pdftohtml.1: Some remarks and a patch with editorial changes for this man page
Bjarni Ingi Gislason
bjarniig at simnet.is
Wed Oct 14 21:18:24 BST 2026
Package: poppler-utils
Version: 26.07.0-3
Severity: minor
Tags: patch
Additional remarks.
Mails from me to "submit at bugs.debian.org" are no longer acknowledged. A
Debian maintainer told me, that he would contact the mail administrator
about me not wanting to send bugs upstream.
See also Debian bug #1141378 reportbug: Automatic forwarding of upstream
bugs.
-.-
Dear Maintainer,
>From "ftp.debian.org/debian/doc/bug-reporting.txt"
Don't file bugs upstream
If you file a bug in Debian, don't send a copy to the upstream software
maintainers yourself to start with, as it is possible that the bug
exists only in Debian. If necessary, the maintainer of the package will
forward the bug upstream, or ask you to do so after they've checked
that it isn't Debian-specific.
-.-
For forwarding bug reports to upstream see:
https://www.debian.org/Bugs/Developer#forward
-.-
"Handling bug reports" in
http://people.debian.org/~enrico/dcg/ch03s02.html
-.-
I do not send reports upstream if I have to get an account there.
The Debian maintainers have one already.
-.-
* 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=0 -ww -z < "man page"
[Use
grep -n -e ' $' -e '\\~$' -e ' \\f.$' -e ' \\"' -e ' "$' <file>
to find (most) 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?
Output from "test-groff -mandoc -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -ww -z ":
an.tmac:<stdin>:11: style: .BR expects at least 2 arguments, got 1
troff:<stdin>:18: warning: end of sentence detected before end of text line [-w style]
* 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: forky/sid
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 7.2.9+deb14-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=is_IS.iso88591, LC_CTYPE=is_IS.iso88591 (charmap=UTF-8) (ignored: LC_ALL set to C.utf8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init)
Versions of packages poppler-utils depends on:
ii libc6 2.43-7
ii libcairo2 1.18.4-3+b1
ii libfreetype6 2.14.3+dfsg-3
ii liblcms2-2 2.19.1-1
ii libpoppler162 26.07.0-3
ii libstdc++6 16.2.0-3
poppler-utils recommends no packages.
poppler-utils suggests no packages.
-- no debconf information
-------------- next part --------------
Input file is pdftohtml.1
Output from "mandoc -T lint pdftohtml.1": (shortened list)
2 STYLE: whitespace at end of input line
1 WARNING: missing date, using "": TH
Find trailing whitespace with:
See the file "trailing whitespace.txt" in the attachment"
-.-.
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".
See more information in the attachment "trailing.whitespace.txt".
Number of lines affected is
2
-.-.
Use the correct macro for the font change of a single argument or
split the argument into two.
11:.BR pdftohtml
-.-.
Change a HYPHEN-MINUS (code 0x2D) to a minus(-dash) (\-),
if it
is in front of a name for an option,
is a symbol for standard input,
is a single character used to indicate an option,
or is in the NAME section (man-pages(7)).
N.B. - (0x2D), processed as a UTF-8 file, is changed to a hyphen
(0x2010, groff \[u2010] or \[hy]) in the output.
20:is \'-', it reads the PDF file from stdin.
-.-.
Wrong distance (not two spaces, not a new line character (\n)) between
sentences in the input file.
mandoc(1) says: "New sentence, new line."
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"
17:is a program that converts PDF documents into HTML. It generates its output in
49:use data URLs instead of external images in HTML. No available in all platforms
55:generate no frames. Not supported in complex output mode.
93:adjust the word break threshold percent. Default is 10.
102:Pdftohtml was developed by Gueorgui Ovtcharov and Rainer Dorsch. It is
-.-.
Only one space character is after a possible end of sentence
(after a punctuation, that can end a sentence).
Start a new sentence on a new line.
mandoc(1) says "New sentence, new line."
pdftohtml.1:17:is a program that converts PDF documents into HTML. It generates its output in
pdftohtml.1:49:use data URLs instead of external images in HTML. No available in all platforms
pdftohtml.1:55:generate no frames. Not supported in complex output mode.
pdftohtml.1:93:adjust the word break threshold percent. Default is 10.
pdftohtml.1:102:Pdftohtml was developed by Gueorgui Ovtcharov and Rainer Dorsch. It is
-.-.
Remove quotes from an argument to a macro, when there is a printable
but no space character between them. Such quotes provide no information.
pdftohtml.1:9:.SH "DESCRIPTION"
-.-.
Remove a space character after a macro call.
11:.BR pdftohtml
59:.TP
-.-.
Generally:
Split (sometimes) lines after a punctuation mark; before a conjunction.
