PROBLEMS revision 69626
1This file describes various problems that have been encountered in 2compiling, installing and running groff. Suggestions for additions or 3other improvements to this file are welcome. 4 5---------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 7* My document says that the current year is 19100, not 2000. 8 9In groff, as in traditional troff, the yr number register yields the 10year minus 1900. Unfortunately, there is a longstanding bug in the 11Troff User's Manual <http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/cstr/54.ps.gz>, 12which incorrectly claims that yr is the last two digits of the year. 13This claim was never true of either Unix troff or of groff. 14 15If your text looks like this: 16 17 .\" Wrong: 18 This document was formatted in 19\n(yr. 19 20you can correct it as follows: 21 22 This document was formatted in \n[year]. 23 24or, if you want to be portable to older troff versions, as follows: 25 26 .nr y4 1900+\n(yr 27 This document was formatted in \n(y4. 28 29---------------------------------------------------------------------- 30 31* I get lots of `numeric overflow' error messages whenever I run 32 groff; I compiled groff with AT&T C++ 2.0 with an ANSI C compiler. 33 34Make sure -DCFRONT_ANSI_BUG is included in DEFINES in the top-level 35Makefile. If that doesn't solve the problem, define INT_MIN as 36-INT_MAX in libgroff/lib.h. 37 38---------------------------------------------------------------------- 39 40* I get errors when I try to compile groff with Sun C++ version 5.0 41 or 5.1. 42 43This is a known problem; see Sun bug #4301919. As of this writing, no 44patch is available. Use GCC 2.95.2 or later instead. 45 46---------------------------------------------------------------------- 47 48* I get errors when I try to compile groff with Sun C++ version 3 or 49 earlier. 50 51Groff requires header files that are moderately compatible with AT&T 52C++ and ANSI C. With some versions of Sun C++, the supplied header 53files need some of the following changes to meet this requirement: 54<string.h> must declare the mem* functions, (just add `#include 55<memory.h>' to <string.h>); the first argument to fopen and freopen 56should be declared as `const char *'; the first argument to fread 57should be declared as `void *'; the first argument to fwrite should be 58declared as `const void *'; malloc should be declared to return 59`void *'; in <alloca.h>, the declaration `extern "C" { void 60*__builtin_alloca(int); }' should be added; in <sys/signal.h> the 61return type and the second argument type of signal() should be changed 62to be `void (*)(int)'. 63 64You can either change them in place, or copy them to some other 65directory and include that directory with a -I option. 66 67---------------------------------------------------------------------- 68 69* The configure script fails on OS/390 Unix. 70 71There is a bug in the Language Environment (LE) whereby the test 72program for static destructors fails. You will see the message 73'configure: error: a working C++ compiler is required' 74 75Applying PTF UQ42006 is supposed to fix this, but the test program is 76still returning the wrong value (1). To work around this problem, you 77can comment out the following in the configure script (near line 956). 78This will effectively bypass the test (static constructors and 79destructors do actually work properly): 80 81#if { (eval echo configure:957: \"$ac_link\") 1>&5; (eval $ac_link) 2>&5; } && test -s conftest${ac_exeext} && (./conftest; exit) 2>/dev/null 82#then 83 echo "$ac_t""yes" 1>&6 84#else 85# echo "configure: failed program was:" >&5 86# cat conftest.$ac_ext >&5 87# rm -fr conftest* 88# echo "$ac_t""no" 1>&6;{ echo "configure: error: a working C++ compiler is required" 1>&2; exit 1; } 89#fi 90 91---------------------------------------------------------------------- 92 93* I get errors when I try to compile groff with DEC C++. 94 95Fix the declaration of write() in <unistd.h> so that the second 96argument is a const char *. Fix the declaration of open() in 97<sys/file.h> so that the first argument is a const char *. 