************************************************************************
* Official mandoc TODO.
-* $Id: TODO,v 1.205 2015/04/06 22:06:23 schwarze Exp $
+* $Id: TODO,v 1.271 2018/10/02 12:18:33 schwarze Exp $
************************************************************************
Many issues are annotated for difficulty as follows:
Obviously, as the issues have not been solved yet, these annotations
are mere guesses, and some may be wrong.
-************************************************************************
-* crashes
-************************************************************************
-
-- The abort() in bufcat(), html.c, can be triggered via buffmt_includes()
- by running -Thtml -Oincludes on a file containing a long .In argument.
- Fixing this will probably require reworking the whole bufcat() concept.
- loc ** exist * algo * size ** imp **
-
************************************************************************
* missing features
************************************************************************
found by naddy@ in xloadimage(1)
loc ** exist *** algo * size * imp *
-- .nr third argument (auto-increment step size, requires \n+)
- found by bentley@ in sbcl(1) Mon, 9 Dec 2013 18:36:57 -0700
- loc * exist * algo * size * imp **
-
- .ns (no-space mode) occurs in xine-config(1)
when implementing this, also let .TH set it
reported by brad@ Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:45:23 -0500
loc *** exist *** algo *** size ** imp *
-- .ta (tab settings)
- #1 most important issue naddy@ Mon, 16 Feb 2015 20:59:17 +0100
- ircbug(1) gnats(1) reported by brad@ Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:50:51 -0500
- also Tcl_NewStringObj(3) via wiz@ Wed, 5 Mar 2014 22:27:43 +0100
- also posix2time(3) Carsten Kunze Mon, 1 Dec 2014 13:03:10 +0100
- loc ** exist *** algo ** size ** imp ***
-
-- .ti (temporary indent)
- found by naddy@ in xloadimage(1) [devel/libvstr] vstr(3)
- found by bentley@ in nmh(1) Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:38:28 -0600
- loc ** exist ** algo ** size * imp ** (parser reorg helps a lot)
-
-- .while and .shift
- found by jca@ in ratpoison(1) Sun, 30 Jun 2013 12:01:09 +0200
- loc * exist ** algo ** size ** imp **
-
-- \h horizontal move
- #2 most important issue naddy@ Mon, 16 Feb 2015 20:59:17 +0100
- found in cclive(1) nasm(1) bogofilter(1) asciidoc/DocBook output
- bentley@ on discuss@ Sat, 21 Sep 2013 22:29:34 -0600
- naddy@ Thu, 4 Dec 2014 16:26:41 +0100
- loc ** exist ** algo ** size * imp *** (parser reorg helps a lot)
-
-- \n+ and \n- numerical register increment and decrement
- found by bentley@ in sbcl(1) Mon, 9 Dec 2013 18:36:57 -0700
- loc * exist * algo * size * imp **
-
-- \n(.$ macro argument count number register; ocserv(8) by autogen
- found by sthen@ Thu, 19 Feb 2015 22:03:01 +0000
- loc * exist ** algo * size * imp **
-
- \w'' improve width measurements
would not be very useful without an expression parser, see below
needed for Tcl_NewStringObj(3) via wiz@ Wed, 5 Mar 2014 22:27:43 +0100
Found by naddy@ in devel/cutils cobfusc(1) Mon, 16 Feb 2015 19:10:52 +0100
loc *** exist *** algo *** size ** imp *
-- using undefined strings or macros defines them to be empty
- wl@ Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:37:01 +0000
- loc * exist * algo * size * imp *
+- check for missing roff escape sequences, implement those that are
+ trivial even if not usually appearing in manual pages, gracefully
+ ignore the non-trivial ones, document what they are supposed to do
+ and what mandoc does instead
+ loc * exist ** algo * size * imp *
--- missing mdoc features ----------------------------------------------
is not safe, e.g. `.Bl -column .It Pf a b .' gives "ab."
but should give "ab ."
-- check whether it is correct that `D1' uses INDENT+1;
- does it need its own constant?
