soelim(1) General Commands Manual soelim(1)
Name
soelim - recursively interpolate source requests in roff or other text
files
Synopsis
soelim [-Crt] [-I dir] [input-file ...]
soelim --help
soelim -v
soelim --version
Description
GNU soelim is a preprocessor for the ]8;;man:groff(7)\groff(7)]8;;\ document formatting sys-
tem. soelim works as a filter to eliminate source requests in ]8;;man:roff(7)\roff(7)]8;;\
input files; that is, it replaces lines of the form “.so included-file”
within each text input-file with the contents of included-file, recur-
sively. By default, it writes lf requests as well to record the name
and line number of each input-file and included-file, so that any diag-
nostics produced by later processing can be accurately traced to the
original input. Options allow this information to be suppressed (-r)
or supplied in TeX comments instead (-t). In the absence of input-file
arguments, soelim reads the standard input stream. Output is written
to the standard output stream.
If the name of a macro-file contains a backslash, use \\ or \e to embed
it. To embed a space, write “\ ” (backslash followed by a space). Any
other escape sequence in macro-file, including “\[rs]”, prevents soelim
from replacing the source request.
The dot must be at the beginning of a line and must be followed by “so”
without intervening spaces or tabs for soelim to handle it. This con-
vention allows source requests to be “protected” from processing by
soelim, for instance as part of macro definitions or “if” requests.
There must also be at least one space between “so” and its macro-file
argument. The -C option overrides this requirement.
The foregoing is the limit of soelim's understanding of the roff lan-
guage; it does not, for example, replace the input line
.if 1 .so otherfile
with the contents of otherfile. With its -r option, therefore, soelim
can be used to process text files in general, to flatten a tree of in-
put documents.
soelim was designed to handle situations where the target of a roff
source request requires a preprocessor such as ]8;;man:eqn(1)\eqn(1)]8;;\, ]8;;man:pic(1)\pic(1)]8;;\,
]8;;man:refer(1)\refer(1)]8;;\, or ]8;;man:tbl(1)\tbl(1)]8;;\. The usual processing sequence of ]8;;man:groff(1)\groff(1)]8;;\ is as
follows.
input sourced
file file
⎪ ⎪
↓ ↓
preprocessor ⎯→ troff ⎯→ postprocessor
⎪
↓
output
file
That is, files sourced with “so” are normally read only by the format-
ter, troff. soelim is not required for troff to source files.
If a file to be sourced should also be preprocessed, it must already be
read before the input file passes through the preprocessor. soelim,
normally invoked via groff's -s option, handles this.
input
file
⎪
↓
soelim ⎯→ preprocessor ⎯→ troff ⎯→ postprocessor
↑ ⎪
⎪ ↓
sourced output
file file
Options
--help displays a usage message, while -v and --version show version
information; all exit afterward.
-C Recognize an input line starting with .so even if a character
other than a space or newline follows.
-I dir Search the directory dir path for input- and included-files. -I
may be specified more than once; each dir is searched in the
given order. To search the current working directory before
others, add “-I .” at the desired place; it is otherwise
searched last.
-r Write files “raw”; do not add lf requests.
-t Emit TeX comment lines starting with “%” indicating the current
file and line number, rather than lf requests for the same pur-
pose.
If both -r and -t are given, the last one specified controls.
See also
]8;;man:groff(1)\groff(1)]8;;\
groff 1.23.0 31 March 2024 soelim(1)
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