[Groff] d conditional and autovivification of macros

[brian m. carlson]

I'm implementing a troff parser and am using groff as a tool for
comparison.  My implementation provides a request called "tenorsax".
When I run the following file in groff, I get the output "tenorsax
implemented":

  .do tenorsax ext 1
  .de status
  .ie d\\$1 \\$1\timplemented
  .el \\$1\tmissing
  .br
  ..
  .status tenorsax

I've been using groff for several years and this behavior is unexpected;
it appears that groff is autovivifying the tenorsax request as some sort
of macro because of the do request.  It also conflicts with the
documentation, which doesn't mention that behavior.  The Heirloom troff
documentation doesn't mention that behavior either.  I do get the
expected result if I put an appropriate .rm statement after the .do.

I'm using Debian's groff 1.21-6.  Is this the way things are supposed to
be?

-- 
brian m. carlson / brian with sandals: Houston, Texas, US
+1 832 623 2791 | http://www.crustytoothpaste.net/~bmc | My opinion only
OpenPGP: RSA v4 4096b: 88AC E9B2 9196 305B A994 7552 F1BA 225C 0223 B187

signature.asc
Description: Digital signature