Bug#1129240: Locale::Messages.3pm: Some remarks and a patch with editorial changes for this man page

Bjarni Ingi Gislason bjarniig at simnet.is
Fri Feb 27 22:32:16 GMT 2026


Package: libintl-perl
Version: 1.37-1
Severity: minor
Tags: patch

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.

-.-

  I do not send reports upstream if I have to get an account there.
The Debian maintainers have one already.

  If I get a negative (or no) response from upstream, I send henceforth
bugs to Debian.

-.-

   * 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 ' \\"' <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 -t -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -rCHECKSTYLE=0 -ww -z ":

troff:<stdin>:109: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:141: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:155: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:157: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:203: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:205: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:218: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:307: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:324: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:380: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:381: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:389: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:391: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:452: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:490: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:491: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:501: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:525: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:657: warning: trailing space in the line

   * 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 6.18.12+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 libintl-perl depends on:
ii  perl  5.40.1-7

Versions of packages libintl-perl recommends:
pn  libintl-xs-perl  <none>

libintl-perl suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information
-------------- next part --------------
Input file is Locale::Messages.3pm

Output from "mandoc -T lint  Locale::Messages.3pm": (shortened list)

      9 STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes: 
     17 STYLE: whitespace at end of input line
      2 WARNING: empty block: RS


Find most trailing spaces with:
grep -n -e ' $' -e ' \\f.$' -e ' \\"' <man page>

-.-.

Output from
test-nroff -mandoc -t -Kutf8 -ww -z Locale::Messages.3pm: (shortened list)

     19 line(s) with a trailing space


Find most trailing spaces with:
grep -n -e ' $' -e ' \\f.$' -e ' \\"' <man page>

-.-.


Input file is Locale::Messages.3pm

Show if Pod::Man generated this.

2:.\" Automatically generated by Pod::Man 5.0102 (Pod::Simple 3.45)

Latest version in Debian testing:

This is perl 5, version 40, subversion 1 (v5.40.1) built for x86_64-linux-gnu-thread-multi
(with 48 registered patches, see perl -V for more detail)

-.-.

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".

Number of lines affected is

19

-.-.

Change '-' (\-) to '\(en' (en-dash) for a (numeric) range.

GNU gnulib has recently (2023-06-18) updated its
"build_aux/update-copyright" to recognize "\(en" in man pages.

Locale::Messages.3pm:689:Copyright (C) 2002\-2026 Guido Flohr <http://www.guido-flohr.net/>

-.-.

Wrong distance (not two spaces) 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"

127:i. e. the function can \fInever\fR fail, and will \fInever\fR mess up your
142:contains a message "Hello Tom!", "Hello Dick!" or "Hello Harry!",
254:ideas on numerals.  Some (French, Italian, ...) treat 0 and 1 alike,
294:translate to different foreign words based on their context. For
359:Binds \fBTEXTDOMAIN\fR to \fBDIRECTORY\fR.  Huh? An example:
432:the gettext implementation, i. e. \fBLocale::gettext_xs\fR\|(3) and will fall
483:failure to allocate space for the new environment entry ($! will be

-.-.

Split lines longer than 80 characters (fill completely
an A4 sized page line on a terminal)
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.  

[List of affected lines removed.]

Longest line is number 695 with 102 characters
\&\fBperllocale\fR\|(3pm), \fBPOSIX\fR\|(3pm), \fBperl\fR\|(1), \fBgettext\fR\|(1), \fBgettext\fR\|(3)

-.-.

Add a zero (0) in front of a decimal fraction that begins with a period
(.)

7:.if t .sp .5v

-.-.

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

[List of affected lines removed.]

-.-.

Use a character "\(->" instead of plain "->" or "\->", if not typeset with
a constant width font.

296:used in a menu as File\->View or View\->Source.
307:there is another menu entry Preferences\->Advanced\->Policy where you have 
392:\&        $obj\->filterMethod ($string);
394:\&    my $obj = MyPackage\->new;

-.-.

Put a subordinate sentence (after a comma) on a new line.

