Package: cron
Version: 3.0pl1-189
Severity: minor
* What led up to the situation?
Checking for defects with
[test-][g|n]roff -mandoc -t -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -ww -b -z < "man page"
["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: backtrace: file '<stdin>':65
troff:<stdin>:65: 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 6.11.2-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 cron depends on:
ii cron-daemon-common 3.0pl1-189
ii init-system-helpers 1.67
ii libc6 2.40-3
ii libpam-runtime 1.5.3-7
ii libpam0g 1.5.3-7
ii libselinux1 3.7-3
ii sensible-utils 0.0.24
Versions of packages cron recommends:
ii exim4-daemon-light [mail-transport-agent] 4.98-1
Versions of packages cron suggests:
ii anacron 2.3-40
pn bat <none>
pn checksecurity <none>
ii logrotate 3.22.0-1
pn supercat <none>
Versions of packages cron is related to:
pn libnss-ldap <none>
pn libnss-ldapd <none>
pn libpam-ldap <none>
pn libpam-mount <none>
pn nis <none>
pn nscd <none>
-- no debconf information
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
-.-
So any 'generator' should check its products with the above mentioned
'groff', 'mandoc', and additionally with 'nroff ...'.
This is just a simple quality control measure.
The 'generator' may have to be corrected to get a better man page,
the source file may, and any additional file may.
Common defects:
Input text line longer than 80 bytes.
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.
Lines should thus be shorter.
See man-pages(7), item 'semantic newline'.
-.-
The difference between the formatted outputs 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 of '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)
-.-.
Output from "mandoc -T lint cron.8": (possibly shortened list)
mandoc: cron.8:38:2: WARNING: skipping paragraph macro: PP after SH
mandoc: cron.8:44:2: WARNING: skipping paragraph macro: PP after SH
mandoc: cron.8:52:119: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: Enable LSB
compliant...
mandoc: cron.8:62:102: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: Include the
FQDN in ...
mandoc: cron.8:67:85: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: Run cron
jobs Now, i...
mandoc: cron.8:96:158: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: The default
is to lo...
mandoc: cron.8:101:101: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: Tell cron
to be more...
mandoc: cron.8:145:2: WARNING: skipping paragraph macro: PP after SH
mandoc: cron.8:147:104: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: searches
its spool a...
mandoc: cron.8:148:130: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes:
/etc/passwd); cronta...
mandoc: cron.8:162:108: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes:
/etc/cron\&.monthly\...
mandoc: cron.8:177:141: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes:
/etc/crontab: they d...
mandoc: cron.8:184:87: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: directory
are monito...
mandoc: cron.8:191:115: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: must be
owned by roo...
mandoc: cron.8:199:115: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: may also
be symlinks...
mandoc: cron.8:212:567: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: then wakes
up every ...
mandoc: cron.8:216:85: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: checks each
minute t...
mandoc: cron.8:220:89: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: will then
examine th...
mandoc: cron.8:224:83: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: command
updates the ...
mandoc: cron.8:226:404: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: Special
consideratio...
mandoc: cron.8:228:221: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: Only jobs
that run a...
mandoc: cron.8:230:121: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: Clock
changes of mor...
mandoc: cron.8:233:103: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: logs its
action to t...
mandoc: cron.8:237:2: WARNING: skipping paragraph macro: PP after SH
mandoc: cron.8:246:264: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: with
values from the...
mandoc: cron.8:250:125: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: affect the
environme...
mandoc: cron.8:257:122: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: The
environment can ...
mandoc: cron.8:259:2: WARNING: skipping paragraph macro: PP after SH
mandoc: cron.8:260:130: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: Debian
introduces so...
mandoc: cron.8:387:83: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: providing
each one o...
mandoc: cron.8:389:86: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: is
installed (except...
mandoc: cron.8:391:301: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: As
described above, ...
mandoc: cron.8:395:223: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: This
feature can be ...
mandoc: cron.8:401:159: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: daemon
itself, which...
mandoc: cron.8:402:133: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes:
/etc/crontab, i\&.e\...
mandoc: cron.8:404:119: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: Files in
this direct...
mandoc: cron.8:407:119: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: : they
must consist ...
mandoc: cron.8:414:107: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes:
/etc/default/cron, s...
mandoc: cron.8:419:113: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: The
intended purpose...
mandoc: cron.8:422:83: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes:
/etc/cron\&.d\&. Suc...
mandoc: cron.8:430:147: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: daemon\&.
