[Pkg-kbd-devel] mapscrn.8: Some remarks and a patch with editorial changes for this man page

Bjarni Ingi Gislason bjarniig at simnet.is
Wed Oct 14 03:40:48 BST 2026


Package: kbd
Version: 2.10.0-1+b1
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>:6: style: .BR expects at least 2 arguments, got 1

Output from "test-nroff  -mandoc  -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -ww -z ":

an.tmac:<stdin>:6: style: .BR expects at least 2 arguments, got 1


   * 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 kbd depends on:
ii  libc6          2.43-7
ii  libxkbcommon0  1.13.1-1

Versions of packages kbd recommends:
ii  console-setup  1.249

kbd suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information
-------------- next part --------------
Input file is mapscrn.8

Output from "mandoc -T lint  mapscrn.8": (shortened list)

      1 WARNING: skipping paragraph macro: PP empty

-.-.

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.

12:command is obsolete - its function is now built-in into setfont.
32:.I -o

-.-.

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"

[List of affected lines removed.]

19:console driver. The console driver may be later put into
38:tables that give a unicode value for each user byte. The corresponding
45:directly address the font. This is useful for fonts that are
58:1. 256 or 512 bytes binary data
60:2. two-column text file
89:Single character enclosed in single quotes. (And the binary value is used.)
123:Copyright (C) 1993 Eugene G. Crosser

-.-.

Use \(en (en-dash) for a dash at the beginning (end) of a line,
or between space characters,
not a minus (\-) or a hyphen (-), except in the NAME section.

mapscrn.8:12:command is obsolete - its function is now built-in into setfont.

-.-.

Split a punctuation from a single argument, if a two-font macro is meant.

34:.I map.orig.
63:.I table. The 256-bytes tables are direct-to-font,

-.-.

Put a parenthetical sentence, phrase on a separate line,
if not part of a code.
See man-pages(7), item "semantic newline".

mapscrn.8:89:Single character enclosed in single quotes. (And the binary value is used.)
mapscrn.8:94:Single (possibly multi-byte) UTF-8 character, enclosed in single quotes.
mapscrn.8:96:Note that control characters (with codes < 32) cannot be re-mapped with

-.-.

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."

[List of affected lines removed.]


mapscrn.8:19:console driver. The console driver may be later put into
mapscrn.8:38:tables that give a unicode value for each user byte. The corresponding
mapscrn.8:45:directly address the font. This is useful for fonts that are
mapscrn.8:58:1. 256 or 512 bytes binary data
mapscrn.8:60:2. two-column text file
mapscrn.8:63:.I table. The 256-bytes tables are direct-to-font,
mapscrn.8:76:.B 1. Decimal:
mapscrn.8:79:.B 2. Octal:
mapscrn.8:82:.B 3. Hexadecimal:
mapscrn.8:85:.B 4. Unicode:
mapscrn.8:88:.B 5. Character:
mapscrn.8:89:Single character enclosed in single quotes. (And the binary value is used.)
mapscrn.8:93:.B 6. UTF-8 Character:
mapscrn.8:123:Copyright (C) 1993 Eugene G. Crosser

-.-.

Remove quotes from an argument to a macro, when there is a printable
but no space character between them.  Such quotes provide no information.

mapscrn.8:2:.TH MAPSCRN 8 "24 October 2024" "kbd"

-.-.

Output from "test-groff  -mandoc  -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -ww -z ":

an.tmac:<stdin>:6: style: .BR expects at least 2 arguments, got 1

-.-

Additionally:

Size/bytes:



-.-

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 --------------
--- mapscrn.8	2026-10-14 02:30:28.149521189 +0000
+++ mapscrn.8.new	2026-10-14 02:33:48.960203557 +0000
@@ -1,15 +1,15 @@
 .\" @(#)man/man8/mapscrn.8	1.0 3/19/93 17:04:00
-.TH MAPSCRN 8 "24 October 2024" "kbd"
+.TH MAPSCRN 8 "24 October 2024" kbd
 .SH NAME
 mapscrn \- load screen output mapping table
 .SH SYNOPSIS
-.BR mapscrn
+.B mapscrn
 [\fI\,options\/\fR]
 .I mapfile
 .SH DESCRIPTION
 The
 .B mapscrn
-command is obsolete - its function is now built-in into setfont.
+command is obsolete \(en its function is now built-in into setfont.
 However, for backwards compatibility it is still available
 as a separate command.
 .LP
@@ -29,9 +29,9 @@ for the
 .B G1
 character set.
 When the
-.I -o
+.I \-o
 option is given, the old map is saved in
-.I map.orig.
+.IR map.orig .
 .SH USE
 There are two kinds of mapping tables: direct-to-font tables,
 that give a font position for each user byte value, and user-to-unicode
@@ -55,9 +55,9 @@ The
 .I mapscrn
 command can read the map in either of two formats:
 .br
-1. 256 or 512 bytes binary data
+1.\& 256 or 512 bytes binary data
 .br
-2. two-column text file
+2.\& two-column text file
 .br
 Format (1) is a direct image of the translation
 .I table.  The 256-bytes tables are direct-to-font,
@@ -73,24 +73,24 @@ table, otherwise it is a direct-to-font
 Values in the file may be specified in one of several
 .B formats:
 .br
-.B 1. Decimal:
+.B 1.\& Decimal:
 String of decimal digits not starting with '0'
 .br
-.B 2. Octal:
+.B 2.\& Octal:
 String of octal digits beginning with '0'.
 .br
-.B 3. Hexadecimal:
+.B 3.\& Hexadecimal:
 String of hexadecimal digits preceded by "0x".
 .br
-.B 4. Unicode:
+.B 4.\& Unicode:
 String of four hexadecimal digits preceded by "U+".
 .br
-.B 5. Character:
+.B 5.\& Character:
 Single character enclosed in single quotes. (And the binary value is used.)
 Note that blank, comma, tab character and '#' cannot be specified
 with this format.
 .br
-.B 6. UTF-8 Character:
+.B 6.\& UTF-8 Character:
 Single (possibly multi-byte) UTF-8 character, enclosed in single quotes.
 .PP
 Note that control characters (with codes < 32) cannot be re-mapped with
@@ -116,11 +116,10 @@ print this usage message.
 .TP
 .I /usr/share/consoletrans
 The default directory for screen mappings.
-.LP
 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 .IR setfont (8)
 .SH AUTHOR
-Copyright (C) 1993 Eugene G. Crosser
+Copyright (C) 1993 Eugene G.\& Crosser
 .br
 <crosser at pccross.msk.su>
 .br
-------------- 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


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