Package: popularity-contest
Version: 1.77
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 ' $' -e '\\~$' <file>" to find obvious 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 -t -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -rCHECKSTYLE=10 -ww -z
":
an.tmac:<stdin>:35: misuse, warning: .BR is for at least 2 arguments, got 1
Use macro '.B' for one argument or split argument.
an.tmac:<stdin>:40: misuse, warning: .BR is for at least 2 arguments, got 1
Use macro '.B' for one argument or split argument.
* 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 6.12.12-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 popularity-contest depends on:
ii debconf [debconf-2.0] 1.5.89
ii dpkg 1.22.15
Versions of packages popularity-contest recommends:
ii cron [cron-daemon] 3.0pl1-192
ii exim4-daemon-light [mail-transport-agent] 4.98-3+b1
ii gpg 2.2.46-1+b1
Versions of packages popularity-contest suggests:
ii anacron 2.3-41
pn tor <none>
pn torsocks <none>
-- debconf information excluded
Input file is popularity-contest.8
Output from "mandoc -T lint popularity-contest.8": (shortened list)
-.-.
Output from "test-groff -mandoc -t -ww -z popularity-contest.8": (shortened
list)
2 Use macro '.B' for one argument or split argument.
2 .BR is for at least 2 arguments, got 1
-.-.
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.
Mark a final abbreviation point as such by suffixing it with "\&".
Some sentences (etc.) do not begin on a new line.
Split (sometimes) lines after a punctuation mark; before a conjunction.
N.B.
The number of lines affected can be too large to be in a patch.
Lines with only one (or two) space(s) between sentences could be split,
so latter sentences begin on a new line.
Use
#!/usr/bin/sh
sed -e '/^\./n' \
-e 's/\([[:alpha:]]\)\. */\1.\n/g' $1
to split lines after a sentence period.
Check result with the difference between the formatted outputs.
See also the attachment "general.bugs"
21:installed and never used. This helps Debian maintainers make decisions such
-.-.
Remove quotes when there is a printable
but no space character between them
and the quotes are not for emphasis (markup),
for example as an argument to a macro.
4:.TH "POPULARITY-CONTEST" "8" "November 2001" "Debian/GNU Linux" ""
5:.SH "NAME"
7:.SH "SYNOPSIS"
9:.SH "DESCRIPTION"
46:.SH "AUTHOR"
-.-.
Output from "test-groff -mandoc -t -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -rCHECKSTYLE=10 -ww -z
":
an.tmac:<stdin>:35: misuse, warning: .BR is for at least 2 arguments, got 1
Use macro '.B' for one argument or split argument.
an.tmac:<stdin>:40: misuse, warning: .BR is for at least 2 arguments, got 1
Use macro '.B' for one argument or split argument.
-.-.
Generally:
Split (sometimes) lines after a punctuation mark; before a conjunction.
--- popularity-contest.8 2025-02-26 09:06:32.712549050 +0000
+++ popularity-contest.8.new 2025-02-26 09:10:52.914386935 +0000
@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
.\" Hey, Emacs! This is an -*- nroff -*- source file.
.\"
.\"
-.TH "POPULARITY-CONTEST" "8" "November 2001" "Debian/GNU Linux" ""
-.SH "NAME"
+.TH POPULARITY-CONTEST 8 "November 2001" "Debian/GNU Linux" ""
+.SH NAME
popularity\-contest \- list the most popular Debian packages
-.SH "SYNOPSIS"
+.SH SYNOPSIS
.B popularity\-contest
-.SH "DESCRIPTION"
+.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.B popularity\-contest
command gathers information about Debian packages installed on the system,
@@ -18,8 +18,9 @@ When aggregated with the output of
.B popularity\-contest
from many other systems, this information is valuable because it can be used
to determine which Debian packages are commonly installed, used, or
-installed and never used. This helps Debian maintainers make decisions such
-as which packages should be installed by default on new systems.
+installed and never used.
+This helps Debian maintainers make decisions such
+as which packages should be installed by default on new systems.
.PP
The resulting statistic is available from the project home page
.BR https://popcon.debian.org/ .
@@ -32,16 +33,16 @@ job,
.BR /etc/cron.daily/popularity\-contest ,
which automatically submits the results to Debian package maintainers
(only once a week) according to the settings in
-.BR /etc/popularity\-contest.conf
+.B /etc/popularity\-contest.conf
and
.BR /usr/share/popularity-contest/default.conf .
.SH "SEE ALSO"
The popularity\-contest FAQ at
-.BR /usr/share/doc/popularity\-contest/FAQ
+.B /usr/share/doc/popularity\-contest/FAQ
.BR popcon\-largest\-unused (8),
.BR cron (8)
.LP
Additional documentation is in
.BR /usr/share/doc/popularity\-contest/ .
-.SH "AUTHOR"
+.SH AUTHOR
Avery Pennarun <apenw...@debian.org>.
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
-.-
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.
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.
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:
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)
-.-