98 99---------------------------------------------------------------------- 100 101* On a host using Unix make (e.g. Solaris), if you are compiling for 102 multiple architectures by building in a subdirectory, the make stops 103 with a message like this: 104 105 make: Fatal error: Don't know how to make target `assert.o' 106 107 or like this: 108 109 make: Fatal error: Can't find /u/src/groff/src/include/Makefile.sub': No such file or directory 110 111This occurs because GNU make and Unix make handle VPATH differently, 112and the groff build relies on GNU make's VPATH handling. 113 114Use GNU make to work around the problem. In Solaris 8, GNU make is 115on the Software Companion CD and is installed as /opt/sfw/bin/gmake. 116 117---------------------------------------------------------------------- 118 119* On Ultrix, the make stops with the message 120 121 *** Error code 1 122 123 Stop. 124 125for no apparent reason. 126 127Use GNU make. 128 129---------------------------------------------------------------------- 130 131* I'm having problems compiling groff on 386BSD 0.1. 132 133If you're using ash as /bin/sh, you'll need the following patch. 134 135*** gendef.sh.org Sun Jun 30 13:30:36 1991 136--- gendef.sh Sun Feb 28 10:23:49 1993 137*************** 138*** 3,9 **** 139 file=$1 140 shift 141 142! defs="#define $1" 143 shift 144 for def 145 do 146--- 3,10 ---- 147 file=$1 148 shift 149 150! x=$1 151! defs="#define $x" 152 shift 153 for def 154 do 155 156You'll also need to change dirnamemax.c so that it doesn't use 157pathconf(). 158 159---------------------------------------------------------------------- 160 161* While compiling on Xenix, ranlib libgroff.a fails. 162 163The system ranlib can't handle externals longer than 40 characters. 164Use the ranlib included in demon.co.uk:/pub/xenix/g++-1.40.3a.v1 165instead. 166 167---------------------------------------------------------------------- 168 169* There are many empty `Makefile.dep' files. Is this a bug? 170 171No. Real dependency files are created with a `make depend' call. 172 173---------------------------------------------------------------------- 174 175* Groff can't handle my troff document. It works fine with AT&T troff. 176 177Read the section on incompatibilities in gtroff(1). Try using the -C 178option. Alternatively there's the sed script in tmac/fixmacros.sed 179which will attempt to edit a file of macros so that it can be used 180with groff without the -C flag. 181 182---------------------------------------------------------------------- 183 184* groff -Tdvi produces dvi files that use fonts at weird 185 magnifications. 186 187Yes, it does. You may need to compile fonts with Metafont at these 188magnifications. The CompileFonts script in the devdvi/generate 189directory may help you to do this. (It will take a *long* time.) 190 191---------------------------------------------------------------------- 192 193* pic output is not centered horizontally; pictures sometimes run off 194 the bottom of the page. 195 196The macro package you are using is not supplying appropriate 197definitions of PS and PE. Give groff a -mpic option. 198 199---------------------------------------------------------------------- 200 201* I'm having problems including PostScript illustrations using the 202 PSPIC macro. 203 204A PostScript document must meet three requirements in order to be 205included with the PSPIC macro: it must comply with the Adobe Document 206Structuring Conventions; it must contain a BoundingBox line; it must 207be ``well-behaved''. The BoundingBox line should be of the form: 208 209 %%BoundingBox: llx lly urx ury 210 211where llx, lly, urx, ury are the coordinates of the lower left x, 212lower left y, upper right x, upper right y of the bounding box of 213marks on the page expressed as integers in the default PostScript 214coordinate system (72 units per inch, origin at bottom left corner). 215A useful tactic is to print out the illustration by itself (you may 216need to add a `showpage' at the end), and physically measure the 217bounding box. For more detail on these requirements, read the 218specification of Encapsulated PostScript format. (This is available 219from the Adobe file server; send a message with a body of `help' to 220ps-file-server@adobe.com.) 221 222---------------------------------------------------------------------- 223 224* I've configured groff for A4 paper, but gtroff still seems to think 225 that the length of a page (as returned by \n(.p) is 11 inches. 