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