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Re: Bug#1016412: dh-make: manpage.1.ex: Incorrect formatting for dash


From: Baptiste Beauplat
Subject: Re: Bug#1016412: dh-make: manpage.1.ex: Incorrect formatting for dash
Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2022 14:11:42 +0200

On 2022/07/31 02:04 PM, Alejandro Colomar (man-pages) wrote:
> On 7/31/22 13:49, Baptiste Beauplat wrote:
> > Hi Alejandro,
> > 
> > On 2022/07/31 12:35 PM, Alejandro Colomar wrote:
> > > The template page 'manpage.1.ex' uses '-' instead of '\-' for a
> > > dash that should be a Latin minus sign (as it's in the context of
> > > command options).  Using '-' would produce a hyphen, which if
> > > copy&pasted, wouldn't be interpreted correctly by a command.
> > > 
> > > The offending line in the file is 41:
> > > 
> > > options starting with two dashes ('-')
> > 
> > When I run the following command on the manpage :
> > 
> >     man ./manpage.1.ex | xxd
> > 
> > The resulting text from the dash line 41 is converted to the correct 2d
> > minus ascii char.
> > 
> > The same is true for the two examples following that text, which are
> > correctly shown as \-\- in the source.
> > 
> > I am missing something? Or maybe the fact that this text is in a .SH
> > section make it work correctly?
> 
> Upstream groff(1) renders '-' and '\-' differently, as they should.
> However, since many manual pages in existence are incorrect, and they use
> '-' when they should use '\-', Debian modifies the behavior by downgrading
> hyphens into Latin minus sign.
> 
> Let's fix the page in the hope that Debian can some day remove that
> workaround.
> 
> See the relevant part of </etc/groff/man.local>:
> 
> .  \" Debian: Strictly, "-" is a hyphen while "\-" is a minus sign, and the
> .  \" former may not always be rendered in the form expected for things like
> .  \" command-line options.  Uncomment this if you want to make sure that
> .  \" manual pages you're writing are clear of this problem.
> .  if '\*[.T]'utf8' \
> .    char - \[hy]

Oh wow, I was not aware of this Debian-specific behaviour. Sure, let's
do this the correct way :)

-- 
Baptiste Beauplat - lyknode

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