226 227This is intentional. The PAGE option is used only by grops. For 228compatibility with ditroff, the default page length in gtroff is 229always 11 inches. The page length can be changed with the `pl' 230request. 231 232---------------------------------------------------------------------- 233 234* Groff doesn't use the font names I'm used to. 235 236Use the `ftr' request. See gtroff(1). 237 238---------------------------------------------------------------------- 239 240* I get errors using the Unix -ms macros with groff -e -C. 241 242Apply this change: 243 244*** /usr/lib/ms/ms.eqn Tue Apr 25 02:14:28 1989 245--- ms.eqn Sun Nov 11 10:33:59 1990 246*************** 247*** 22,29 **** 248 .. 249 . \" EN - end of a displayed equation 250 .de EN 251! .if !\\*(10 .br 252 .di 253 .rm EZ 254 .nr ZN \\n(dn 255 .if \\n(ZN>0 .if \\n(YE=0 .LP 256--- 22,30 ---- 257 .. 258 . \" EN - end of a displayed equation 259 .de EN 260! .if \\n(.k>0 .br 261 .di 262+ .ds 10 \\*(EZ\\ 263 .rm EZ 264 .nr ZN \\n(dn 265 .if \\n(ZN>0 .if \\n(YE=0 .LP 266 267---------------------------------------------------------------------- 268 269* gpic doesn't accept the syntax `chop N M' for chopping both ends of 270 a line. 271 272The correct syntax is `chop N chop M'. 273 274---------------------------------------------------------------------- 275 276* With gpic -t, when I print `line ->; box' using a dvi to ps program, 277 the arrow head sticks through into the inside of the box. 278 279The dvi to ps program should be modified to set the line cap and line 280join parameters to 1 while printing tpic specials. 281 282---------------------------------------------------------------------- 283 284* When I print the output groff -Tps, the output is always shifted up 285 by about 0.7 inches; I'm using 8.5x11 inch paper. 286 287Make sure that PAGE is defined to be `letter' in the top-level 288Makefile. 289 290---------------------------------------------------------------------- 291 292* When I try to print the output of groff -Tps, I get no output at all 293 from the printer, and the log file shows the error 294 %%[ error: undefined; offendingcommand: BP ]%% 295 I'm using TranScript spooling software. 296 297This is a bug in the page reversal filter in early versions of 298TranScript. Change the `broken' parameter in 299/usr/local/lib/groff/font/devps/DESC to 7. 300 301---------------------------------------------------------------------- 302 303* When I preview groff -Tps output using the Sun OpenWindows 2.0 304 pageview program, all the pages are displayed on top of each other. 305 306This is a defect in pageview. Change the `broken' parameter in 307/usr/local/lib/groff/font/devps/DESC to 2. 308 309---------------------------------------------------------------------- 310 311* With groff -TX75, -TX100 or -X, I can only view the first page. 312 313The left mouse button brings up a menu that allows you to view other 314pages. 315 316---------------------------------------------------------------------- 317 318* When I print the output of groff -Tdvi, I just get a black dot in 319 upper left corner. 320 321Some dvi drivers (notably early versions of xtex) do not correctly 322handle dvi files that use a resolution different from that used by dvi 323files produced by TeX. Try getting a more up to date driver. 324 325---------------------------------------------------------------------- 326 327* I get lots of errors when I use groff with the AT&T -mm macros. 328 329The AT&T -mm macros need a few changes to work with groff; `make 330install.dwbmm' will copy your -mm macros to groff's macro directory 331and make the necessary changes. You may need to edit the commands for 332the install.mm target in the Makefile. Alternatively use the groff 333-mm macros. 334 335---------------------------------------------------------------------- 336 337* gtroff doesn't understand lines like `.ce99' with no space between 338 the name of the request or macro and the arguments. 