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