From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Sep 8 21:40:05 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6EF7616A41F for ; Thu, 8 Sep 2005 21:40:05 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from ertr1013@student.uu.se) Received: from pne-smtpout1-sn1.fre.skanova.net (pne-smtpout1-sn1.fre.skanova.net [81.228.11.98]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A5BD743D46 for ; Thu, 8 Sep 2005 21:40:01 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from ertr1013@student.uu.se) Received: from falcon.midgard.homeip.net (212.181.162.201) by pne-smtpout1-sn1.fre.skanova.net (7.2.060.1) id 43200DEA00022B98 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Thu, 8 Sep 2005 23:40:00 +0200 Received: (qmail 30126 invoked by uid 1001); 8 Sep 2005 23:39:59 +0200 Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2005 23:39:59 +0200 From: Erik Trulsson To: Bob Johnson Message-ID: <20050908213958.GA29984@falcon.midgard.homeip.net> Mail-Followup-To: Bob Johnson , Stijn Hoop , Giorgos Keramidas , Gerard Seibert , freebsd-questions References: <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> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <54db43990509081350150465ac@mail.gmail.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.9i Cc: Giorgos Keramidas , Gerard Seibert , freebsd-questions Subject: Re: Printing MAN pages X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 08 Sep 2005 21:40:05 -0000 On Thu, Sep 08, 2005 at 04:50:29PM -0400, Bob Johnson wrote: > On 9/8/05, Stijn Hoop 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. -- Erik Trulsson ertr1013@student.uu.se