deroff(1) deroff(1)
NAME
deroff - remove nroff/troff, tbl, and eqn constructs
SYNOPSIS
deroff [-mx] [-w] [file...]
DESCRIPTION
deroff reads each of the files in sequence and removes all
troff(1) requests, macro calls, backslash constructs, eqn(1)
constructs (between .EQ and .EN lines, and between delim-
iters), and tbl(1) descriptions, perhaps replacing them with
white space (blanks and blank lines), and writes the
remainder of the file on the standard output. deroff fol-
lows chains of included files (.so and .nx troff 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 flag option may be followed by an m, s, or l. The -
mm flag option causes the macros be interpreted so that only
running text is output (that is, no text from macro lines.)
The -ml flag option forces the -mm flag option and also
causes deletion of lists associated with the mm macros.
If the -w flag option is given, the output is a word list,
one word per line, with all other characters deleted. Oth-
erwise, the output follows the original, with the deletions
mentioned above. In text, a word is any string that con-
tains at least two letters and is composed of letters, di-
gits, 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 am-
persands are removed from words.
EXAMPLES
The command
deroff textfile
removes all nroff, troff, and macro definitions from
textfile.
FILES
/usr/bin/deroff
SEE ALSO
eqn(1), nroff(1), tbl(1), troff(1).
April, 1990 1
BUGS
deroff is not a complete troff interpreter, so it can be
confused by subtle constructs. Most such errors result in
too much rather than too little output.
The -ml flag option does not handle nested lists correctly.
2 April, 1990