deroff(C)

deroff -- remove nroff/troff, tbl, and eqn constructs

Syntax

deroff [-i] [-ml | -mm | -ms] [-w] [files]

Description

deroff reads each of the files in sequence and removes all troff requests, macro calls, backslash constructs, eqn constructs (between .EQ and .EN lines, and between delimiters), tbl descriptions. It writes the remainder of the file on the standard output. deroff follows 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 is given, deroff reads the standard input.

The -i option causes deroff to ignore .so and .nx commands.

The -m option may be followed by an m, s or l. The resulting -mm or -ms option causes the MM or MS macros to 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.

The -w option outputs 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''.

Limitations

Because deroff is not a complete troff interpreter, it can produce too much output.

The -ml option does not handle nested lists correctly.

deroff removes words of two or fewer letters in lines that begin with macro calls or troff requests.