PROBLEMS revision 18099
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* I get lots of `numeric overflow' error messages whenever I run 6groff; I compiled groff with AT&T C++ 2.0 with an ANSI C compiler. 7 8Make sure -DCFRONT_ANSI_BUG is included in DEFINES in the top-level 9Makefile. If that doesn't solve the problem, define INT_MIN as 10-INT_MAX in libgroff/lib.h. 11 12* I get errors when I try to compile groff with Sun C++ version 3 or 13earlier. 14 15Groff requires header files that are moderately compatible with AT&T 16C++ and ANSI C. With some versions of Sun C++, the supplied header 17files need some of the following changes to meet this requirement: 18<string.h> must declare the mem* functions, (just add `#include 19<memory.h>' to <string.h>); the first argument to fopen and freopen 20should be declared as `const char *'; the first argument to fread 21should be declared as `void *'; the first argument to fwrite should be 22declared as `const void *'; malloc should be declared to return `void 23*'; in <alloca.h>, the declaration `extern "C" { void 24*__builtin_alloca(int); }' should be added; declarations of getopt(), 25optarg, optind and opterr should be added to <stdlib.h>; in 26<sys/signal.h> the return type and the second argument type of 27signal() should be changed to be `void (*)(int)'. 28 29You can either change them in place, or copy them to some other 30directory and include that directory with a -I option. 31 32* I get errors when I try to compile groff with DEC C++. 33 34Fix the declaration of write() in <unistd.h> so that the second 35argument is a const char *. Fix the declaration of open() in 36<sys/file.h> so that the first argument is a const char *. 37 38* On Ultrix, the make stops with the message 39 40 *** Error code 1 41 42 Stop. 43 44for no apparent reason. 45 46Use GNU make. 47 48* I'm having problems compiling groff on 386BSD 0.1. 49 50If you're using ash as /bin/sh, you'll need the following patch. 51 52*** gendef.sh.org Sun Jun 30 13:30:36 1991 53--- gendef.sh Sun Feb 28 10:23:49 1993 54*************** 55*** 3,9 **** 56 file=$1 57 shift 58 59! defs="#define $1" 60 shift 61 for def 62 do 63--- 3,10 ---- 64 file=$1 65 shift 66 67! x=$1 68! defs="#define $x" 69 shift 70 for def 71 do 72 73You'll also need to change dirnamemax.c so that it doesn't use 74pathconf(). 75 76* While compiling on Xenix, ranlib libgroff.a fails. 77 78The system ranlib can't handle externals longer than 40 characters. 79Use the ranlib included in demon.co.uk:/pub/xenix/g++-1.40.3a.v1 80instead. 81 82* Groff can't handle my troff document. It works fine with AT&T troff. 83 84Read the section on incompatibilities in gtroff(1). Try using the -C 85option. Alternatively there's the sed script in tmac/fixmacros.sed 86which will attempt to edit a file of macros so that it can be used 87with groff without the -C flag. 88 89* groff -Tdvi produces dvi files that use fonts at weird magnifications. 90 91Yes, it does. You may need to compile fonts with Metafont at these 92magnifications. The CompileFonts script in the devdvi/generate 93directory may help you to do this. (It will take a *long* time.) 94 95* pic output is not centered horizontally; pictures sometimes run off 96the bottom of the page. 97 98The macro package you are using is not supplying appropriate definitions 99of PS and PE. Give groff a -mpic option. 100 101* I'm having problems including PostScript illustrations using the PSPIC 102macro. 103 104A PostScript document must meet three requirements in order to be 105included with the PSPIC macro: it must comply with the Adobe Document 106Structuring Conventions; it must contain a BoundingBox line; it must 107be ``well-behaved''. The BoundingBox line should be of the form: 108 109 %%BoundingBox: llx lly urx ury 110 111where llx, lly, urx, ury are the coordinates of the lower left x, 112lower left y, upper right x, upper right y of the bounding box of 113marks on the page expressed as integers in the default PostScript 114coordinate system (72 units per inch, origin at bottom left corner). 