URL: <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?68051>
Summary: drop support for, and documentation of, Ultrix
extensions to man(7) package
Group: GNU roff
Submitter: gbranden
Submitted: Sun 15 Feb 2026 04:09:57 PM UTC
Category: General
Severity: 1 - Wish
Item Group: Feature change
Status: Postponed
Privacy: Public
Assigned to: None
Open/Closed: Open
Discussion Lock: Unlocked
Planned Release: None
_______________________________________________________
Follow-up Comments:
-------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun 15 Feb 2026 04:09:57 PM UTC By: G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Ultrix hasn't made a release in over 30 years.
"The last major release of Ultrix was version 4.5 in 1995, which supported all
previously supported DECstations and VAXen. There were some subsequent Y2K
patches." -- Wikipedia
Its successor, OSF/1, was later superseded by Tru64, which has likewise been
discontinued for over 15 years.
Another arguable successor, HP-UX, died at the end of 2025.
"Following the discontinuation of Itanium processors, support for HP-UX ended
on December 31, 2025." -- Wikipedia
Survey the following and chop as appropriate.
$ git grep -i ultrix
ChangeLog: * tmac/man.ultrix (HB): Use value of `.R` register instead of
ChangeLog.119: Document Ultrix extensions of man.
ChangeLog.122: examples of Ultrix-compatible macros) are retained.
ChangeLog.123: BSD shells, including the Ultrix sh, don't accept the colon
for
ChangeLog.old: * man.ultrix: Removed.
ChangeLog.old: * macros/man.ultrix: New file.
PROBLEMS:* I'm having problems formatting Ultrix man pages with groff -man.
PROBLEMS:The Ultrix man pages use a number of non-standard extensions to the
PROBLEMS:Ultrix's. --GBR in 2023] One solution is to use the Ultrix -man
macros
PROBLEMS:Another possible solution is to install tmac/man.ultrix as
PROBLEMS:* On Ultrix, the make program stops with the message
contrib/mm/ChangeLog: * Makefile fixed for Ultrix.
doc/groff.texi.in:@unnumberedsubsubsec Ultrix-specific man macros
doc/groff.texi.in:@cindex Ultrix-specific @code{man} macros
doc/groff.texi.in:@cindex @code{man} macros, Ultrix-specific
doc/groff.texi.in:@pindex man.ultrix
doc/groff.texi.in:@file{man.ultrix}, containing macros compatible with the
Ultrix variant
doc/groff.texi.in:Set a man page reference in Ultrix format. The @var{title}
is in
tmac/groff_man.7.man.in:.\" (1.36, dated 11/11/80, has it), Ultrix 3.1 (1.37,
dated 12/19/80,
tmac/man.ultrix:.\" Install this as man.local if you're using Ultrix.
tmac/man.ultrix:.\" Ultrix specific additions to groff -man macros.
tmac/tmac.am: tmac/man.ultrix \
(I'd expect not to nuke the material in "PROBLEMS", but to update it with a
note that _groff_ no longer attempts to support the platform or its extensions
to the _man_(7) package.)
Born postponed. Deal with in _groff_ 1.25.
_______________________________________________________
Reply to this item at:
<https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?68051>
_______________________________________________
Message sent via Savannah
https://savannah.gnu.org/
signature.asc
Description: PGP signature
