GNU bug report logs - #74808
date.1: Some remarks and and a patch for editorial changes for this man page

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig <at> simnet.is>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: date.1: Some remarks and and a patch for editorial changes for this
 man page
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2024 02:28:31 +0000

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Package: coreutils
Version: 9.5-1+b1
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 -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?

troff:<stdin>:236: warning: font name 'CW' is deprecated

   * 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 6.11.10-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 coreutils depends on:
ii  libacl1      2.3.2-2+b1
ii  libattr1     1:2.5.2-2
ii  libc6        2.40-4
ii  libgmp10     2:6.3.0+dfsg-3
ii  libselinux1  3.7-3+b1
ii  libssl3t64   3.3.2-2

coreutils recommends no packages.

coreutils suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information

[chk_man.err.date.1 (text/plain, attachment)]

[date.1.diff (text/plain, attachment)]

Message #8 received at 74808 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig <at> simnet.is>
Cc: bug-help2man <at> gnu.org, 74808 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#74808: date.1: Some remarks and and a patch for editorial
 changes for this man page
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2024 20:06:58 -0800

On 2024-12-11 18:28, Bjarni Ingi Gislason wrote:
> troff:<stdin>:236: warning: font name 'CW' is deprecated

That "CW" was generated by help2man so I'll CC this message to 
<bug-help2man <at> gnu.org> as per 
<https://www.gnu.org/software/help2man/#Reports>.

Can you suggest what help2man should use instead of \f(CW? Help2man 
needs be be portable to older groff and likely to traditional troff.

To the help2man maintainers: apparently groff now complains about \f(CW; 
see <https://bugs.gnu.org/74808>.

Message #11 received at 74808 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "Brendan O'Dea" <bod <at> debian.org>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
Cc: 74808 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig <at> simnet.is>,
 bug-help2man <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#74808: date.1: Some remarks and and a patch for editorial
 changes for this man page
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2024 07:32:53 +1100

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

There is a detailed message here:
https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/21239#issuecomment-1645998105 relating
to a similar issue with pod2man.

From that it seems that CR is a replacement which should work for groff, if
I read that correctly, James Clarke used that from the start.

The story about supporting AT&T troff is less clear, but my reading is that
CR may not work there.

I'm currently on leave, away from my computer, but expect to address this
in help2man after I come back.

My planned fix was to just switch to CR, as that should resolve the issue
for pretty much everyone, given the prevalence of groff.

I could provide an option with CR as the default, but that wouldn't really
help anyone who received the pre-built date.1 .

On Thu, 12 Dec 2024, 15:07 Paul Eggert, <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu> wrote:

> On 2024-12-11 18:28, Bjarni Ingi Gislason wrote:
> > troff:<stdin>:236: warning: font name 'CW' is deprecated
>
> That "CW" was generated by help2man so I'll CC this message to
> <bug-help2man <at> gnu.org> as per
> <https://www.gnu.org/software/help2man/#Reports>.
>
> Can you suggest what help2man should use instead of \f(CW? Help2man
> needs be be portable to older groff and likely to traditional troff.
>
> To the help2man maintainers: apparently groff now complains about \f(CW;
> see <https://bugs.gnu.org/74808>.
>

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #14 received at 74808 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Brendan O'Dea <bod <at> debian.org>
Cc: 74808 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig <at> simnet.is>,
 bug-help2man <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#74808: date.1: Some remarks and and a patch for editorial
 changes for this man page
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2024 23:47:34 -0700

On 12/12/24 12:32, Brendan O'Dea wrote:
>  From that it seems that CR is a replacement which should work for groff, if
> I read that correctly, James Clarke used that from the start.

Perhaps help2man could be changed to generate man pages that use CR if 
it's groff, and CW otherwise.

I haven't seen a help2man release lately; anybody know what's up with that?

Message #17 received at 74808 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "Brendan O'Dea" <bod <at> debian.org>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
Cc: 74808 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig <at> simnet.is>,
 bug-help2man <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#74808: date.1: Some remarks and and a patch for editorial
 changes for this man page
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2024 18:38:34 +1100

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Fri, 13 Dec 2024, 17:47 Paul Eggert, <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu> wrote:

> On 12/12/24 12:32, Brendan O'Dea wrote:
> >  From that it seems that CR is a replacement which should work for
> groff, if
> > I read that correctly, James Clarke used that from the start.
>
> Perhaps help2man could be changed to generate man pages that use CR if
> it's groff, and CW otherwise.
>

That seems like a reasonable choice if it is possible to identify groff.  I
noted another option in a reply off list earlier today.

I haven't seen a help2man release lately; anybody know what's up with that?
>

bug-help2man is is an alias to my email address, and I have fallen behind.
I finally got to working through the backlog yesterday (mostly prompted by
an email about this issue), but ran out of time.  I'll push a release when
I return.

--bod

>

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #20 received at 74808 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig <at> simnet.is>
To: Brendan O'Dea <bod <at> debian.org>
Cc: bug-help2man <at> gnu.org, Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>,
 74808 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#74808: date.1: Some remarks and and a patch for editorial
 changes for this man page
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2024 08:55:22 +0000

  Use the string 'mC', defined in groff's an-ext.tmac file


.\" register .g is defined to be 1 for heirloom-doc (and groff)
.if t \{\
.  ie \n(.g \{\
.    ds mC CR
.\"  tm constant width font used is \*(mC
.\"     String mC is \*(mC
.  \}
.  el \{\
.    if !'\*(mC'' \{\
.      tm String "mC" already defined to be \*(mC
.      tm Is redefined to be CW
.    \}
.    ds mC CW
.\".  tm constant width font used is \*(mC
.  \}
.\}

  then use "\ef(\*(mC" to change the font, for example
\f(\*(mCString in constant width\fP


  Such a definition is then added after the '.TH' macro call.

  Testet with groff and heirloom-doc only.

Message #23 received at 74808 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig <at> simnet.is>, Brendan O'Dea <bod <at> debian.org>
Cc: 74808 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, bug-help2man <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#74808: date.1: Some remarks and and a patch for editorial
 changes for this man page
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2024 13:32:50 -0700

I was thinking of something simpler, like this:

.if t .if \n(.g \{\
.  ds fC \f(CR
.  ds fP \fP
.\}

and then surrounding constant-width text with \*(fC and \*(fP. This 
should be legible with older troff without worrying whether the older 
troff supports CW. For older troff, being legible is good enough.

Message #26 received at 74808 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Brendan O'Dea <bod <at> debian.org>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
Cc: 74808 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig <at> simnet.is>
Subject: Re: bug#74808: date.1: Some remarks and and a patch for editorial
 changes for this man page
Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2025 14:27:55 +1100

On Fri, Dec 13, 2024 at 01:32:50PM -0700, Paul Eggert wrote:
>I was thinking of something simpler, like this:
>
>.if t .if \n(.g \{\
>.  ds fC \f(CR
>.  ds fP \fP
>.\}

Looks like a good option, I've done something along these lines for the
next release:

https://salsa.debian.org/bod/help2man/-/commit/4c9f1ade4b1f8146bcabe16eeb200ed26cbaa257

Apologies for the delayed response, I was out of the country for most of
December and January, and have finally got a chance to get back to this
now.

There are a handful of other changes to go in which I'm still working
on, but hopefully should get a new release out soonish.

--bod

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