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How to prepare files for troff

To prepare a file to run through troff, you must include commands that tell troff what to do with the text in the file. This section explains the basic troff commands and some of the effects you can produce using troff.

The most important thing to remember about all troff commands is that they must begin at the left margin. If troff finds a command some place other than the left margin, it thinks the command is normal text and doesn't execute it as a command.

Troff commands allow you to do the following tasks:

The following sections explain how to do these tasks. The last of these sections summarizes these troff commands.

Troff also allows you to define constants and macros and use conditionals and diversions. To learn how to do these tasks, refer to the Unix User's Supplementary Documents (USD) chapters 20 through 25.

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