GROTTY(1) General Commands Manual GROTTY(1)
NAME
grotty - groff driver for typewriter-like devices
SYNOPSIS
grotty [ -bBcdfhioruUv ] [ -Fdir ] [ files... ]
It is possible to have whitespace between the -F option and its parameter.
DESCRIPTION
grotty translates the output of GNU troff into a form suitable for typewriter-like devices. Normally grotty
should be invoked by using the groff command with a -Tascii, -Tlatin1 or -Tutf8 option on ASCII based systems,
and with -Tcp1047 and -Tutf8 on EBCDIC based hosts. If no files are given, grotty reads the standard input.
A filename of - also causes grotty to read the standard input. Output is written to the standard output.
By default, grotty emits SGR escape sequences (from ISO 6429, also called ANSI color escapes) to change text
attributes (bold, italic, colors). This makes it possible to have eight different background and foreground
colors; additionally, bold and italic attributes can be used at the same time (by using the BI font).
The following colors are defined in tty.tmac: black, white, red, green, blue, yellow, magenta, cyan. Unknown
colors are mapped to the default color (which is dependent on the settings of the terminal; in most cases,
this is black for the foreground and white for the background).
Use the -c switch to revert to the old behaviour, printing a bold character c with the sequence `c BACKSPACE
c' and an italic character c by the sequence `_ BACKSPACE c'. At the same time, color output is disabled.
The same effect can be achieved by setting either the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable or using the `sgr' X
command (see below).
For SGR support, it is necessary to use the -R option of less(1) to disable the interpretation of grotty's old
output format. Consequently, all programs which use less as the pager program have to pass this option to it.
For man(1) in particular, either add -R to the $PAGER environment variable, e.g.
PAGER="/usr/bin/less -R"
export PAGER
or use the -P option of man to set the pager executable and its options, or modify the configuration file of
man in a similar fashion. Note that with some man(1) versions, you have to use the $MANPAGER environment
variable instead.
grotty's old output format can be displayed on a terminal by piping through ul(1). Pagers such as more(1) or
less(1) are also able to display these sequences. Use either -B or -U when piping into less(1); use -b when
piping into more(1). There is no need to filter the output through col(1) since grotty never outputs reverse
line feeds.
The font description file may contain a command
internalname n
where n is a decimal integer. If the 01 bit in n is set, then the font is treated as an italic font; if the
02 bit is set, then it is treated as a bold font. The code field in the font description field gives the code
which is used to output the character. This code can also be used in the \N escape sequence in troff.
If the DESC file contains the keyword unicode, grotty emits Unicode characters in UTF-8 encoding. Otherwise,
it emits characters in a single-byte encoding depending on the data in the font description files. See the
groff_font(5) man page for more details.
OPTIONS
-Fdir Prepend directory dir/devname to the search path for font and device description files; name is the
name of the device, usually ascii, latin1, utf8, or cp1047.
-h Use horizontal tabs in the output. Tabs are assumed to be set every 8 columns.
-i Use escape sequences to set the italic text attribute instead of the underline attribute for italic
fonts (`I' and `BI'). Note that most terminals (including xterm) don't support this. Ignored if -c is
active.
-o Suppress overstriking (other than for bold or underlined characters in case the old output format has
been activated with -c).
-r Use escape sequences to set the reverse text attribute instead of the underline attribute for italic
fonts (`I' and `BI'). Ignored if -c is active.
-u Suppress the use of underlining for italic characters. Ignored if -c isn't used.
-U Use only underlining for bold-italic characters. Ignored if -c isn't used.
-v Print the version number.
USAGE
grotty understands a single X command produced using the \X escape sequence.
\X'tty: sgr n'
If n is non-zero or missing, enable SGR output (this is the default), otherwise use the old drawing
scheme for bold and underline.
ENVIRONMENT
GROFF_NO_SGR
If set, the old drawing scheme for bold and underline (using the backspace character) is active. Col‐
ors are disabled.
GROFF_FONT_PATH
A list of directories in which to search for the devname directory in addition to the default ones.
See troff(1) and groff_font(5) for more details.
FILES
/usr/share/groff/1.22.2/font/devascii/DESC
Device description file for ascii device.
/usr/share/groff/1.22.2/font/devascii/F
Font description file for font F of ascii device.
/usr/share/groff/1.22.2/font/devlatin1/DESC
Device description file for latin1 device.
/usr/share/groff/1.22.2/font/devlatin1/F
Font description file for font F of latin1 device.
/usr/share/groff/1.22.2/font/devutf8/DESC
Device description file for utf8 device.
/usr/share/groff/1.22.2/tmac/tty-char.tmac
Additional klugdey character definitions for use with grotty.
Note that on EBCDIC hosts, only files for the cp1047 device is installed.
BUGS
grotty is intended only for simple documents.
There is no support for fractional horizontal or vertical motions.
There is no support for \D commands other than horizontal and vertical lines.
Characters above the first line (ie with a vertical position of 0) cannot be printed.
Color handling is different compared to grops(1). \M doesn't set the fill color for closed graphic objects
(which grotty doesn't support anyway) but changes the background color of the character cell, affecting all
subsequent operations.
SEE ALSO
groff(1), troff(1), groff_out(5), groff_font(5), groff_char(7), ul(1), more(1), man(1), less(1)
Groff Version 1.22.2 7 February 2013 GROTTY(1)
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