Package: docutils-common
Version: 0.21.2+dfsg-2
Severity: minor
Tags: upstream
* 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 "grep -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?
an.tmac:<stdin>:30: style: .TH missing third argument; consider document
modification date in ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD)
an.tmac:<stdin>:30: style: .TH missing fourth argument; consider
package/project name and version (e.g., "groff 1.23.0")
troff:<stdin>:333: 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 6.12.19-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 docutils-common depends on:
ii sgml-base 1.31
ii xml-core 0.19
Versions of packages docutils-common recommends:
ii python3-docutils 0.21.2+dfsg-2
docutils-common suggests no packages.
-- no debconf information
Input file is rst2xetex.1
Output from "mandoc -T lint rst2xetex.1": (shortened list)
1 missing date, using "": TH
2 skipping paragraph macro: sp after SH
1 whitespace at end of input line
Remove trailing space with: sed -e 's/ *$//'
-.-.
Output from "test-nroff -mandoc -t -ww -z rst2xetex.1": (shortened list)
1 line(s) with a trailing space
Remove trailing space with: sed -e 's/ *$//'
-.-.
Show if generated from reStructuredText or rd2
Who is actually generating this man page? Debian or upstream?
Is the generating software out of date?
1:.\" Man page generated from reStructuredText.
461:.\" Generated by docutils manpage writer.
Latest version: docutils (Docutils 0.21.2, Python 3.13.2, on linux)
-.-.
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
1
-.-.
Reduce space between words.
[List of affected lines removed.]
Add a "\&" (or a comma (Oxford comma)) after an abbreviation
or use English words
(man-pages(7)).
Abbreviation points should be marked as such and protected against being
interpreted as an end of sentence, if they are not, and that independent
of the current place on the line.
393:lists (e.g. \(dq1.2.a.ii\(dq).
-.-.
Wrong distance (not two spaces) 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.
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"
[List of affected lines removed.]
-.-.
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.
Add "\:" to split the string for the output, "\<newline>" in the source.
[List of affected lines removed.]
Longest line is number 121 with 88 characters
\(dqinfo\(dq or \(dq1\(dq, \(dqwarning\(dq/\(dq2\(dq (default),
\(dqerror\(dq/\(dq3\(dq,
-.-.
Put a parenthetical sentence, phrase on a separate line,
if not part of a code.
See man-pages(7), item "semantic newline".
[List of affected lines removed.]
Only one space character is after a possible end of sentence
(after a punctuation, that can end a sentence).
[List of affected lines removed.]
-.-.
Put a subordinate sentence (after a comma) on a new line.
[List of affected lines removed.]
-.-.
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.
rst2xetex.1:30:.TH "RST2XETEX" "1" "" "" "text processing"
-.-.
Put a (long) web address on a new line to reduce the posibility of
splitting the address between two output lines.
Or inhibit hyphenation with "\%" in front of the name.
39:sources < <https://docutils.sourceforge.io/docs/user/latex.html> >. Reads
from
41:See <https://docutils.sourceforge.io/docs/user/config.html> for a detailed
230:\(dq <https://peps.python.org/> \(dq).
242:\(dq <https://tools.ietf.org/html/> \(dq).
-.-.
Output from "test-groff -mandoc -t -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -rCHECKSTYLE=10 -ww -z
":
an.tmac:<stdin>:30: style: .TH missing third argument; consider document
modification date in ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD)
an.tmac:<stdin>:30: style: .TH missing fourth argument; consider
package/project name and version (e.g., "groff 1.23.0")
troff:<stdin>:333: warning: trailing space in the line
-.-.
Generally:
Split (sometimes) lines after a punctuation mark; before a conjunction.
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)
-.-