339 340gtroff requires a space between macro or request and its arguments 341because it allows the use of long names for macros and requests. You 342can use the -C option or the `cp' request to put gtroff into a 343compatibility mode in which it is not possible to use long names for 344macros but in which no space is required between macros and their 345arguments. The use of compatibility mode is strongly discouraged. 346 347---------------------------------------------------------------------- 348 349* gtroff gives warnings about lines like 350 .ev \" a comment 351 (with a tab after the .ev). 352 353A tab character cannot be used as a substitute for a space character 354(except in one case: between a control character at the beginning of a 355line and the name of a macro or request). For example, in Unix troff 356 357 .ps \" restore the previous point size 358 359(with a tab after the .ps) will NOT restore the previous point-size; 360instead it will be silently ignored. Since this is very likely to be 361an error, gtroff can give a warning about it. If you want to align 362comments, you can do it like this: 363 364 .ev\" \" a comment 365 366---------------------------------------------------------------------- 367 368* I don't like the page headers and footers produced by groff -man. 369 370There seem to be many different styles of page header and footer 371produced by different versions of the -man macros. You will need to 372modify macros/tmac.an to suit your personal taste. For example, if 373you want the center of the page header to say 374 375 System Programmer's Manual 376 377you will need to change the line 378 379 .el .ds an-extra3 \"System Programmer's Manual 380 381to 382 383 .el .ds an-extra3 System Programmer's Manual 384 385---------------------------------------------------------------------- 386 387* While formatting a manual page, groff complains about not being able 388 to break lines. The problem seems to be caused by a line like: 389 .TP \w'label'+2 390 391The -man documentation says that the default scale indicator for TP 392macro is `n'. The groff -man macros implement this correctly, so that 393the argument will be evaluated as if it were 394 395 \w'label'n+2n 396 397The Unix -man macros don't implement this correctly (probably because 398it's hard to do in Unix troff); they just append `n' to the entire 399argument, so that it will be evaluated as if it were 400 401 \w'label'u+2n 402 403The solution is to fix the manual page: 404 405 .TP \w'label'u+2 406 407---------------------------------------------------------------------- 408 409* I'm having problems formatting Ultrix man pages with groff -man. 410 411The Ultrix man pages use a number of non-standard extensions to the 412Unix man macros. One solution is to use the Ultrix -man macros with 413groff. Rename /usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.an to 414/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.an.gnu, copy /usr/lib/tmac/tmac.an to 415/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.an and apply the following patch (from 416Frank Wortner): 417 418*** /usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.an Wed Sep 9 12:29:28 1992 419--- /usr/lib/tmac/tmac.an Fri Jul 24 19:58:19 1992 420*************** 421*** 489,495 **** 422 . \" make special case of shift out of italic 423 .de }S 424 .ds ]F 425! .if \\$12 .if !\\$5 .ds ]F \^ 426 .ie !\\$4 .}S \\$2 \\$1 "\\$3\f\\$1\\$4\\*(]F" "\\$5" "\\$6" "\\$7" "\\$8" "\\$9" 427 .el \\$3 428 .}f 429--- 489,495 ---- 430 . \" make special case of shift out of italic 431 .de }S 432 .ds ]F 433! .if \\$12 .if !\\$5 .ds ]F\^ 434 .ie !\\$4 .}S \\$2 \\$1 "\\$3\f\\$1\\$4\\*(]F" "\\$5" "\\$6" "\\$7" "\\$8" "\\$9" 435 .el \\$3 436 .}f 437 438Another possible solution is to install tmac/man.ultrix as 439/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/man.local. 440 441---------------------------------------------------------------------- 442 443* I'm having problems formatting HP-UX 9.0 man pages with groff -man. 444 445Rename /usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.an to (for example) 446/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.gan, copy HP's tmac.an into 447/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.an, and either put `.cp 1' at the 448beginning or filter it (and any files it .so's) through 449tmac/fixmacros.sed. 450 451---------------------------------------------------------------------- 452 453* I'm having problems formatting man pages produced by the perl 454 wrapman script. 