Re: [Groff] LL Usage in an-old.tmac Incompatible with man Program on GNU/Linux

[Werner LEMBERG]

> The `man' program, which I believe is currently used in the majority
> of GNU/Linux distros, claims, as indicated by its own `manpage', to
> adjust the displayed width of the formatted output to fit the width
> of the console; it does this by injecting a `.ll' request into the
> nroff input stream, [...]

Hmm, my `man' program (version 2.4.1, 07 September 2001) uses this
pipe for a wide screen:

 sh -c (echo '.ll 132n'; /usr/bin/zsoelim /usr/X11R6/man/man7/X.7) \
 | /usr/bin/tbl \
 | /usr/bin/nroff -mandoc -mandocdb -rLL=132n -rLT=132n -Tlatin1 \
 ...

Which man program do you use?

groff_man.man says this:

  -rLL=line-length
     Set line length.  If this option is not given, the line length
     defaults to 78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.

> This used to work perfectly, with groff-1.17.x, but some recent
> changes in an-old.tmac, (I'm not sure at which point it occurred),

2002-05-03 -- in the last three years there was no complaint...

> have broken this; specifically, the initialisations:
> 
>       .ie n .nr LL 78n
>       :
>       .ll \\n[LL]u
> 
> override the injected `.ll' request, forcing an output line length
> of 78n, regardless of the width of the console display.

This is the only way to provide a default width.

> Looking in an-old.tmac, it would seem that the LL register is mostly
> redundant;

I won't remove it -- I want orthogonality with other macro packages.

> it is only ever used *once* in the above `.ll' initialisation, which
> appears within the `TH' macro.  Thus, it could probably be dispensed
> with altogether; however, if it is deemed worthwhile to retain it,
> this patch will restore the behaviour expected by `man'...

Thanks, but I won't apply your patch for the reason outlined above.


    Werner