'\" p
.TH \%soelim 1 "2026-03-15" "groff 1.24.1"
.SH Name
\%soelim \- recursively interpolate source requests in
.I roff
or other text files
.
.
.\" ====================================================================
.\" Legal Terms
.\" ====================================================================
.\"
.\" Copyright (C) 1989-2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
.\"
.\" Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
.\" manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
.\" preserved on all copies.
.\"
.\" Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
.\" this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that
.\" the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of
.\" a permission notice identical to this one.
.\"
.\" Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
.\" manual into another language, under the above conditions for
.\" modified versions, except that this permission notice may be
.\" included in translations approved by the Free Software Foundation
.\" instead of in the original English.
.
.
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.\" ====================================================================
.\" Definitions
.\" ====================================================================
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.el   .ds tx TeX
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.
.\" ====================================================================
.SH Synopsis
.\" ====================================================================
.
.SY \%soelim
.RB [ \-Crt ]
.RB [ \-I
.IR dir ]
.RI [ input-file\~ .\|.\|.]
.YS
.
.
.P
.SY \%soelim
.B \-\-help
.YS
.
.
.P
.SY \%soelim
.B \-v
.YS
.
.SY \%soelim
.B \%\-\-version
.YS
.
.
.\" ====================================================================
.SH Description
.\" ====================================================================
.
GNU
.I soelim \" GNU
is a preprocessor for the
.MR groff 7
document formatting system.
.
.I \%soelim
eliminates source requests in
.MR roff 7
and other text files;
that is,
it replaces lines of the form
.RB \[lq] .so
.IR included-file \[rq]
within each text
.I input-file
with the contents of
.I included-file
recursively,
flattening a tree of documents.
.
By default,
it writes
.I roff
.B lf
requests as well to record the name and line number of each
.I input-file
and
.IR 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
.RB ( \-r )
or supplied in \*[tx] comments instead
.RB ( \-t ).
.
In the absence of
.I input-file
arguments,
.I \%soelim
reads the standard input stream.
.
The program writes to the standard output stream.
.
.
.PP
.I \%soelim
reads the
.I included-file
argument as
GNU
.I troff \" GNU
does.
.
It ignores spaces immediately after \[lq]so\[rq];
to embed a sequence of one or more leading spaces in the argument,
prefix the sequence with a neutral double quote
.RB ( \[dq] ).
.
Non-leading spaces are interpreted literally.
.
A backslash followed by a space
.RB (\[lq] \[rs]\~ \[rq])
also encodes a space,
for compatibility with earlier versions of
GNU
.IR soelim . \" GNU
.
If the included file name requires a backslash,
use
.B \[rs]\[rs]
or
.B \[rs]e
to embed it.
.
Any other escape sequence in
.IR included-file ,
including
.RB \[lq] \[rs][rs] \[rq],
prevents
.I \%soelim
from replacing the source request.
.
AT&T and descendant versions of
.I soelim
have no means of embedding spaces in file names;
they replace the first space encountered with a newline
and stop interpreting the request.
.
.
.PP
The dot must be at the beginning of a line and must be followed by
.RB \[lq] so \[rq]
without intervening spaces or tabs for
.I \%soelim
to handle it.
.
This convention allows source requests to be \[lq]protected\[rq] from
processing by
.IR \%soelim ,
for instance as part of macro definitions or
.RB \[lq] if \^\[rq]
requests.
.
.
.PP
There must also be at least one space between
.RB \[lq] so \[rq]
and its
.I included-file
argument.
.
The
.B \-C
option overrides this requirement.
.
.
.PP
The foregoing is the limit of
.IR \%soelim 's
understanding of the
.I roff
language;
it does not,
for example,
replace the input line
.
.RS
.EX
\&.if 1 .so otherfile
.EE
.RE
.
with the contents of
.IR otherfile .
.
With its
.B \-r
option,
therefore,
.I \%soelim
can be used to process text files in general.
.
.
.PP
.I soelim \" generic
was designed to handle situations where the target of a
.I roff \" generic
source request requires a preprocessor such as
.MR \%eqn 1 ,
.MR \%pic 1 ,
.MR \%refer 1 ,
or
.MR \%tbl 1 .
.
The usual processing sequence of
.MR groff 1
is as follows.
.
.\" Does this groff installation use a command prefix?  In installed
.\" pages, this comparison will not look like it needs to be dynamically
.\" decided.
.\"
.\" This is done so that the box sizes (in the pic(1) diagram) and arrow
.\" alignments (in the text alternative) can remain fixed.
