roff2pdf

roff2pdf [options] file...

-o output_file
    Specifies the name of the output PDF file. If not provided, the output is usually written to a file based on the input filename or to standard output.

-L gs_options
    Passes additional options directly to the underlying Ghostscript (gs or ps2pdf) command. This allows fine-tuning of PDF generation, such as compression or font embedding.

-m macro_package
    Specifies a groff macro package to be used (e.g., man, mdoc, ms, mm). This option is passed directly to groff.

-t
    Enables the tbl preprocessor for formatting tables. Passed to groff.

-e
    Enables the eqn preprocessor for formatting equations. Passed to groff.

-p
    Enables the pic preprocessor for formatting pictures. Passed to groff.

-s
    Enables the soelim preprocessor for including source files specified with .so requests. Passed to groff.

-R
    Enables the refer preprocessor for bibliography processing. Passed to groff.

-Tps
    Forces groff to produce PostScript output, which is the default and necessary for PDF conversion. (Often implicit).

-k
    Keeps the intermediate PostScript file generated by groff instead of deleting it after PDF conversion.

-v
    Provides verbose output, showing the commands being executed internally.

-h or --help
    Displays a help message with usage information and options.

roff2pdf is a convenient Linux command-line utility designed to convert documents formatted using the roff typesetting system (or its modern GNU counterpart, groff) directly into the Portable Document Format (PDF). It functions as a high-level wrapper, abstracting away the multi-step process typically required to achieve this conversion. Internally, roff2pdf generally invokes groff to process the input file and generate an intermediate PostScript (.ps) output. This PostScript stream is then seamlessly piped to a PostScript-to-PDF converter, such as ps2pdf (which is a wrapper for Ghostscript, gs), to produce the final PDF document.

This command is particularly useful for rendering technical documentation, man pages, or any text authored in the roff syntax into a universally viewable and printable PDF format. It often supports many of the standard groff options, allowing users to specify macro packages, preprocessors (eqn, tbl), and other formatting parameters directly from the roff2pdf command line, simplifying the workflow for complex document generation.

Dependency on External Tools: roff2pdf is a wrapper script and relies heavily on the presence and correct configuration of groff and a PostScript-to-PDF converter (typically ps2pdf or Ghostscript) on the system.
Variable Implementations: As roff2pdf is often a shell script provided by different distributions or customized by users, its exact set of supported options and internal behavior might vary slightly across systems.
Performance: For very large or complex documents, the conversion process can be resource-intensive and take noticeable time, especially due to the PostScript rendering step.

roff2pdf operates by first using groff to interpret the roff source and generate an intermediate PostScript file. This PostScript output is then processed by Ghostscript (via ps2pdf) to render and produce the final PDF document. This two-stage process allows it to leverage the powerful formatting capabilities of groff and the robust PDF generation of Ghostscript.

Commonly used by developers and system administrators to generate printable versions of man pages, convert documentation from source code repositories, or prepare technical manuals written in roff for distribution. Its simplicity makes it a quick tool for on-the-fly PDF creation.

The lineage of roff2pdf traces back to the venerable roff (roff off), a text formatting program developed at Bell Labs in the early 1970s, which evolved into troff (typesetter roff) for driving phototypesetters. The GNU Project later created groff (GNU roff) in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a free software replacement that could output to various devices, including PostScript.

With the advent and widespread adoption of PDF as a universal document format in the mid-1990s, there arose a need to easily convert existing and new roff-formatted content into PDF. roff2pdf emerged as a practical convenience script, typically leveraging groff's PostScript output capabilities and piping it through Ghostscript's ps2pdf utility. Its development was driven by the desire to streamline the publication process for man pages, technical reports, and other documentation where roff remained a prevalent markup language.

groff(1), ps2pdf(1), gs(1), man(1), troff(1)