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 ter-
     minal 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  con-
     sults  the	 locale	 to select an appropriate output device.  It first tries
     the locale(1) program, then checks several locale-related environment vari-
     ables; 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) docu-
     ments 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 spec-
     ified, 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 executa-
	    bles, /usr/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 in-
	    valid.

Files
     /usr/share/groff/1.24.1/tmac/tty-char.tmac
	    defines fallback definitions of roff special characters.  These def-
	    initions 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			   2026-03-14				nroff(1)