Locale::Messages.3pm:254:ideas on numerals.  Some (French, Italian, ...) treat 0 and 1 alike,
Locale::Messages.3pm:255:others make no distinction at all (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, ...),
Locale::Messages.3pm:257:Polish, ...).  The solution is:
Locale::Messages.3pm:268:For other languages, the correct plural form (of 1, 2, 3, 4, ...)

-.-.

.\" Define a fallback for the CW font
.
.if \n(.g \{\
.  ie t .ftr CW CR
.  el .ftr CW R
.\}

-.-.

Use "\-" instead of "-" in web addresses.

689:Copyright (C) 2002\-2026 Guido Flohr <http://www.guido-flohr.net/>

-.-.

Add "\&" after an ellipsis, when it does not end a sentence.

254:ideas on numerals.  Some (French, Italian, ...) treat 0 and 1 alike,
268:For other languages, the correct plural form (of 1, 2, 3, 4, ...)

-.-.

Change comment lines of type '.\" ====' (and an empty '.\"' line) to
a single period, as they contain no information and waste work each time
they are processed.

3:.\"
5:.\" ========================================================================
28:.\"
32:.\"
37:.\"
55:.\" ========================================================================
56:.\"

-.-.

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

troff:<stdin>:109: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:141: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:155: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:157: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:203: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:205: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:218: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:307: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:324: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:380: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:381: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:389: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:391: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:452: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:490: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:491: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:501: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:525: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:657: warning: trailing space in the line

-.-

Additionally:

Remove empty RS/RE blocks.