This file ...
mandoc: cron.8:432:109: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: program
before it is...
mandoc: cron.8:435:2: WARNING: skipping paragraph macro: PP after SH
mandoc: cron.8:440:2: WARNING: skipping paragraph macro: PP after SH
mandoc: cron.8:466:2: WARNING: skipping paragraph macro: br after SH
mandoc: cron.8:470:503: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: Distribute
freely, e...
mandoc: cron.8:472:109: STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: Since year
1994, man...
-.-.
Change '-' (\-) to '\(en' (en-dash) for a numeric range.
GNU gnulib has recently (2023-06-18) updated its
"build_aux/update-copyright" to recognize "\(en" in man pages.
cron.8:448:Maintained the package (1996\-2005)\&.
cron.8:453:Maintained the package (2005\-2014)\&.
cron.8:458:Maintained the package (2010\-2016)\&.
cron.8:463:Maintained the package (2022\-2024)\&.
-.-.
Wrong distance between sentences in the input file.
Separate the sentences and subordinate clauses; each begins on a new
line. See man-pages(7) ("Conventions for source file layout") and
"info groff" ("Input Conventions").
The best procedure is to always start a new sentence on a new line,
at least, if you are typing on a computer.
Remember coding: Only one command ("sentence") on each (logical) line.
E-mail: Easier to quote exactly the relevant lines.
Generally: Easier to edit the sentence.
Patches: Less unaffected text.
Search for two adjacent words is easier, when they belong to the same line,
and the same phrase.
The amount of space between sentences in the output can then be
controlled with the ".ss" request.
N.B.
The number of lines affected can be too large to be in a patch.
52:Enable LSB compliant names for /etc/cron\&.d files\&. This setting, however,
does not affect the parsing of files under
62:Include the FQDN in the subject when sending mails\&. By default, cron will
abbreviate the hostname\&.
67:Run cron jobs Now, immediately, and exit\&. This option is useful to perform
tests\&.
96:The default is to log the start of all jobs (1)\&. Logging will be disabled
if levels is set to zero (0)\&. A value of fifteen (15) will select all
options\&.
148:/etc/passwd); crontabs found are loaded into memory\&. Note that crontabs
in this directory should not be accessed directly \- the
155:\fBcrontab\fR(5))\&. In Debian, the content of
162:/etc/cron\&.monthly\&. This configuration is specific to Debian, see the
note under DEBIAN SPECIFIC below\&.
174:file (they follow the special format of that file, i\&.e\&. they include the
176:field)\&. However, they are independent of
177:/etc/crontab: they do not, for example, inherit environment variable
settings from it\&. This change is specific to Debian see the note under
184:directory are monitored for changes\&. The system administrator may create
cron jobs in
191:must be owned by root, and must not be group\- or other\-writable\&. In
contrast to the spool area, the files under
199:may also be symlinks, provided that both the symlink and the file it points
to are owned by root\&. The files under
212:then wakes up every minute, examining all stored crontabs, checking each
command to see if it should be run in the current minute\&. When executing
commands, any output is mailed to the owner of the crontab (or to the user
named in the MAILTO environment variable in the crontab, if such exists) from
the owner of the crontab (or from the email address given in the MAILFROM
environment variable in the crontab, if such exists)\&. The children copies of
cron running these processes have their name coerced to uppercase, as will be
seen in the syslog and ps output\&.
220:will then examine the modtime on all crontabs and reload those which have
changed\&. Thus
222:need not be restarted whenever a crontab file is modified\&. Note that the
226:Special considerations exist when the clock is changed by less than 3
hours, for example at the beginning and end of daylight savings time\&. If the
time has moved forwards, those jobs which would have run in the time that was
skipped will be run soon after the change\&. Conversely, if the time has moved
backwards by less than 3 hours, those jobs that fall into the repeated time
will not be re\-run\&.
228:Only jobs that run at a particular time (not specified as @hourly, nor with
\*(Aq*\*(Aq in the hour or minute specifier) are affected\&. Jobs which are
specified with wildcards are run based on the new time immediately\&.
