Re: [tmac] options "-mandoc" and '-C' are not compatible

[Dave Kemper]

On 7/10/22, Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bingigis@simnet.is> wrote:
>   I use stripped tmac files and "andoc.tmac" caused the bug in
> compatibility mode.

In the current code, to ("someday") be released as 1.23, not only is
stripping the tmac files no longer done, the script to do so was
removed entirely from the repository.  See the series of commits
listed in http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?55091.

So stripping tmac files is a customization you're making.  Does the
bug occur ONLY when the tmac files are stripped?  For hopefully
obvious reasons, groff cannot hope to support all local customizations
users make to shipped tmac files.

But if you can reproduce this bug using a stock build, you should open
a savannah ticket for it (which will persist until action is taken,
whereas email threads can sometimes be forgotten).

>   There is a comment in the file about
>
> .\" Due to a bug in GNU troff it necessary to have a no-op line between
> .\" '.do' and '\*'.
...
>   The comment about the bug should also be in the general documentation.

Or, better, fixed.  I'd file a report for it, but that comment doesn't
give me enough info to understand the nature or effect of the bug, and
I'm wholly unfamiliar with the andoc.tmac code.  Documenting it is
similarly problematic without knowing more.

Werner added this comment in the 2015 commit 42c866a3f
(http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git/commit/?id=42c866a3), so
perhaps he's in the best position to elaborate on it.

It also sounds like whatever bug that comment is referring to is the
root cause of the problem you're seeing.