.if !'\%'\%' \{\
In the diagrams below,
the traditional names for
.I soelim
and
.I troff
are used;
on this system,
the GNU versions are installed as
.I \%soelim
and
.IR \%troff .
.\}
.
.
.PP
.ie t \{\
.PS
.ps 10
.vs 12
box invisible width 0.5 height 0.4 "input" "file";
move to last box .bottom;
down;
arrow 0.3;
box invisible width 0.8 height 0.2 "preprocessor";
move to last box .right
right;
arrow 0.3;
A: box invisible width 0.35 height 0.2 "troff";
move to last box .top;
up;
move 0.3;
box invisible width 0.6 height 0.4 "sourced" "file";
line <- up 0.3 from A.top;
move to A.right;
right;
arrow 0.3;
box invisible width 0.85 height 0.2 "postprocessor";
move to last box .bottom;
down;
arrow 0.3;
box invisible width 0.5 height 0.4 "output" "file"
.ps
.vs
.PE
.\}
.el \{\
.EX
          input        sourced
          file          file
            \[bv]             \[bv]
            \[da]             \[da]
        preprocessor \[an]\[->] troff \[an]\[->] postprocessor
                                      \[bv]
                                      \[da]
                                   output
                                    file
.EE
.\}
.PP
That is,
files sourced with
.RB \[lq] so \[rq]
are normally read
.I only
by the formatter,
.MR \%troff 1 .
.
.I \%soelim
is
.I not
required for
.I \%troff
to source files.
.
.
.br
.ne 2v
.P
If a file to be sourced should also be preprocessed,
it must already be read
.I before
the input passes through the preprocessor.
.
.IR \%soelim ,
normally invoked via
.IR groff 's
.B \-s
option,
handles this.
.
.
.PP
.ie t \{\
.PS
.ps 10
.vs 12
box invisible width 0.5 height 0.4 "input" "file";
move to last box .bottom;
down;
arrow 0.3;
A: box invisible width 0.5 height 0.2 "soelim";
line <- 0.3;
box invisible width 0.5 height 0.4 "sourced" "file";
move to A.right;
right;
arrow 0.3;
box invisible width 0.8 height 0.2 "preprocessor";
arrow 0.3;
box invisible width 0.35 height 0.2 "troff";
arrow 0.3
box invisible width 0.85 height 0.2 "postprocessor";
move to last box .bottom;
down;
arrow 0.3;
box invisible width 0.5 height 0.4 "output" "file"
.ps
.vs
.PE
.\}
.el \{\
.EX
          input
          file
            \[bv]
            \[da]
          soelim \[an]\[->] preprocessor \[an]\[->] troff \[an]\[->] \
postprocessor
            \[ua]                                     \[bv]
            \[bv]                                     \[da]
         sourced                               output
          file                                  file
.EE
.\}
.
.
.\" ====================================================================
.SH Options
.\" ====================================================================
.
.B \-\-help
displays a usage message,
while
.B \-v
and
.B \%\-\-version
show version information;
all exit afterward.
.
.
.TP 8n \" "-I dir" + 2n
.B \-C
Recognize an input line starting with
.B .so
even if a character other than a space or newline follows.
.
.TP
.BI \-I\~ dir
Search the directory
.I dir
for
.I input-
and
.I included-files.
.
If specified more than once,
each
.I dir
is searched in the given order.
.
To search the current working directory before others,
add
.RB \[lq] "\-I .\&" \[rq]
at the desired place;
it is otherwise searched last.
.
.
.TP
.B \-r
Write files \[lq]raw\[rq];
do not add
.B lf
requests.
.
.
.TP
.B \-t
Emit \*[tx] comment lines starting with
.RB \[lq] % \[rq]
indicating the current file and line number,
rather than
.B lf
requests for the same purpose.
.
.
.PP
If both
.B \-r
and
.B \-t
are given,
the last one specified controls.
.
.
.\" ====================================================================
.SH "Exit status"
.\" ====================================================================
.
.I \%soelim
exits with
.RB status\~ 0
on successful operation,
.RB status\~ 2
if the program cannot interpret its command-line arguments,
and
.RB status\~ 1
if it encounters an error during operation.
.
.
.\" ====================================================================
.SH "See also"
.\" ====================================================================
.
.MR groff 1
.
.
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.rm tx
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.cp \n[*groff_soelim_1_man_C]
.do rr *groff_soelim_1_man_C
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