246:with values from the latter overriding values from the former\&. These
files are read and they will be used to setup the LANG, LC_ALL, and LC_CTYPE
environment variables\&. These variables are then used to set the charset of
mails, which defaults to \*(AqC\*(Aq\&.
250:affect the environment of tasks running under cron\&. For more information
on how to modify the environment of tasks, consult
260:Debian introduces some changes to cron that were not originally available
upstream\&. The most significant changes introduced are:
385:\fBcrontab\fR(5))\&. The default system\-wide crontab contains four tasks:
run every hour, every day, every week and every month\&. Each of these tasks
will execute
387:providing each one of the directories as an argument\&. These tasks are
disabled if
391:As described above, the files under these directories have to pass some
sanity checks including the following: be executable, be owned by root, not be
writable by group or other and, if symlinks, point to files owned by root\&.
Additionally, the file names must conform to the filename requirements of
392:\fBrun\-parts\fR: they must be entirely made up of letters, digits and can
only contain the special signs underscores (\*(Aq_\*(Aq) and hyphens
(\*(Aq\-\*(Aq)\&. Any file that does not conform to these requirements will not
be executed by
393:\fBrun\-parts\fR\&. For example, any file containing dots will be
ignored\&. This is done to prevent cron from running any of the files that are
left by the Debian package management system when handling files in
/etc/cron\&.d/ as configuration files (i\&.e\&. files ending in \&.dpkg\-dist,
\&.dpkg\-orig, \&.dpkg\-old, and \&.dpkg\-new)\&.
395:This feature can be used by system administrators and packages to include
tasks that will be run at defined intervals\&. Files created by packages in
these directories should be named after the package that supplies them\&.
401:daemon itself, which handles this location as the system\-wide crontab
spool\&. This directory can contain any file defining tasks following the
format used in
402:/etc/crontab, i\&.e\&. unlike the user cron spool, these files must provide
the username to run the task as in the task definition\&.
407:: they must consist solely of upper\- and lower\-case letters, digits,
underscores, and hyphens\&. This means that they
409:contain any dots\&. If the
422:/etc/cron\&.d\&. Such files should be named after the package that supplies
them\&.
430:daemon\&. This file determines whether cron will read the system\*(Aqs
environment variables and makes it possible to add additional options to the
470:Distribute freely, except: don\*(Aqt remove my name from the source or
documentation (don\*(Aqt take credit for my work), mark your changes (don\*(Aqt
get me blamed for your possible bugs), don\*(Aqt alter or remove this notice\&.
May be sold if buildable source is provided to buyer\&. No warranty of any
kind, express or implied, is included with this software; use at your own risk,
responsibility for damages (if any) to anyone resulting from the use of this
software rests entirely with the user\&.
-.-.
Split lines longer than 80 characters into two or more lines.
Appropriate break points are the end of a sentence and a subordinate
clause; after punctuation marks.
N.B.
The number of lines affected can be too large to be in a patch.
Line 34, length 134
\fBcron\fR [\fB\-f\fR] [\fB\-l\fR] [\fB\-L\ \fR\fB\fIloglevel\fR\fR] [\fB\-n\
\fR\fB\fIfqdn\fR\fR] [\fB\-x\ \fR\fB\fIdebugflags\fR\fR]
Line 52, length 119
Enable LSB compliant names for /etc/cron\&.d files\&. This setting, however,
does not affect the parsing of files under
Line 62, length 102
Include the FQDN in the subject when sending mails\&. By default, cron will
abbreviate the hostname\&.
Line 67, length 85
Run cron jobs Now, immediately, and exit\&. This option is useful to perform
tests\&.
Line 96, length 158
The default is to log the start of all jobs (1)\&. Logging will be disabled if
levels is set to zero (0)\&. A value of fifteen (15) will select all options\&.
Line 101, length 101
Tell cron to be more verbose and output debugging information; debugflags is
the sum of those values:
Line 147, length 104
searches its spool area (/var/spool/cron/crontabs/) for crontab files (which
are named after accounts in
Line 148, length 130
/etc/passwd); crontabs found are loaded into memory\&. Note that crontabs in
this directory should not be accessed directly \- the
Line 162, length 108
/etc/cron\&.monthly\&. This configuration is specific to Debian, see the note
under DEBIAN SPECIFIC below\&.
