Re: groff injects blank page; and program 'pnmtops' can't handle -nosetpage option; can't generate doc/gnu.eps

[Carlos]

On Sat, Apr 22, 2023 at 10:22:35AM -0400, Carlos wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 22, 2023 at 05:37:24AM -0500, G. Branden Robinson wrote:
> > Hi Carlos,
> > 
> > I'll resequence your mail to put the issue you wanted to set aside last.
> > 
> > At 2023-04-22T05:26:37-0400, Carlos wrote:
> > > Currently running 
> > > 
> > > the called subprograms:
> > > 
> > > GNU grops (groff) version 1.22.4
> > > GNU troff (groff) version 1.22.4
> > 
> > Just to establish some common ground, this is indeed the latest release,
> > from December 2018.  We are working hard to try to get groff 1.23.0
> > out--we are currently at release candidate 4.  The forthcoming release
> > fixes literally hundreds of bugs and bears literally thousands of
> > changes.
> > 
> > https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/platform-testers/2023-04/msg00004.html
> > 
> > You are not obliged to try out this release candidate in any way, but I
> > thought I'd mention it.
> 
> I woudn't mind. As a matter of fact I tried it out, save the program
> 'pnmtops' can't handle
>  -nosetpage option; can't generate doc/gnu.eps sentence from the
>  subject line above which prevented the whole thing
> from compiling
> 
> > 
> > > and whether it's running -man or -mandoc, it injects a blank unwanted
> > > page in the very beginning of the document.
> > 
> > This does not sound like a known bug in groff 1.22.4.  But it does have
> > a familiar ring.
> > 
> > > It doesn't matter whether it's a postscript file or a pdf afterwards,
> > > groff inserts the blank page regardless
> > > 
> > > I'm not familiarized with groff but it seems as if a macro, in this
> > > particular case, .TH, that is normally in the beginning of the page,
> > > causes it,  or it's indirectly involved in this blank page. Doesn't
> > > matter. If i were to focus enough on the page and say open sesame
> > > it woudn't do anything. But if I were to type an .ig and two dots
> > > in between that pesky `.TH` macro, the blank page disappears. So in
> > > that sense, open sesame worked because ;) because the unwanted page
> > > is no longer there. The formatting of the page is gone, and that's
> > > more than an obvious Copernicus, but who cares, really?
> > > 
> > > The question is: what it's causing this unwanted blank page? Are
> > > locales somehow responsible for it? 
> > > 
> > > Now. The interesting part is that `man -T ps <manpage> ` works without
> > > an issue, but groff , or more precisely both -man and -mandoc don't
> > > and still injects the blank page
> > 
> > It sounds to me like someone or something has modified a macro file and
> > permitted a blank line to creep into it.  Your experiment with '.ig' was
> > a good idea, but it is not clear to me _exactly_ where you put it.
> > Perhaps you could email this list your an-old.tmac file.
> > 
> > Unfortunately, it is possible that the blank line crept into _any_ macro
> > file that troff reads when starting up, and there can be quite a few of
> > those.  Including localization macro files, but those aren't the first
> > place I'd look, especially in groff 1.22.4.
> > 
> > Here is a simple experiment you can try, and my results with it.
> > 
> > $ echo '.TH foobar 1 baz qux' | nroff -man | cat -n
> >      1  foobar(1)                   General Commands Manual                 
> >  foobar(1)
> >      2
> >      3
> >      4
> >      5  qux                                   baz                           
> >  foobar(1)
> > 
> > If your output differs, we'll want to know.
> > 
> 
>      1        
>      2        foobar(|)                                                       
>      foobar(|)
>      3        
>      4        
>      5        
>      6        qux                                   baz                       
>      foobar(|)
> 
> That's my result from the teletype. And xterm confirms the same pretty
> much
> 
> 
> > Here's a way to look for blank lines in macro files, with the results
> > from my system.
> > 
> > $ grep -l '^\s*$' /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/{*.tmac,mdoc/*}
> > /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/devtag.tmac
> > /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/hdmisc.tmac
> > /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/hdtbl.tmac
> > /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/m.tmac
> > /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/mse.tmac
> > /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/om.tmac
> > /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/pdf.tmac
> > /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/pdfmark.tmac
> > /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/s.tmac
> > /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/spdf.tmac
> > /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/www.tmac
> > 
> > These aren't necessarily a problem--as you noted, the `ig` request can
> > make blank lines harmless.  But because they're so troublesome, we've
> > arranged for groff 1.23.0 to have fewer.
> > 
> > $ git describe
> > 1.23.0.rc4-83-g0dbc3f6c4
> > $ grep -l '^\s*$' tmac/{*.tmac,mdoc/*}
> > tmac/devtag.tmac
> > tmac/pdf.tmac
> > tmac/psfig.tmac
> > tmac/s.tmac
> > 
> > (Maybe we can kill the rest off for groff 1.24...)
> > 
> > Let us know what you find.
> 
> so far 
> 
> $ grep -l '^\s*$' /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/{*.tmac,mdoc/*}
> /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/devtag.tmac
> /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/hdmisc.tmac
> /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/hdtbl.tmac
> /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/m.tmac
> /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/mse.tmac
> /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/om.tmac
> /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/pdf.tmac
> /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/pdfmark.tmac
> /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/s.tmac
> /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/spdf.tmac
> /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/www.tmac
> 
> 
> /usr/share/groff/1.22.4$ grep -l '^\s*$' tmac/{*.tmac,mdoc/*}
> tmac/devtag.tmac
> tmac/hdmisc.tmac
> tmac/hdtbl.tmac
> tmac/m.tmac
> tmac/mse.tmac
> tmac/om.tmac
> tmac/pdf.tmac
> tmac/pdfmark.tmac
> tmac/s.tmac
> tmac/spdf.tmac
> tmac/www.tmac
> 
> 
> but makes no difference on stdout unfortunately

