How can I include a pic figure as external file in groff?

Question

While using groff and pic it is possible to do:

$ cat test.ms
.TL
Test

.NH 1 
Test Header

.PS
circle
arrow
box
.PE
$ cat test.ms | groff -ms -p > test.ps

Which generates a valid test.ps file containing the processed figure in pic.

In larger documents, for mainteinability, it might be desirable to keep the picture pic description in a separate file and invoke such file from the main .ms file.

While trying to get this working I have found that .so can source an external file, but I am finding issues to set up this configuration of embeding external .pic files into the main .ms file as shown here:

$ cat test2.pic
.PS
circle
arrow
box
.PE
$ cat test2.ms
.TL
Test

.NH 1 
Test Header

.so test2.pic
$ cat test2.ms | groff -ms -p > test2.ps
test2.pic:1: macro error: bad arguments to PS (not preprocessed with pic?)
$ 

Which would be the way to achieve this inclusion of .pic code in the main macro .ms files as external files?

Answer 1

You need to add the soelim preprocessor, that will eliminate the .so commands by including the actual files.

In your case this should it (note the added -s flag):

cat test2.ms | groff -ms -p -s > test2.ps