Clarke Echols wrote, quoting Bernd Warken: >> Consider the followin short man page: >> >> $ cat manpage.1 >> \" comment >> .TH MANPAGE 1 "2006 Oct 1" "manpage" >> .SH NAME >> manpage \- test man page >> >> This has a bug: the first line (with the comment) should start >> with a dot. For example, the man page bash.1 has this bug. >> >> Without the dot, this line produces an empty space in the output. >> In text or html output, this space is a single empty line, ok. >> >> But in ps or dvi output, a whole empty page is created. I consider >> this a bug in ps and dvi mode. > > ABSOLUTELY NO LINES, other than genuine troff/groff comment lines > should appear in a man page file before the .TH line. > [...] > > Any line before .TH that is not a comment will create a break in > no-fill mode, and in fill mode will create a non-empty buffer prior > to the .TH line, causing unpredictable behavior, depending on > various environment/status conditions.
In other words, the behaviour Bernd perceives as a bug is *not* a bug, in the sense of his report -- it is undefined behaviour resulting from misuse of the man macros. If you misuse code, in a manner which leads to undefined behaviour, then *any* outcome is legitimate; just because that behaviour is different under differing circumstances doesn't make any one of the observed outcomes any less legitimate than any other. Yes, there is a bug; it is in the manpage source which places content before the .TH line. Regards, Keith. _______________________________________________ Groff mailing list Groff@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/groff
