Unix Text Processing

UTP is one of the best books on Unix from a user's perspective.
– Jack Redman

Originally published in 1987, Unix Text Processing (UTP) (written by Dale Dougherty and Tim O'Reilly) provides one of the few comprehensive looks at all the tools involved in a typical troff-based writing workflow. It covers:

• UNIX and troff basics
• text editors (vi, ex, and sed)
• the ms and mm macro packages
• scripting with sh, awk, and sed
• the tbl, eqn and pic preprocessors
• macro writing

The appendices provide a collection of reference material and other useful pointers.

UTP was originally published by Hayden Books (which was acquired by Howard W. Sams before the book was actually published). In the early 21^st^ century, the authors made the book available at the Open Books Project under the Creative Commons Attribution License. Scanned pages are available in PBM (Portable BitMap) and PDF formats. The original troff markup is lost.

In 2002, some members of the GNU Troff (groff) mailing list began transcribing the book and recreating the source code. It took a little over a year of manic activity, punctuated by long naps, and we released "UTP Revival" in 2004. We still hope to modernize the book ("UTP Revisited"). Whether you want to use GNU Troff, or Plan 9 or one of its derivatives (Heirloom Troff and Neatroff), UTP is still an excellent guide to the nuts and bolts of print publishing.

The current (main) branch is UTP 1.1, which provides a clickable index, TOC, and cross-references within the PDF (thanks to Deri James). You will need groff 1.22 or newer to format it, as it uses the -Tpdf driver. If you have an older groff, switch to the 1.0 branch.

The UTP Revival Release is distributed according to the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. A copy of the license is available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0.

Note: The transcription project predated Plan 9 and its derivatives. Thus, the recreated source and macros were written for groff, and we made no attempt to be compatible with the original troff. Patches for Heirloom or Neatroff (if needed) are welcome!

Acknowledgements

• First, a big thanks to the original authors for making the book available in the first place. Nothing else could have happened without that first step.
• Jon Snader provided the scripts to build the table of contents.
• Michael Hobgood and Andreas Kähäri handled proofreading chores.
• Deri James added PDF links for the contents and index.

Individuals who worked on various chapters:

Chapter Title Transcriber Markup Indexing

Front matter Ralph Corderoy Ralph Corderoy n/a

Preface Stewart Russell Larry Kollar n/a

From Typewriters to Word Processors Stewart Russell Michael Hobgood Michael Hobgood

UNIX Fundamentals Stewart Russell Michael Hobgood Heinz-Jürgen Oertel

Learning vi Heinz-Jürgen Oertel Heinz-Jürgen Oertel Jack Redman

nroff and troff Colin Watson Michael Hobgood Heinz-Jürgen Oertel

The ms macros Larry Kollar Larry Kollar Larry Kollar

The mm macros Larry Kollar Larry Kollar Larry Kollar

Advanced Editing Heinz-Jürgen Oertel Heinz-Jürgen Oertel Jack Redman

Formatting with tbl Michael Hobgood Michael Hobgood Michael Hobgood

Typesetting Equations with eqn Michael Hobgood Michael Hobgood Jack Redman

Drawing Pictures Michael Hobgood Michael Hobgood Jack Redman

A Miscellany of UNIX Commands Manas Laha Manas Laha Manas Laha

Let the Computer do the Dirty Work Larry Kollar Larry Kollar Larry Kollar

The awk Programming Language Larry Kollar Larry Kollar Jack Redman

Writing nroff and troff Macros Michael Hobgood Michael Hobgood

Figures and Special Effects Michael Hobgood Michael Hobgood Larry Kollar

What's in a Macro Package? Michael Hobgood Michael Hobgood

An Extended ms Macro Package Michael Hobgood Michael Hobgood

Putting it All Together Michael Hobgood Michael Hobgood Michael Hobgood

Editor Command Summary Heinz-Jürgen Oertel Heinz-Jürgen Oertel Heinz-Jürgen Oertel

Formatter Command Summary Manas Laha Manas Laha Manas Laha

Shell Command Summary Ralph Corderoy Ralph Corderoy

Format of troff Width Tables Ralph Corderoy Ralph Corderoy

Comparing mm and ms Ralph Corderoy Ralph Corderoy

The format Macros Ralph Corderoy Ralph Corderoy

Selected Readings Ralph Corderoy Ralph Corderoy