PROBLEMS revision 75584
174467SrwatsonThis file describes various problems that have been encountered in 274467Srwatsoncompiling, installing and running groff. Suggestions for additions or 374467Srwatsonother improvements to this file are welcome. 474467Srwatson 574467Srwatson---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 124 125 for 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 `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 on 190slow computers.) 191 192---------------------------------------------------------------------- 193 194* pic output is not centered horizontally; pictures sometimes run off 195 the bottom of the page. 196 197The macro package you are using is not supplying appropriate 198definitions of PS and PE. Give groff a -mpic option. 199 200---------------------------------------------------------------------- 201 202* I'm having problems including PostScript illustrations using the 203 PSPIC macro. 204 205A PostScript document must meet three requirements in order to be 206included with the PSPIC macro: it must comply with the Adobe Document 207Structuring Conventions; it must contain a BoundingBox line; it must 208be ``well-behaved''. The BoundingBox line should be of the form: 209 210 %%BoundingBox: llx lly urx ury 211 212where llx, lly, urx, ury are the coordinates of the lower left x, 213lower left y, upper right x, upper right y of the bounding box of 214marks on the page expressed as integers in the default PostScript 215coordinate system (72 units per inch, origin at bottom left corner). 216A useful tactic is to print out the illustration by itself (you may 217need to add a `showpage' at the end), and physically measure the 218bounding box. For more detail on these requirements, read the 219specification of Encapsulated PostScript format. (This is available 220from the Adobe file server; send a message with a body of `help' to 221ps-file-server@adobe.com.) 222 223---------------------------------------------------------------------- 224 225* I've configured groff for A4 paper, but gtroff still seems to think 226 that the length of a page (as returned by `\n(.p') is 11 inches. 227 228This is intentional. The PAGE option is used only by grops. For 229compatibility with ditroff, the default page length in gtroff is 230always 11 inches. The page length can be changed with the `pl' 231request. 232 233---------------------------------------------------------------------- 234 235* groff produces wrapper macros for `ms' and friends which call the 236 system's original macros. Then, to get groff's ms macro package I 237 have to use `-mgs' instead `-ms'. Can I avoid this? 238 239Yes. Configure and compile groff as usual, but install it with 240 241 make install tmac_wrap="" 242 243Then no wrapper files are produced, and `-ms' will use groff's `ms' 244macros. 245 246---------------------------------------------------------------------- 247 248* Groff doesn't use the font names I'm used to. 249 250Use the `ftr' request. See (g)troff(1). 251 252---------------------------------------------------------------------- 253 254* I get errors using the Unix -ms macros with groff -e -C. 255 256Apply this change: 257 258*** /usr/lib/ms/ms.eqn Tue Apr 25 02:14:28 1989 259--- ms.eqn Sun Nov 11 10:33:59 1990 260*************** 261*** 22,29 **** 262 .. 263 . \" EN - end of a displayed equation 264 .de EN 265! .if !\\*(10 .br 266 .di 267 .rm EZ 268 .nr ZN \\n(dn 269 .if \\n(ZN>0 .if \\n(YE=0 .LP 270--- 22,30 ---- 271 .. 272 . \" EN - end of a displayed equation 273 .de EN 274! .if \\n(.k>0 .br 275 .di 276+ .ds 10 \\*(EZ\\ 277 .rm EZ 278 .nr ZN \\n(dn 279 .if \\n(ZN>0 .if \\n(YE=0 .LP 280 281---------------------------------------------------------------------- 282 283* gpic doesn't accept the syntax `chop N M' for chopping both ends of 284 a line. 285 286The correct syntax is `chop N chop M'. 287 288---------------------------------------------------------------------- 289 290* With gpic -t, when I print `line ->; box' using a dvi to ps program, 291 the arrow head sticks through into the inside of the box. 292 293The dvi to ps program should be modified to set the line cap and line 294join parameters to 1 while printing tpic specials. 295 296---------------------------------------------------------------------- 297 298* When I print the output groff -Tps, the output is always shifted up 299 by about 0.7 inches; I'm using 8.5x11 inch paper. 300 301Make sure that PAGE is defined to be `letter' in the top-level 302Makefile. 303 304---------------------------------------------------------------------- 305 306* When I try to print the output of groff -Tps, I get no output at all 307 from the printer, and the log file shows the error 308 %%[ error: undefined; offendingcommand: BP ]%% 309 I'm using TranScript spooling software. 