nroff(9)

SYNOPSIS

0-9, tni, so - UNIX t/nroff file.

FILES

hknroff.emf - UNIX t/nroff file.
nroff.etf - UNIX t/nroff template file
ntags.emf - t/nroff tags generator macro definition.

EXTENSIONS

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 - UNIX t/nroff files.
tni, so - UNIX t/nroff include files.
sm - [Special] Superman t/nroff file.

MAGIC STRINGS

-*- nroff -*-


Recognized by GNU and MicroEmacs. Denotes a t/nroff type file, may be used in .1/.9, .tni and .so files.

DESCRIPTION

The nroff file type templates handle UNIX n/troff type files.

General Editing


On creating a new file, a new header is automatically included into the file. time(2m) is by default enabled, allowing the modification time-stamp to be maintained in the header.

Hilighting


The hilighting features allow commands, variables, logical, preprocessor definitions, comments, strings and characters of the language to be differentiated and rendered in different colors.

Tags


A C-tags file may be generated within the editor using the Tools -> Nroff-Tools -> Create Tag File. find-tag(2) takes the user to the file using the tag information. The tags are generated using the .XI keyword, this may not be standard for all nroff pages.

Folding and Information Hiding


Generic folding is enabled within the C and C++ files. The folds occur about sections .S[HS]....S[HS] located on the left-hand margin. collapse-all(3) (un)folds all regions in the file, collapse-current(3) (un)folds the current region. Note that folding does not operate on K&R style code.

Tools


The nroff buffer provides a facility to toggle the hilighting of the buffer on and off. If font change inserts are used (\fB, \fR, etc), then the enclosed bold and italic regions are hilighted, hiding the escape sequences. This allows the nroff text to be viewed in a more representative rendered format.

The local buffer command aman invokes, the following command sequence (defined in hkman) to render a nroff man file into a buffer window;-

soelim <file> | tbl -TX | neqn | nroff -man | col -x 

The command tex2nr attempts to convert a latex(9) file into an nroff file. The latex escape sequences are converted into their nroff equivalents. The command is only made available when an Nroff file is loaded (as the command is defined in the hknroff.emf file).

Short Cuts


The short cut keys used within the buffer are:

C-c C-s - Insert a font size escape character \S0.
C-c C-r - Insert a roman font escape character \fR.
C-c C-b - Insert a bold font escape character \fB.
C-c C-i - Insert a italic font escape character \fI.
C-c C-c - Insert a courier font escape character \fC.
C-c C-p - Insert a previous font escape character \fP.
esc o, esc q - fill-paragraph(2) fills paragraph to next .XX command.
C-c b - Bold region by inserting \fB .. \fR.
C-c c - Courier region by inserting \fC .. \fR.
C-c c - Italic region by inserting \fI .. \fR.
C-c C-h - Toggle hilighting on/off.
C-c C-& - Adds nroff padding \f& about words.
C-x C-& - Removes nroff padding \f& about words.
esc h - Nroff help.

f2 - (un)fold the current region
f3 - (un)fold all regions

BUGS

The nroff language template is heavily biased towards the man macros only and includes all of the extension macros used for generating the JASSPA hypertext documentation.

The template in the current form has been used entirely by JASSPA in generating all of the documentation (HTML, Winhelp, ehf, PostScript) used by MicroEmacs. It does not include all of the troff/nroff keywords, or keywords for any of the standard macro packages.

The JASSPA documentation preparation tools are proprietary and have not been made publicly available.

SEE ALSO

collapse-all(3), collapse-current(3), fill-paragraph(2), find-tag(2), ntags(3f), time(2m).

Supported File Types

Ref: nroff(9) File: m9typ026.9 Date: 2025/08/28

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