-.-

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 headers, that are wider than any data in the corresponding column,
do not need to be centered, so left adjustment (l, L) is sufficient.
-------------- next part --------------
--- Locale::Messages.3pm	2026-02-27 21:17:02.142499209 +0000
+++ Locale::Messages.3pm.new	2026-02-27 21:46:53.618279191 +0000
@@ -1,12 +1,19 @@
 .\" -*- mode: troff; coding: utf-8 -*-
 .\" Automatically generated by Pod::Man 5.0102 (Pod::Simple 3.45)
-.\"
+.
 .\" Standard preamble:
-.\" ========================================================================
+.
 .de Sp \" Vertical space (when we can't use .PP)
-.if t .sp .5v
+.if t .sp 0.5v
 .if n .sp
 ..
+.\" Define a fallback for the CW font
+.
+.if \n(.g \{\
+.  ie t .ftr CW CR
+.  el .ftr CW R
+.\}
+.
 .de Vb \" Begin verbatim text
 .ft CW
 .nf
@@ -25,16 +32,16 @@
 .    ds C`
 .    ds C'
 'br\}
-.\"
+.
 .\" Escape single quotes in literal strings from groff's Unicode transform.
 .ie \n(.g .ds Aq \(aq
 .el       .ds Aq '
-.\"
+.
 .\" If the F register is >0, we'll generate index entries on stderr for
 .\" titles (.TH), headers (.SH), subsections (.SS), items (.Ip), and index
 .\" entries marked with X<> in POD.  Of course, you'll have to process the
 .\" output yourself in some meaningful fashion.
-.\"
+.
 .\" Avoid warning from groff about undefined register 'F'.
 .de IX
 ..
@@ -52,8 +59,8 @@
 .    \}
 .\}
 .rr rF
-.\" ========================================================================
-.\"
+.
+.
 .IX Title "Locale::Messages 3pm"
 .TH Locale::Messages 3pm 2026-02-08 "perl v5.40.1" "User Contributed Perl Documentation"
 .\" For nroff, turn off justification.  Always turn off hyphenation; it makes
@@ -106,7 +113,7 @@ Normally you should not use this module
 level interface \fBLocale::TextDomain\fR\|(3) that provides a much simpler
 interface.  This description is therefore deliberately kept
 brief.  Please refer to the GNU gettext documentation available at
-<http://www.gnu.org/manual/gettext/> for in-depth and background 
+<http://www.gnu.org/manual/gettext/> for in-depth and background
 information on the topic.
 .PP
 The lower level module \fBLocale::gettext_pp\fR\|(3) provides the Perl
@@ -124,7 +131,7 @@ Returns the translation for \fBMSGID\fR.
 .Ve
 .Sp
 If no translation can be found, the unmodified \fBMSGID\fR is returned,
-i. e. the function can \fInever\fR fail, and will \fInever\fR mess up your
+i.e.\& the function can \fInever\fR fail, and will \fInever\fR mess up your
 original message.
 .Sp
 Note for Perl 5.6 and later: The returned string will \fIalways\fR have
@@ -138,8 +145,8 @@ One common mistake is this:
 .Ve
 .Sp
 Perl will interpolate the variable \f(CW$name\fR \fIbefore\fR the function
-will see the string.  Unless the corresponding message catalog 
-contains a message "Hello Tom!", "Hello Dick!" or "Hello Harry!",
+will see the string.  Unless the corresponding message catalog
+contains a message "Hello Tom!", "Hello Dick!\&" or "Hello Harry!",
 no translation will be found.
 .Sp
 Using \fBprintf()\fR and friends has its own problems:
@@ -152,9 +159,9 @@ Using \fBprintf()\fR and friends has its
 translated here ...).
 .Sp
 In English the adjective (the color) will precede the noun, many
-other languages (for example French or Italian) differ here.  The 
+other languages (for example French or Italian) differ here.  The
 translator of the message may therefore have a hard time to find
-a translation that will still work and not sound stupid in the 
+a translation that will still work and not sound stupid in the
 target language.  Many C implementations of \fBprintf()\fR allow one to
 change the order of the arguments, and a French translator could
 then say:
@@ -200,9 +207,9 @@ message catalogs will \fBnever\fR work,
 and all strings with non-ascii characters will not be found.
 .Sp
 Even if you have solved all these problems, there is still one show
-stopper left: The gettext runtime API lacks a possibility to specify 
+stopper left: The gettext runtime API lacks a possibility to specify
 the character set of the source code (including the original strings).
-Consequently \- in absence of a hint for the input encoding \- strings 
+Consequently \- in absence of a hint for the input encoding \- strings
 without a translation are not subject to output character set conversion.
 In other words: If the (non-determinable) output character set differs
 from the character set used in the source code, output can be a