Line 177, length 141
/etc/crontab: they do not, for example, inherit environment variable settings
from it\&. This change is specific to Debian see the note under
Line 184, length 87
directory are monitored for changes\&. The system administrator may create cron
jobs in
Line 191, length 115
must be owned by root, and must not be group\- or other\-writable\&. In
contrast to the spool area, the files under
Line 199, length 115
may also be symlinks, provided that both the symlink and the file it points to
are owned by root\&. The files under
Line 212, length 567
then wakes up every minute, examining all stored crontabs, checking each
command to see if it should be run in the current minute\&. When executing
commands, any output is mailed to the owner of the crontab (or to the user
named in the MAILTO environment variable in the crontab, if such exists) from
the owner of the crontab (or from the email address given in the MAILFROM
environment variable in the crontab, if such exists)\&. The children copies of
cron running these processes have their name coerced to uppercase, as will be
seen in the syslog and ps output\&.
Line 216, length 85
checks each minute to see if its spool directory\*(Aqs modtime (or the modtime
on the
Line 220, length 89
will then examine the modtime on all crontabs and reload those which have
changed\&. Thus
Line 224, length 83
command updates the modtime of the spool directory whenever it changes a
crontab\&.
Line 226, length 404
Special considerations exist when the clock is changed by less than 3 hours,
for example at the beginning and end of daylight savings time\&. If the time
has moved forwards, those jobs which would have run in the time that was
skipped will be run soon after the change\&. Conversely, if the time has moved
backwards by less than 3 hours, those jobs that fall into the repeated time
will not be re\-run\&.
Line 228, length 221
Only jobs that run at a particular time (not specified as @hourly, nor with
\*(Aq*\*(Aq in the hour or minute specifier) are affected\&. Jobs which are
specified with wildcards are run based on the new time immediately\&.
Line 230, length 121
Clock changes of more than 3 hours are considered to be corrections to the
clock, and the new time is used immediately\&.
Line 233, length 103
logs its action to the syslog facility \*(Aqcron\*(Aq, and logging may be
controlled using the standard
Line 246, length 264
with values from the latter overriding values from the former\&. These files
are read and they will be used to setup the LANG, LC_ALL, and LC_CTYPE
environment variables\&. These variables are then used to set the charset of
mails, which defaults to \*(AqC\*(Aq\&.
Line 250, length 125
affect the environment of tasks running under cron\&. For more information on
how to modify the environment of tasks, consult
Line 257, length 122
The environment can be redefined in user\*(Aqs crontab definitions but cron
will only handle tasks in a single timezone\&.
Line 260, length 130
Debian introduces some changes to cron that were not originally available
upstream\&. The most significant changes introduced are:
Line 385, length 164
\fBcrontab\fR(5))\&. The default system\-wide crontab contains four tasks: run
every hour, every day, every week and every month\&. Each of these tasks will
execute
Line 387, length 83
providing each one of the directories as an argument\&. These tasks are
disabled if
Line 389, length 86
is installed (except for the hourly task) to prevent conflicts between both
daemons\&.
Line 391, length 301
As described above, the files under these directories have to pass some sanity
checks including the following: be executable, be owned by root, not be
writable by group or other and, if symlinks, point to files owned by root\&.
Additionally, the file names must conform to the filename requirements of
Line 392, length 238
\fBrun\-parts\fR: they must be entirely made up of letters, digits and can only
contain the special signs underscores (\*(Aq_\*(Aq) and hyphens
(\*(Aq\-\*(Aq)\&. Any file that does not conform to these requirements will not
be executed by
Line 393, length 341
\fBrun\-parts\fR\&. For example, any file containing dots will be ignored\&.
This is done to prevent cron from running any of the files that are left by the
Debian package management system when handling files in /etc/cron\&.d/ as
configuration files (i\&.e\&. files ending in \&.dpkg\-dist, \&.dpkg\-orig,
\&.dpkg\-old, and \&.dpkg\-new)\&.
Line 395, length 223
This feature can be used by system administrators and packages to include tasks
that will be run at defined intervals\&. Files created by packages in these
directories should be named after the package that supplies them\&.
Line 401, length 159
daemon itself, which handles this location as the system\-wide crontab spool\&.
This directory can contain any file defining tasks following the format used in
Line 402, length 133
/etc/crontab, i\&.e\&. unlike the user cron spool, these files must provide the
username to run the task as in the task definition\&.
