[neomutt-devel] neomutt.1: Some remarks and a patch with editorial changes for this man page
Bjarni Ingi Gislason
bjarniig at simnet.is
Fri Dec 5 10:13:17 CET 2025
Package: neomutt
Version: 20250905+dfsg-1+b1
Severity: minor
Tags: patch
Dead Maintainer,
* What led up to the situation?
Checking for defects with a new version
test-[g|n]roff -mandoc -t -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -rCHECKSTYLE=0 -ww -z < "man page"
[Use
grep -n -e ' $' -e '\\~$' -e ' \\f.$' -e ' \\"' <file>
to find (most) trailing spaces.]
["test-groff" is a script in the repository for "groff"; is not shipped]
(local copy and "troff" slightly changed by me).
[The fate of "test-nroff" was decided in groff bug #55941.]
* What was the outcome of this action?
Output from "test-groff -mandoc -t -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -rCHECKSTYLE=0 -ww -z ":
troff:<stdin>:224: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:225: warning: trailing space in the line
* What outcome did you expect instead?
No output (no warnings).
-.-
General remarks and further material, if a diff-file exist, are in the
attachments.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: forky/sid
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 6.17.9+deb14-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=is_IS.iso88591, LC_CTYPE=is_IS.iso88591 (charmap=ISO-8859-1), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init)
Versions of packages neomutt depends on:
ii libc6 2.41-12
ii libgnutls30t64 3.8.10-3
ii libgpgme45 2.0.1-2
ii libgsasl18 2.2.2-4
ii libgssapi-krb5-2 1.22.1-2
ii libidn2-0 2.3.8-4
ii liblmdb0 0.9.31-1+b2
ii liblua5.4-0 5.4.8-1
ii liblz4-1 1.10.0-6
ii libncursesw6 6.5+20251123-1
ii libnotmuch5t64 0.39-1
ii libpcre2-8-0 10.46-1
ii libsqlite3-0 3.46.1-8
ii libtinfo6 6.5+20251123-1
ii libtokyocabinet9t64 1.4.48-15.1+b1
ii libzstd1 1.5.7+dfsg-2
ii sensible-utils 0.0.26
ii zlib1g 1:1.3.dfsg+really1.3.1-1+b1
Versions of packages neomutt recommends:
ii locales 2.41-12
ii mailcap 3.75
Versions of packages neomutt suggests:
ii aspell 0.60.8.1-6
ii ca-certificates 20250419
ii exim4-daemon-light [mail-transport-agent] 4.99-4
ii gnupg 2.4.8-4
ii ispell 3.4.06-1
ii openssl 3.5.4-1
ii python3 3.13.7-1+b1
pn urlview <none>
Versions of packages neomutt is related to:
ii neomutt 20250905+dfsg-1+b1
-- no debconf information
-------------- next part --------------
Output from
test-nroff -mandoc -t -ww -z neomutt.1: (shortened list)
2 line(s) with a trailing space
Find most trailing spaces with:
grep -n -e ' $' -e ' \\f.$' -e ' \\"' <man page>
-.-.
Change a HYPHEN-MINUS (code 0x2D) to a minus(-dash) (\-),
if it
is in front of a name for an option,
is a symbol for standard input,
is a single character used to indicate an option,
or is in the NAME section (man-pages(7)).
N.B. - (0x2D), processed as a UTF-8 file, is changed to a hyphen
(0x2010, groff \[u2010] or \[hy]) in the output.
333:.RI "({ " file " | $debug_file | " ~/.neomuttdebug " }[" 0 - 4 ])
354:Add -O for one-liner documentation.
-.-.
Add a "\&" (or a comma (Oxford comma)) after an abbreviation
or use English words
(man-pages(7)).
Abbreviation points should be marked as such and protected against being
interpreted as an end of sentence, if they are not, and that independent
of the current place on the line.
628:for, e.g. hostname, user name/ID, process ID and/or other random data.
-.-.
Put a parenthetical sentence, phrase on a separate line,
if not part of a code.
See man-pages(7), item "semantic newline".
neomutt.1:219:Attach one or more \fIfile\fPs to a message (must be the last option).
neomutt.1:274:Log debugging output to a file (default is \(dq\fI~/.neomuttdebug0\fP\(dq).
neomutt.1:298:Specify a \fImailbox\fP (as defined with \fBmailboxes\fP command) to load
neomutt.1:409:and have permission of 600 (octal number representing).
-.-.
FSF office address update. See
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2024-09/msg00004.html
19:.\" Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
-.-.
No space is needed before a quote (") at the end of a line
224:.BI "neomutt \-a " "image.jpg " "\-\- " "address1 "
225:.BI "neomutt \-a " "image.jpg *.png " "\-\- " "address1 address2 "
-.-.
Remove quotes when there is a printable
but no space character between them
and the quotes are not for emphasis (markup),
for example as an argument to a macro.
neomutt.1:21:.TH neomutt 1 "2025-09-05" Unix "User Manuals"
neomutt.1:592:.I "~/.mailcap"
neomutt.1:594:.I "/etc/mailcap"
neomutt.1:600:.I "~/.neomuttdebug0"
neomutt.1:606:.I "/etc/mime.types"
neomutt.1:608:.I "/etc/mime.types"
neomutt.1:610:.I "/usr/share/neomutt/mime.types"
neomutt.1:612:.I "~/.mime.types"
neomutt.1:619:.IR "/usr/share/doc/neomutt/manual." { html , pdf , txt }
-.-.
