Re: [Groff] need help resolving groff error

[Charlie Van Dien]

Ralph,

grops -v        'works
troff -v        'works
groff -v        'fails when troff is called - permission denied

Everything works on a Windows 2003 R2 Server (XP Core), but fails on Windows 
2008 R2 Server (WIN7 core).

Tony suggests that maybe the file created by grops may not be getting closed 
quick enough prior to troff needing it - thus the permission denied. Is there 
something unique in file handling to 2008 R2?

We have not run any trace apps - this is just conjecture.

Am interested in pursuing a fix and helping... But my current priority was 
getting back working (resolved by utilizing Server 2003). I would be happy to 
test any patch/fix on my 2008 R2 that could be compiled into something I could 
run.

Hoping we haven't reached the end-of-the-line if it is a troff issue under 2008.

-charlie


-----Original Message-----
From: Ralph Corderoy [mailto:address@hidden 
Sent: Friday, October 11, 2013 12:04 PM
To: address@hidden
Cc: address@hidden; address@hidden; address@hidden
Subject: Re: [Groff] need help resolving groff error

Hi charlie,

> We tried the suggestion below, and the grops error has stopped

Good.

> now we are only getting a troff permissions error...
> 
> "Groff: couldn't exec troff: Permission denied"

As are others.  You'r running groff from Perl IIRC.  Does

    perl -le 'system("groff -v"); print $?'

work?  Here it ends with the versions of grops and then troff, and then
0 for $?.  I'd hope not, for some consistency.

It's clear groff can get grops to run else the earlier O_BINARY problem 
wouldn't have been found.  Sticking with the above perl, what if you swap 
grops.exe and troff.exe around beforehand;  grops should still be run first but 
that's now troff and will report troff since it's hardcoded in it.  The output 
order will be swapped;  troff then grops.

Is there any anti-virus/malware/... software installed that could be watching 
what groff is doing and intercepting its attempt to run troff because of some 
accidental hit against its rules?  Can it all be turned off?

Cheers, Ralph.

P.S.  Separate from your problem, more for the list in general, I've just 
noticed that this old groff's -V doesn't print a pipeline that gives the same 
effect every time, e.g.

    $ groff -VVv
    GNU groff version 1.20.1
    Copyright (C) 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
    GNU groff comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
    You may redistribute copies of groff and its subprograms
    under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
    For more information about these matters, see the file named COPYING.

    called subprograms:

    GNU grops (groff) version 1.20.1
    GNU troff (groff) version 1.20.1
    troff -v -Tps | grops -v
    $
    $ troff -v -Tps | grops -v
    GNU grops (groff) version 1.20.1
    $