-.-
Tables:
Use the preprocessor 'tbl' to make tables.
Put data, that are wider than the header in the (centered) last column,
in a "T{...\nT}" block.
Table headings, that are wider than any data in the corresponding
column, do not need to be centered, so left adjustment (l, L) is
sufficient. There is thereby no change in the standard output.
-------------- next part --------------
main: parameters are pdftohtml.1 pdftohtml.1.new
first file is pdftohtml.1
second file is pdftohtml.1.new
copy pdftohtml.1 to /tmp/old.pdftohtml.1
copy pdftohtml.1.new /tmp/new.pdftohtml.1.new
inputA.txt from old version
-rw------- 1 bg bg 2726 okt 14 20:11 old.pdftohtml.1.intermed
-rw------- 1 bg bg 3331 okt 14 20:11 old.pdftohtml.1.txt
inputB from new version
-rw------- 1 bg bg 2721 okt 14 20:11 new.pdftohtml.1.new.intermed
-rw------- 1 bg bg 3331 okt 14 20:11 new.pdftohtml.1.new.txt
Not exact diff between A.ml and B.ml
--- old.pdftohtml.1.ml 2026-10-14 20:11:16.056536204 +0000
+++ new.pdftohtml.1.new.ml 2026-10-14 20:11:16.220534002 +0000
@@ -240,7 +240,9 @@ tis
wh2500
Caa
h3330
-t-',
+C\-
+t',
wh2500
tit
wh2500
-------------- next part --------------
Check the output from "lintian" in the Debian distribution.
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>
To find most trailing spaces use
grep -n -e ' $' -e ' \\f.$' -e ' \\"' -e ' "$' <man page>
The same goes for man pages that are used as an input.
-.-
For a style guide use
mandoc -T lint
-.-
For general input conventions consult the man page "nroff(7)" (item
"Input conventions") or the Texinfo manual about the same item.
-.-
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.
Debian can fix simple bugs in the used generators and distribute them,
and does not need to wait for upstream to do that and distribute them.
-.-
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 when that has been fixed.
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 a script "cmp.manuals" in the attachment.
Or
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)
-.-
-------------- next part --------------
#!/usr/bin/bash
# Compare two versions of a man page
# command old{file, directory} new{file, directory}
# command oldfile newfile
# command olddirectory newdirectory
set -eu
option=''
man_option='-mandoc' #-mandoc
Cmd_name=${0##*/}
echo main: parameters are $*
while getopts cd:em:r: opt
do
case $opt in
c) man_option="-rcR=1"
;;
d) man_option="-d$OPTARG"
;;
e) option=exact
;;
m) man_option="-m$OPTARG"
;;
r) man_option="-r$OPTARG"
;;
*) echo cmp.manuals: Error, wrong option \"$*\" >&2
exit
;;
esac
done
shift $((OPTIND - 1))
#echo main: option is $man_option ; exit 1
#echo main: parameters are $*
# Add appropriate options
if test \! -f "$1"
then
echo file $1 does not exist
exit 1
fi
if test \! -f "$2"
then
echo file $2 does not exist
exit 1
fi
case $man_option in
-man) man_option='-man -t -dAD=l -rHY=0'
;;
-mandoc) man_option='-mandoc -t -dAD=l -rHY=0'
;;
-me) man_option='-me'
;;
-ms) man_option='-ms -rpar*adj=0'
;;
-d*|-r*) :
;;
*) echo ${Cmd_name}: Unknown option for the macro packet $man_option
exit 1
;;
esac
tempuniq=$(mktemp --tmpdir $Cmd_name.XXXXXX )
uniqlines () {
uniq -d $inputX | sed -e '/^$/d' > $tempuniq
if test -s $tempuniq ; then
echo $Cmd_name: Equal lines in input from $inputX
cat $tempuniq
return 1
fi
return 0
}
compare () {
#printf 'option is %s\n' $option
inputA=old.${1##*/}
inputB=new.${2##*/}
if test ! $1 -ef /tmp/$inputA ; then
echo copy $1 to /tmp/$inputA
cp $1 /tmp/$inputA
fi
if test ! $2 -ef /tmp/$inputB ; then
echo copy $2 /tmp/$inputB
cp $2 /tmp/$inputB
fi
olddir=$PWD
cd /tmp
#MAN_KEEP_STDERR=yes
