The utility formats the program sources which are arguments in a nice style using troff() Comments are placed in italics, keywords in bold face, and the name of the current function is listed down the margin of each page as it is encountered.

The utility runs in two basic modes, filter mode (see the -f option) or regular mode. In filter mode acts as a filter in a manner similar to tbl(1) . The standard input is passed directly to the standard output except for lines bracketed by the macros:

\&.vS

starts processing

\&.vE

ends processing

These lines are formatted as described above. The output from this filter can be passed to troff() for output. There need be no particular ordering with eqn() or tbl(1) .

In regular mode accepts input files, processes them, and passes them to the postprocessor for output, psroff() by default.

In both modes passes any lines beginning with a decimal point without conversion.

The options are:

-

forces input to be taken from standard input (default if -f is specified)

-W

forces output to the (wide) Versatec printer rather than the (narrow) Varian

-d file

specifies an alternate language definitions file (default is /usr/share/misc/vgrindefs )

-f

forces filter mode

-h header

specifies a particular header to put on every output page (default is the file name)

-l

specifies the language to use. Currently known are PASCAL MODEL C or the default), C++ CSH SHELL RATFOR MODULA2 YACC LISP ICON PERL and EXPECT/TCL

-n

forces no keyword bolding

-p postproc

use postproc to post-process the output, psroff() by default.

-s

specifies a point size to use on output (exactly the same as the argument of a .ps)

-t

similar to the same option in troff() causing formatted text to go to the standard output

-x

outputs the index file in a ``pretty'' format. The index file itself is produced whenever is run with a file called index in the current directory. The index of function definitions can then be run off by giving the -x option and the file index as argument.

index

file where source for index is created

/usr/share/groff/tmac/tmac.vgrind

macro package

/usr/lib/vgrind/vfontedpr

preprocessor

/usr/share/misc/vgrindefs

language descriptions

The command appeared in

The vfontedpr preprocessor assumes that a certain programming style is followed:

For C - function names can be preceded on a line only by spaces, tabs, or an asterisk. The parenthesized arguments must also be on the same line.

For PASCAL - function names need to appear on the same line as the keywords or

For MODEL - function names need to appear on the same line as the keywords

If these conventions are not followed, the indexing and marginal function name comment mechanisms will fail.

More generally, arbitrary formatting styles for programs mostly look bad. The use of spaces to align source code fails miserably; if you plan to your program you should use tabs. This is somewhat inevitable since the font used by is variable width.

The mechanism of ctags() in recognizing functions should be used here.

Filter mode does not work in documents using the -me or -ms macros. (So what use is it anyway?)