Re: [Groff] Several file arguments to groff

[Bernd Warken]

The following tries to add the lacking file multiplicities to groff(1).



--- groff.man.orig      Wed Jul 17 06:55:50 2002
+++ groff.man   Tue Oct 22 15:39:12 2002
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 .ig
 groff.man
 
-Last update: 14 July 2002
+Last update: 22 October 2002
 
 Copyright (C) 1989, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 Rewritten in 2002 by Bernd Warken <address@hidden>
@@ -651,10 +651,20 @@
 .OptDef i
 process standard input after the specified input files.
 .
+.
 .OptDef m "" name
 include macro file \f[I]name\f[]\f[B].tmac\f[] (or
-\f[B]tmac.\f[]\f[I]name\f[]); see also
-.BR \%groff_tmac (@MAN5EXT@).
+\f[B]tmac.\f[]\f[I]name\f[]).
+.
+Only one
+.ShortOpt m
+option is used.
+.
+See also sections
+.I "File Arguments"
+and
+.IR "Macro Packages" .
+.
 .
 .OptDef M "" dir
 path for macro files.
@@ -678,6 +688,48 @@
 .OptDef W "" name
 disable warning
 .IR name .
+.
+.
+.\" --------------------------------------------------------------------
+.SS "File Arguments"
+.\" --------------------------------------------------------------------
+.
+The
+.B groff
+program allows to specify several file names as arguments.
+.
+But this concept works only if all files use the same macro package.
+.
+If file arguments with different macro packages are used
+.B groff
+usually produces lots of errrors.
+.
+.
+.P
+The reason for this is that
+.B groff
+only uses one argument of the option type
+.ShortOpt m
+to load external macro packages for all specified file arguments.
+.
+If no external macro packages are required, an arbitrary number of
+files using only internal or self-defined macros can be specified as
+arguments.
+.
+.
+.P
+The only macro package multiplicities that are handled correctly are
+the two manual\~page formats available in
+.IR groff ,
+the macro packages
+.I man
+and
+.IR mdoc .
+They are both recognized when calling
+.B groff
+with the option
+.ShortOpt mandoc .
+All other macro mixtures must be avoided.
 .
 .
 .\" --------------------------------------------------------------------