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- This file describes various problems that have been encountered in
- compiling, installing and running groff. Suggestions for additions or
- other improvements to this file are welcome.
-
- * I get lots of `numeric overflow' error messages whenever I run
- groff; I compiled groff with AT&T C++ 2.0 with an ANSI C compiler.
-
- Make sure -DCFRONT_ANSI_BUG is included in DEFINES in the top-level
- Makefile. If that doesn't solve the problem, define INT_MIN as
- -INT_MAX in libgroff/lib.h.
-
- * I get errors when I try to compile groff with Sun C++.
-
- Groff requires header files that are moderately compatible with AT&T
- C++ and ANSI C. With some versions of Sun C++, the supplied header
- files need some of the following changes to meet this requirement:
- <string.h> must declare the mem* functions, (just add `#include
- <memory.h>' to <string.h>); the first argument to fopen and freopen
- should be declared as `const char *'; the first argument to fread
- should be declared as `void *'; the first argument to fwrite should be
- declared as `const void *'; malloc should be declared to return `void
- *'; in <alloca.h>, the declaration `extern "C" { void
- *__builtin_alloca(int); }' should be added; declarations of getopt(),
- optarg, optind and opterr should be added to <stdlib.h>; in
- <sys/signal.h> the return type and the second argument type of
- signal() should be changed to be `void (*)(int)'.
-
- You can either change them in place, or copy them to some other
- directory and include that directory with a -I option.
-
- * I get errors when I try to compile groff with DEC C++.
-
- Fix the declaration of write() in <unistd.h> so that the second
- argument is a const char *. Fix the declaration of open() in
- <sys/file.h> so that the first argument is a const char *.
-
- * On Ultrix, the make stops with the message
-
- *** Error code 1
-
- Stop.
-
- for no apparent reason.
-
- Use GNU make.
-
- * I'm having problems compiling groff on 386BSD 0.1.
-
- If you're using ash as /bin/sh, you'll need the following patch.
-
- *** gendef.sh.org Sun Jun 30 13:30:36 1991
- --- gendef.sh Sun Feb 28 10:23:49 1993
- ***************
- *** 3,9 ****
- file=$1
- shift
-
- ! defs="#define $1"
- shift
- for def
- do
- --- 3,10 ----
- file=$1
- shift
-
- ! x=$1
- ! defs="#define $x"
- shift
- for def
- do
-
- You'll also need to change dirnamemax.c so that it doesn't use
- pathconf().
-
- * While compiling on Xenix, ranlib libgroff.a fails.
-
- The system ranlib can't handle externals longer than 40 characters.
- Use the ranlib included in demon.co.uk:/pub/xenix/g++-1.40.3a.v1
- instead.
-
- * Groff can't handle my troff document. It works fine with AT&T troff.
-
- Read the section on incompatibilities in gtroff(1). Try using the -C
- option. Alternatively there's the sed script in tmac/fixmacros.sed
- which will attempt to edit a file of macros so that it can be used
- with groff without the -C flag.
-
- * groff -Tdvi produces dvi files that use fonts at weird magnifications.
-
- Yes, it does. You may need to compile fonts with Metafont at these
- magnifications. The CompileFonts script in the devdvi/generate
- directory may help you to do this. (It will take a *long* time.)
-
- * pic output is not centered horizontally; pictures sometimes run off
- the bottom of the page.
-
- The macro package you are using is not supplying appropriate definitions
- of PS and PE. Give groff a -mpic option.
-
- * I'm having problems including PostScript illustrations using the PSPIC
- macro.
-
- A PostScript document must meet three requirements in order to be
- included with the PSPIC macro: it must comply with the Adobe Document
- Structuring Conventions; it must contain a BoundingBox line; it must
- be ``well-behaved''. The BoundingBox line should be of the form:
-
- %%BoundingBox: llx lly urx ury
-
- where llx, lly, urx, ury are the coordinates of the lower left x,
- lower left y, upper right x, upper right y of the bounding box of
- marks on the page expressed as integers in the default PostScript
- coordinate system (72 units per inch, origin at bottom left corner).