@@ -215,7 +222,7 @@ This all boils down to: Only use ASCII c
 strings!
 .IP "\fBdgettext TEXTDOMAIN, MSGID\fR" 4
 .IX Item "dgettext TEXTDOMAIN, MSGID"
-Like \fBgettext()\fR, but retrieves the message for the specified 
+Like \fBgettext()\fR, but retrieves the message for the specified
 \&\fBTEXTDOMAIN\fR instead of the default domain.  In case you wonder what
 a textdomain is, you should really read on with \fBLocale::TextDomain\fR\|(3).
 .IP "\fBdcgettext TEXTDOMAIN, MSGID, CATEGORY\fR" 4
@@ -251,7 +258,7 @@ the best practice for internationalized
 .Sp
 This is a nuisance for the programmer and often still not sufficient
 for an adequate translation.  Many languages have completely different
-ideas on numerals.  Some (French, Italian, ...) treat 0 and 1 alike,
+ideas on numerals.  Some (French, Italian, ...\&) treat 0 and 1 alike,
 others make no distinction at all (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, ...),
 others have two or more plural forms (Russian, Latvian, Czech,
 Polish, ...).  The solution is:
@@ -265,7 +272,7 @@ Polish, ...).  The solution is:
 .Sp
 In English, or if no translation can be found, the first argument
 (\fBMSGID\fR) is picked if \f(CW$count\fR is one, the second one otherwise.
-For other languages, the correct plural form (of 1, 2, 3, 4, ...)
+For other languages, the correct plural form (of 1, 2, 3, 4, ...\&)
 is automatically picked, too.  You don't have to know anything about
 the plural rules in the target language, \fBngettext()\fR will take care
 of that.
@@ -291,7 +298,7 @@ Returns the translation of MSGID, given
 Both items are used as a unique key into the message catalog.
 .Sp
 This allows the translator to have two entries for words that may
-translate to different foreign words based on their context. For
+translate to different foreign words based on their context.  For
 example, the word "View" may be a noun or a verb, which may be
 used in a menu as File\->View or View\->Source.
 .Sp
@@ -304,7 +311,7 @@ The above will both lookup different ent
 .Sp
 A typical usage are GUI programs.  Imagine a program with a main
 menu and the notorious "Open" entry in the "File" menu.  Now imagine,
-there is another menu entry Preferences\->Advanced\->Policy where you have 
+there is another menu entry Preferences\->Advanced\->Policy where you have
 a choice between the alternatives "Open" and "Closed".  In English, "Open"
 is the adequate text at both places.  In other languages, it is very
 likely that you need two different translations.  Therefore, you would
@@ -321,7 +328,7 @@ In English, or if no translation can be
 The function was introduced with libintl-perl version 1.17.
 .IP "\fBdpgettext TEXTDOMAIN, MSGCTXT, MSGID\fR" 4
 .IX Item "dpgettext TEXTDOMAIN, MSGCTXT, MSGID"
-Like \fBpgettext()\fR, but retrieves the message for the specified 
+Like \fBpgettext()\fR, but retrieves the message for the specified
 \&\fBTEXTDOMAIN\fR instead of the default domain.
 .Sp
 The function was introduced with libintl-perl version 1.17.
@@ -356,7 +363,7 @@ The function was introduced with libintl
 Sets the default textdomain (initially 'messages').
 .IP "\fBbindtextdomain TEXTDOMAIN, DIRECTORY\fR" 4
 .IX Item "bindtextdomain TEXTDOMAIN, DIRECTORY"
-Binds \fBTEXTDOMAIN\fR to \fBDIRECTORY\fR.  Huh? An example:
+Binds \fBTEXTDOMAIN\fR to \fBDIRECTORY\fR.  Huh?  An example:
 .Sp
 .Vb 1
 \&    bindtextdomain "my\-package", "./mylocale";
@@ -377,8 +384,8 @@ Sets the output encoding for \fBTEXTDOMA
 By default, Locale::Messages will turn the utf\-8 flag of all returned
 messages off.  If you want to change this behavior, you can pass
 a reference to a subroutine that does different things \- for example
-turn the utf\-8 flag on, or leave it untouched.  The callback function 
-will be called with \fBDATA\fR as the first, and the possibly 
+turn the utf\-8 flag on, or leave it untouched.  The callback function
+will be called with \fBDATA\fR as the first, and the possibly
 translated string as the second argument.  It should return the
 possibly modified string.
 .Sp
@@ -386,9 +393,9 @@ If you want an object method to be calle
 in the data parameter and write a wrapper function.  Example:
 .Sp
 .Vb 2
-\&    sub wrapper { 
+\&    sub wrapper {
 \&        my ($string, $obj) = @_;
-\& 
+\&
 \&        $obj\->filterMethod ($string);
 \&    }
 \&    my $obj = MyPackage\->new;
@@ -429,7 +436,7 @@ The function was introduced with libintl
 .IP "\fBselect_package PACKAGE\fR" 4
 .IX Item "select_package PACKAGE"