310 311This is a bug in the page reversal filter in early versions of 312TranScript. Change the `broken' parameter in 313/usr/local/lib/groff/font/devps/DESC to 7. 314 315---------------------------------------------------------------------- 316 317* When I preview groff -Tps output using the Sun OpenWindows 2.0 318 pageview program, all the pages are displayed on top of each other. 319 320This is a defect in pageview. Change the `broken' parameter in 321/usr/local/lib/groff/font/devps/DESC to 2. 322 323---------------------------------------------------------------------- 324 325* With groff -TX75, -TX100 or -X, I can only view the first page. 326 327The left mouse button brings up a menu that allows you to view other 328pages. 329 330---------------------------------------------------------------------- 331 332* When I print the output of groff -Tdvi, I just get a black dot in 333 upper left corner. 334 335Some dvi drivers (notably early versions of xtex) do not correctly 336handle dvi files that use a resolution different from that used by dvi 337files produced by TeX. Try getting a more up to date driver. 338 339---------------------------------------------------------------------- 340 341* I get lots of errors when I use groff with the AT&T -mm macros. 342 343Use the groff -mm macros. 344 345---------------------------------------------------------------------- 346 347* gtroff doesn't understand lines like `.ce99' with no space between 348 the name of the request or macro and the arguments. 349 350gtroff requires a space between macro or request and its arguments 351because it allows the use of long names for macros and requests. You 352can use the -C option or the `cp' request to put gtroff into a 353compatibility mode in which it is not possible to use long names for 354macros but in which no space is required between macros and their 355arguments. The use of compatibility mode is strongly discouraged. 356 357---------------------------------------------------------------------- 358 359* gtroff gives warnings about lines like 360 .ev \" a comment 361 (with a tab after the .ev). 362 363A tab character cannot be used as a substitute for a space character 364(except in one case: between a control character at the beginning of a 365line and the name of a macro or request). For example, in Unix troff 366 367 .ps \" restore the previous point size 368 369(with a tab after the .ps) will NOT restore the previous point-size; 370instead it will be silently ignored. Since this is very likely to be 371an error, gtroff can give a warning about it. If you want to align 372comments, you can do it like this: 373 374 .ev\" \" a comment 375 376---------------------------------------------------------------------- 377 378* I don't like the page headers and footers produced by groff -man. 379 380There seem to be many different styles of page header and footer 381produced by different versions of the -man macros. You will need to 382modify tmac/an-old.tmac to suit your personal taste. For example, if 383you want the center of the page header to say 384 385 System Programmer's Manual 386 387you will need to change the line 388 389 .el .ds an-extra3 \"System Programmer's Manual 390 391to 392 393 .el .ds an-extra3 System Programmer's Manual 394 395---------------------------------------------------------------------- 396 397* While formatting a manual page, groff complains about not being able 398 to break lines. The problem seems to be caused by a line like: 399 .TP \w'label'+2 400 401The -man documentation says that the default scale indicator for TP 402macro is `n'. The groff -man macros implement this correctly, so that 403the argument will be evaluated as if it were 404 405 \w'label'n+2n 406 407The Unix -man macros don't implement this correctly (probably because 408it's hard to do in Unix troff); they just append `n' to the entire 409argument, so that it will be evaluated as if it were 410 411 \w'label'u+2n 412 413The solution is to fix the manual page: 414 415 .TP \w'label'u+2 416 417---------------------------------------------------------------------- 418 419* I'm having problems formatting Ultrix man pages with groff -man. 420 421The Ultrix man pages use a number of non-standard extensions to the 422Unix man macros. One solution is to use the Ultrix -man macros with 423groff. Copy /usr/lib/tmac/tmac.an to 424/usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac/an.tmac and apply the following patch 425(from Frank Wortner): 426 427*** /usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.an Wed Sep 9 12:29:28 1992 428--- /usr/lib/tmac/tmac.an Fri Jul 24 19:58:19 1992 429*************** 430*** 489,495 **** 431 . \" make special case of shift out of italic 432 .de }S 433 .ds ]F 434! .if \\$12 .if !