Package: manpages-dev
Version: 6.9.1-1
Severity: minor
Tags: patch
* What led up to the situation?
Checking for defects with a new version
test-[g|n]roff -mandoc -t -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -rCHECKSTYLE=10 -ww -z < "man
page"
[Use "groff -e ' $' -e '\\~$' <file>" to find obvious trailing spaces.]
["test-groff" is a script in the repository for "groff"; is not shipped]
(local copy and "troff" slightly changed by me).
[The fate of "test-nroff" was decided in groff bug #55941.]
* What was the outcome of this action?
troff:<stdin>:171: warning: font name 'CW' is deprecated
troff:<stdin>:172: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:299: warning: trailing space in the line
* What outcome did you expect instead?
No output (no warnings).
-.-
General remarks and further material, if a diff-file exist, are in the
attachments.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: trixie/sid
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 6.12.10-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=is_IS.iso88591, LC_CTYPE=is_IS.iso88591 (charmap=ISO-8859-1),
LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init)
Versions of packages manpages-dev depends on:
ii manpages 6.9.1-1
manpages-dev recommends no packages.
Versions of packages manpages-dev suggests:
ii man-db [man-browser] 2.13.0-1
-- no debconf information
Input file is syscall.2
Output from "mandoc -T lint syscall.2": (shortened list)
-.-.
Output from "test-groff -mandoc -t -ww -z syscall.2": (shortened list)
1 font name 'CW' is deprecated
2 trailing space in the line
-.-.
End of a block is marked with a "\}" without a period in front of it.
That creates a space character, which forces "groff" to waste processing
time to remove.
172:\}
294:\}
299:\}
340:\}
-.-.
Put a parenthetical sentence, phrase on a separate line,
if not part of a code.
See man-pages(7), item "semantic newline".
Not considered in a patch, too many lines.
syscall.2:80:For system calls that have a glibc wrapper (e.g., most system
calls),
syscall.2:271:entities with 4-byte pointers and sizes ("compat_iovec" in kernel
terms),
syscall.2:279:use an additional register ("Retval2" in the above table)
-.-.
Output from "test-groff -mandoc -t -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -rCHECKSTYLE=10 -ww -z
":
troff:<stdin>:171: warning: font name 'CW' is deprecated
troff:<stdin>:172: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:299: warning: trailing space in the line
-.-
Additonally
Add lines to use the CR font for groff instead of CW.
.ie \n(.g .ft CR
.el .ft CW
--- syscall.2 2025-01-29 03:01:22.389844671 +0000
+++ syscall.2.new 2025-01-29 03:46:44.088349203 +0000
@@ -77,7 +77,8 @@ first appeared in
.SS Architecture-specific requirements
Each architecture ABI has its own requirements on how
system call arguments are passed to the kernel.
-For system calls that have a glibc wrapper (e.g., most system calls),
+For system calls that have a glibc wrapper
+(e.g., most system calls),
glibc handles the details of copying arguments to the right registers
in a manner suitable for the architecture.
However, when using
@@ -168,8 +169,9 @@ the register used to indicate the system
the register(s) used to return the system call result,
and the register used to signal an error.
.if t \{\
-.ft CW
-\}
+.ie \n(.g .ft CR
+.el .ft CW
+.\}
.TS
l2 l2 l2 l2 l1 l2 l.
Arch/ABI Instruction System Ret Ret Error Notes
@@ -268,7 +270,8 @@ There are some notable exceptions, howev
.BR preadv2 (2),
which uses
.I struct iovec
-entities with 4-byte pointers and sizes ("compat_iovec" in kernel terms),
+entities with 4-byte pointers and sizes
+("compat_iovec" in kernel terms),
but passes an 8-byte
.I pos
argument in a single register and not two, as is done in every other ABI.
@@ -276,7 +279,8 @@ argument in a single register and not tw
.IP \[bu]
Some architectures
(namely, Alpha, IA-64, MIPS, SuperH, sparc/32, and sparc/64)
-use an additional register ("Retval2" in the above table)
+use an additional register
+("Retval2" in the above table)
to pass back a second return value from the
.BR pipe (2)
system call;
@@ -291,12 +295,13 @@ in the system call interface, even if it
.if t \{\
.in
.ft P
-\}
+.\}
.P
The second table shows the registers used to pass the system call arguments.
.if t \{\
-.ft CW
-\}
+.ie \n(.g .ft CR
+.el .ft CW
+.\}
.TS
l l2 l2 l2 l2 l2 l2 l2 l.
Arch/ABI arg1 arg2 arg3 arg4 arg5 arg6 arg7 Notes
@@ -337,7 +342,7 @@ arguments 5 through 8 on the user stack.
.if t \{\
.in
.ft P
-\}
+.\}
.P
Note that these tables don't cover the entire calling convention\[em]some
architectures may indiscriminately clobber other registers not listed here.
Any program (person), that produces man pages, should check the output
for defects by using (both groff and nroff)
[gn]roff -mandoc -t -ww -b -z -K utf8 <man page>
The same goes for man pages that are used as an input.
For a style guide use
mandoc -T lint
-.-
Any "autogenerator" should check its products with the above mentioned
'groff', 'mandoc', and additionally with 'nroff ...'.
It should also check its input files for too long (> 80) lines.
This is just a simple quality control measure.
The "autogenerator" may have to be corrected to get a better man page,
the source file may, and any additional file may.
Common defects:
Not removing trailing spaces (in in- and output).
The reason for these trailing spaces should be found and eliminated.
Not beginning each input sentence on a new line.
Line length should thus be reduced.
The script "reportbug" uses 'quoted-printable' encoding when a line is
longer than 1024 characters in an 'ascii' file.
See man-pages(7), item "semantic newline".
-.-
The difference between the formatted output of the original and patched file
can be seen with:
nroff -mandoc <file1> > <out1>
nroff -mandoc <file2> > <out2>
diff -u <out1> <out2>
and for groff, using
\"printf '%s\n%s\n' '.kern 0' '.ss 12 0' | groff -mandoc -Z - \"
instead of 'nroff -mandoc'
Add the option '-t', if the file contains a table.
Read the output from 'diff -u ...' with 'less -R' or similar.
-.-.
If 'man' (man-db) is used to check the manual for warnings,
the following must be set:
The option \"-warnings=w\"
The environmental variable:
export MAN_KEEP_STDERR=yes (or any non-empty value)
or
(produce only warnings):
export MANROFFOPT=\"-ww -b -z\"
export MAN_KEEP_STDERR=yes (or any non-empty value)
-.-