115A useful tactic is to print out the illustration by itself (you may 116need to add a `showpage' at the end), and physically measure the 117bounding box. For more detail on these requirements, read the 118specification of Encapsulated PostScript format. (This is available 119from the Adobe file server; send a message with a body of `help' to 120ps-file-server@adobe.com.) 121 122* I've configured groff for A4 paper, but gtroff still seems to think 123that the length of a page (as returned by \n(.p) is 11 inches. 124 125This is intentional. The PAGE option is used only by grops. For 126compatibility with ditroff, the default page length in gtroff is 127always 11 inches. The page length can be changed with the `pl' 128request. 129 130* Groff doesn't use the font names I'm used to. 131 132Use the `ftr' request. See gtroff(1). 133 134* I get errors using the Unix -ms macros with groff -e -C. 135 136Apply this change: 137 138*** /usr/lib/ms/ms.eqn Tue Apr 25 02:14:28 1989 139--- ms.eqn Sun Nov 11 10:33:59 1990 140*************** 141*** 22,29 **** 142 .. 143 . \" EN - end of a displayed equation 144 .de EN 145! .if !\\*(10 .br 146 .di 147 .rm EZ 148 .nr ZN \\n(dn 149 .if \\n(ZN>0 .if \\n(YE=0 .LP 150--- 22,30 ---- 151 .. 152 . \" EN - end of a displayed equation 153 .de EN 154! .if \\n(.k>0 .br 155 .di 156+ .ds 10 \\*(EZ\\ 157 .rm EZ 158 .nr ZN \\n(dn 159 .if \\n(ZN>0 .if \\n(YE=0 .LP 160 161 162* gpic doesn't accept the syntax `chop N M' for chopping both ends of a 163line. 164 165The correct syntax is `chop N chop M'. 166 167* With gpic -t, when I print `line ->; box' using a dvi to ps 168program, the arrow head sticks through into the inside of the box. 169 170The dvi to ps program should be modified to set the line cap and 171line join parameters to 1 while printing tpic specials. 172 173* When I print the output groff -Tps, the output is always shifted up 174by about 0.7 inches; I'm using 8.5x11 inch paper. 175 176Make sure that PAGE is defined to be `letter' in the top-level 177Makefile. 178 179* When I try to print the output of groff -Tps, I get no output at all 180from the printer, and the log file shows the error 181%%[ error: undefined; offendingcommand: BP ]%% 182I using TranScript spooling software. 183 184This is a bug in the page reversal filter in early versions of 185TranScript. Change the `broken' parameter in 186/usr/local/lib/groff/font/devps/DESC to 7. 187 188* When I preview groff -Tps output using the Sun OpenWindows 2.0 pageview 189program, all the pages are displayed on top of each other. 190 191This is a defect in pageview. Change the `broken' parameter in 192/usr/local/lib/groff/font/devps/DESC to 2. 193 194* With groff -TX75, -TX100or -X, I can only view the first page. 195 196The left mouse button brings up a menu that allows you to view other 197pages. 198 199* When I print the output of groff -Tdvi, I just get a black dot in 200upper left corner. 201 202Some dvi drivers (notably early versions of xtex) do not correctly 203handle dvi files that use a resolution different from that used by dvi 204files produced by TeX. Try getting a more up to date driver. 205 206* I get lots of errors when I use groff with the AT&T -mm macros. 207 208The AT&T -mm macros need a few changes to work with groff; `make 209install.dwbmm' will copy your -mm macros to groff's macro directory 210and make the necessary changes. You may need to edit the commands for 211the install.mm target in the Makefile. Alternatively use the groff 212-mm macros. 213 214* gtroff doesn't understand lines like `.ce99' with no space between 215the name of the request or macro and the arguments. 