- loc * exist ** algo ** size * imp **
-
- prohibit `Nm' from having non-text HEAD children
(e.g., NetBSD mDNSShared/dns-sd.1)
(mdoc_html.c and mdoc_term.c `Nm' handlers can be slightly simplified)
--- missing man features -----------------------------------------------
-- -T[x]html doesn't stipulate non-collapsing spaces in literal mode
+- groff_www(7) .MTO and .URL
+ These macros were used by the GNU grep(1) man page.
+ The groff_www(7) manual page itself uses them, too.
+ We should probably *not* add them to mandoc.
+ Just mentioning this here to keep track of the abuse.
+ Laura Morales <lauretas at mail dot com> 20 Apr 2018 07:33:02 +0200
+ loc ** exist * algo * size ** imp *
--- missing tbl features -----------------------------------------------
+- the "s" layout column specifier is used for placement of data
+ into columns, but ignored during column width calculations
+ synaptics(4) found by tedu@ Mon, 17 Aug 2015 21:17:42 -0400
+ loc * exist ** algo *** size * imp **
+
+- vertical centering in cells vertically spanned with ^
+ pali dot rohar at gmail dot com 16 Jul 2018 13:03:35 +0200
+ loc * exist *** algo *** size ** imp *
+
+- support mdoc(7) and man(7) macros inside tbl(7) code;
+ probably requires the parser reorg and letting tbl(7)
+ use roff_node such that macro sets can mix;
+ informed by bapt@ that FreeBSD needs this: 3 Jan 2015 23:32:23 +0100
+ loc *** exist ** algo *** size ** imp ***
+
- look at the POSIX manuals in the books/man-pages-posix port,
they use some unsupported tbl(7) features.
loc * exist ** algo ** size ** imp ***
+- look what Joerg Schilling manual pages use
+ Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:31:48 +0100
+
- use Unicode U+2500 to U+256C for table borders
in tbl(7) -Tutf-8 output
suggested by bentley@ Tue, 14 Oct 2014 04:10:55 -0600
loc * exist ** algo * size * imp **
-- allow standalone `.' to be interpreted as an end-of-layout
- delimiter instead of being thrown away as a no-op roff line
- reported by Yuri Pankov, Wed 18 May 2011 11:34:59 CEST
- loc ** exist ** algo ** size * imp **
+- implement horizontal and vertical alignment in HTML output
+ pali dot rohar at gmail dot com 16 Jul 2018 13:03:35 +0200
+ loc * exist * algo * size * imp ***
+
+- implement cell spanning in HTML output
+ pali dot rohar at gmail dot com 16 Jul 2018 13:03:35 +0200
+ loc * exist * algo ** size ** imp **
+
+- implement table borders in HTML output
+ pali dot rohar at gmail dot com 16 Jul 2018 13:03:35 +0200
+ loc * exist * algo ** size ** imp **
--- missing eqn features -----------------------------------------------
+- In a matrix, break the output line after each matrix line.
+ Found in the discussion at CDBUG 2015.
+ Suggested by Avi Weinstock.
+ loc * exist * algo * size * imp **
+
- The "size" keyword is parsed, but ignored by the formatter.
loc * exist * algo * size * imp *
see User's Guide (Second Edition) page 5 section 15.
loc ** exist ** algo ** size ** imp **
+- GNU eqn converts some operators to special characters, for example,
+ input HYPHEN-MINUS becomes output \(mi, unless it is part of a
+ quoted word. mandoc(1) only does this when the operator is
+ surrounded by blanks, not when it is part of an unquoted word.
+ Also, check whether there are more such cases (e.g., +?).
+ reported by bentley@ 20 Jun 2017 02:04:29 -0600
+ loc * exist ** algo ** size * imp *
+
+- Primes, opprime, and '
+ bentley@ Thu, 13 Jul 2017 23:14:20 -0600
+
--- missing misc features ----------------------------------------------
+- man -ks 1,8 route; kn@ Jul 13, 2018 orally
+
- italic correction (\/) in PostScript mode
Werner LEMBERG on groff at gnu dot org Sun, 10 Nov 2013 12:47:46
loc ** exist ** algo * size * imp *
-- When makewhatis(8) encounters a FATAL parse error,
- it silently treats the file as formatted, which makes no sense
- at all for paths like man1/foo.1 - and which also contradicts
- what the manual says at the end of the description.