 By default, \fBLocale::Messages\fR will try to load the XS version of
-the gettext implementation, i. e. \fBLocale::gettext_xs\fR\|(3) and will fall
+the gettext implementation, i.e.\& \fBLocale::gettext_xs\fR\|(3) and will fall
 back to the pure Perl implementation \fBLocale::gettext_pp\fR\|(3).  You can
 override this behavior by passing the string "gettext_pp" or
 "gettext_xs" to the function \fBselect_package()\fR.  Passing "gettext_pp"
@@ -449,7 +456,7 @@ interface as the two standard packages.
 One package that offers that functionality is \fBLocale::gettext_dumb\fR\|(3pm).
 .IP "\fBnl_putenv ENVSPEC\fR" 4
 .IX Item "nl_putenv ENVSPEC"
-Resembles the ANSI C \fBputenv\fR\|(3) function.  The sole purpose of this 
+Resembles the ANSI C \fBputenv\fR\|(3) function.  The sole purpose of this
 function is to work around some ideosyncrasies in the environment
 processing of Windows systems.  If you want to portably set or
 unset environment variables, use this function instead of directly
@@ -480,15 +487,15 @@ delete the variable, no matter which ope
 .Sp
 The function returns true for success, and false for failure.  Possible
 reasons for failure are an invalid syntax or \- only under Windows \-
-failure to allocate space for the new environment entry ($! will be
+failure to allocate space for the new environment entry ($!\& will be
 set accordingly in this case).
 .Sp
 Why all this hassle?  The 32\-bit versions of MS-DOS (currently
 Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/CE/.NET) maintain two distinct blocks
 of environment variables per process.  Which block is considered
 the "correct" environment is a compile-time option of the Perl
-interpreter.  Unfortunately, if you have build the XS version 
-\&\fBLocale::gettext_xs\fR\|(3) under Windows, the underlying library may use 
+interpreter.  Unfortunately, if you have build the XS version
+\&\fBLocale::gettext_xs\fR\|(3) under Windows, the underlying library may use
 a different environment block, and changes you make to \f(CW%ENV\fR may
 not be visible to the library.
 .Sp
@@ -498,7 +505,7 @@ The function \fBnl_putenv()\fR is mostly
 \&    LANGUAGE=some_value
 .Ve
 .Sp
-but it does its best, to pass this information to the gettext 
+but it does its best, to pass this information to the gettext
 library.  Under other operating systems than Windows, it only
 operates on \f(CW%ENV\fR, under Windows it will call the C library
 function \fB_putenv()\fR (after doing some cleanup to its arguments),
@@ -522,7 +529,7 @@ If you want to avoid problems, you shoul
 the \fBsetlocale()\fR implementation in \fBLocale::Messages\fR\|(3pm).
 .Sp
 See <https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=83980> or
-<https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?38162>, and 
+<https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?38162>, and
 <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?func=detailitem&item_id=44645> for a discussion
 of the problem.
 .Sp
@@ -598,8 +605,6 @@ file \fIlocale.h\fR:
 .IP \fBbind_textdomain_codeset()\fR 8
 .IX Item "bind_textdomain_codeset()"
 .RE
-.RS 4
-.RE
 .IP "\fBuse Locale::Messages (':libintl_h')\fR" 4
 .IX Item "use Locale::Messages (':libintl_h')"
 .PD
@@ -621,8 +626,6 @@ Imports the locale category constants:
 .IP \fBLC_ALL\fR 8
 .IX Item "LC_ALL"
 .RE
-.RS 4
-.RE
 .PD
 .SH "OTHER EXPORTS"
 .IX Header "OTHER EXPORTS"
@@ -654,7 +657,7 @@ domain specification should be retrieved
 for the domain 'my\-package'.  Line 5 has the effect that the message
 catalog will be searched under the directory \fI/usr/local/share/locale\fR.
 .PP
-If the user has selected the locale 'fr_CH', and if the file 
+If the user has selected the locale 'fr_CH', and if the file
 \&\fI/usr/local/share/locale/fr_CH/LC_MESSAGES/my\-package.mo\fR
 exists, and if it contains a GNU message object file with a translation
 for the string "Hello world!\en", then line 7 will print the French
@@ -686,7 +689,7 @@ files under \fI/usr/share/locale\fR, the
 See \fBLocale::TextDomain\fR\|(3) for much simpler ways.
 .SH AUTHOR
 .IX Header "AUTHOR"
-Copyright (C) 2002\-2026 Guido Flohr <http://www.guido-flohr.net/>
+Copyright (C) 2002\(en2026 Guido Flohr <http://www.guido\-flohr.net/>
 (<mailto:guido.flohr at cantanea.com>), all rights reserved.  See the source
 code for details!code for details!
 .SH "SEE ALSO"
-------------- 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

-.-

  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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