[bug #60653] [man] align header/footer spacing when continuously rendering with mdoc

[G. Branden Robinson]

URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?60653>

                 Summary: [man] align header/footer spacing when continuously
rendering  with mdoc
                 Project: GNU troff
            Submitted by: gbranden
            Submitted on: Sat 22 May 2021 02:36:33 AM UTC
                Category: Macro - man
                Severity: 1 - Wish
              Item Group: None
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
         Planned Release: None

    _______________________________________________________

Details:

man(7) historically puts 3v, or half an inch, between header/footer lines and
body text.

Per Ingo Schwarze, mdoc(7) has always put only one blank like (1v) in those
places, going back to the origin Livingston implementations ca. 1990.

Furthermore, man-db man(1) filters such blank lines out of groff -man output
when rendering to the terminal[1], so many (most?) consumers of 

These blank lines don't serve much purpose when continuously rendering, so
dispose of them.

It also might be a good idea to indirect this spacing through a
package-private register.  Magic constants are just as bad in *roff code as in
C.

[1] src/man.c:1546-1590 in man-db 2.9.4 (Feburary 2021); the code dates back
to August 2015.




    _______________________________________________________

Reply to this item at:

  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?60653>

_______________________________________________
  Message sent via Savannah
  https://savannah.gnu.org/