Thank you for the thoughtful consideration of my bug report. I had intended this report for Debian which allows additional flexibility by offering an optional setting for the system-wide default paper size. This is similar to the compile time option that groff already has, but is evaluated at runtime, meaning the same groff binary can be used internationally. Additionally, this makes switching to groff easier since, if one is already using Debian, /etc/papersize has probably already been configured correctly for other typesetting systems or printing.
Of course, no matter what the system administrator sets /etc/papersize to, the user's personal preference is always respected. This does not take away any functionality. It only overrides the compiled-in default.
While I think the ability to have a site-wide default for all users on a host without recompilation would be beneficial to everyone who uses groff, I do not expect the groff project to accept patches I designed for the Debian system. I apologize for the confusion.
—Ben Wong
Follow-up Comment #2, bug #63757 (project groff):
I do not see a report about a bug in the DESC file.
1) The file "configure" consults "/etc/papersize" among others to set
"PAGE".
The only defect I see, is that "locale -k LC_PAPER" is not consulted
before "/etc/resolv.conf".
2) "papersize(5)" (Debian) states that the first valid string is used
(by the libpaper library), meaning: only one paper size is used.
There can only be one default paper format !
2) The "devpdf.am" only checks the value "$PAGE" for "A4" instead of
using its value, if defined and not empty.
2) I do not recommend, that users redefine the content of
"/etc/papersize".
They should use the "-P-p..." option for "groff" for their own
_personal_ choices.
3) The need to include "/etc/papersize" for "gropdf" (in gropdf.am) is
not explained.
The report looks line a proposal to change something affecting every
user for the sake of a single person, which should instead use an
available resource (solution) for a special case.
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