GNU roff - Bugs: bug #64469, [troff] `-o` with valid but...

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bug #64469: [troff] `-o` with valid but inapplicable argument provokes incomprehensible output driver diagnostic

Submitter:	Dave <barx>
Submitted:	Mon 24 Jul 2023 10:39:19 PM UTC


Category:	Core	Severity:	3 - Normal
Item Group:	Warning/Suspicious behaviour	Status:	Fixed
Privacy:	Public	Assigned to:	gbranden
Open/Closed:	Closed	Planned Release:	1.24.0

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Fri 18 Oct 2024 12:42:30 AM UTC, comment #4: commit 40644c648efc313eb818b89725787fe2a10ba773 Author: G. Branden Robinson <g.branden.robinson@gmail.com> Date: Thu Oct 17 11:11:45 2024 -0500 [troff]: Fix Savannah #64469 (`-o` out of bounds). [troff]: Better handle inapplicable or out-of-bounds (but still numerically valid) output page selection list (`-o` argument). * src/roff/troff/node.cpp: New global Boolean `was_any_page_in_output_list` tracks this datum; defaults false. (troff_output_file::trailer): When finishing up, don't write a "trailer" grout command (and vertical motion) if no page ever began. Insted, throw a warning in category `range`. (real_output_file::begin_page): Make `was_any_page_in_output_list` true if any page is written. Fixes <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?64469>. Thanks to Dave Kemper for the report. Exhibit: $ echo hello \| ~/groff-stable/bin/groff -o 2 grops:<standard input>:5: fatal error: 'V' command invalid before first 'p' command $ echo hello \| ./build/test-groff -o 2 > /dev/null $ echo hello \| ./build/test-groff -o 2 -wrange > /dev/null troff: warning: no pages in output page selection list	G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Thu 17 Oct 2024 04:20:51 PM UTC, comment #3: This problem (1) applies generally to output drivers (try `-T ascii`, `-T dvi`, `-T lj4`, etc.) and (2) is better solved in the formatter, and with the solution I'm working on now, no change to any output driver is necessary, and all get the benefit.	G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Thu 17 Oct 2024 04:16:20 PM UTC, comment #2: comment #1: > Can reproduce with groff 1.23.0 final. > > This might be a good time to adopt neatroff's `.%` register, which stores the page sequence number, introduce this concept to our implementation and documentation, and fasten the `-o` option to it. This is now tracked as bug #66348.	G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Fri 04 Aug 2023 06:59:32 PM UTC, comment #1: Can reproduce with groff 1.23.0 final. This might be a good time to adopt neatroff's `.%` register, which stores the page sequence number, introduce this concept to our implementation and documentation, and fasten the `-o` option to it.	G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Mon 24 Jul 2023 10:39:19 PM UTC, original submission: $ groff --version \| head -1 GNU groff version 1.22.4 $ echo Hello. \| groff -o2 \| wc 202 577 3664 $ groff-latest --version \| head -1 GNU groff version 1.23.0.rc4.19-96b92-dirty $ echo Hello. \| groff-latest -o2 \| wc grops:<standard input>:5: fatal error: 'V' command invalid before first 'p' command 0 0 0 $ echo Hello. \| groff-latest -o1 \| wc 267 820 6662 This post-rc4 build is not quite the same as the released groff 1.23, but by this point I believe there were no further code changes before the release, so I suspect (but have not built 1.23 to confirm) that this bug is in the release. In the -o2 case, the user is asking for a page that doesn't exist, so an error is not unwarranted. But the error generated gives little clue what the problem is. Groff 1.22.4 produced no error here, emitting a PostScript document with no pages--which may not be the ideal outcome either but I think is slightly better than the incomprehensible diagnostic, and is arguably giving the user precisely what they asked for. Someone testing rc3 came across similar error message (http://lists.gnu.org/r/groff/2023-02/msg00133.html). This turned out to be contingent on a specific setting of the $GROFF_ENCODING environment variable. My environment does not have this variable (nor any other GROFF environment variable) set. (Found this issue while poking into http://lists.gnu.org/r/bug-groff/2023-07/msg00144.html)	Dave <barx>

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Follow 9 latest changes.

Date	Changed by	Updated Field	Previous Value	Replaced by
2024-10-18	gbranden	Status	In Progress	Fixed
		Open/Closed	Open	Closed
		Planned Release	None	1.24.0
2024-10-17	gbranden	Category	Driver grops	Core
		Status	Confirmed	In Progress
		Assigned to	None	gbranden
		Summary	[grops] -o with out-of-range number produces incomprehensible error	[troff] `-o` with valid but inapplicable argument provokes incomprehensible output driver diagnostic
2023-08-04	gbranden	Summary	-o with out-of-range number produces incomprehensible error	[grops] -o with out-of-range number produces incomprehensible error
2023-08-04	gbranden	Status	None	Confirmed

GNU roff - Bugs: bug #64469, [troff] `-o` with valid but...

bug #64469: [troff] `-o` with valid but inapplicable argument provokes incomprehensible output driver diagnostic

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