Re: long nroff tables

[Oliver Corff]

Sorry, I only read the first half of your text properly. I didn't check
whether the standard tbl behaviour of the .TS H/.TH mechanism is
observed by the man/mdoc packages. That can theoretically depend on the
output target. If it is a text terminal, then there is no "page length",
the text flows; only when printed (e.g. via PDF or PS devices) there
should be a notion of a page size and thus awareness of the header and
table break mechanism is needed.

Oliver.


On 20/01/2021 17:51, ds26gte--- via wrote:
>   Set page length to a very long distance? Perhaps using the max integer 
> possible in groff?
>
> --d
>       On Wednesday, January 20, 2021, 11:36:35 AM EST, James K. Lowden 
> <jklowden@schemamania.org> wrote:
>
>   How do I show "infinite" tables in nroff?  When the tbl output doesn't
> fit on one "page", I get:
>
> $ nroff -t foo
> error: page 2: table will not fit on one page; use .TS H/.TH with a
> supporting macro package
>
> I don't understand how man/mdoc arrange for nroff to display one long
> page (e.g., for "man bash").  I guess it's something the man system
> does when groff is invoked.
>
> For my purpose, I'm displaying SQL output.  I don't particularly want
> to use any macro package; just tbl is enough to get nicely word-wrapped
> wide columns.
>
> --jk