216 217Gtroff requires a space between macro or request and its arguments 218because it allows the use of long names for macros and requests. You 219can use the -C option or the `cp' request to put gtroff into a 220compatibility mode in which it is not possible to use long names for 221macros but in which no space is required between macros and their 222arguments. The use of compatibility mode is strongly discouraged. 223 224* gtroff gives warnings about lines like 225 .ev \" a comment 226(with a tab after the .ev). 227 228A tab character cannot be used as a substitute for a space character 229(except in one case: between a control character at the beginning of a 230line and the name of a macro or request). For example, in Unix troff 231 .ps \" restore the previous point size 232(with a tab after the .ps) will NOT restore the previous point-size; 233instead it will be silently ignored. Since this is very likely to be 234an error, gtroff can give a warning about it. If you want to align 235comments, you can do it like this: 236 .ev\" \" a comment 237 238* I don't like the page headers and footers produced by groff -man. 239 240There seem to be many different styles of page header and footer 241produced by different versions of the -man macros. You will need to 242modify macros/tmac.an to suit your personal taste. For example, if 243you want the center of the page header to say 244 UNIX Programmer's Manual 245you will need to change the line 246 .el .ds an-extra3 \"UNIX Programmer's Manual 247to 248 .el .ds an-extra3 UNIX Programmer's Manual 249 250* While formatting a manual page, groff complains about not being able to 251break lines. The problem seems to be caused by a line like: 252 .TP \w'label'+2 253 254The -man documentation says that the default scale indicator for TP 255macro is `n'. The groff -man macros implement this correctly, so that 256the argument will be evaluated as if it were 257 \w'label'n+2n 258The Unix -man macros don't implement this correctly (probably because 259it's hard to do in Unix troff); they just append `n' to the entire 260argument, so that it will be evaluated as if it were 261 \w'label'u+2n 262The solution is to fix the manual page: 263 .TP \w'label'u+2 264 265* I'm having problems formatting Ultrix man pages with groff -man. 266 267The Ultrix man pages use a number of non-standard extensions to the 268Unix man macros. One solution is to use the Ultrix -man macros with 269groff. Rename /usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.an to 270/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.an.gnu, copy /usr/lib/tmac/tmac.an to 271/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.an and apply the following patch (from 272Frank Wortner): 273 274*** /usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.an Wed Sep 9 12:29:28 1992 275--- /usr/lib/tmac/tmac.an Fri Jul 24 19:58:19 1992 276*************** 277*** 489,495 **** 278 . \" make special case of shift out of italic 279 .de }S 280 .ds ]F 281! .if \\$12 .if !\\$5 .ds ]F \^ 282 .ie !\\$4 .}S \\$2 \\$1 "\\$3\f\\$1\\$4\\*(]F" "\\$5" "\\$6" "\\$7" "\\$8" "\\$9" 283 .el \\$3 284 .}f 285--- 489,495 ---- 286 . \" make special case of shift out of italic 287 .de }S 288 .ds ]F 289! .if \\$12 .if !\\$5 .ds ]F\^ 290 .ie !\\$4 .}S \\$2 \\$1 "\\$3\f\\$1\\$4\\*(]F" "\\$5" "\\$6" "\\$7" "\\$8" "\\$9" 291 .el \\$3 292 .}f 293 294Another possible solution is to install tmac/man.ultrix as 295/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/man.local. 296 297* I'm having problems formatting HP-UX 9.0 man pages with groff -man. 298 299Rename /usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.an to (for example) 300/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.gan, copy HP's tmac.an into 301/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.an, and either put `.cp 1' at the 302beginning or filter it (and any files it .so's) through 303tmac/fixmacros.sed. 304 305* I'm having problems formatting man pages produced by the perl 306wrapman script. 