- The end result will be ENOENT for file names returned
- by mansearch() in manpage.file.
- loc * exist * algo * size * imp **
-
-- makewhatis(8) for preformatted pages:
- parse the section number from the header line
- and compare to the section number from the directory name
- loc * exist * algo * size * imp **
-
-- Does makewhatis(8) detect missing NAME sections, missing names,
- and missing descriptions in all the file formats?
+- change the default PAGER to more -Es and use the pager
+ even for apropos title line output; req by bapt@
loc * exist * algo * size * imp ***
- clean up escape sequence handling, creating three classes:
--- compatibility checks -----------------------------------------------
-- write a configure check for [[:<:]] support and provide some
- fallback for whatis(1) when it doesn't work;
- Svyatoslav Mishyn Wed, 17 Dec 2014 11:07:10 +0200
-
- is .Bk implemented correctly in modern groff?
sobrado@ Tue, 19 Apr 2011 22:12:55 +0200
- look at AT&T DWB http://www2.research.att.com/sw/download
Carsten Kunze <carsten dot kunze at arcor dot de> has patches
Mon, 4 Aug 2014 17:01:28 +0200
+ ported version: https://github.com/n-t-roff/DWB3.3
+ Carsten Kunze Wed, 22 Apr 2015 11:21:43 +0200
- look at pages generated from reStructeredText, e.g. devel/mercurial hg(1)
These are a weird mixture of man(7) and custom autogenerated low-level
http://swtch.com/plan9port/man/man7/man.html
"Anthony J. Bentley" <anthonyjbentley@gmail.com> 28 Dec 2010 21:58:40 -0700
+- check compatibility with COHERENT troff:
+ http://www.nesssoftware.com/home/mwc/source.php
+
- check compatibility with the man(7) formatter
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rofl0r/hardcore-utils/master/man.c
https://github.com/schmonz/ikiwiki/compare/mandoc
Amitai Schlair Mon, 19 May 2014 14:05:53 -0400
+- check features of the Slackware man.conf(5) format
+ Carsten Kunze Wed, 11 Mar 2015 17:57:24 +0100
+
************************************************************************
* formatting issues: ugly output
************************************************************************
.Vt vs .Vt/.Va vs .Ft/.Va vs .Ft/.Fa ...
from kristaps@ Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:13:32 +0200
+- implicit whitespace around inline equations
+ example code: where '$times$' denotes matrix multiplication
+ must not have an HTML line break, nor a blank, before <math>
+ partial solution: html.c {"math", HTML_NLINSIDE | HTML_INDENT},
+ bentley@ Thu, 13 Jul 2017 19:00:59 -0600
+
- in enclosures, mandoc sometimes fancies a bogus end of sentence
reminded by jmc@ Thu, 23 Sep 2010 18:13:39 +0059
loc * exist ** algo *** size * imp ***
reveals lots of bugs both in groff and mandoc...
reported by bentley@ Wed, 22 May 2013 23:49:30 -0600
---- PDF issues ---------------------------------------------------------
+--- PostScript and PDF issues ------------------------------------------
- PDF output doesn't use a monospaced font for .Bd -literal
Example: "mandoc -Tpdf afterboot.8 > output.pdf && pdfviewer output.pdf".
instructions from juanfra@ Wed, 11 Jun 2014 02:21:01 +0200
add a new <</Type /Font>> block to the PDF files with /BaseFont /Courier
and change the /Name from /F0 to the new font (/F5 (?)).
+ re-reported by tb@ Mon, 16 Mar 2015 16:47:21 +0100
loc * exist ** algo ** size * imp **
--- HTML issues --------------------------------------------------------
-- <dl><dt><dd> formatting is ugly
- hints are easy to find on the web, e.g.
