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Re: [Groff] Strange error messages from Groff 1.22.3


From: Eli Zaretskii
Subject: Re: [Groff] Strange error messages from Groff 1.22.3
Date: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 11:22:58 +0200

> Date: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 10:54:42 +0200
> From: Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden>
> 
> In some rare cases, Groff 1.22.3 emits strange (and quite cryptic for
> this roff-ignorant curmudgeon) messages.  Examples:
> 
>   $ groff -man -t man1/chem.1 > cat1/chem.1
>   <standard input>:4: `\c' is not allowed in a name
>   mann1:550: `\c' is not allowed in a name
> 
>   $ groff -t -man man1/tbl.1 > cat1/tbl.1
>   <standard input>:4: a node is not allowed in a name
>   mann1:329: a node is not allowed in a name
>   mann1:378: a node is not allowed in a name
> 
> I used the -t switch in these cases because that was suggested by
> 'grog'.  And at least tbl.1 has an explicit "'\" t" line at its
> beginning to indicate that -t is in order.
> 
> Is this a known problem, or should I look into it?  (And what is that
> "mann1" thing, btw?)

I think I know the reason.  This is Windows-specific, as demonstrated
by using the -V switch:

 groff -t -man -V \usr\share\man\man1\chem.1
 tbl '\usr\share\man\man1\chem.1' | troff -man -Tascii | grotty

The problem is triggered by using the backslash as directory separator
in file names (so the command I showed in my original report was a
lie ;-), which causes append_arg_to_string to try quoting the file name,
by using the '..' style of quoting.  But native Windows programs don't
understand this quoting, so the quote characters are not stripped and
appear verbatim in the tbl command line.

I will submit a change to fix this.



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