What is a troff document?
Description. The device-independent troff file format outputs a pure ASCII description of a typeset document. The description specifies the typesetting device, the fonts, and the point sizes of characters to be used, as well as the position of each character on the page.
What is the difference between troff and nroff?
Nroff is designed to format output for line printers and letter-quality printers; you can also display the output on your screen. Troff is designed for typesetting. Except for some functions that are specific to typesetting, the same commands work for both programs.
What is Groff command in Linux?
In Linux/UNIX, Groff stands for GNU troff. Groff is basically used to create man pages. But its functionality is not limited to creating man pages, rather it acts as a formatting and typesetting engine. It acts as a compiler for the input supplied to it and it creates a formatted document as its output.
What does nroff mean in Linux?
Updated: 05/04/2019 by Computer Hope. On Unix-like operating systems, the nroff command (short for new runoff), is used to format (run off) documents for display or fixed-width printing. In addition to user functions, internally, the system uses it to format the text in man pages.
What is the use of Nroff and Troff in Unix?
The nroff and troff commands format text for printing by interspersing the text with control sequences. Control sequences are either control line requests or escape requests that control text processing by the printing device.
Is troff still used?
At the same time, the summer of 1969, Doug McIlroy rewrote roff in BCPL (Basic Combined Programming Language by Martin Richards, 1966), extending and simplifying it at the same time. It was McIlroys version that first Joe Ossanna and, after his death, Brian Kernighan turned into the troff we still use.
What is Groff Linux?
groff (GNU roff) is a typesetting system that reads plain text input files that include formatting commands to produce output in PostScript, PDF, HTML, or DVI formats or for display to a terminal. Formatting commands can be low-level typesetting primitives, macros from a supplied package, or user-defined macros.
Is Groff still used?
A reimplementation and extension of the typesetter from ATT Unix, groff is present on most POSIX systems owing to its long association with Unix manuals (including man pages).
What is groff used for?
Groff is basically used to create man pages. But its functionality is not limited to creating man pages, rather it acts as a formatting and typesetting engine. It acts as a compiler for the input supplied to it and it creates a formatted document as its output.
What is groff package?
groff (GNU roff) is a typesetting system that reads plain text input files that include formatting commands to produce output in PostScript, PDF, HTML, or DVI formats or for display to a terminal. Formatting commands can be low-level typesetting primitives, macros from a supplied package, or user-defined macros.