- A useful tactic is to print out the illustration by itself (you may
- need to add a `showpage' at the end), and physically measure the
- bounding box. For more detail on these requirements, read the
- specification of Encapsulated PostScript format. (This is available
- from the Adobe file server; send a message with a body of `help' to
- ps-file-server@adobe.com.)
-
- * I've configured groff for A4 paper, but gtroff still seems to think
- that the length of a page (as returned by \n(.p) is 11 inches.
-
- This is intentional. The PAGE option is used only by grops. For
- compatibility with ditroff, the default page length in gtroff is
- always 11 inches. The page length can be changed with the `pl'
- request.
-
- * Groff doesn't use the font names I'm used to.
-
- Use the `ftr' request. See gtroff(1).
-
- * I get errors using the Unix -ms macros with groff -e -C.
-
- Apply this change:
-
- *** /usr/lib/ms/ms.eqn Tue Apr 25 02:14:28 1989
- --- ms.eqn Sun Nov 11 10:33:59 1990
- ***************
- *** 22,29 ****
- ..
- . \" EN - end of a displayed equation
- .de EN
- ! .if !\\*(10 .br
- .di
- .rm EZ
- .nr ZN \\n(dn
- .if \\n(ZN>0 .if \\n(YE=0 .LP
- --- 22,30 ----
- ..
- . \" EN - end of a displayed equation
- .de EN
- ! .if \\n(.k>0 .br
- .di
- + .ds 10 \\*(EZ\\
- .rm EZ
- .nr ZN \\n(dn
- .if \\n(ZN>0 .if \\n(YE=0 .LP
-
-
- * gpic doesn't accept the syntax `chop N M' for chopping both ends of a
- line.
-
- The correct syntax is `chop N chop M'.
-
- * With gpic -t, when I print `line ->; box' using a dvi to ps
- program, the arrow head sticks through into the inside of the box.
-
- The dvi to ps program should be modified to set the line cap and
- line join parameters to 1 while printing tpic specials.
-
- * When I print the output groff -Tps, the output is always shifted up
- by about 0.7 inches; I'm using 8.5x11 inch paper.
-
- Make sure that PAGE is defined to be `letter' in the top-level
- Makefile.
-
- * When I try to print the output of groff -Tps, I get no output at all
- from the printer, and the log file shows the error
- %%[ error: undefined; offendingcommand: BP ]%%
- I using TranScript spooling software.
-
- This is a bug in the page reversal filter in early versions of
- TranScript. Change the `broken' parameter in
- /usr/local/lib/groff/font/devps/DESC to 7.
-
- * When I preview groff -Tps output using the Sun OpenWindows 2.0 pageview
- program, all the pages are displayed on top of each other.
-
- This is a defect in pageview. Change the `broken' parameter in
- /usr/local/lib/groff/font/devps/DESC to 2.
-
- * With groff -TX75, -TX100or -X, I can only view the first page.
-
- The left mouse button brings up a menu that allows you to view other
- pages.
-
- * When I print the output of groff -Tdvi, I just get a black dot in
- upper left corner.
-
- Some dvi drivers (notably early versions of xtex) do not correctly
- handle dvi files that use a resolution different from that used by dvi
- files produced by TeX. Try getting a more up to date driver.
-
- * I get lots of errors when I use groff with the AT&T -mm macros.
-
- The AT&T -mm macros need a few changes to work with groff; `make
- install.dwbmm' will copy your -mm macros to groff's macro directory
- and make the necessary changes. You may need to edit the commands for
- the install.mm target in the Makefile. Alternatively use the groff
- -mm macros.
-
- * gtroff doesn't understand lines like `.ce99' with no space between
- the name of the request or macro and the arguments.
-
- Gtroff requires a space between macro or request and its arguments
- because it allows the use of long names for macros and requests. You
- can use the -C option or the `cp' request to put gtroff into a
- compatibility mode in which it is not possible to use long names for
- macros but in which no space is required between macros and their
- arguments. The use of compatibility mode is strongly discouraged.