307 308Some versions of wrapman have a superfluous blank line before the .TH 309line. This must be deleted. Then either use groff -C, or apply the 310following patch: 311 312*** wrapman.~2~ Sun Jan 19 12:10:24 1992 313--- wrapman Tue Aug 10 02:06:41 1993 314*************** 315*** 35,41 **** 316 $line1 .= <IN> if $line1 =~ /eval/; 317 $line1 .= <IN> if $line1 =~ /argv/; 318 $line2 = <IN>; 319! next if $line2 eq "'di';\n"; 320 321 # Pull the old switcheroo. 322 323--- 35,41 ---- 324 $line1 .= <IN> if $line1 =~ /eval/; 325 $line1 .= <IN> if $line1 =~ /argv/; 326 $line2 = <IN>; 327! next if $line2 eq "'di ';\n" || $line2 eq "'di';\n"; 328 329 # Pull the old switcheroo. 330 331*************** 332*** 49,56 **** 333 334 print OUT $line1; 335 print OUT <<EOF; 336! 'di'; 337! 'ig00'; 338 # 339 # $header 340 # 341--- 49,58 ---- 342 343 print OUT $line1; 344 print OUT <<EOF; 345! 'di '; 346! 'ds 00 \\"'; 347! 'eo '; 348! 'ig 00 '; 349 # 350 # $header 351 # 352*************** 353*** 72,85 **** 354 355 # These next few lines are legal in both Perl and nroff. 356 357! $null.00; # finish .ig 358 359 'di \\" finish diversion--previous line must be blank 360 .nr nl 0-1 \\" fake up transition to first page again 361 .nr % 0 \\" start at page 1 362! '; __END__ ##### From here on it's a standard manual page ##### 363 .TH $PROG 1 "$month $mday, 19$year" 364- .AT 3 365 .SH NAME 366 $prog \\- whatever 367 .SH SYNOPSIS 368--- 74,87 ---- 369 370 # These next few lines are legal in both Perl and nroff. 371 372! $null.00 ; # finish .ig 373! 'ec \\'; 374 375 'di \\" finish diversion--previous line must be blank 376 .nr nl 0-1 \\" fake up transition to first page again 377 .nr % 0 \\" start at page 1 378! .\\"'; __END__ ##### From here on it's a standard manual page ##### 379 .TH $PROG 1 "$month $mday, 19$year" 380 .SH NAME 381 $prog \\- whatever 382 .SH SYNOPSIS 383 384 385* When I preview documents using -TX75 or -TX100, the layout is not the same 386as when I print the document with -Tps: the line and page breaks come 387in different places. 388 389Use groff -X -Tps. 390 391* When I try to run gxditview, I get the error: 392Error: Widget viewport has zero width and/or height 393 394This error means you haven't correctly installed the application 395defaults file, GXditview.ad; ``make install'' does this for you 396automatically, so either you didn't do ``make install'', or you don't 397have imake configured correctly. 398 399* groff uses up an enormous amount of memory processing large files. 400I'm using 386BSD 0.1. 401 402386BSD includes an old version of g++, 1.39, which has a bug that 403causes a major memory leak in gtroff. Apply the following fix to g++ 404and recompile groff: 405 406*** cplus-decl.c.~1~ Mon Aug 6 05:28:59 1990 407--- cplus-decl.c Wed Jun 5 08:55:04 1991 408*************** 409*** 7951,7961 **** 410 411 /* At the end, call delete if that's what's requested. */ 412 if (TREE_GETS_DELETE (current_class_type)) 413 exprstmt = build_method_call (build1 (NOP_EXPR, TYPE_POINTER_TO (current_class_type), error_mark_node), 414 get_identifier (OPERATOR_DELETE_FORMAT), 415! build_tree_list (NULL_TREE, integer_zero_node), 416 NULL_TREE, LOOKUP_NORMAL); 417 else if (TYPE_USES_VIRTUAL_BASECLASSES (current_class_type)) 418 exprstmt = build_x_delete (ptr_type_node, current_class_decl, 0); 419 else 420 exprstmt = 0; 421--- 7951,7961 ---- 422 423 /* At the end, call delete if that's what's requested. */ 424 if (TREE_GETS_DELETE (current_class_type)) 425 exprstmt = build_method_call (build1 (NOP_EXPR, TYPE_POINTER_TO (current_class_type), error_mark_node), 426 get_identifier (OPERATOR_DELETE_FORMAT), 427! build_tree_list (NULL_TREE, current_class_decl), 428 NULL_TREE, LOOKUP_NORMAL); 429 else if (TYPE_USES_VIRTUAL_BASECLASSES (current_class_type)) 430 exprstmt = build_x_delete (ptr_type_node, current_class_decl, 0); 431 else 432 exprstmt = 0; 433 434* Where can I get grap? 435 436Grap is not freely available, but there is a nawk script implementing 437an extended subset of grap available for ftp as 438ftp.informatik.uni-rostock.de:/pub/local/software/prag-1.0.shar.gz. 439 440* How can I use groff with an old LaserJet printer that doesn't work 441with groff -Tlj4? 