- http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1713048/
- see also matthew@ Fri, 18 Jul 2014 19:25:12 -0700
- loc * exist * algo ** size * imp ***
+- table of content at the top of HTML (and perhaps ps/pdf) pages
+ only if there are at least two (or three?) non-standard sections
+ only if the new option -O toc is given
+ suggested by Adam Kalisz during EuroBSDCon 2018
+
+- support -O man with two arguments, typically using the first for
+ a local tree (like the release pages on mandoc.bsd.lv) and the
+ second for a remote tree (e.g. man.openbsd.org).
+ Probable syntax: -O man=first;second
+ Suggested by kristaps@ during EuroBSDCon 2018.
+
+- wrap Sh and Ss content into <div>
+ Laura Morales <lauretas at mail dot com> 21 Apr 2018 18:10:48 +0200
+ (Evaluate whether this is really useful and has no adverse
+ side effects before implementing; if it is possible,
+ it does seem cleaner.)
+ loc ** exist ** algo * size * imp ***
+
+- format ".IP *" etc. as <ul> rather than <dl>
+ https://github.com/Debian/debiman/issues/67
+ loc ** exist ** algo ** size * imp ***
+
+- .Bf at the beginning of a paragraph inserts a bogus 1ex horizontal
+ space, see for example random(3). Introduced in
+ http://mdocml.bsd.lv/cgi-bin/cvsweb/mdoc_html.c.diff?r1=1.91&r2=1.92
+ reported by deraadt@ Mon, 28 Sep 2015 20:14:13 -0600 (MDT)
+ loc ** exist ** algo ** size * imp *
- jsg on icb, Nov 3, 2014:
try to guess Xr in man(7) for hyperlinking
+ and render them with <a class="Xr" href=...>
+ https://github.com/Debian/debiman/issues/15
+ loc * exist * algo ** size ** imp **
- The tables used to render the three-part page headers actually force
the width of the <body> to the max-width given for <html>.
http://undeadly.org/cgi?action=article&sid=20140925064244&pid=1
loc * exist * algo ** size * imp ***
-- consider whether <var> can be used for Ar Dv Er Ev Fa Va.
- from bentley@ Wed, 13 Aug 2014 09:17:55 -0600
+- generate <img> tags in HTML
+ idea from florian@ Tue, 7 Apr 2015 00:26:28 +0000
+ may be possible to implement with .Lk img://something.png alt_text
- check https://github.com/trentm/mdocml
Probably, this should be fixed somewhere in termp_it_pre(), not sure.
loc * exist ** algo ** size * imp **
-- .Nx 1.0a
- should be "NetBSD 1.0A", not "NetBSD 1.0a",
- see OpenBSD ccdconfig(8).
- loc * exist * algo * size * imp **
-
-- In .Bl -tag, if a tag exceeds the right margin and must be continued
- on the next line, it must be indented by -width, not width+1;
- see "rule block|pass" in OpenBSD ifconfig(8).
- loc * exist *** algo ** size * imp **
-
- When the -width string contains macros, the macros must be rendered
before measuring the width, for example
.Bl -tag -width ".Dv message"
The same applies to .Bl -column column widths;
reported again by Nicolas Joly Thu, 1 Mar 2012 13:41:26 +0100 via wiz@ 5 Mar
reported again by Franco Fichtner Fri, 27 Sep 2013 21:02:28 +0200
+ reported again by Bruce Evans Fri, 17 Feb 2017 21:22:44 +0100 via bapt@
loc *** exist *** algo *** size ** imp ***
An easy partial fix would be to just skip the first word if it starts
with a dot, including any following white space, when measuring.
we want three blank lines, not two as in mandoc.
loc ** exist ** algo ** size * imp **
-- Header lines of excessive length:
- Port OpenBSD man_term.c rev. 1.25 to mdoc_term.c
- and document it in mdoc(7) and man(7) COMPATIBILITY
- found while talking to Chris Bennett
- loc * exist * algo * size * imp *
-
- Sequences of multiple man(7) paragraphs (.PP, .IP) interspersed
with .ps and .nf/.fi produce execessive blank lines, see libJudy
- The parser reorg may help with this.
+ and graphics/dcmtk. The parser reorg may help with this.