-
- * gtroff gives warnings about lines like
- .ev \" a comment
- (with a tab after the .ev).
-
- A tab character cannot be used as a substitute for a space character
- (except in one case: between a control character at the beginning of a
- line and the name of a macro or request). For example, in Unix troff
- .ps \" restore the previous point size
- (with a tab after the .ps) will NOT restore the previous point-size;
- instead it will be silently ignored. Since this is very likely to be
- an error, gtroff can give a warning about it. If you want to align
- comments, you can do it like this:
- .ev\" \" a comment
-
- * I don't like the page headers and footers produced by groff -man.
-
- There seem to be many different styles of page header and footer
- produced by different versions of the -man macros. You will need to
- modify macros/tmac.an to suit your personal taste. For example, if
- you want the center of the page header to say
- UNIX Programmer's Manual
- you will need to change the line
- .el .ds an-extra3 \"UNIX Programmer's Manual
- to
- .el .ds an-extra3 UNIX Programmer's Manual
-
- * While formatting a manual page, groff complains about not being able to
- break lines. The problem seems to be caused by a line like:
- .TP \w'label'+2
-
- The -man documentation says that the default scale indicator for TP
- macro is `n'. The groff -man macros implement this correctly, so that
- the argument will be evaluated as if it were
- \w'label'n+2n
- The Unix -man macros don't implement this correctly (probably because
- it's hard to do in Unix troff); they just append `n' to the entire
- argument, so that it will be evaluated as if it were
- \w'label'u+2n
- The solution is to fix the manual page:
- .TP \w'label'u+2
-
- * I'm having problems formatting Ultrix man pages with groff -man.
-
- The Ultrix man pages use a number of non-standard extensions to the
- Unix man macros. One solution is to use the Ultrix -man macros with
- groff. Rename /usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.an to
- /usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.an.gnu, copy /usr/lib/tmac/tmac.an to
- /usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.an and apply the following patch (from
- Frank Wortner):
-
- *** /usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.an Wed Sep 9 12:29:28 1992
- --- /usr/lib/tmac/tmac.an Fri Jul 24 19:58:19 1992
- ***************
- *** 489,495 ****
- . \" make special case of shift out of italic
- .de }S
- .ds ]F
- ! .if \\$12 .if !\\$5 .ds ]F \^
- .ie !\\$4 .}S \\$2 \\$1 "\\$3\f\\$1\\$4\\*(]F" "\\$5" "\\$6" "\\$7" "\\$8" "\\$9"
- .el \\$3
- .}f
- --- 489,495 ----
- . \" make special case of shift out of italic
- .de }S
- .ds ]F
- ! .if \\$12 .if !\\$5 .ds ]F\^
- .ie !\\$4 .}S \\$2 \\$1 "\\$3\f\\$1\\$4\\*(]F" "\\$5" "\\$6" "\\$7" "\\$8" "\\$9"
- .el \\$3
- .}f
-
- Another possible solution is to install tmac/man.ultrix as
- /usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/man.local.
-
- * I'm having problems formatting HP-UX 9.0 man pages with groff -man.
-
- Rename /usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.an to (for example)
- /usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.gan, copy HP's tmac.an into
- /usr/local/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.an, and either put `.cp 1' at the
- beginning or filter it (and any files it .so's) through
- tmac/fixmacros.sed.
-
- * I'm having problems formatting man pages produced by the perl
- wrapman script.
-
- Some versions of wrapman have a superfluous blank line before the .TH
- line. This must be deleted. Then either use groff -C, or apply the
- following patch:
-
- *** wrapman.~2~ Sun Jan 19 12:10:24 1992
- --- wrapman Fri Apr 2 12:12:57 1993
- ***************
- *** 35,41 ****
- $line1 .= <IN> if $line1 =~ /eval/;
- $line1 .= <IN> if $line1 =~ /argv/;
- $line2 = <IN>;
- ! next if $line2 eq "'di';\n";
-
- # Pull the old switcheroo.
