Hi Morten, At 2026-02-11T19:52:05+0100, Morten Bo Johansen wrote: > On 2026-02-10 G. Branden Robinson wrote: > > At 2026-02-10T19:15:58+0100, Morten Bo Johansen wrote: > >> On 2026-02-10 G. Branden Robinson wrote: > >> > Yes. "INSTALL" is a generic file that gnulib provides as an > >> > overview of the GNU build system. "INSTALL.extra" is the > >> > groff-specific supplement, and it documents the matter of URW > >> > fonts. > >> > >> > https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git/tree/INSTALL.extra?h=1.24.0.rc3#n142 > > [snip] > >> All right, so it seems there isn't a suitable place for it as of > >> now. > > > > No, there is, and I linked to it--see above. I'll quote from the cited > > line number forward. > > [...] > > I am aware of that, but I do think that some file where all of these > little issues that various distros may have in performing a full and > flawless installation of Groff from source might be a welcome > addition. Unless I misunderstand you, you do not mean that my howto > should go into the INSTALL.extra file?
No, I'd prefer that groff didn't try to maintain distribution-specific
package management instructional recipes. There are many; they change
with some frequency as distros' recommended best practices evolve; and,
at this time, groff doesn't seem to have enough active developers to
maintain such information without it growing stale.
Sharing such instructions on this mailing lists preserves them, gets
them archived, and importantly, remains closely associated with a
calendar date so that anyone encountering the information in the future,
and familiar with their own distro, can judge how up-to-date and
relevant the information is likely to be.
That said...
> >> But maybe there ought to be a file for something like this, not
> >> only for Arch but for whatever quirks there might be with other
> >> distros as well.
> >
> > The "MANIFEST" file in the top-level directory of the groff
> > repository and distribution archive attempts to explain the purpose
> > of the files and directories within the distribution archive.
> > ("Repo-only" files that are not "distributed" are not described.)
>
> But that would not really help me in solving the issues I faced with
> installing Groff from source on an Arch system. Hands-on descriptions
> of solutions to concrete problems are always nice.
...I agree.
> It saves the user a lot of time. E.g. manual pages without an
> "Examples" section are inadequate, IMO. There is the file, PROBLEMS,
> of course. Couldn't that be a proper destination for something like
> this?
That's a good idea. I'll distill out what look like the "overcoming
problems" part of your email and see if I can add something responsive
to your request in that file.
For example, we have the following passage in the "BUG-REPORTS" file.
---snip---
CONFIGURATION REPORT:
[If you compiled groff yourself, include the portion of the 'configure'
script's output between rows of dashes. If you didn't compile groff
yourself, supply the packaging information from your distributor: in
DEB- and RPM-based GNU/Linux distributions, gather it with the commands
"dpkg -s groff" or "rpm -qi groff", respectively.]
---end snip---
Those instructions are drawn narrowly enough that that I don't worry
about them becoming stale rapidly, and indeed I think those two commands
in particular have proven to be stable interfaces for something like 30
years by now.
Regards,
Branden
signature.asc
Description: PGP signature
