locale]

The language locale is usually specified in the POSIX 1003.1 based
format:

I]<language>][CB]_]I]<territory>][CB].]I]<character–set>][CB],]I]<version>]]]],

but the two–letter code in
<language>

is sufficient for most purposes.

If no man~pages for a complicated locale are found the country part
consisting of the first two characters (without the `CB]_]’,
`CB].]’, and `CB],]’, parts) of the locale is searched as
well.

If still not found the corresponding man~page in the default language
is used instead.
As usual, this default can be specified by one of CR]C] or
CR]POSIX].
The man~pages in the default language are usually in English.

Several operating systems can be given by appending their names,
separated by a comma.
This is then specified by the environment variable

or by the command line option
[t_long systems]

The precedence is similar to the locale case above from highest to
lowest precedence:
Topic
[t_long systems]

When searching for man~pages this man~path with the additional
language and system specific directories is used.

The search can further be restricted by limiting it to certain
sections.
A single section can be specified within each filespec argument,
several sections as a colon–separated list in command line option
[t_long sections]

or environment variable

When no section was specified a set of standard sections is searched
until a suitable man~page was found.

Finally, the search can be restricted to a so–called
extension.

This is a postfix that acts like a subsection.
It can be specified by
[t_long extension]

or environment variable

For further details on man~page searching, see
man(1).

 

DECOMPRESSION

The program has a decompression facility.
If standard input or a file that was retrieved from the command line
parameters is compressed with a format that is supported by either
gzip(1)

or
bzip2(1)

it is decompressed on–the–fly.
This includes the GNU
.gz,

.bz2,

and the traditional
.Z

compression.
The program displays the concatenation of all decompressed input in
the sequence that was specified on the command line.

 

ENVIRONMENT

The groffer programs supports many system variables, most of them by
courtesy of other programs.
All environment variables of
groff(1)

and GNU
man(1)

and some standard system variables are honored.

 

Native groffer Variables

Store options for a run of groffer.
The options specified in this variable are overridden by the options
given on the command line.
The content of this variable is run through the shell builtin `eval’;
so arguments containing white–space or special shell characters should
be quoted.

 

System Variables

The groffer program is a shell script that is run through
/bin/sh,

which can be internally linked to programs like
bash(1).

The corresponding system environment is automatically effective.
The following variables have a special meaning for groffer.

If this variable is set this indicates that the X Window system is
running.
Testing this variable decides on whether graphical or text output is
generated.
This variable should not be changed by the user carelessly, but it can
be used to start the graphical groffer on a remote X terminal.
For example, depending on your system, groffer can be started on the
second monitor by the command

 

ell_cmd DISPLAY=:0.1~groffer~ what.ever

If one of these variables is set (in the above sequence), its content
is interpreted as the locale, the language to be used, especially when
retrieving man~pages.
A locale name is typically of the form
language[_territory[.codeset[@modifier]]],

where
language

is an ISO 639 language code,
territory

is an ISO 3166 country code, and
codeset

is a character set or encoding identifier like ISO–8859–1 or UTF–8;
see
setlocale(3).

The locale values~C

and
POSIX

stand for the default, i.e. the man~page directories without a
language prefix.
This is the same behavior as when all 3~variables are unset.

This variable can be used to set the pager for the tty output.
For example, to disable the use of a pager completely set this
variable to the
cat(1)

program

 

ell_cmd PAGER=cat~groffer~ anything

All programs within the groffer shell script are called without a
fixed path.
Thus this environment variable determines the set of programs used
within the run of groffer.

If set to a non–empty value this chooses the POSIX mode.