- trailing whitespace must be ignored even when followed by a font escape,
see for example
loc ** exist ** algo ** size * imp **
************************************************************************
-* portability
+* warning issues
************************************************************************
-- word boundaries in regular expressions for whatis(1)
- set up config tests to use [[:<:]], \<, or nothing
- reminded by Peter Bray Fri, 03 Apr 2015 23:02:16 +1100
+- When a man(1) command returns no result and there was an -S
+ argument, check the -S argument against the list of valid
+ architectures and say "Unknown architecture AAA" rather than
+ "No entry for NNN in the manual" if there is no match.
+ Requires moving the lists of valid architectures out of
+ mdoc_validate.c such that they can be used by main.c.
+ Discussed with jmc@ 10 Aug 2018 19:20:12 +0100.
+ loc ** exist * algo * size * imp **
+
+- warn about duplicate .Sh/.Ss heads
+ gre(4): Rename duplicate sections 20 Apr 2018 15:27:33 +0200
+ loc * exist * algo * size * imp **
-************************************************************************
-* warning issues
-************************************************************************
+- style message about macros inside .Bd -literal and .Dl, in particular
+ font changing macros like .Cm, .Ar, .Fa (from the mdoclint TODO)
-- check that MANDOCERR_BADTAB is thrown in the right cases,
- i.e. when finding a literal tab character in fill mode,
- and possibly change the wording of the warning message
- to refer to fill mode, not literal mode
- See the mail from Werner LEMBERG on the groff list,
- Fri, 14 Feb 2014 18:54:42 +0100 (CET)
- loc * exist ** algo ** size * imp **
+- style message about mismatches between the section number in the
+ file name (if it is known) and the section number in .Dt
+ (from the mdoclint TODO)
+
+- style message about NULL without .Dv (from the mdoclint TODO)
+
+- style message about error constants without .Er (from the mdoclint TODO)
+
+- warn when .Sh or .Ss contain other macros
+ Steffen Nurpmeso, savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?45034
+ loc * exist * algo * size * imp **
+
+- style message about violations of the convention
+ .An name Aq Mt localpart@domain in AUTHORS (from the mdoclint TODO)
- warn about attempts to call non-callable macros
Steffen Nurpmeso Tue, 11 Nov 2014 22:55:16 +0100
all over mdoc_macro.c and all subtly different.
loc ** exist ** algo ** size ** imp **
-- warn about "new sentence, new line"
- loc ** exist ** algo *** size * imp **
+- style message about suspicious uses of - vs. \- vs. \(mi
+ e.g. -1 is likely wrong (from the mdoclint TODO)
+
+- warn about punctuation - e.g. ',' and ';' - at the beginning
+ of a text line, if it is likely intended to follow the preceding
+ output without intervening whitespace, in particular after a
+ macro line (from the mdoclint TODO)
- mandoc_special does not really check the escape sequence,
but just the overall format
loc ** exist ** algo *** size ** imp **
-- integrate mdoclint into mandoc ("end-of-line whitespace" thread)
- from jmc@ Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:12:09 +0100
- from kristaps@ Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:34:53 +0200
- from jmc@ Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:45:37 +0059
- from kristaps@ Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:02:03 +0200
- (mostly done, check what remains)
-
-- -Tlint parser errors and warnings to stdout
- to tech@mdocml, naddy@ Wed, 28 Sep 2011 11:21:46 +0200
- wait! kristaps@ Sun, 02 Oct 2011 17:12:52 +0200
+- makewhatis -p complains about language subdirectories:
+ /usr/local/man//ru: Unknown directory part
-- for system errors, use errno/strerror/warn/err
************************************************************************
* documentation issues
************************************************************************
-- mention hyphenation rules:
- breaking at letter-letter in text mode (not macro args)
- proper hyphenation is unimplemented
-
-- talk about spacing around delimiters
- to jmc@, kristaps@ Sat, 23 Apr 2011 17:41:27 +0200
+- dashes, hyphens, and minus signs in manual pages
+ jmc@ Fri, 28 Mar 2014 07:19:27 +0000
- mark macros as: page structure domain, manual domain, general text domain
is this useful?
