nroff
E662017
nroff is a classic Unix text-formatting program used to prepare documents for display on terminals and line printers.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| nroff canonical | 4 |
| GNU groff nroff | 1 |
| roff | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7393876 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: nroff Context triple: [Unix Text Processing, subject, nroff]
-
A.
NRO
NRO is the United States government agency responsible for designing, building, and operating the nation’s reconnaissance satellites and related intelligence systems.
-
B.
The METAFONTbook
The METAFONTbook is Donald Knuth’s comprehensive manual and reference guide to the METAFONT system for designing and programming digital typefaces.
-
C.
The TeXbook
The TeXbook is Donald Knuth’s authoritative manual and tutorial on the TeX typesetting system, widely regarded as the definitive reference for learning and using TeX.
-
D.
.nf
.nf is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Norfolk Island for use in internet addresses.
-
E.
RNR
RNR is the abbreviation for the Royal Naval Reserve, the volunteer reserve force of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: nroff Target entity description: nroff is a classic Unix text-formatting program used to prepare documents for display on terminals and line printers.
-
A.
NRO
NRO is the United States government agency responsible for designing, building, and operating the nation’s reconnaissance satellites and related intelligence systems.
-
B.
The METAFONTbook
The METAFONTbook is Donald Knuth’s comprehensive manual and reference guide to the METAFONT system for designing and programming digital typefaces.
-
C.
The TeXbook
The TeXbook is Donald Knuth’s authoritative manual and tutorial on the TeX typesetting system, widely regarded as the definitive reference for learning and using TeX.
-
D.
.nf
.nf is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Norfolk Island for use in internet addresses.
-
E.
RNR
RNR is the abbreviation for the Royal Naval Reserve, the volunteer reserve force of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Unix program
ⓘ
command-line utility ⓘ text-formatting program ⓘ |
| alternativeImplementation |
GNU groff nroff
ⓘ
linked to:
nroff
|
| basedOn | roff ⓘ |
| category | Unix text processing utilities ⓘ |
| creator | Joseph F. Ossanna ⓘ |
| designedBy |
Bell Labs
ⓘ
linked to:
Bell Telephone Laboratories
|
| developedFor | Unix operating system ⓘ |
| distribution |
util-linux (on some systems)
ⓘ
linked to:
BusyBox
|
| documentation | nroff(1) manual page ⓘ |
| era | early Unix era ⓘ |
| hasManPageSection | 1 ⓘ |
| hasOption |
-T
ⓘ
-man ⓘ -mm ⓘ -ms ⓘ |
| historicalRole | standard Unix text formatter for terminals ⓘ |
| includedIn |
AT&T Unix
ⓘ
linked to:
UNIX System V
BSD Unix ⓘ
linked to:
BSD
many modern Unix distributions ⓘ |
| influenced | GNU groff nroff mode ⓘ |
| inputFormat | plain text with formatting commands ⓘ |
| license | varies by implementation ⓘ |
| outputFormat | formatted text ⓘ |
| partOf | Unix text processing tools ⓘ |
| programmingLanguage | C ⓘ |
| relatedTo | troff ⓘ |
| runsOn |
Unix
ⓘ
Unix-like systems ⓘ |
| supportsBackspaceOverstrike | true ⓘ |
| supportsConditionals | true ⓘ |
| supportsLineLengthControl | true ⓘ |
| supportsMacros | true ⓘ |
| supportsOutputDevice |
line printer
ⓘ
terminal ⓘ |
| supportsPageLengthControl | true ⓘ |
| supportsPreprocessorIntegration |
eqn
ⓘ
pic ⓘ tbl ⓘ |
| supportsRegisters | true ⓘ |
| typicalInvocation | nroff [options] file ⓘ |
| usedFor |
formatting manual pages
ⓘ
formatting simple reports ⓘ formatting technical documents ⓘ |
| usesEscapeCharacter | \ ⓘ |
| usesMacroLanguage | roff macro language ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: nroff Description of subject: nroff is a classic Unix text-formatting program used to prepare documents for display on terminals and line printers.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject linked to:
"Unix Text Processing"
subject linked to:
"Unix Text Processing"
linked to: nroff
linked to: nroff