Package: tar
Version: 1.35+dfsg-3.1
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 "groff -e ' $' <file>" to find 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?
an.tmac:<stdin>:4: style: .TH missing third argument; consider document
modification date in ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD)
an.tmac:<stdin>:4: style: .TH missing fourth argument; consider package/project
name and version (e.g., "groff 1.23.0")
troff:<stdin>:11: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:13: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:20: 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 6.12.9-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 tar depends on:
ii libacl1 2.3.2-2+b1
ii libc6 2.40-5
ii libselinux1 3.7-3+b1
tar recommends no packages.
Versions of packages tar suggests:
ii bzip2 1.0.8-6
ii ncompress 5.0-2
ii tar-doc 1.35-2
pn tar-scripts <none>
ii xz-utils 5.6.3-1+b1
-- no debconf information
Input file is tarcat.1
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 output of the original and patched file
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 tarcat.1": (shortened list)
1 missing date, using ""
7 whitespace at end of input line
-.-.
Output from "test-groff -mandoc -t -ww -z tarcat.1": (shortened list)
3 trailing space in the line
-.-.
Remove space characters (whitespace) at the end of lines.
Use "git apply ... --whitespace=fix" to fix extra space issues, or use
global configuration "core.whitespace".
Number of lines affected is
7
-.-.
Output from "test-groff -mandoc -t -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -rCHECKSTYLE=10 -ww -z
":
an.tmac:<stdin>:4: style: .TH missing third argument; consider document
modification date in ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD)
an.tmac:<stdin>:4: style: .TH missing fourth argument; consider package/project
name and version (e.g., "groff 1.23.0")
troff:<stdin>:11: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:13: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:20: warning: trailing space in the line
--- tarcat.1 2025-01-17 01:52:26.467938937 +0000
+++ tarcat.1.new 2025-01-17 01:53:00.282506104 +0000
@@ -1,23 +1,23 @@
.\" Hey, EMACS: -*- nroff -*-
.\" (C) Copyright 2013 Bdale Garbee <bd...@gag.com>
.\"
-.TH TARCAT 1
+.TH TARCAT 1
.SH NAME
tarcat \- concatenates the pieces of a GNU tar multi-volume archive
.SH SYNOPSIS
-.B tarcat
+.B tarcat
files ...
.SH DESCRIPTION
-The
-.B tarcat
-command simply concatenates the files from a GNU tar multi-volume
+The
+.B tarcat
+command simply concatenates the files from a GNU tar multi-volume
archive into a single tar archive.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR tar (1).
.SH AUTHORS
The
-.B tarcat
-script was written by
+.B tarcat
+script was written by
Bruno Haible <br...@clisp.org> and
Sergey Poznyakoff <g...@gnu.org.ua>.
.PP
