girepository-tools, man pages: undefined variable 'an-margin'
Bjarni Ingi Gislason
bjarniig at simnet.is
Wed Aug 12 01:10:53 BST 2026
Package: girepository-tools
Version: 2.88.3-2
Severity: minor
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.
-.-
Dear Maintainer,
>From "/usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt.gz":
Don't file bugs upstream
If you file a bug in Debian, don't send a copy to the upstream software
maintainers yourself, as it is possible that the bug exists only in
Debian. If necessary, the maintainer of the package will forward the
bug upstream.
-.-
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?
troff:/tmp/gz.roff.wz8ibN:63: warning: register 'an-margin' not defined [-w reg]
/usr/share/man/man1/gi-compile-repository.1.gz
troff:/tmp/gz.roff.cjW7CO:71: warning: register 'an-margin' not defined [-w reg]
troff:/tmp/gz.roff.cjW7CO:96: warning: trailing whitespace [-w trail]
/usr/share/man/man1/gi-decompile-typelib.1.gz
troff:/tmp/gz.roff.jOeT3X:58: warning: register 'an-margin' not defined [-w reg]
/usr/share/man/man1/gi-inspect-typelib.1.gz
* 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 7.1.7+deb14-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 girepository-tools depends on:
ii libc6 2.42-17
ii libffi8 3.7.1-2
ii libgirepository-2.0-0 2.88.3-2
ii libglib2.0-0t64 2.88.3-2
ii native-architecture 0.2.6
girepository-tools recommends no packages.
girepository-tools suggests no packages.
-- no debconf information
-------------- next part --------------
Input file is gi-compile-repository.1
Output from "mandoc -T lint gi-compile-repository.1": (shortened list)
2 STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes
1 WARNING: missing date, using "": TH
5 WARNING: skipping paragraph macro: sp after SH
-.-.
Output from
test-groff mandoc -Kutf8 -ww -z gi-compile-repository.1: (shortened list)
1 .TH missing fourth argument; consider package/project name and version (e.g., "groff 1.23.0")
1 .TH missing third argument; consider document modification date in ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD)
1 register 'an-margin' not defined [-w reg]
-.-.
Show if generated from reStructuredText or rd2
A patch to a generated man page is to show where the generator
failed to make a "clean" man page rendering (that is without warnings) and
sometimes to show a better format for it.
Generated files create bigger and more difficult to read/check patches
when the generator creats long lines, instead of shorter ones or by
postprocesing its output in such a way.
A patch may be applied to a generated man page to fix it before distribution,
until the sources of the defects have been fixed.
1:.\" Man page generated from reStructuredText
2:.\" by the Docutils 0.22.4 manpage writer.
Latest version: docutils (Docutils 0.22.4, Python 3.14.6, on linux)
-.-.
Wrong distance (not two spaces, not a new line character (\n)) between
sentences in the input file.
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"
85:found. The name of the library should not contain the ending shared
-.-.
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.
gi-compile-repository.1:85:found. The name of the library should not contain the ending shared
-.-.
Remove quotes when there is a printable
but no space character between them
and the quotes are not for emphasis (markup),
for example as an argument to a macro.
gi-compile-repository.1:31:.TH "gi-compile-repository" "1" "" ""
-.-.
Output from "test-groff -mandoc -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -rCHECKSTYLE=0 -ww -z ":
troff:<stdin>:63: warning: register 'an-margin' not defined [-w reg]
-.-
The register 'an-margin' is an OUTDATED INTERNAL variable in groff's
tmac file 'an.tmac'.
-.-
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(, when the table gets wider than the output line).
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 --------------
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.
-.-
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:
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)
-.-
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