Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2005 23:39:59 +0200 From: Erik Trulsson <ertr1013@student.uu.se> To: Bob Johnson <fbsdlists@gmail.com> Cc: Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>, Gerard Seibert <gerard-seibert@suscom.net>, freebsd-questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Printing MAN pages Message-ID: <20050908213958.GA29984@falcon.midgard.homeip.net> In-Reply-To: <54db43990509081350150465ac@mail.gmail.com> References: <Pine.WNT.4.63.0509081012070.3172@Treneq.frvorepbz.arg> <43206857.1010803@daleco.biz> <20050908165328.GB37407@orion.daedalusnetworks.priv> <20050908173646.GO20229@pcwin002.win.tue.nl> <20050908175519.GA20222@falcon.midgard.homeip.net> <20050908203203.GP20229@pcwin002.win.tue.nl> <54db43990509081350150465ac@mail.gmail.com>
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On Thu, Sep 08, 2005 at 04:50:29PM -0400, Bob Johnson wrote: > On 9/8/05, Stijn Hoop <stijn@win.tue.nl> wrote: > > On Thu, Sep 08, 2005 at 07:55:19PM +0200, Erik Trulsson wrote: > > > On Thu, Sep 08, 2005 at 07:36:46PM +0200, Stijn Hoop wrote: > > > > On Thu, Sep 08, 2005 at 07:53:28PM +0300, Giorgos Keramidas wrote: > > > > > Gerard Seibert wrote: > > > > > > I am trying to figure out how to print 'man' pages. If I try a > > simple > > > > > > redirect, such as: "man foo > foo.txt" the new file is loaded with > > > > > > control symbols, etc. that are not really printable. I want to save > > > > > > the files if possible, and print them out at a later date. It that > > is > > > > > > not possible, how would I go about printing them out in real time? > > > > > > > > > > man -t foo > foo.ps > > > > > > > > > > will generate Postscript output, which is a lot better for printing. > > > > > [...] > > > > This does not exactly spell 'output postscript' to me... > > > > > > It does if you know that postscript is the default output format of > > > groff. If one doesn't know what format groff outputs by default, it is > > > easily learned by reading the groff(1) manpage. > > > > True. I'm all in favor of a little bit more userfriendliness in man pages > > as long as it's not overkill though. > > > > How about: > > > > -t Generate a Postscript version of the manpage, intended for > > printing, by using /usr/bin/groff -S -man to format the manual > > page, passing the output to stdout. The output from > > /usr/bin/groff -S -man may need to be passed through some > > filter or another before being printed. > > > > That way I can do /print in less and still get some useful hint. Except that it does not explicitly create a Postscript version of the mapage, but it rather generates a version in whatever format groff outputs as default. This happens to be Postscript normally, but as I describe further down the default can be changed. > > > > In make.conf(5) it says > > > PRINTERDEVICE > (str) The default format for system documentation, depends > on your printer. This can be set to ``ascii'' for simple > printers, or ``ps'' for postscript or graphics printers > with a ghostscript filter, or both. > > > So does PRINTERDEVICE change the default output for groff, or does it > do something else, or nothing at all, and how does it affect your > proposed change? PRINTERDEVICE changes how groff is invoked when formatting the documents normally installed under /usr/share/doc. It is not used otherwise, and in particular is not used at all by man(1). The GROFF_TYPESETTER environment variable however does change the default output for groff. Another option is of course to invoke groff directly and use the -T option to set the output format directly. All of this is also easily discovered by reading the groff(1) manpage. -- <Insert your favourite quote here.> Erik Trulsson ertr1013@student.uu.se
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