-
- --- 35,41 ----
- $line1 .= <IN> if $line1 =~ /eval/;
- $line1 .= <IN> if $line1 =~ /argv/;
- $line2 = <IN>;
- ! next if $line2 eq "'di ';\n";
-
- # Pull the old switcheroo.
-
- ***************
- *** 49,56 ****
-
- print OUT $line1;
- print OUT <<EOF;
- ! 'di';
- ! 'ig00';
- #
- # $header
- #
- --- 49,57 ----
-
- print OUT $line1;
- print OUT <<EOF;
- ! 'di ';
- ! 'ds 00 \\"';
- ! 'ig 00 ';
- #
- # $header
- #
- ***************
- *** 72,85 ****
-
- # These next few lines are legal in both Perl and nroff.
-
- ! $null.00; # finish .ig
-
- 'di \\" finish diversion--previous line must be blank
- .nr nl 0-1 \\" fake up transition to first page again
- .nr % 0 \\" start at page 1
- ! '; __END__ ##### From here on it's a standard manual page #####
- .TH $PROG 1 "$month $mday, 19$year"
- - .AT 3
- .SH NAME
- $prog \\- whatever
- .SH SYNOPSIS
- --- 73,85 ----
-
- # These next few lines are legal in both Perl and nroff.
-
- ! $null.00 ; # finish .ig
-
- 'di \\" finish diversion--previous line must be blank
- .nr nl 0-1 \\" fake up transition to first page again
- .nr % 0 \\" start at page 1
- ! .\\"'; __END__ ##### From here on it's a standard manual page #####
- .TH $PROG 1 "$month $mday, 19$year"
- .SH NAME
- $prog \\- whatever
- .SH SYNOPSIS
-
-
- * When I preview documents using -TX75 or -TX100, the layout is not the same
- as when I print the document with -Tps: the line and page breaks come
- in different places.
-
- Use groff -X -Tps.
-
- * When I try to run gxditview, I get the error:
- Error: Widget viewport has zero width and/or height
-
- This error means you haven't correctly installed the application
- defaults file, GXditview.ad; ``make install'' does this for you
- automatically, so either you didn't do ``make install'', or you don't
- have imake configured correctly.
-
- * groff uses up an enormous amount of memory processing large files.
- I'm using 386BSD 0.1.
-
- 386BSD includes an old version of g++, 1.39, which has a bug that
- causes a major memory leak in gtroff. Apply the following fix to g++
- and recompile groff:
-
- *** cplus-decl.c.~1~ Mon Aug 6 05:28:59 1990
- --- cplus-decl.c Wed Jun 5 08:55:04 1991
- ***************
- *** 7951,7961 ****
-
- /* At the end, call delete if that's what's requested. */
- if (TREE_GETS_DELETE (current_class_type))
- exprstmt = build_method_call (build1 (NOP_EXPR, TYPE_POINTER_TO (current_class_type), error_mark_node),
- get_identifier (OPERATOR_DELETE_FORMAT),
- ! build_tree_list (NULL_TREE, integer_zero_node),
- NULL_TREE, LOOKUP_NORMAL);
- else if (TYPE_USES_VIRTUAL_BASECLASSES (current_class_type))
- exprstmt = build_x_delete (ptr_type_node, current_class_decl, 0);
- else
- exprstmt = 0;
- --- 7951,7961 ----
-
- /* At the end, call delete if that's what's requested. */
- if (TREE_GETS_DELETE (current_class_type))
- exprstmt = build_method_call (build1 (NOP_EXPR, TYPE_POINTER_TO (current_class_type), error_mark_node),
- get_identifier (OPERATOR_DELETE_FORMAT),
- ! build_tree_list (NULL_TREE, current_class_decl),
- NULL_TREE, LOOKUP_NORMAL);
- else if (TYPE_USES_VIRTUAL_BASECLASSES (current_class_type))
- exprstmt = build_x_delete (ptr_type_node, current_class_decl, 0);
- else
- exprstmt = 0;
-
- * Where can I get grap?
