Bug#1103036: editline.7edit: Some remarks and a patch with editorial changes for this man page

[Bjarni Ingi Gislason]

Package: libedit2
Version: 3.1-20250104-1
Severity: minor
Tags: patch

   * 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=10 -ww -z < "man page"

  [Use 

grep -n -e ' $' -e '\\~$' -e ' \\f.$' -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?

doc.tmac:<stdin>:931: warning: .Nx: Unknown NetBSD version '8' (#931)

   * 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: trixie/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 6.12.21-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 libedit2 depends on:
ii  libbsd0    0.12.2-2
ii  libc6      2.41-6
ii  libtinfo6  6.5+20250216-2

libedit2 recommends no packages.

libedit2 suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information
-------------- next part --------------
Input file is editline.7edit

Output from "mandoc -T lint  editline.7edit": (shortened list)

      1 input text line longer than 80 bytes: editing functionalit...
      1 no blank before trailing delimiter: Pq vi: Ctrl-W; emacs: Ctrl-Meta-H, Ctrl-Meta-?
      1 referenced manual not found: Xr editline 3edit (2 times)
      1 referenced manual not found: Xr el_parse 3
      1 referenced manual not found: Xr el_push 3
      1 referenced manual not found: Xr el_set 3 (4 times)
      1 referenced manual not found: Xr el_wgets 3 (2 times)
      1 referenced manual not found: Xr el_wpush 3 (3 times)
      1 referenced manual not found: Xr el_wset 3 (2 times)
      1 referenced manual not found: Xr vi 1
      1 unknown manual section: Dt ... 7edit
      1 unusual Xr order: el_wgets(3) after editline(3edit)

-.-.

Output from
test-nroff -mandoc -t -ww -z editline.7edit: (shortened list)

      1 Unknown NetBSD version '8' (#931)

-.-.

Split lines longer than 80 characters into two or more lines.
Appropriate break points are the end of a sentence and a subordinate
clause; after punctuation marks.
Add "\:" to split the string for the output, "\<newline>" in the source.  

Line 576, length 91

editing functionality, call the alias function passing the argument that was specified with

Longest line is number 576 with 91 characters

-.-.

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

editline.7edit:83:by pressing and releasing the escape key (or equivalently, Ctrl-[),

-.-.

Output from "test-groff  -mandoc -t -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -rCHECKSTYLE=10 -ww -z ":

doc.tmac:<stdin>:931: warning: .Nx: Unknown NetBSD version '8' (#931)

-.-.

Generally:

Split (sometimes) lines after a punctuation mark; before a conjunction.
-------------- next part --------------
--- editline.7edit	2025-04-14 03:25:35.031705680 +0000
+++ editline.7edit.new	2025-04-14 03:48:35.553718823 +0000
@@ -928,7 +928,7 @@ of appending to the input queue.
 This manual page first appeared in
 .Ox 6.0
 and
-.Nx 8 .
+.Nx 8.0 .
 .Sh AUTHORS
 .An -nosplit
 This manual page was written by
-------------- next part --------------
  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 trailing space use

grep -n -e ' $' -e ' \\f.$' -e ' \\"' <man page>

  The same goes for man pages that are used as an input.

  For a style guide use

  mandoc -T lint

-.-

  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.

  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)

-.-