At 2026-09-11T04:31:50+0000, Jeff Conrad wrote: > > Sent: 10 September, 2026 8:20 PM > > Subject: Re: deprecating deroff & unroff (was: More UTP utility > > wibbles) > Larry Kollar wrote: > > G. Branden Robinson <[email protected]> wrote: > > > As I have said before,[2] "groff -a" does what "deroff" and > > > "unroff" programs do, does it better, and is very close to what > > > users of such tools want anyway. > > What about > > groff -Tascii -P-cbu, > > giving a formatted ASCII file? You lose some non-ASCII characters, > but overall, it’s often less of a mess. Most folks who got this from > me were a lot happier with the results than they were with ASCII saves > of WordPerfect files by others...
With the addition of `-o` to the grotty(1) options, thus:
groff -T ascii -P -cbou
...I frequently use this techique in groff's automated test scripts.
I'd paste the instances, but there are too many.
/my/groff/working/copy$ git grep cbou | wc -l
299
I've been thinking about[1] adding a `-C` option to grotty to imply all
of `-cbou`, plus a new option I need to add to defeat continuous
underlining mode (`.cu`), which is the only vehicle by which one can
still force grotty to overstrike when `-cbou` is specified. I've never
gotten around to it before because continuous underlining is practically
never used (and requires a special device control command even to use).
groff_out(5):
xu n⟨line‐break⟩
(underline control command)
Configure underlining of spaces. If n is 1, start
underlining of spaces; if n is 0, stop underlining of
spaces. This is needed for the cu request in nroff mode and
is ignored otherwise. This command is a GNU extension.
That feature is one of our dustiest, most obscure corners.
Regards,
Branden
[1] https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?67947
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