-
- Grap is not freely available, but there is a nawk script implementing
- an extended subset of grap available for ftp as
- ftp.informatik.uni-rostock.de:/pub/local/software/prag-1.0.shar.gz.
-
- * How can I use groff with a Laserjet printer?
-
- You have at least 3 options:
-
- - use groff -Tps with GNU Ghostscript;
-
- - use groff -Tdvi with a TeX .dvi to Laserjet driver;
-
- - use groff with the Laserjet driver in Chris Lewis' psroff package
- (available for ftp from:
- ftp.uunet.ca:/distrib/chris_lewis/psroff3.0pl17).
-
- * Groff seems to generate level 3 Postscript, but my printer is only a
- level 1 or 2 PostScript printer.
-
- In fact groff generates only level 1 PostScript. The `%!PS-Adobe-3.0'
- comment at the beginning of PostScript output generated by groff
- indicates that the file conforms to version 3.0 of the Adobe Document
- Structuring Conventions. The output generated by groff should be
- printable on any PostScript printer. Problems with groff output's not
- printing are most often caused by the spooling system.
-
- * The \n(st and \n(sb registers don't seem to work. I thought \w set
- them to the height and depth of its argument, but the registers always
- seem to be 0.
-
- \n(st and \n(sb aren't supposed to give the height and depth of the
- string rather they give the minimum and maximum vertical displacement
- of the baseline. For example for \v'2u'\v'-3u', \n(st will be 1 and
- \n(sb will be -2. The height and depth of the string is available in
- the \n[rst] and \n[rsb] registers: these are groff extensions.
-
- * On an SGI system, how can I make the man command use groff?
-
- From David Hinds <dhinds@allegro.stanford.edu> (some of these steps
- are unnecessary if you install with the `g' Makefile variable defined
- as empty):
-
- Create a script called 'eqn':
-
- > #!/bin/sh
- > if [ ${1:-""} = /usr/pub/eqnchar ] ; then shift ; fi
- > geqn $*
-
- and a script called 'neqn':
-
- > #!/bin/sh
- > if [ ${1:-""} = /usr/pub/eqnchar ] ; then shift ; fi
- > geqn -Tascii $*
-
- and do:
-
- > ln -s gnroff nroff
-
- and edit the end of the gnroff script to be:
-
- > rest=`echo ${1+"$@"} | sed -e 's+/usr/lib/tmac+/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac+'`
- > exec groff -Wall -mtty-char $T $opts $rest
-
- To get PostScript output from 'man -t', you also need to create a
- 'psroff' script similar to 'nroff'. Here are the context diffs:
-
- *** /usr/local/bin/nroff Sat Feb 13 15:51:09 1993
- --- /usr/local/bin/psroff Sat Feb 13 17:45:46 1993
- ***************
- *** 1,8 ****
- #!/bin/sh
- ! # Emulate nroff with groff.
-
- prog="$0"
- ! T=-Tascii
- opts=
-
- for i
- --- 1,8 ----
- #!/bin/sh
- ! # Emulate psroff with groff.
-
- prog="$0"
- ! T=-Tps
- opts=
-
- for i
- ***************
- *** 25,30 ****
- --- 25,33 ----
- -Tascii|-Tlatin1)
- T=$1
- ;;
- + -t)
- + # ignore -- default is send to stdout
- + ;;
- -T*)
- # ignore other devices
- ;;
- ***************
- *** 49,53 ****
- rest=`echo ${1+"$@"} | sed -e 's+/usr/lib/tmac+/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac+'`
-
- # This shell script is intended for use with man, so warnings are
- # probably not wanted. Also load nroff-style character definitions.
- ! exec groff -Wall -mtty-char $T $opts $rest
- --- 52,56 ----
- rest=`echo ${1+"$@"} | sed -e 's+/usr/lib/tmac+/usr/local/lib/groff/tmac+'`
-
- # This shell script is intended for use with man, so warnings are
- ! # probably not wanted.
- ! exec groff -Wall $T $opts $rest
-