[DSE-Dev] sepol_check_context.3: Some remarks and a patch with editorial changes for this man page
Bjarni Ingi Gislason
bjarniig at simnet.is
Wed Jul 15 14:50:11 BST 2026
Package: libsepol-dev
Version: 3.11-1
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.
-.-
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 ' \\"' <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 -rCHECKSTYLE=0 -ww -z ":
troff:<stdin>:16: warning: trailing whitespace [-w trail]
troff:<stdin>:19: warning: end of sentence detected before end of text line [-w style]
Output from "test-nroff -mandoc -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -rCHECKSTYLE=0 -ww -z ":
troff:<stdin>:16: warning: trailing whitespace [-w trail]
troff:<stdin>:19: 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 7.1.3+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 libsepol-dev depends on:
ii libsepol2 3.11-1
libsepol-dev recommends no packages.
libsepol-dev suggests no packages.
-- no debconf information
-------------- next part --------------
Input file is sepol_check_context.3
Output from "mandoc -T lint sepol_check_context.3": (shortened list)
1 STYLE: input text line longer than 80 bytes
1 STYLE: whitespace at end of input line
Find trailing whitespace with:
grep -n -e ' $' -e ' \\f.$' -e ' \\"' -e ' "$' <man page>
-.-.
Output from
test-groff mandoc -Kutf8 -ww -z sepol_check_context.3: (shortened list)
1 end of sentence detected before end of text line [-w style]
1 trailing whitespace [-w trail]
Find trailing whitespace with:
grep -n -e ' $' -e ' \\f.$' -e ' \\"' -e ' "$' <man page>
-.-.
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".
Number of lines affected is
1
-.-.
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.
17:.B setfiles -c
-.-.
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.
Line 1, length 121
.TH "sepol_check_context" "3" "15 March 2005" "stephen.smalley.work at gmail.com" "SE Linux binary policy API documentation"
Longest line is number 1 with 121 characters
-.-.
Split a punctuation from a single argument, if a two-font macro is meant.
15:.B sepol_set_policydb_from_file.
-.-.
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.
sepol_check_context.3:1:.TH "sepol_check_context" "3" "15 March 2005" "stephen.smalley.work at gmail.com" "SE Linux binary policy API documentation"
sepol_check_context.3:2:.SH "NAME"
sepol_check_context.3:4:.SH "SYNOPSIS"
sepol_check_context.3:11:.SH "DESCRIPTION"
-.-.
Output from "test-groff -mandoc -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -rCHECKSTYLE=0 -ww -z ":
troff:<stdin>:16: warning: trailing whitespace [-w trail]
troff:<stdin>:19: warning: end of sentence detected before end of text line [-w style]
-.-
Generally:
Split (sometimes) lines after a punctuation mark; before a conjunction.
Adjustment to both margins and hyphenation are unnecessary (and just waste
resources) in nroff mode for man pages; add
.if n \{\
. nh
. nr HY 0
. ad l
. ds AD l
.\}
-.-
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 --------------
--- sepol_check_context.3 2026-07-14 23:07:09.770360172 +0000
+++ sepol_check_context.3.new 2026-07-14 23:20:43.593819167 +0000
@@ -1,22 +1,24 @@
-.TH "sepol_check_context" "3" "15 March 2005" "stephen.smalley.work at gmail.com" "SE Linux binary policy API documentation"
-.SH "NAME"
+.TH sepol_check_context 3 "15 March 2005" stephen.smalley.work at gmail.com \
+"SE Linux binary policy API documentation"
+.SH NAME
sepol_check_context \- Check the validity of a security context against a binary policy.
-.SH "SYNOPSIS"
+.SH SYNOPSIS
.B #include <sepol/sepol.h>
.sp
.BI "int sepol_check_context(const char *" context ");"
.sp
.BI "int sepol_set_policydb_from_file(FILE *" fp ");"
-.SH "DESCRIPTION"
+.SH DESCRIPTION
.B sepol_check_context
checks the validity of a security context against a binary policy
previously loaded from a file via
-.B sepol_set_policydb_from_file.
-It is used by
-.B setfiles -c
+.BR sepol_set_policydb_from_file .
+It is used by
+.B setfiles \-c
to validate a file contexts configuration against the binary policy
-upon policy builds. For validating a context against the active
+upon policy builds.
+For validating a context against the active
policy on a SELinux system, use
.B security_check_context
from libselinux instead.
-------------- 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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