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Archive-name: auto/comp.text/troffcvt-mail-server-available-troff-RTF


troffcvt is a program that converts troff input into an intermediate format.
This is used by postprocessors to produce other final formats.  Two
converters are troff2rtf and unroff, which convert troff to RTF and text,
respectively.

This message is to announce an experimental troffcvt mail server, which you
can use to try it out first.  Mail messages sent to
	troffcvt-server@primate.wisc.edu
will be processed into the format you specify and the results will be mailed
back to you.  Instructions follow.  Note that there is a limit of 250,000
bytes per request.

This server is experimental and may be discontinued at any time.  The
troffcvt distribution itself is available for anonymous ftp on
ftp.primate.wisc.edu in pub/troffcvt.

Paul DuBois
dubois@primate.wisc.edu

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Messages to troffcvt-server@primate.wisc.edu should be in one of the
following two forms.

1) a line that says:
	help
2) a request to process input, in the form:
	instructions
	begin
	input to process

If you send a help message, you get back this file.  Otherwise the server
assumes you want some input converted.  Here is an example conversion
request:

tbl
input-prefix "XX"
output-prefix "YY"
processor troff2rtf -ms
begin
XX.LP
XXThis is a normal paragraph
XX.IP
XXThis is an indented paragraph

The "tbl" line specifies that the input must be run through tbl.
The "input-prefix" line specifies that input to be processed will be
prefixed with "XX", which is stripped off by the server.
The "output-prefix" line specifies that processed output will be prefixed
by "YY" when it is mailed back.
The "begin" line indicates that input to be processed begins on the
next line.  This instruction is mandatory.

All of the available instruction lines are as follows:

begin
This line is mandatory and separates preceding processing instructions
from following input to be converted.

input-prefix prefix
Indicate the prefix that precedes each line of input to be processed.
This is useful if your mailer does funny things with raw troff input.
It also keeps mail signatures and other trailing input from being included
in the input to be processed.  If you use this instruction you must be
sure that valid input lines are prefixed correctly.

path address
Specify a reply address, to which returned mail should be sent.  This can
be useful if your mailer writes weird headers.  It normally should not be
necessary, but you might try it if you don't receive any response to your
requests within a day or so.

output-encoding method
Indicate the output encoding method.  Currently the only legal value for
this is "uuencode".

output-prefix prefix
Indicate the prefix to use for returned output.

It is recommended that you use either output-encoding or output-prefix,
because troffcvt or troff2rtf output often does not mail well.

processor program flags
Indicate the processor used to convert the input.  Legal values of "program"
are:
	troff2rtf	convert troff to Rich Text Format (RTF)
	unroff		convert troff to text (like deroff, but smarter)
	troffcvt	convert troff to troffcvt.  This is the default if
			no "processor" line is present.  troffcvt format is
			the intermediate format used by both troff2rtf and
			unroff.
Legal values of "flags" depends on which processor your select.  The most
usual flags value is one of "-ms", "-me" or "-mm".

tbl
Indicate that the input must be run through tbl.

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If your input contains .so or .nx requests, they will fail, because the
files you include this way on your machine will not be present on the
server machine.  You should run your input through soelim first before
including it in a conversion request message.

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Questions, comments: software@primate.wisc.edu
-- 
Paul DuBois
dubois@primate.wisc.edu