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 groff(7) document formatting system. soelim eliminates source requests in roff(7) and other text files; that is, it replaces lines of the form “.so included-file” within each text input-file with the contents of included-file recursively, flattening a tree of documents. By default, it writes roff lf requests as well to record the name and line number of each input-file and included-file, so that any diagnostics 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. The program writes to the standard output stream.

soelim reads the included-file argument as GNU troff does. It ignores spaces immediately after “so”; to embed a sequence of one or more leading spaces in the argument, prefix the sequence with a neutral double quote ("). Non-leading spaces are interpreted literally. A backslash followed by a space (“\ ”) also encodes a space, for compatibility with earlier versions of GNU soelim. If the included file name requires a backslash, use \\ or \e to embed it. Any other escape sequence in included-file, including “\[rs]”, prevents soelim from replacing the source request. AT&T and descendant versions of soelim have no means of embedding spaces in file names; they replace the first space encountered with a newline and stop interpreting the 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 convention 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 included-file argument. The -C option overrides this requirement.

The foregoing is the limit of soelim's understanding of the roff language; 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.

soelim was designed to handle situations where the target of a roff source request requires a preprocessor such as eqn(1), pic(1), refer(1), or tbl(1). The usual processing sequence of groff(1) is as follows.

              input        sourced
              file          file
                |             |
                ↓             ↓
            preprocessor → troff → postprocessor
                                          |
                                          ↓
                                       output
                                        file

That is, files sourced with “so” are normally read only by the formatter, troff(1). 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 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 for input- and included-files. If 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 purpose.

If both -r and -t are given, the last one specified controls.

Exit status
soelim exits with status 0 on successful operation, status 2 if the program cannot interpret its command-line arguments, and status 1 if it encounters an error during operation.

See also
groff(1)