Editing Nroff

{{Short description|Typesetting language}}
{{refimprove|date=February 2015}}
{{lowercase|title=nroff}}
{{Infobox Software 
| name                   = nroff
| logo                   = 
| screenshot             = 
| screenshot size        = 
| caption                = 
| author                 = [[Joe Ossanna]]
| developer              = [[AT&T Bell Laboratories]]
| released               = {{Start date and age|1972|6|12}}
| latest release version = 
| latest release date    = 
| operating system       = [[Unix]] and [[Unix-like]]
| genre                  = [[Command (computing)|Command]]
| license                = 
| website                = 
}}
'''nroff''' (short for "new roff") is a [[text-formatting]] [[computer program|program]] on [[Unix]] and [[Unix-like]] [[operating system]]s. It produces output suitable for simple fixed-width [[computer printer|printers]] and [[computer terminal|terminal]] windows. It is an integral part of the [[Unix]] help system, being used to format [[man page]]s for display.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/roff.7.html |title=roff(7) |website=Linux manual pages}}</ref>

nroff and the related [[troff]] were both developed from the original [[roff (software)|roff]]. While nroff was intended to produce output on terminals and line printers, troff was intended to produce output on [[typesetting]] systems. Both used the same underlying [[markup language|markup]] and a single source file could normally be used by nroff or troff without change.

==History==
nroff was written by [[Joe Ossanna]] for [[Version 2 Unix]],<ref name="reader">{{cite tech report |first1=M. D. |last1=McIlroy |authorlink1=Doug McIlroy |year=1987 |url=http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~doug/reader.pdf |title=A Research Unix reader: annotated excerpts from the Programmer's Manual, 1971–1986 |series=CSTR |number=139 |institution=Bell Labs}}</ref> in [[Assembly language]] and then ported to [[C (programming language)|C]].

It was a descendant of the [[RUNOFF]] program from [[Compatible Time-Sharing System|CTSS]], the first computerized text-formatting program, and is a predecessor of the Unix [[troff]] document processing system.

==Variants==
There is also a [[free software]] version of nroff in the [[Groff (software)|groff]] package emulating the AT&T version,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/nroff.1.html |title=nroff(1) |website=Linux manual pages}}</ref> widely used by Unix-like operating systems.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/roff.7.html |title=roff(7) |website=Linux manual pages |quote=Unix-like operating systems often distribute a roff system... The GNU roff—groff is arguably the most widespread roff implementation.}}</ref>

The [[Minix]] operating system, among others, uses a clone of nroff called [[cawf]] by Vic Abell, based on awf, the Amazingly Workable Formatter designed in [[awk]] by [[Henry Spencer]]. These are not full replacements for the nroff/troff suite of tools, but are sufficient for display and printing of basic documents and [[manual page]]s.

In addition, a simplified version of nroff is available in [[Ratfor]] source code form as an example in the book ''Software Tools'' by [[Brian Kernighan]] and [[P. J. Plauger]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://9p.io/cm/cs/who/bwk/toolsbook/|title = Software Tools Code}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[troff]]
* [[groff (software)|groff]]
* [[TeX]]
* [[LaTeX]]
* [[man page]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://doc.cat-v.org/henry_spencer/awf/ source code for Henry Spencer's AWF]
* [http://www.quut.com/berlin/ms/troff.html troff/nroff quick reference]
* [https://github.com/joyent/illumos-joyent/tree/master/usr/src/cmd/troff/nroff.d nroff source code] in [[Illumos]]. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6XQUciI-Sc&t=1h28m35s Explanation] by [[Bryan Cantrill]]

[[Category:Troff]]
[[Category:Assembly language software]]
[[Category:Markup languages]]
[[Category:Unix text processing utilities]]


{{unix-stub}}