Package: binutils-common Version: 2.47.50.20261021-1 Severity: minor Additional remarks.
Mails from me to "[email protected]" are no longer acknowledged. A Debian maintainer told me, that he would contact the mail administrator about me not wanting to send bugs upstream, if I have to create an account there. See also Debian bug #1141378 reportbug: Automatic forwarding of upstream bugs. * 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=0 -ww -z < "man page" [Use grep -n -e ' $' -e '\\~$' -e ' \\f.$' -e ' \\"' -e ' "$' <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 -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -ww -z -t": troff:/tmp/gz.roff.xpth9V:436: warning: trailing whitespace [-w trail] /usr/share/man/man1/ar.1.gz troff:/tmp/gz.roff.Dh89Y5:1365: warning: trailing whitespace [-w trail] /usr/share/man/man1/as.1.gz troff:/tmp/gz.roff.K9clMM:325: warning: trailing whitespace [-w trail] troff:/tmp/gz.roff.K9clMM:330: warning: trailing whitespace [-w trail] troff:/tmp/gz.roff.K9clMM:2664: warning: trailing whitespace [-w trail] troff:/tmp/gz.roff.K9clMM:3083: warning: trailing whitespace [-w trail] /usr/share/man/man1/ld.bfd.1.gz troff:/tmp/gz.roff.lJlsmi:414: warning: trailing whitespace [-w trail] /usr/share/man/man1/nm.1.gz troff:/tmp/gz.roff.wYhzQx:267: warning: trailing whitespace [-w trail] troff:/tmp/gz.roff.wYhzQx:914: warning [page 1, line 646, diversion 'an*paragraph-tag', line 1]: no adjusting mode (.na) is 2 [-w break] troff:/tmp/gz.roff.wYhzQx:914: warning [page 1, line 646, diversion 'an*paragraph-tag', line 1]: cannot break line in N adjust mode; overset by 148n [-w break] troff:/tmp/gz.roff.wYhzQx:989: warning: trailing whitespace [-w trail] /usr/share/man/man1/objdump.1.gz troff:/tmp/gz.roff.cxsUpW:310: warning: trailing whitespace [-w trail] troff:/tmp/gz.roff.cxsUpW:488: warning [page 1, line 330, diversion 'an*paragraph-tag', line 1]: no adjusting mode (.na) is 2 [-w break] troff:/tmp/gz.roff.cxsUpW:488: warning [page 1, line 330, diversion 'an*paragraph-tag', line 1]: cannot break line in N adjust mode; overset by 153n [-w break] troff:/tmp/gz.roff.cxsUpW:563: warning: trailing whitespace [-w trail] /usr/share/man/man1/readelf.1.gz troff:/tmp/gz.roff.tIZaft:146: warning: trailing whitespace [-w trail] troff:/tmp/gz.roff.tIZaft:147: warning: trailing whitespace [-w trail] /usr/share/man/man1/size.1.gz troff:/tmp/gz.roff.E2e0dW:153: warning: trailing whitespace [-w trail] /usr/share/man/man1/strings.1.gz -.- * 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: forky/sid APT prefers testing APT policy: (500, 'testing') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Kernel: Linux 7.2.12+deb14-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU threads; PREEMPT) Locale: LANG=is_IS.iso88591, LC_CTYPE=is_IS.iso88591 (charmap=UTF-8) (ignored: LC_ALL set to C.utf8), LANGUAGE not set Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init) -- no debconf information
Check the output from "lintian" in the Debian distribution. 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 most trailing spaces use grep -n -e ' $' -e ' \\f.$' -e ' \\"' -e ' "$' <man page> The same goes for man pages that are used as an input. -.- For a style guide use mandoc -T lint -.- For general input conventions consult the man page "nroff(7)" (item "Input conventions") or the Texinfo manual about the same item. -.- 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. Debian can fix simple bugs in the used generators and distribute them, and does not need to wait for upstream to do that and distribute them. -.- 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 when that has been fixed. 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 a script "cmp.manuals" in the attachment. Or 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) -.-