455 456Some versions of wrapman have a superfluous blank line before the .TH 457line. This must be deleted. Then either use groff -C, or apply the 458following patch: 459 460*** wrapman.~2~ Sun Jan 19 12:10:24 1992 461--- wrapman Tue Aug 10 02:06:41 1993 462*************** 463*** 35,41 **** 464 $line1 .= <IN> if $line1 =~ /eval/; 465 $line1 .= <IN> if $line1 =~ /argv/; 466 $line2 = <IN>; 467! next if $line2 eq "'di';\n"; 468 469 # Pull the old switcheroo. 470 471--- 35,41 ---- 472 $line1 .= <IN> if $line1 =~ /eval/; 473 $line1 .= <IN> if $line1 =~ /argv/; 474 $line2 = <IN>; 475! next if $line2 eq "'di ';\n" || $line2 eq "'di';\n"; 476 477 # Pull the old switcheroo. 478 479*************** 480*** 49,56 **** 481 482 print OUT $line1; 483 print OUT <<EOF; 484! 'di'; 485! 'ig00'; 486 # 487 # $header 488 # 489--- 49,58 ---- 490 491 print OUT $line1; 492 print OUT <<EOF; 493! 'di '; 494! 'ds 00 \\"'; 495! 'eo '; 496! 'ig 00 '; 497 # 498 # $header 499 # 500*************** 501*** 72,85 **** 502 503 # These next few lines are legal in both Perl and nroff. 504 505! $null.00; # finish .ig 506 507 'di \\" finish diversion--previous line must be blank 508 .nr nl 0-1 \\" fake up transition to first page again 509 .nr % 0 \\" start at page 1 510! '; __END__ ##### From here on it's a standard manual page ##### 511 .TH $PROG 1 "$month $mday, 19$year" 512- .AT 3 513 .SH NAME 514 $prog \\- whatever 515 .SH SYNOPSIS 516--- 74,87 ---- 517 518 # These next few lines are legal in both Perl and nroff. 519 520! $null.00 ; # finish .ig 521! 'ec \\'; 522 523 'di \\" finish diversion--previous line must be blank 524 .nr nl 0-1 \\" fake up transition to first page again 525 .nr % 0 \\" start at page 1 526! .\\"'; __END__ ##### From here on it's a standard manual page ##### 527 .TH $PROG 1 "$month $mday, 19$year" 528 .SH NAME 529 $prog \\- whatever 530 .SH SYNOPSIS 531 532 533---------------------------------------------------------------------- 534 535* When I preview documents using -TX75 or -TX100, the layout is not 536 the same as when I print the document with -Tps: the line and page 537 breaks come in different places. 538 539Use groff -X -Tps. 540 541---------------------------------------------------------------------- 542 543* When I try to run gxditview, I get the error: 544 Error: Widget viewport has zero width and/or height 545 546This error means you haven't correctly installed the application 547defaults file, GXditview.ad; ``make install'' does this for you 548automatically, so either you didn't do ``make install'', or you don't 549have imake configured correctly. 550 551---------------------------------------------------------------------- 552 553* groff uses up an enormous amount of memory processing large files. 554 I'm using 386BSD 0.1. 555 556386BSD includes an old version of g++, 1.39, which has a bug that 557causes a major memory leak in gtroff. Apply the following fix to g++ 558and recompile groff: 559 560*** cplus-decl.c.~1~ Mon Aug 6 05:28:59 1990 561--- cplus-decl.c Wed Jun 5 08:55:04 1991 562*************** 563*** 7951,7961 **** 564 565 /* At the end, call delete if that's what's requested. */ 566 if (TREE_GETS_DELETE (current_class_type)) 567 exprstmt = build_method_call (build1 (NOP_EXPR, TYPE_POINTER_TO (current_class_type), error_mark_node), 568 get_identifier (OPERATOR_DELETE_FORMAT), 569! build_tree_list (NULL_TREE, integer_zero_node), 570 NULL_TREE, LOOKUP_NORMAL); 571 else if (TYPE_USES_VIRTUAL_BASECLASSES (current_class_type)) 572 exprstmt = build_x_delete (ptr_type_node, current_class_decl, 0); 573 else 574 exprstmt = 0; 575--- 7951,7961 ---- 576 577 /* At the end, call delete if that's what's requested. */ 578 if (TREE_GETS_DELETE (current_class_type)) 579 exprstmt = build_method_call (build1 (NOP_EXPR, TYPE_POINTER_TO (current_class_type), error_mark_node), 580 get_identifier (OPERATOR_DELETE_FORMAT), 581! build_tree_list (NULL_TREE, current_class_decl), 582 NULL_TREE, LOOKUP_NORMAL); 583 else if (TYPE_USES_VIRTUAL_BASECLASSES (current_class_type)) 584 exprstmt = build_x_delete (ptr_type_node, current_class_decl, 0); 585 else 586 exprstmt = 0; 587 588---------------------------------------------------------------------- 589 590* Where can I get grap? 591 592Ted Faber <faber@lunabase.org> has written a freely available grap: 593 594 http://www.lunabase.org/~faber/Vault/software/grap/ 595 596---------------------------------------------------------------------- 597 598* How can I use groff with an old LaserJet printer that doesn't work 599 with groff -Tlj4? 