I wanted to revert to 1.22.4 and see a few things

Let me just add some useless information for whatever's worth:

but with only devtag.tmac and pdf.tmac holding `.ig`in place,  
the blank page is still there, just so you know.

And processing a file I currently have,  either through -man or -mandoc (makes
no difference as I've said before) into postscript it would inject
the blank page:

The same thing happens with a pdf of course.

Branden and Ralph: you know the following already, but you can find
the file latex.1 through any TeX source that provides it.

This is the output

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> 
> 
> 
> > 
> > > First about the error `program 'pnmtops' can't handle -nosetpage
> > > option; can't generate doc/gnu.eps`
> > >  can't go past this very particular cvs compilation after
> > > who-knows-how-many-tries so far with this `program 'pnmtops' can't
> > > handle -nosetpage option; can't generate doc/gnu.eps` error
> > > 
> > > program 'pnmtops' can't handle -nosetpage option; can't generate 
> > > doc/gnu.eps
> > > make[1]: *** [Makefile:14627: doc/gnu.eps] Error 1
> > > 
> > > But anyhow. I just wanted to compile from cvs
> > 
> > Wow, where did you dig up a live CVS repository of groff?
> > 
> > The project switched to Git at least ten years ago.
> > 
> > The Autoconf test for pnmtops might be a little misleading.  I notice
> > that the one in groff 1.22.4 doesn't `AC_REQUIRE` the
> > `GROFF_HTML_PROGRAMS` Autoconf test that checks for pnmtops in general.
> > 
> > (Let me see if groff Git HEAD still has that problem...
> > 
> > ...no.  We (I) renamed some of the tests, but the substantive
> > functionality is still needed and still checked for.  An AC_REQUIRE is
> > now present.)
> > 
> > So I would make sure you have the "netpbm" package installed on your
> > system.  On a Debian-based one, this can be done with "apt install
> > netpbm".  We've had this check since 2006 or earlier, so it's really
> > hard to believe there's a version of netpbm still in the wild that lacks
> > the '-nosetpage' option flag.
> > 
> > > rather than from the tarball. In the end I found out I had the latest
> > > released version, so I gave up.
> > > 
> > > And this issue can be tackle later on really. Let's put it aside for
> > > now.
> > 
> > Regards,
> > Branden
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Trying to be happy is like trying to build a machine for which the only
> specification is that it should run noiselessly.
> 
> 
> 

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