NAME

deroff − remove nroff, tbl, and neqn constructs

SYNOPSIS

deroff [−mx] [−w] [−i] [ file ...  ]

DESCRIPTION

deroff reads each file in sequence and removes all nroff requests, macro calls, backslash constructs, neqn(1) constructs (between .EQ and .EN lines, and between delimiters), and tbl(1) descriptions, replacing them with white space (blanks and blank lines), and writes the remainder of the file on the standard output. deroff follows chains of included files (.so and .nx nroff commands); if a file has already been included, a .so naming that file is ignored and a .nx naming that file terminates execution.  If no input file is given, deroff reads the standard input. 

The −m option can be followed by an m, s, or l.  The −mm option causes the macros be interpreted so that only running text is output (that is, no text from macro lines).  The −ml option forces the −mm option and also causes deletion of lists associated with the mm macros. 

If the −w option is given, the output is a word list, one “word” per line, with all other characters deleted.  Otherwise, the output follows the original, with the deletions mentioned above.  In text, a “word” is any string that contains at least two letters and is composed of letters, digits, ampersands (&), and apostrophes (’); in a macro call.  However, a “word” is a string that begins with at least two letters and contains a total of at least three letters.  Delimiters are any characters other than letters, digits, apostrophes, and ampersands.  Trailing apostrophes and ampersands are removed from “words.”

If the −i option is given, deroff ignores the .so and .nx nroff commands. 

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

Environment Variables

LC_CTYPE determines the interpretation of text and filenames as single and/or multi-byte characters.  Note that multi-byte punctuation characters are not recognized when using the -w option. 

LANG determines the language in which messages are displayed. 

If LC_CTYPE is not specified in the environment or is set to the empty string, the value of LANG is used as a default for each unspecified or empty variable.  If LANG is not specified or is set to the empty string, a default of "C" (see lang(5)) is used instead of LANG.  If any internationalization variable contains an invalid setting, deroff behaves as if all internationalization variables are set to "C".  See environ(5).

International Code Set Support

Single- and multi-byte character code sets are supported except in the case of the −w option which supports only single-byte code sets. 

WARNINGS

deroff is not a complete nroff interpreter; thus it can be confused by subtle constructs.  Most such errors result in too much rather than too little output. 

The −ml option does not handle nested lists correctly. 

AUTHOR

deroff was developed by the University of California, Berkeley. 

SEE ALSO

neqn(1), nroff(1), tbl(1). 

Hewlett-Packard Company  —  HP-UX Release 8.05: June 1991