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 The same goes for man pages that are used as an input. For a style guide use mandoc -T lint -.- So any 'generator' should check its products with the above mentioned 'groff', 'mandoc', and additionally with 'nroff ...'. This is just a simple quality control measure. The 'generator' may have to be corrected to get a better man page, the source file may, and any additional file may. Common defects: Input text line longer than 80 bytes. Not removing trailing spaces (in in- and output). The reason for these trailing spaces should be found and eliminated. Not beginning each input sentence on a new line. Lines should thus be shorter. 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 > nroff -mandoc > diff -u 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 of 'diff -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) -.-. Output from "mandoc -T lint dcb-dcbx.8": (possibly shortened list) mandoc: dcb-dcbx.8:5:2: WARNING: skipping paragraph macro: sp after SH -.-. Use the correct macro for the font change of a single argument or split the argument into two. 18:.RI DEV 22:.RI DEV -.-. Wrong distance between sentences in the input file. Separate the sentences and subordinate clauses; each begins on a new line. See man-pages(7) ("Conventions for source file layout") and "info groff" ("Input Conventions"). The best procedure is to always start a new sentence on a new line, at least, if you are typing on a computer. Remember coding: Only one command ("sentence") on each (logical) line. E-mail: Easier to quote exactly the relevant lines. Generally: Easier to edit the sentence. Patches: Less unaffected text. Search for two adjacent words is easier, when they belong to the same line, and the same phrase. The amount of space between sentences in the output can then be controlled with the ".ss" request. 32:exchange configuration information with directly connected peers. The Linux DCBX 41:interfaces are used to propagate the negotiate parameters to capable devices. In 51:the following keywords enable the corresponding configuration. The keywords that 52:are not mentioned on the command line are considered disabled. When used with 61:mode of operation, as described above. In principle these two keywords are 71:version of the DCB specification. Typically only one of these will be set, but 77:indicates the engine supports static configuration. No actual negotiation is -.-. Split a punctuation from a single argument, if a two-font macro is meant 53:.B show, -.-. No space is needed before a quote (") at the end of a line 11:.RI "[ " OPTIONS " ] " -.-. Output from "test-groff -mandoc -t -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -ww -b -z ": troff: backtrace: '/home/bg/git/groff/build/s-tmac/an.tmac':709: macro 'RI' troff: backtrace: file '':11 troff::11: warning: trailing space in the line