\\$5 .ds ]F \^ 435 .ie !\\$4 .}S \\$2 \\$1 "\\$3\f\\$1\\$4\\*(]F" "\\$5" "\\$6" "\\$7" "\\$8" "\\$9" 436 .el \\$3 437 .}f 438--- 489,495 ---- 439 . \" make special case of shift out of italic 440 .de }S 441 .ds ]F 442! .if \\$12 .if !\\$5 .ds ]F\^ 443 .ie !\\$4 .}S \\$2 \\$1 "\\$3\f\\$1\\$4\\*(]F" "\\$5" "\\$6" "\\$7" "\\$8" "\\$9" 444 .el \\$3 445 .}f 446 447Another possible solution is to install tmac/man.ultrix as 448/usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac/man.local. 449 450---------------------------------------------------------------------- 451 452* I'm having problems formatting HP-UX 9.0 man pages with groff -man. 453 454Copy HP's tmac.an into /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac/an.tmac, and 455either put `.cp 1' at the beginning or filter it (and any files it .so's) 456through tmac/fixmacros.sed. 457 458---------------------------------------------------------------------- 459 460* On HP-UX, the compiler complains about missing symbol `alloca'. 461 462Say 463 464 export LDFLAGS=-lPW 465 466before starting the configure script. 467 468---------------------------------------------------------------------- 469 470* I'm having problems formatting man pages produced by the perl 471 wrapman script. 472 473Some versions of wrapman have a superfluous blank line before the .TH 474line. This must be deleted. Then either use groff -C, or apply the 475following patch: 476 477*** wrapman.~2~ Sun Jan 19 12:10:24 1992 478--- wrapman Tue Aug 10 02:06:41 1993 479*************** 480*** 35,41 **** 481 $line1 .= <IN> if $line1 =~ /eval/; 482 $line1 .= <IN> if $line1 =~ /argv/; 483 $line2 = <IN>; 484! next if $line2 eq "'di';\n"; 485 486 # Pull the old switcheroo. 487 488--- 35,41 ---- 489 $line1 .= <IN> if $line1 =~ /eval/; 490 $line1 .= <IN> if $line1 =~ /argv/; 491 $line2 = <IN>; 492! next if $line2 eq "'di ';\n" || $line2 eq "'di';\n"; 493 494 # Pull the old switcheroo. 495 496*************** 497*** 49,56 **** 498 499 print OUT $line1; 500 print OUT <<EOF; 501! 'di'; 502! 'ig00'; 503 # 504 # $header 505 # 506--- 49,58 ---- 507 508 print OUT $line1; 509 print OUT <<EOF; 510! 'di '; 511! 'ds 00 \\"'; 512! 'eo '; 513! 'ig 00 '; 514 # 515 # $header 516 # 517*************** 518*** 72,85 **** 519 520 # These next few lines are legal in both Perl and nroff. 521 522! $null.00; # finish .ig 523 524 'di \\" finish diversion--previous line must be blank 525 .nr nl 0-1 \\" fake up transition to first page again 526 .nr % 0 \\" start at page 1 527! '; __END__ ##### From here on it's a standard manual page ##### 528 .TH $PROG 1 "$month $mday, 19$year" 529- .AT 3 530 .SH NAME 531 $prog \\- whatever 532 .SH SYNOPSIS 533--- 74,87 ---- 534 535 # These next few lines are legal in both Perl and nroff. 536 537! $null.00 ; # finish .ig 538! 'ec \\'; 539 540 'di \\" finish diversion--previous line must be blank 541 .nr nl 0-1 \\" fake up transition to first page again 542 .nr % 0 \\" start at page 1 543! .\\"'; __END__ ##### From here on it's a standard manual page ##### 544 .TH $PROG 1 "$month $mday, 19$year" 545 .SH NAME 546 $prog \\- whatever 547 .SH SYNOPSIS 548 549 550---------------------------------------------------------------------- 551 552* When I preview documents using -TX75 or -TX100, the layout is not 553 the same as when I print the document with -Tps: the line and page 554 breaks come in different places. 555 556Use groff -X -Tps. 557 558---------------------------------------------------------------------- 559 560* When I try to run gxditview, I get the error: 561 Error: Widget viewport has zero width and/or height 562 563This error means you haven't correctly installed the application 564defaults file, GXditview.ad; ``make install'' does this for you 565automatically, so either you didn't do ``make install'', or you don't 566have imake configured correctly. 567 568---------------------------------------------------------------------- 569 570* groff uses up an enormous amount of memory processing large files. 571 I'm using 386BSD 0.1. 572 573386BSD includes an old version of g++, 1.39, which has a bug that 574causes a major memory leak in gtroff. Apply the following fix to g++ 575and recompile groff: 576 577*** cplus-decl.c.