soelim(1) General Commands Manual soelim(1)
Name
soelim - recursively interpolate source requests in roff or other text
files
Synopsis
soelim [-Crt] [-I dir] [input-file ...]
soelim --help
soelim -v
soelim --version
Description
GNU soelim is a preprocessor for the groff(7) document formatting
system. soelim works as a filter to eliminate source requests in
roff(7) input files; that is, it replaces lines of the form ".so
included-file" within each text input-file with the contents of
included-file, recursively. By default, it writes lf requests as well
to record the name and line number of each input-file and
included-file, so that any diagnostics produced by later processing can
be accurately traced to the original input. Options allow this
information to be suppressed (-r) or supplied in TeX comments instead
(-t). In the absence of input-file arguments, soelim reads the
standard input stream. Output is written to the standard output
stream.
If the name of a macro-file contains a backslash, use \\ or \e to embed
it. To embed a space, write "\ " (backslash followed by a space). Any
other escape sequence in macro-file, including "\[rs]", prevents soelim
from replacing the source request.
The dot must be at the beginning of a line and must be followed by "so"
without intervening spaces or tabs for soelim to handle it. This
convention allows source requests to be "protected" from processing by
soelim, for instance as part of macro definitions or "if" requests.
There must also be at least one space between "so" and its macro-file
argument. The -C option overrides this requirement.
The foregoing is the limit of soelim's understanding of the roff
language; it does not, for example, replace the input line
.if 1 .so otherfile
with the contents of otherfile. With its -r option, therefore, soelim
can be used to process text files in general, to flatten a tree of
input documents.
soelim was designed to handle situations where the target of a roff
source request requires a preprocessor such as eqn(1), pic(1),
refer(1), or tbl(1). The usual processing sequence of groff(1) is as
follows.
input sourced
file file
| |
v v
preprocessor --> troff --> postprocessor
|
v
output
file
That is, files sourced with "so" are normally read only by the
formatter, troff. soelim is not required for troff to source files.
If a file to be sourced should also be preprocessed, it must already be
read before the input file passes through the preprocessor. soelim,
normally invoked via groff's -s option, handles this.
input
file
|
v
soelim --> preprocessor --> troff --> postprocessor
^ |
| v
sourced output
file file
Options
--help displays a usage message, while -v and --version show version
information; all exit afterward.
-C Recognize an input line starting with .so even if a character
other than a space or newline follows.
-I dir Search the directory dir path for input- and included-files. -I
may be specified more than once; each dir is searched in the
given order. To search the current working directory before
others, add "-I ." at the desired place; it is otherwise
searched last.
-r Write files "raw"; do not add lf requests.
-t Emit TeX comment lines starting with "%" indicating the current
file and line number, rather than lf requests for the same
purpose.
If both -r and -t are given, the last one specified controls.
See also
groff(1)
groff 1.23.0 2 July 2023 soelim(1)
groff 1.23.0 - Generated Sat Dec 23 09:16:09 CST 2023