1 This file describes recent user-visible changes in groff. Bug fixes
2 are not described. There are more details in the man pages.
7 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
8 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
9 latest GNU coding standards.
11 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
12 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
14 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
15 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
16 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
17 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
18 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
19 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
20 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
21 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
22 always installed as -me.
24 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
30 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
31 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
37 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
43 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
48 The -m option enables manual feed.
53 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
54 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
55 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
56 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
62 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
68 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
69 graphic to be specified.
77 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
78 environment variable xxx.
83 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
84 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
93 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
94 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
100 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
101 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
102 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
104 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
105 enabled by default) instead of an error.
107 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
108 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
113 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
114 try to keep the table on one page.
119 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
120 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
121 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
122 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
127 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
128 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
129 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
134 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
135 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
137 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
139 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
140 \(an. See groff_char(7).
142 ^L is now a legal input character.
147 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
148 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
149 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
150 default device is ps.)
152 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
153 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
154 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
155 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
157 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
158 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
159 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
160 draw_lines parameter.
162 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
163 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
164 always loaded by troff.
166 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
171 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
173 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
174 while a character definition is being processed.
176 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
179 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
180 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
182 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
183 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
184 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
185 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
186 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
188 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
189 with compatibility mode disabled.
191 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
192 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
193 for loading the device-specific macros.
198 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
199 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
200 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
201 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
203 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
204 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
205 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
207 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
208 (the quotes are required).
213 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
214 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
215 be prevented by the -R option.
217 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
218 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
220 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
223 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
224 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
230 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
231 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
232 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
234 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
237 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
238 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
239 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
244 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
245 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
250 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
256 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
257 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
258 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
259 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
260 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
261 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
262 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
263 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
264 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
265 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
266 be derived from the $r or $R register.
268 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
270 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
271 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
274 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
279 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
280 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
281 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
283 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
284 redisplays the current page.
292 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
293 differently with blocks.
295 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
296 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
298 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
300 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
306 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
307 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
308 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
313 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
314 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
315 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
316 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
317 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
319 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
320 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
325 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
327 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
328 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
333 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
338 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
339 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
340 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
346 Support for scalable fonts.
351 No changes other than bug fixes.
356 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
357 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
358 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
359 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
361 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
363 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
364 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
365 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
366 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
367 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
368 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
370 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
373 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
374 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
376 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
381 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
382 input level as the opening [.
384 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
385 suitable for use as a name.
387 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
390 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
391 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
392 the -mX option is given.
394 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
399 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
400 constructs by writing a troff macro.
405 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
410 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
411 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
412 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
413 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
415 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
416 Document Structuring Convention.
418 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
419 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
420 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
421 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
422 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
425 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
426 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
431 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
432 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
435 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
436 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
439 Xditview now uses imake.
444 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
446 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
447 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
448 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
449 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
450 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
451 that the `n' condition will be true.
453 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
454 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
455 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
457 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
458 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
459 latest version of the tpic specials.
464 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
465 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
466 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
471 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
472 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
474 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
475 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
476 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
481 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
486 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
487 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
489 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
490 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
491 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
497 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
499 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
505 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
506 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
507 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
508 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
509 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
511 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
513 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
516 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
517 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
518 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
519 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
520 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
521 amount of extra space to each word space.
523 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
525 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
526 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
527 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
528 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
529 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
535 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
537 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
538 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
544 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
545 complicated equations inside pictures.
547 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
548 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
554 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
555 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
561 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
562 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
563 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
566 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
567 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
569 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
570 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
572 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
573 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
574 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
575 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
576 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
577 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
579 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
580 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
581 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
582 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
585 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
586 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
588 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
589 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
594 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
595 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
596 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
598 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
599 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
600 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
601 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
602 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
603 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
604 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
605 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
606 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
612 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
613 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
615 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
618 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
619 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
620 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
621 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
622 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
623 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
624 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
626 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
627 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
628 when the diversion is reread.
630 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
633 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
634 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
635 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
636 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
637 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
638 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
639 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
641 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
644 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
647 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
649 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
650 containing the hyphenation patterns.
652 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
654 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
655 of end of sentence recognition.
657 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
658 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
660 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
661 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
663 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
665 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
666 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
667 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
672 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
673 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
675 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
676 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
679 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
680 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
682 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
684 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
685 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
687 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
688 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
691 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
692 wherever a quoted string can be used.
694 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
695 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
696 of the `textht' variable.
698 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
699 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
704 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
705 has been applied to a table.
710 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
712 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
713 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
718 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
719 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
720 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
721 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
722 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
723 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
724 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
726 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
727 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
728 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'
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