deroff(1)
NAME
deroff − remove nroff, troff, tbl and eqn constructs
SYNTAX
deroff [ −w ] file...
DESCRIPTION
The deroff command reads each file in sequence and removes all nroff and troff command lines, backslash constructions, macro definitions, eqn constructs (between ‘.EQ’ and ‘.EN’ lines or between delimiters), and table descriptions and writes the remainder on the standard output. The deroff command follows chains of included files (‘.so’ and ‘.nx’ commands); if a file has already been included, a ‘.so’ is ignored and a ‘.nx’ terminates execution. If no input file is given, deroff reads from the standard input file.
If the −w flag is given, the output is a word list, one ‘word’ (string of letters, digits, and apostrophes, beginning with a letter; apostrophes are removed) per line, and all other characters ignored. Otherwise, the output follows the original, with the deletions mentioned above.
RESTRICTIONS
The deroff command is not a complete troff interpreter, so it can be confused by subtle constructs. Most errors result in too much rather than too little output.
The −w flag removes every one or two character word.