600 601You have at least 3 options: 602 603- use groff -Tps with GNU Ghostscript; 604 605- use groff -Tdvi with a TeX .dvi to Laserjet driver; 606 607- use groff with the LaserJet driver in Chris Lewis' psroff package 608 (available for ftp from: 609 ftp.uunet.ca:/distrib/chris_lewis/psroff3.0pl17). 610 611---------------------------------------------------------------------- 612 613* Groff seems to generate level 3 Postscript, but my printer is only a 614 level 1 or 2 PostScript printer. 615 616In fact groff generates only level 1 PostScript. The `%!PS-Adobe-3.0' 617comment at the beginning of PostScript output generated by groff 618indicates that the file conforms to version 3.0 of the Adobe Document 619Structuring Conventions. The output generated by groff should be 620printable on any PostScript printer. Problems with groff output's not 621printing are most often caused by the spooling system. 622 623---------------------------------------------------------------------- 624 625* The \n(st and \n(sb registers don't seem to work. I thought \w set 626 them to the height and depth of its argument, but the registers 627 always seem to be 0. 628 629\n(st and \n(sb aren't supposed to give the height and depth of the 630string rather they give the minimum and maximum vertical displacement 631of the baseline. For example for \v'2u'\v'-3u', \n(st will be 1 and 632\n(sb will be -2. The height and depth of the string is available in 633the \n[rst] and \n[rsb] registers: these are groff extensions. 634 635---------------------------------------------------------------------- 636 637* On an SGI system, how can I make the man command use groff? 638 639From David Hinds <dhinds@allegro.stanford.edu> (some of these steps 640are unnecessary if you install with the `g' Makefile variable defined 641as empty): 642 643Create a script called 'eqn': 644 645 > #!/bin/sh 646 > if [ ${1:-""} = /usr/pub/eqnchar ] ; then shift ; fi 647 > geqn $* 648 649and a script called 'neqn': 650 651 > #!/bin/sh 652 > if [ ${1:-""} = /usr/pub/eqnchar ] ; then shift ; fi 653 > geqn -Tascii $* 654 655and do: 656 657 > ln -s gnroff nroff 658 659and edit the end of the gnroff script to be: 660 661 > rest=`echo ${1+"$@"} | sed -e 's+/usr/lib/tmac+/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac+'` 662 > exec groff -Wall -mtty-char $T $opts $rest 663 664To get PostScript output from 'man -t', you also need to create a 665'psroff' script similar to 'nroff'. Here are the context diffs: 666 667*** /usr/local/bin/nroff Sat Feb 13 15:51:09 1993 668--- /usr/local/bin/psroff Sat Feb 13 17:45:46 1993 669*************** 670*** 1,8 **** 671 #!/bin/sh 672! # Emulate nroff with groff. 673 674 prog="$0" 675! T=-Tascii 676 opts= 677 678 for i 679--- 1,8 ---- 680 #!/bin/sh 681! # Emulate psroff with groff. 682 683 prog="$0" 684! T=-Tps 685 opts= 686 687 for i 688*************** 689*** 25,30 **** 690--- 25,33 ---- 691 -Tascii|-Tlatin1) 692 T=$1 693 ;; 694+ -t) 695+ # ignore -- default is send to stdout 696+ ;; 697 -T*) 698 # ignore other devices 699 ;; 700*************** 701*** 49,53 **** 702 rest=`echo ${1+"$@"} | sed -e 's+/usr/lib/tmac+/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac+'` 703 704 # This shell script is intended for use with man, so warnings are 705 # probably not wanted. Also load nroff-style character definitions. 706! exec groff -Wall -mtty-char $T $opts $rest 707--- 52,56 ---- 708 rest=`echo ${1+"$@"} | sed -e 's+/usr/lib/tmac+/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac+'` 709 710 # This shell script is intended for use with man, so warnings are 711! # probably not wanted. 712! exec groff -Wall $T $opts $rest 713