#MANOPT='--warnings=w --no-justification --no-hyphenation'
#MANWIDTH=80
#export MAN_KEEP_STDERR MANOPT MANWIDTH
# Have no sentence space (.ss 12 0)
#echo option is \"$option\"; exit 1
# getopt sets opt=? if there is no option
#echo opt is \"$opt\" >&2
if test "$opt" = '?' ; then
sed -e '/^.TH /i \
.ss 12 0\
.nr cR 1\
.kern 0\
.lg 0
s/\. *ad$/.ad l/
s/\. *ad /.ad l /
' $inputA
else
cat $inputA
fi | tee -p $inputA.intermed | \
test-nroff -t -K utf8 $man_option > $inputA.txt 2> /dev/null
#echo test-nroff man_option is $man_option for output inputA.txt >&2
# Check
echo inputA.txt from old version
ls -l $inputA.intermed
ls -l $inputA.txt
if find_cntrl $inputA.txt > /dev/null 2>&1
then
:
else
echo No formatting characters in file $inputA.txt >&2
fi
inputX=$inputA.txt
#if uniqlines ; then
# Remove multible empty lines
# uniq $inputA.txt > $tempuniq
# cp $tempuniq $inputA.txt
#fi
#echo opt is \"$opt\" >&2
if test "$opt" = '?' ; then
#echo opt is \"$opt\" >&2
sed -e '/^.TH /i \
.ss 12 0\
.nr cR 1\
.kern 0\
.lg 0
s/\. *ad$/.ad l/
s/\. *ad /.ad l /
' $inputB
else
cat $inputB
fi | tee -p $inputB.intermed | \
test-nroff -t -K utf8 $man_option > ${inputB}.txt 2> /dev/null
#echo test-nroff man_option is $man_option >&2
#Check
echo inputB from new version
ls -l $inputB.intermed
ls -l $inputB.txt
if find_cntrl ${inputB}.txt > /dev/null 2>&1
then
:
else
echo No formatting characters in file ${inputB}.txt >&2
fi
inputX=${inputB}.txt
#if uniqlines ; then
# Remove multible empty lines
# uniq $inputA.txt > $tempuniq
# cp $tempuniq $inputB.txt
#fi
#echo using diff.loc >&2
diff.loc -d $inputA.txt $inputB.txt > $inputA.txt.diff || :
# Difference in the output of "troff"
if test "$opt" = '?' ; then
sed -e '/^.TH /i \
.ss 12 0\
.nr cR 1\
.kern 0
s/\. *ad$/.ad l/
s/\. *ad /.ad l /
' $inputA
else
cat $inputA
fi | test-groff -t $man_option -K utf8 -Z \
> $inputA.ml 2> /dev/null
#echo test-groff man_option is $man_option >&2
#ls -l $inputA.ml
#stat $inputA.ml
if test \! -s $inputA.ml; then
echo $Cmd_name: intermediate file $inputA.ml is not produced >&2
ls -lt $inputA >&2
exit 1
fi
if test "$opt" = '?' ; then
sed -e '/^.TH /i \
.ss 12 0\
.nr cR 1\
.kern 0
s/\. *ad$/.ad l/
s/\. *ad /.ad l /
' $inputB
else
cat $inputB
fi | tee -p /tmp/input.to.groff | \
test-groff -t $man_option -Z -K utf8\
> $inputB.ml #2> /dev/null
#echo test-groff man_option is $man_option >&2
if test \! -s $inputB.ml; then
echo $Cmd_name: intermediate file $inputB.ml is not produced >&2
ls -l /tmp/input.to.groff >&2
exit 1
fi
#stat $inputB.ml
#ls -l $inputB.ml 1>&2
#printf 'option is = %s\n' "$option"
if test "$option" = 'exact'; then
# echo Using diff.loc >&2
diff.loc -d $inputA.ml $inputB.ml | \
sed -e '/^[-]V[0-9]\+$/d' -e '/^[+]V[0-9]\+$/d' > $inputA.ml.diff
else
echo Not exact diff between A.ml and B.ml >&2
# echo Using diff.loc >&2
diff.loc -d $inputA.ml $inputB.ml | \
sed -e '/^[-]V[0-9]\+$/d' -e '/^[+]V[0-9]\+$/d' > $inputA.ml.diff || :
fi
if test -s $inputA.txt.diff ; then
less -R $inputA.txt.diff
fi
if test -s $inputA.ml.diff ; then
if test "$option" = 'exact' ; then
less $inputA.ml.diff
else
rm.troff.space $inputA.ml.diff | less
fi
fi
cd $olddir
} # End of compare
#set -x
echo first file is $1
echo second file is $2
#echo Are in directory $PWD
if test -f $1 ; then
echo Comparing $1 with $2 >&2
compare $1 $2 |& sed -f $HOME/bin/groff.err.weedout
else
for new_file in $(find $2 -type f) ; do
old_file=$1/$(echo "$new_file" | sed -e 's#'$2'##')
echo oldfile=$old_file new_file=$new_file
compare $old_file $new_file |& sed -f $HOME/bin/groff.err.weedout
done
fi
#echo are in directory $PWD
More information about the Pkg-freedesktop-maintainers
mailing list