Output from "test-groff -mandoc -t -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -rCHECKSTYLE=0 -ww -z ":
troff:<stdin>:224: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:225: warning: trailing space in the line
-.-
Generally:
Split (sometimes) lines after a punctuation mark; before a conjunction.
-------------- next part --------------
--- neomutt.1 2025-12-05 02:52:47.780050405 +0000
+++ neomutt.1.new 2025-12-05 03:11:26.574906662 +0000
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
.\" along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
.\" Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
.\"
-.TH neomutt 1 "2025-09-05" Unix "User Manuals"
+.TH neomutt 1 2025-09-05 Unix "User Manuals"
.\" --------------------------------------------------------------------
.SH NAME
.\" --------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -221,8 +221,8 @@ Add any addresses after the \(aq\fB\-\-\
.RS
.IP
.EX
-.BI "neomutt \-a " "image.jpg " "\-\- " "address1 "
-.BI "neomutt \-a " "image.jpg *.png " "\-\- " "address1 address2 "
+.BI "neomutt \-a " "image.jpg " "\-\- " "address1"
+.BI "neomutt \-a " "image.jpg *.png " "\-\- " "address1 address2"
.EE
.RE
.
@@ -351,7 +351,7 @@ Resume a prior postponed message, if any
.BI \-Q " variable"
Query a configuration \fIvariable\fP and print its value to stdout
(after the config has been read and any commands executed).
-Add -O for one-liner documentation.
+Add \-O for one-liner documentation.
.
.TP
.B \-R
@@ -589,34 +589,34 @@ NeoMutt will process all grouped files i
as they are specified in that listing.
.
.TP
-.I "~/.mailcap"
+.I ~/.mailcap
.TQ
-.I "/etc/mailcap"
+.I /etc/mailcap
User-specific and system-wide definitions for handling non-text MIME types,
look at environment variable \fBMAILCAPS\fP above
for additional search locations.
.
.TP
-.I "~/.neomuttdebug0"
+.I ~/.neomuttdebug0
User's default debug log file.
For further details or customising file path
see command line options \fB\-d\fP and \fB\-l\fP above.
.
.TP
-.I "/etc/mime.types"
+.I /etc/mime.types
.TQ
-.I "/etc/mime.types"
+.I /etc/mime.types
.TQ
-.I "/usr/share/neomutt/mime.types"
+.I /usr/share/neomutt/mime.types
.TQ
-.I "~/.mime.types"
+.I ~/.mime.types
Description files for
simple plain text mapping between MIME types and filename extensions.
NeoMutt parses these files in the stated order
while processing attachments to determine their MIME type.
.
.TP
-.IR "/usr/share/doc/neomutt/manual." { html , pdf , txt }
+.IR /usr/share/doc/neomutt/manual. { html , pdf , txt }
The full NeoMutt manual in HTML, PDF or plain text format.
.
.TP
@@ -625,7 +625,7 @@ Temporary files created by NeoMutt.
For custom locations
look at description of the environment variable \fBTMPDIR\fP above.
Notice that the suffix \fI-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX\fP is just a placeholder
-for, e.g. hostname, user name/ID, process ID and/or other random data.
+for, e.g.\& hostname, user name/ID, process ID and/or other random data.
.
.\" --------------------------------------------------------------------
.SH BUGS
-------------- next part --------------
Any program (person), that produces man pages, should check the output
for defects by using (both groff and nroff)
[gn]roff -mandoc -t -ww -b -z -K utf8 <man page>
To find trailing space use
grep -n -e ' $' -e ' \\f.$' -e ' \\"' <man page>
The same goes for man pages that are used as an input.
-.-
For a style guide use
mandoc -T lint
-.-
For general input conventions consult the man page "nroff(7)" (item
"Input conventions") or the Texinfo manual about the same item.
-.-
Any "autogenerator" should check its products with the above mentioned
'groff', 'mandoc', and additionally with 'nroff ...'.
It should also check its input files for too long (> 80) lines.
This is just a simple quality control measure.
The "autogenerator" may have to be corrected to get a better man page,
the source file may, and any additional file may.
-.-
Common defects:
Not removing trailing spaces (in in- and output).
The reason for these trailing spaces should be found and eliminated.
"git" has a "tool" to point out whitespace,
see for example "git-apply(1)" and git-config(1)")
-.-
Not beginning each input sentence on a new line.
Line length and patch size should thus be reduced when that has been fixed.
The script "reportbug" uses 'quoted-printable' encoding when a line is
longer than 1024 characters in an 'ascii' file.
See man-pages(7), item "semantic newline".
-.-
The difference between the formatted output of the original
and patched file can be seen with:
nroff -mandoc <file1> > <out1>
nroff -mandoc <file2> > <out2>
diff -d -u <out1> <out2>
and for groff, using
\"printf '%s\n%s\n' '.kern 0' '.ss 12 0' | groff -mandoc -Z - \"
instead of 'nroff -mandoc'
Add the option '-t', if the file contains a table.
Read the output from 'diff -d -u ...' with 'less -R' or similar.
-.-.
If 'man' (man-db) is used to check the manual for warnings,
the following must be set:
The option "-warnings=w"
The environmental variable:
export MAN_KEEP_STDERR=yes (or any non-empty value)
or
(produce only warnings):
export MANROFFOPT="-ww -b -z"
export MAN_KEEP_STDERR=yes (or any non-empty value)
-.-
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