Line 404, length 119
Files in this directory have to be owned by root, do not need to be executable
(they are configuration files, just like
Line 407, length 119
: they must consist solely of upper\- and lower\-case letters, digits,
underscores, and hyphens\&. This means that they
Line 414, length 107
/etc/default/cron, see below), then they must conform to the LSB namespace
specification, exactly as in the
Line 419, length 113
The intended purpose of this feature is to allow packages that require finer
control of their scheduling than the
Line 422, length 83
/etc/cron\&.d\&. Such files should be named after the package that supplies
them\&.
Line 430, length 147
daemon\&. This file determines whether cron will read the system\*(Aqs
environment variables and makes it possible to add additional options to the
Line 432, length 109
program before it is executed, either to configure its logging or to define how
it will treat the files under
Line 470, length 503
Distribute freely, except: don\*(Aqt remove my name from the source or
documentation (don\*(Aqt take credit for my work), mark your changes (don\*(Aqt
get me blamed for your possible bugs), don\*(Aqt alter or remove this notice\&.
May be sold if buildable source is provided to buyer\&. No warranty of any
kind, express or implied, is included with this software; use at your own risk,
responsibility for damages (if any) to anyone resulting from the use of this
software rests entirely with the user\&.
Line 472, length 109
Since year 1994, many modifications were made in this manpage, authored by
Debian Developers which maintained
-.-.
Show if docman-to-man created this
4:.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets vsnapshot <http://docbook.sf.net/>
-.-.
Put a parenthetical sentence, phrase on a separate line,
if not part of a code.
See man-pages(7), item "semantic newline".
cron.8:65:will log all failed jobs (exit status != 0)
cron.8:124:searches its spool area (/var/spool/cron/crontabs/) for crontab
files (which are named after accounts in
cron.8:189:then wakes up every minute, examining all stored crontabs, checking
each command to see if it should be run in the current minute\&. When executing
commands, any output is mailed to the owner of the crontab (or to the user
named in the MAILTO environment variable in the crontab, if such exists) from
the owner of the crontab (or from the email address given in the MAILFROM
environment variable in the crontab, if such exists)\&. The children copies of
cron running these processes have their name coerced to uppercase, as will be
seen in the syslog and ps output\&.
cron.8:205:Only jobs that run at a particular time (not specified as @hourly,
nor with \*(Aq*\*(Aq in the hour or minute specifier) are affected\&. Jobs
which are specified with wildcards are run based on the new time immediately\&.
cron.8:339:Debian\-specific configuration (/etc/default/cron),
cron.8:366:is installed (except for the hourly task) to prevent conflicts
between both daemons\&.
cron.8:369:\fBrun\-parts\fR: they must be entirely made up of letters, digits
and can only contain the special signs underscores (\*(Aq_\*(Aq) and hyphens
(\*(Aq\-\*(Aq)\&. Any file that does not conform to these requirements will not
be executed by
cron.8:370:\fBrun\-parts\fR\&. For example, any file containing dots will be
ignored\&. This is done to prevent cron from running any of the files that are
left by the Debian package management system when handling files in
/etc/cron\&.d/ as configuration files (i\&.e\&. files ending in \&.dpkg\-dist,
\&.dpkg\-orig, \&.dpkg\-old, and \&.dpkg\-new)\&.
cron.8:447:Distribute freely, except: don\*(Aqt remove my name from the source
or documentation (don\*(Aqt take credit for my work), mark your changes
(don\*(Aqt get me blamed for your possible bugs), don\*(Aqt alter or remove
this notice\&. May be sold if buildable source is provided to buyer\&. No
warranty of any kind, express or implied, is included with this software; use
at your own risk, responsibility for damages (if any) to anyone resulting from
the use of this software rests entirely with the user\&.
-.-.
Output from "test-groff -mandoc -t -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -ww -b -z ":
troff: backtrace: file '<stdin>':65
troff:<stdin>:65: warning: trailing space in the line
-.-.
Additionally (general):
Abbreviations get a '\&' added after their final full stop (.) to mark them
as such and not as an end of a sentence.
There is no need to add a '\&' before a full stop (.) if it has a character
before it!
NO PATCH; TOO MANY BAD LINES; FIX THE MAN PAGE GENERATOR (AND THE INPUT FILE)
