NAME
grog - guess options for groff command
SYNOPSIS
[groff-option ...] [filespec ...] -h | --help -v | --version
DESCRIPTION
grog reads the input (file names or standard input) and guesses which
of the groff(1) options are needed to perform the input with the groff
program. The corresponding groff command is output.
OPTIONS
The only grog options recognized are -C (which is also passed on) to
enable compatibility mode; -v and --version print information on the
version number; and -h and --help print usage information. -v,
--version, -h, and --help stop the program directly without printing a
groff command to standard output.
All other specified short options (words starting with one minus
character -) are interpreted as groff options or option clusters with
or without argument. No space is allowed between options and their
argument. Except from the -marg options, all options will be passed
on, i.e. they are included unchanged in the command for the output
without effecting the work of grog.
A filespec argument can either be the name of an existing file or a
single minus - to mean standard input. If no filespec is specified
standard input is read automatically.
DETAILS
grog reads all filespec parameters as a whole. It tries to guess which
of the following groff options are required for running the input under
groff: -e, -man, -me, -mm, -mom, -ms, -mdoc, -mdoc-old, -p, -R, -g, -G,
-s, and -t. The guessed groff command including those options and the
found filespec parameters is put on the standard output.
It is possible to specify arbitrary groff options on the command line.
These are passed on the output without change, except for the -marg
options.
The groff program has trouble when the wrong -marg option or several of
these options are specified. In these cases, grog will print an error
message and exit with an error code. It is better to specify no -marg
option. Because such an option is only accepted and passed when grog
does not find any of these options or the same option is found.
If several different -marg options are found by grog an error message
is produced and the program is terminated with an error code. But the
output is written with the wrong options nevertheless.
Remember that it is not necessary to determine a macro package. A roff
file can also be written in the groff language without any macro
package. grog will produce an output without an -marg option.
As groff also works with pure text files without any roff requests,
grog cannot be used to identify a file to be a roff file.
The groffer(1) program heavily depends on a working grog.
The grog source contains two files written in different programming
languages: grog.pl is the Perl version, while grog.sh is a shell script
using BR awk (1). During the run of make(1), it is determined whether
the system contains a suitable version of perl(1). If so, grog.pl is
transformed into grog; otherwise grog.sh is used instead.
EXAMPLES
· Calling
grog meintro.me
results in
groff -me meintro.me
So grog recognized that the file meintro.me is written with the
-me macro package.
· On the other hand,
grog pic.ms
outputs
groff -pte -ms pic.ms
Besides determining the macro package -ms, grog recognized that
the file pic.ms additionally needs -pte, the combination of -p
for pic, -t for tbl, and -e for eqn.
· If both files are combined by the command
grog meintro.me pic.ms
an error message is sent to standard error because groff cannot
work with two different macro packages:
grog: error: there are several macro packages: -me -ms
Additionally the corresponding output with the wrong options is
printed to standard output:
groff -pte -me -ms meintro.me pic.ms
But the program is terminated with an error code.
· The call of
grog -ksS -Tdvi grnexmpl.g
contains several groff options that are just passed on the
output without any interface to grog. These are the option
cluster -ksS consisting of -k, -s, and -S; and the option -T
with argument dvi. The output is
groff -ksS -Tdvi grnexmpl.g
so no additional option was added by grog. As no option -marg
was found by grog this file does not use a macro package.
· grog can also handle files using the chem language. The example
grog chAh_brackets.chem
outputs
chem chAh_brackets.chem | groff -pe
So chem is run first and groff is appended. The option -p for
pic is implied automatically by chem. Additionally, the file
uses eqn with -e.
SEE ALSO
groff(1), troff(1), tbl(1), pic(1), eqn(1), refer(1), grn(1), grap(1),
soelim(1), groff_me(7), groff_ms(7), groff_mm(7), groff_mom(7),
groff_man(7), groffer(1)
COPYING
Copyright (C) 1989-2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009 Free
Software Foundation, Inc. Written by James Clark. Maintained by
Werner Lemberg Rewritten and put under GPL by Bernd Warken.
This file is part of grog, which is part of groff, a free software
project. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of
the GNU General Public License (GPL) as published by the Free Software
Foundation, either version 2, or (at your option) any later version.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with groff, see the files COPYING and LICENSE in the top directory of
the groff source package. Or read the man page gpl(1). You can also
write to the Free Software Foundation, 51 Franklin St - Fifth Floor,
Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.