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-rewr.8": (possibly shortened list) mandoc: dcb-rewr.8:6:2: WARNING: skipping paragraph macro: sp after SH -.-. Change two HYPHEN-MINUSES (code 0x2D) to an em-dash (\(em), if one is intended. " \(em " creates a too big gap in the text (in "troff"). An en-dash is usually surrounded by a space, while an em-dash is used without spaces. "man" (1 byte characters in input) transforms an en-dash (\(en) to one HYPHEN-MINUS, and an em-dash to two HYPHEN-MINUSES without considering the space around it. If "--" are two single "-" (end of options) then use "\-\-". dcb-rewr.8:76:does what one would typically want in this situation--first adds the new -.-. Change -- in x--y to \(em (em-dash), or, if an option, to \-\- 76:does what one would typically want in this situation--first adds the new -.-. Use the correct macro for the font change of a single argument or split the argument into two. 19:.RI DEV 25:.RI DEV -.-. 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. 129:.B -N 158:# dcb -N rewr show dev eth0 prio-dscp 168:# dcb rewr -N show dev eth0 prio-dscp -.-. 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. N.B. The number of lines affected can be too large to be in a patch. 58:ID, and priority. Selector is an enumeration that picks one of the 59:prioritization namespaces. Currently, only the DSCP and PCP selector namespaces 64:assignment for the same selector and priority. For example, the set of two 74:commands. On the other hand, the command 84:Display all entries with a given selector. When no selector is given, shows all 89:Remove all entries with a given selector. When no selector is given, removes all 102:present in the rewrite table yet. Then remove those entries, whose selector and 104:protocol ID. This has the effect of, for the given selector and priority, 111:\fBadd\fR, \fBdel\fR and \fBreplace\fR commands. For \fBshow\fR and 119:for details. Keys are priorities, values are DSCP points for traffic 120:with matching priority. DSCP points can be written either directly as numeric 127:will similarly format DSCP values as symbolic names if possible. The 136:for details. Keys are priorities. Values are PCP/DEI for traffic with 137:matching priority. PCP/DEI values are written as a combination of numeric- and 138:symbolic values, to accommodate for both. PCP always in numeric form e.g 0 .. -.-. No space is needed before a quote (") at the end of a line 12:.RI "[ " OPTIONS " ] " -.-. Add missing period (.) for "e.g" 138:symbolic values, to accommodate for both. PCP always in numeric form e.g 0 .. 139:7 and DEI in symbolic form e.g 'de' (drop-eligible), indicating that the DEI -.-. 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 '':12 troff::12: warning: trailing space in the line