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Manual page for TEXI2ROFF(1)

texi2roff - convert Texinfo commands in documents to nroff/troff commands.

SYNOPSIS

texi2roff -m{ e | m | s } [-It ] [ file ... ]

DESCRIPTION

texi2roff converts documents which use the Texinfo macro language for TeX so they can be formatted by nroff or troff instead.

The named files are read and processed in order. If no file is given or if the file is '-' texi2roff reads the standard input.

All Texinfo commands are supported to some extent, even if by carefully discarding them. Since Texinfo allows the use of arbitrary TeX commands provided the leading \ is replaced by @, some common TeX commands not explicitly in Texinfo are supported as well. To see how various commands are handled examine the translation tables. Any command whose type is DISCARD will disappear with all contained text (unless the -t option is used).

\f(CW and .ft CW are used to change to constant-width (typewriter-like) font. If this is not the standard at your site, run your texi2roff output through sed or edit the translation tables.

OPTIONS

-m: indicates which macro package you intend to use with nroff or troff. Specify one of -me, -ms, or -mm. If your site has both -ms and -msnew macros, use -msnew with nroff/troff for better results.
-I: causes Texinfo "Info file" menu and node contents and 'ifinfo' text to appear in the output. Info files are a kind of hypertext feature of Texinfo. This material would not normally appear in a printed Texinfo document, but may contain interesting information or be useful when searching a document for a topic.
-t: (transparent) prints contents of otherwise discarded commands, for people who are afraid of missing something. For best results with the -t option, use -It.

DIAGNOSTICS

Errors are reported giving file name and line number.

Unrecognized Texinfo commands may corrupt the program's command stack because it is hard to tell how to discard them when their closing tokens are unknown. The program may guess wrong about which command is at fault when giving an error message for the closing token, but will generally recover and translate the remainder of the document after such errors.

HISTORY

Written in February 1988 at the University of Toronto by Beverly Erlebacher (erlebach@csri.toronto.edu). Current version (1.0a) released in August 1988 by the same author.

BUGS

Appendices will come out as unnumbered sections, instead of being "numbered" with consecutive capital letters. Cross references are printed, but not with page numbers as Texinfo does. Indices and tables of contents are not generated.

Since \fP is a toggle, not a stack, nested Texinfo commands that generate nested font changes would not 'un-nest' correctly if it were used as a close to a font change. The program needs a font stack. In the interim, it uses \fR, which causes less trouble than \fP.

There are a number of differences in formatting details compared to Texinfo. The -ms macros probably give the closest emulation. Indentation is occasionally imperfect.

Since literal double quotes (") cause bizarre effects in macro arguments for -me macros, texi2roff replaces them with \(fm\(fm (foot marks -- '') when the -me option is used.

texi2roff may generate output which falls afoul of bugs or strange features in nroff/troff. The program tries to avoid generating sequences that cause trouble.

"A program designed for inputs from people is usually stressed beyond the breaking point by computer-generated inputs."

-- Dennis Ritchie

Last modified 21/April/97