~1~ Mon Aug 6 05:28:59 1990 578--- cplus-decl.c Wed Jun 5 08:55:04 1991 579*************** 580*** 7951,7961 **** 581 582 /* At the end, call delete if that's what's requested. */ 583 if (TREE_GETS_DELETE (current_class_type)) 584 exprstmt = build_method_call (build1 (NOP_EXPR, TYPE_POINTER_TO (current_class_type), error_mark_node), 585 get_identifier (OPERATOR_DELETE_FORMAT), 586! build_tree_list (NULL_TREE, integer_zero_node), 587 NULL_TREE, LOOKUP_NORMAL); 588 else if (TYPE_USES_VIRTUAL_BASECLASSES (current_class_type)) 589 exprstmt = build_x_delete (ptr_type_node, current_class_decl, 0); 590 else 591 exprstmt = 0; 592--- 7951,7961 ---- 593 594 /* At the end, call delete if that's what's requested. */ 595 if (TREE_GETS_DELETE (current_class_type)) 596 exprstmt = build_method_call (build1 (NOP_EXPR, TYPE_POINTER_TO (current_class_type), error_mark_node), 597 get_identifier (OPERATOR_DELETE_FORMAT), 598! build_tree_list (NULL_TREE, current_class_decl), 599 NULL_TREE, LOOKUP_NORMAL); 600 else if (TYPE_USES_VIRTUAL_BASECLASSES (current_class_type)) 601 exprstmt = build_x_delete (ptr_type_node, current_class_decl, 0); 602 else 603 exprstmt = 0; 604 605---------------------------------------------------------------------- 606 607* Where can I get grap? 608 609Ted Faber <faber@lunabase.org> has written a freely available grap: 610 611 http://www.lunabase.org/~faber/Vault/software/grap/ 612 613---------------------------------------------------------------------- 614 615* How can I use groff with an old LaserJet printer that doesn't work 616 with groff -Tlj4? 617 618You have at least 3 options: 619 620- use groff -Tps with GNU Ghostscript; 621 622- use groff -Tdvi with a TeX .dvi to Laserjet driver; 623 624- use groff with the LaserJet driver in Chris Lewis' psroff package 625 (available for ftp from: 626 ftp.uunet.ca:/distrib/chris_lewis/psroff3.0pl17). 627 628---------------------------------------------------------------------- 629 630* Groff seems to generate level 3 Postscript, but my printer is only a 631 level 1 or 2 PostScript printer. 632 633In fact groff generates only level 1 PostScript. The `%!PS-Adobe-3.0' 634comment at the beginning of PostScript output generated by groff 635indicates that the file conforms to version 3.0 of the Adobe Document 636Structuring Conventions. The output generated by groff should be 637printable on any PostScript printer. Problems with groff output's not 638printing are most often caused by the spooling system. 639 640---------------------------------------------------------------------- 641 642* The \n(st and \n(sb registers don't seem to work. I thought \w set 643 them to the height and depth of its argument, but the registers 644 always seem to be 0. 645 646\n(st and \n(sb aren't supposed to give the height and depth of the 647string rather they give the minimum and maximum vertical displacement 648of the baseline. For example for \v'2u'\v'-3u', \n(st will be 1 and 649\n(sb will be -2. The height and depth of the string is available in 650the \n[rst] and \n[rsb] registers: these are groff extensions. 651 652---------------------------------------------------------------------- 653 654* On an SGI system, how can I make the man command use groff? 655 656From David Hinds <dhinds@allegro.stanford.edu> (some of these steps 657are unnecessary if you install with the `g' Makefile variable defined 658as empty): 659 660Create a script called 'eqn': 661 662 > #!/bin/sh 663 > if [ ${1:-""} = /usr/pub/eqnchar ] ; then shift ; fi 664 > geqn $* 665 666and a script called 'neqn': 667 668 > #!/bin/sh 669 > if [ ${1:-""} = /usr/pub/eqnchar ] ; then shift ; fi 670 > geqn -Tascii $* 671 672and do: 673 674 > ln -s gnroff nroff 675 676and edit the end of the gnroff script to be: 677 678 > rest=`echo ${1+"$@"} | sed -e 's+/usr/lib/tmac+/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac+'` 679 > exec groff -Wall -mtty-char $T $opts $rest 680 681To get PostScript output from 'man -t', you also need to create a 682'psroff' script similar to 'nroff'. Here are the context diffs: 683 684*** /usr/local/bin/nroff Sat Feb 13 15:51:09 1993 685--- /usr/local/bin/psroff Sat Feb 13 17:45:46 1993 686*************** 687*** 1,8 **** 688 #!/bin/sh 689! # Emulate nroff with groff. 690 691 prog="$0" 692! T=-Tascii 693 opts= 694 695 for i 696--- 1,8 ---- 697 #!/bin/sh 698! # Emulate psroff with groff. 699 700 prog="$0" 701! T=-Tps 702 opts= 703 704 for i 705*************** 706*** 25,30 **** 707--- 25,33 ---- 708 -Tascii|-Tlatin1) 709 T=$1 710 ;; 711+ -t) 712+ # ignore -- default is send to stdout 713+ ;; 714 -T*) 715 # ignore other devices 716 ;; 717*************** 718*** 49,53 **** 719 rest=`echo ${1+"$@"} | sed -e 's+/usr/lib/tmac+/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac+'` 720 721 # This shell script is intended for use with man, so warnings are 722 # probably not wanted. Also load nroff-style character definitions. 723! exec groff -Wall -mtty-char $T $opts $rest 724--- 52,56 ---- 725 rest=`echo ${1+"$@"} | sed -e 's+/usr/lib/tmac+/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac+'` 726 727 # This shell script is intended for use with man, so warnings are 728! # probably not wanted. 729! exec groff -Wall $T $opts $rest 730