nroff(1) General Commands Manual nroff(1)
Name
nroff - format documents with groff for terminal ("TTY") devices
Synopsis
nroff [-abcCEhikpRStUVzZ] [-d ctext] [-d string=text]
[-D fallback-input-encoding] [-I inclusion-directory]
[-K input-encoding] [-m macro-package] [-M macro-directory]
[-n page-number] [-o page-list] [-P postprocessor-argument]
[-r cnumeric-expression] [-r register=numeric-expression]
[-T output-device] [-w warning-category] [-W warning-category]
[file ...]
nroff --help
nroff -v [other-nroff-option ...]
nroff --version [other-nroff-option ...]
Description
nroff formats documents written in the groff(7) language for
typewriter-like devices such as terminal emulators. GNU nroff emulates
the AT&T nroff command using groff(1). nroff generates output via
grotty(1), groff's terminal output driver, which needs to know the
character encoding scheme used by the device. Consequently, acceptable
arguments to the -T option are ascii, latin1, and utf8; any others are
ignored. If neither the GROFF_TYPESETTER environment variable nor the
-T command-line option (which overrides the environment variable)
specifies a (valid) device, nroff consults the locale to select an
appropriate output device. It first tries the locale(1) program, then
checks several locale-related environment variables; see section
"Environment" below. If all of the foregoing fail, nroff assumes "-T
ascii".
The -a, -b, -c, -C, -d, -E, -i, -I, -m, -M, -n, -o, -r, -U, -w, -W, and
-z options have the effects described in troff(1). -c and -h imply "-P
-c" and "-P -h", respectively; -c is also meaningful to troff itself.
Further, GNU nroff ignores the AT&T nroff options -e, -q, and -s.
groff(1) documents options -D, -k, -K, -p, -P, -R, -t, -S, and -Z. -V
causes nroff to display the constructed groff command on the standard
output stream, but does not execute it. -v and --version show version
information about nroff and the programs it runs, while --help displays
a usage message; all exit afterward.
Exit status
nroff exits with status 2 if there was a problem parsing its arguments,
with status 0 if any of the options -V, -v, --version, or --help were
specified, and with the status of groff otherwise.
Environment
Normally, the path separator in environment variables ending with PATH
is the colon; this may vary depending on the operating system. For
example, Windows uses a semicolon instead.
GROFF_BIN_PATH
Locate groff commands in these directories, followed by those in
PATH. If not set, the installation directory of GNU roff
executables, /opt/local/bin, is searched before PATH.
GROFF_TYPESETTER
specifies the default output device for groff.
LC_ALL
LC_CTYPE
LANG
LESSCHARSET
are pattern-matched in this order for contents matching standard
character encodings supported by groff in the event no -T option
is given and GROFF_TYPESETTER is unset, or the values specified
are invalid.
Files
/opt/local/share/groff/1.24.1/tmac/tty-char.tmac
defines fallback definitions of roff special characters. These
definitions more poorly optically approximate typeset output
than those of tty.tmac in favor of communicating semantic
information. nroff loads it automatically.
Notes
Pager programs like more(1) and less(1) may require command-line
options to correctly handle some output sequences; see grotty(1).
See also
groff(1), troff(1), grotty(1), locale(1), roff(7)
groff 1.24.1 2026-05-15 nroff(1)
groff 1.24.1 - Generated Mon May 18 13:11:52 CDT 2026