* performance issues
************************************************************************
-- Why are we using MAP_SHARED, not MAP_PRIVATE for mmap(2)?
- How does SQLITE_CONFIG_PAGECACHE actually work? Document it!
- from kristaps@ Sat, 09 Aug 2014 13:51:36 +0200
-
-Several areas can be cleaned up to make mandoc even faster. These are
-
-- improve hashing mechanism for macros (quite important: performance)
-
-- improve hashing mechanism for characters (not as important)
-
- the PDF file is HUGE: this can be reduced by using relative offsets
-- instead of re-initialising the roff predefined-strings set before each
- parse, create a read-only version the first time and copy it
- loc * exist ** algo ** size * imp **
-
************************************************************************
* structural issues
************************************************************************
-- Improve -O suboption parsing. Do it in the main program such that
- errors can be reported. Pay attention to distinguishing the
- mandoc(1) and apropos(1) styles of both options.
- loc ** exist * algo ** size ** imp ***
-
-- Use libz directly instead of forking gunzip(1).
- Suggested by bapt at FreeBSD among others.
+- POSIX says in the documentation of sysconf(3) that PATH_MAX
+ is allowed to be so large that it is a bad idea to use it
+ for sizing static buffers. So use dynamic buffers throughout.
+ See the file test-PATH_MAX.c for details.
+ Found by Aaron M. Ucko in the GNU Hurd via Bdale Garbee,
+ https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=829624
- We use the input line number at several places to distinguish
same-line from different-line input. That plainly doesn't work
with user-defined macros, leading to random breakage.
+- Is it possible to further simplify ENDBODY_SPACE?
+
- Find better ways to prevent endless loops
in roff(7) macro and string expansion.
-- Finish cleanup of date handling.
- Decide which formats should be recognized where.
- Update both mdoc(7) and man(7) documentation.
- Triggered by Tim van der Molen Tue, 22 Feb 2011 20:30:45 +0100
+- make buffers for parsing functions const
+ christos@ via wiz@ Fri, 18 Dec 2015 17:10:01 +0100
- struct mparse refactoring
Steffen Nurpmeso Thu, 04 Sep 2014 12:50:00 +0200
-- Consider creating some views that will make the database more
- readable from the sqlite3 shell. Consider using them to
- abstract from the database structure, too.
- suggested by espie@ Sat, 19 Apr 2014 14:52:57 +0200
-
************************************************************************
* CGI issues
************************************************************************
- Enable HTTP compression by detecting gzip encoding and filtering
output through libz.
- - Sandbox (see OpenSSH).
+ - Privilege separation (see OpenSSH).
- Enable caching support via HTTP 304 and If-Modified-Since.
- - Allow for cgi.h to be overridden by CGI environment variables.
- Otherwise, binary distributions will inherit the compile-time
- behaviour, which is not optimal.
- Have Mac OSX systems automatically disable -static compilation of the
CGI: -static isn't supported.
* to improve in the groff_mdoc(7) macros
************************************************************************
+- .Cd # arch1, arch2 in section 4 pages:
+ find better way to indicate multiple architectures, maybe:
+ allow .Dt vgafb 4 "macppc sparc64"
+ already shown as "Device Drivers Manual (macppc sparc64)"
+ for apropos, make that "vgafb(4) - macppc # sparc64" instead of "- all"
+ groff can be made to show multiple arches, too, but it is
+ tedious to do the string parsing in roff code...
+ jmc@ 23 Apr 2018 07:24:52 +0100 [man for vgafb(4)...]
+ loc ** exist ** algo * size * imp ***
+
- use uname(1) to set doc-default-operating-system at install time
tobimensch Mon, 1 Dec 2014 00:25:07 +0100
+
+- apostrophe (39), circumflex (94), grave (96), tilde (126)
+ in manuals: \(aq, \(ha, \`, \(ti
+ Re: [Groff] ASCII Minus Sign in man Pages.
+ bentley@ 26 Apr 2017 10:02:06 -0600
+ Do we need to fix existing manuals?
+ Do we need to fix the definition of the mdoc(7) language?
git.ckatri.com / mandoc.git / blobdiff