442 443You have at least 3 options: 444 445- use groff -Tps with GNU Ghostscript; 446 447- use groff -Tdvi with a TeX .dvi to Laserjet driver; 448 449- use groff with the LaserJet driver in Chris Lewis' psroff package 450(available for ftp from: 451ftp.uunet.ca:/distrib/chris_lewis/psroff3.0pl17). 452 453* Groff seems to generate level 3 Postscript, but my printer is only a 454level 1 or 2 PostScript printer. 455 456In fact groff generates only level 1 PostScript. The `%!PS-Adobe-3.0' 457comment at the beginning of PostScript output generated by groff 458indicates that the file conforms to version 3.0 of the Adobe Document 459Structuring Conventions. The output generated by groff should be 460printable on any PostScript printer. Problems with groff output's not 461printing are most often caused by the spooling system. 462 463* The \n(st and \n(sb registers don't seem to work. I thought \w set 464them to the height and depth of its argument, but the registers always 465seem to be 0. 466 467\n(st and \n(sb aren't supposed to give the height and depth of the 468string rather they give the minimum and maximum vertical displacement 469of the baseline. For example for \v'2u'\v'-3u', \n(st will be 1 and 470\n(sb will be -2. The height and depth of the string is available in 471the \n[rst] and \n[rsb] registers: these are groff extensions. 472 473* On an SGI system, how can I make the man command use groff? 474 475From David Hinds <dhinds@allegro.stanford.edu> (some of these steps 476are unnecessary if you install with the `g' Makefile variable defined 477as empty): 478 479Create a script called 'eqn': 480 481 > #!/bin/sh 482 > if [ ${1:-""} = /usr/pub/eqnchar ] ; then shift ; fi 483 > geqn $* 484 485and a script called 'neqn': 486 487 > #!/bin/sh 488 > if [ ${1:-""} = /usr/pub/eqnchar ] ; then shift ; fi 489 > geqn -Tascii $* 490 491and do: 492 493 > ln -s gnroff nroff 494 495and edit the end of the gnroff script to be: 496 497 > rest=`echo ${1+"$@"} | sed -e 's+/usr/lib/tmac+/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac+'` 498 > exec groff -Wall -mtty-char $T $opts $rest 499 500To get PostScript output from 'man -t', you also need to create a 501'psroff' script similar to 'nroff'. Here are the context diffs: 502 503*** /usr/local/bin/nroff Sat Feb 13 15:51:09 1993 504--- /usr/local/bin/psroff Sat Feb 13 17:45:46 1993 505*************** 506*** 1,8 **** 507 #!/bin/sh 508! # Emulate nroff with groff. 509 510 prog="$0" 511! T=-Tascii 512 opts= 513 514 for i 515--- 1,8 ---- 516 #!/bin/sh 517! # Emulate psroff with groff. 518 519 prog="$0" 520! T=-Tps 521 opts= 522 523 for i 524*************** 525*** 25,30 **** 526--- 25,33 ---- 527 -Tascii|-Tlatin1) 528 T=$1 529 ;; 530+ -t) 531+ # ignore -- default is send to stdout 532+ ;; 533 -T*) 534 # ignore other devices 535 ;; 536*************** 537*** 49,53 **** 538 rest=`echo ${1+"$@"} | sed -e 's+/usr/lib/tmac+/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac+'` 539 540 # This shell script is intended for use with man, so warnings are 541 # probably not wanted. Also load nroff-style character definitions. 542! exec groff -Wall -mtty-char $T $opts $rest 543--- 52,56 ---- 544 rest=`echo ${1+"$@"} | sed -e 's+/usr/lib/tmac+/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac+'` 545 546 # This shell script is intended for use with man, so warnings are 547! # probably not wanted. 548! exec groff -Wall $T $opts $rest 549