In Unix, what is groff?

In Unix, groff is the front-end for the groff document formatting system. It usually runs the groff program and a postprocessor appropriate for the selected device. For a list of available devices, at the Unix prompt, enter: man groff

You can use groff to properly read and format man pages. If you attempt to view a file in one of the man directories (e.g., man1, man2) using the cat command, the file will display in an unformatted version. To use groff to format the file properly, enter: groff -t -man -Tascii filename.1 | more Replace filename.1 with the name of the file you are trying to view.

To find out if groff is installed on a Unix system, enter one of the following commands at the Unix prompt:

At Indiana University, to get support for personal or departmental Linux or Unix systems, see At IU, how do I get support for Linux or Unix?

Also see:

• In LaTeX or TeX in Unix, how do I create and print a document?
• In Unix, what is my path, and how do I set or modify it?
• What is the GNU project?
• What do some common Unix file extensions mean?