Package: ncurses-doc
Version: 6.5+20250216-2
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
grep -n -e ' $' -e '\\~$' -e ' \\f.$' -e ' \\"$' <file>
to find (most) 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?
Output from "test-groff -mandoc -t -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -rCHECKSTYLE=10 -ww -z
":
troff:<stdin>:304: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:305: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:359: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:508: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:509: 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 6.12.20-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)
-- no debconf information
Input file is getstr.3ncurses
Output from "mandoc -T lint getstr.3ncurses": (shortened list)
-.-.
Output from
test-nroff -mandoc -t -ww -z getstr.3ncurses: (shortened list)
5 line(s) with a trailing space
Find trailing space with:
grep -n -e ' $' -e ' \\f.$' -e ' \\"$' <man page>
-.-.
Remove quotes when there is a printable
but no space character between them
and the quotes are not for emphasis (markup),
for example as an argument to a macro.
getstr.3ncurses:88:.IR str ";"
getstr.3ncurses:164:.IR \%ncurses ","
getstr.3ncurses:171:.IR NULL ","
getstr.3ncurses:178:.IR \%ncurses ","
getstr.3ncurses:206:.BR sizeof(char) "."
getstr.3ncurses:210:.BR \%wgetch ","
getstr.3ncurses:225:.BR \%getnstr ","
getstr.3ncurses:226:.BR \%wgetnstr ","
getstr.3ncurses:227:.BR \%mvgetnstr ","
getstr.3ncurses:229:.BR \%mvwgetnstr "'s"
getstr.3ncurses:261:.IR \%ncurses ","
getstr.3ncurses:364:.IR curses ","
getstr.3ncurses:373:.IR \%wgetstr "."
getstr.3ncurses:383:.IR str "."
getstr.3ncurses:388:.IR \%wgetnstr ","
getstr.3ncurses:402:.IR PDCurses ","
getstr.3ncurses:439:.IR \%wgetch "."
getstr.3ncurses:442:.IR \%ncurses ","
getstr.3ncurses:444:.IR \%pcurses ","
getstr.3ncurses:454:.IR \%ncurses "."
getstr.3ncurses:481:.IR curses "."
getstr.3ncurses:490:.IR \%wgetnstr ","
getstr.3ncurses:495:.IR \%getnstr ","
getstr.3ncurses:496:.IR \%mvgetnstr ","
getstr.3ncurses:498:.IR \%mvwgetnstr "."
-.-.
Output from "test-groff -mandoc -t -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -rCHECKSTYLE=10 -ww -z
":
troff:<stdin>:304: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:305: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:359: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:508: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:509: warning: trailing space in the line
-.-.
Generally:
Split (sometimes) lines after a punctuation mark; before a conjunction.
--- getstr.3ncurses 2025-04-04 02:38:48.418238001 +0000
+++ getstr.3ncurses.new 2025-04-04 02:53:15.886203805 +0000
@@ -301,8 +301,8 @@ constant value.
(The same language,
unchanged except for styling,
survived into X/Open Curses Issue\ 4,
-Version\ 2 \" p. 94 (PDF 114)
-but disappeared from Issue\ 7.) \" p. 105 (PDF 119)
+Version\ 2\" p. 94 (PDF 114)
+but disappeared from Issue\ 7.)\" p. 105 (PDF 119)
.PP
A draft of X/Open Curses Issue\ 5
(which never saw final release)
@@ -356,7 +356,7 @@ is available,
.I \%ncurses
uses the POSIX minimum value for
.I LINE_MAX
-(2048). \" _POSIX2_LINE_MAX
+(2048).\" _POSIX2_LINE_MAX
In either case,
it reserves a byte for the terminating null character.
.bP
@@ -505,5 +505,5 @@ library in its wide-character configurat
\fB\%ncurses\fP(3NCURSES),
\fB\%addch\fP(3NCURSES),
\fB\%getch\fP(3NCURSES),
-\fB\%inopts\fP(3NCURSES), \" echo(), keypad()
-\fB\%termattrs\fP(3NCURSES), \" erasechar(), killchar()
+\fB\%inopts\fP(3NCURSES),\" echo(), keypad()
+\fB\%termattrs\fP(3NCURSES),\" erasechar(), killchar()
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>
To find trailing space use
grep -n -e ' $' -e ' \\f.$' -e ' \\"$' <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.
"git" has a "tool" to point out whitespace,
see for example "git-apply(1)" and git-config(1)")
Not beginning each input sentence on a new line.
Line length and patch size 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 -d -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 -d -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)
-.-
