URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?67344>

                 Summary: [man] renders degenerate 1-paragraph document poorly
(cf. mdoc and groff 1.22.4)
                   Group: GNU roff
               Submitter: gbranden
               Submitted: Sun 20 Jul 2025 07:09:28 AM GMT
                Category: Macro package man
                Severity: 2 - Minor
              Item Group: Rendering/Cosmetics
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
         Planned Release: None


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Follow-up Comments:


-------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun 20 Jul 2025 07:09:28 AM GMT By: G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
I observe a regression in handling of degenerate--which is to say
"ill-formed"--_man_(7) documents going from _groff_ 1.22.4 to 1.23.0 and
affecting the trunk.


$ printf '.Pp\nThis is my paragraph.\n' | ~/groff-HEAD/bin/groff
-rCHECKSTYLE=4 -mandoc -Tascii | cat -s
This is my paragraph.

$ printf '.P\nThis is my paragraph.\n' | ~/groff-1.22.3/bin/groff
-rCHECKSTYLE=4 -man -Tascii | cat -s
This is my paragraph.

$ printf '.P\nThis is my paragraph.\n' | ~/groff-1.22.4/bin/groff
-rCHECKSTYLE=4 -man -Tascii | cat -s
This is my paragraph.

$ printf '.P\nThis is my paragraph.\n' | ~/groff-1.23.0/bin/groff
-rCHECKSTYLE=4 -man -Tascii | cat -s
grotty:<standard input>:10: error: output above first line discarded
grotty:<standard input>:11: error: output above first line discarded
grotty:<standard input>:12: error: output above first line discarded
grotty:<standard input>:12: error: output above first line discarded
grotty:<standard input>:12: error: output above first line discarded
grotty:<standard input>:12: error: output above first line discarded
grotty:<standard input>:14: error: output above first line discarded
grotty:<standard input>:14: error: output above first line discarded
grotty:<standard input>:16: error: output above first line discarded
grotty:<standard input>:16: error: output above first line discarded
grotty:<standard input>:18: error: output above first line discarded
grotty:<standard input>:18: error: output above first line discarded
grotty:<standard input>:18: error: output above first line discarded
grotty:<standard input>:18: error: output above first line discarded
grotty:<standard input>:18: error: output above first line discarded
grotty:<standard input>:18: error: output above first line discarded
grotty:<standard input>:18: error: output above first line discarded
grotty:<standard input>:18: error: output above first line discarded
grotty:<standard input>:18: error: output above first line discarded
grotty:<standard input>:18: error: output above first line discarded



I'm betting it's easily fixed without collateral damage to existing automated
tests.  In the internal paragraph reset macro, maybe check for a negative
vertical drawing position, and if so, force a break.

Normally I set the severity of regressions vs. released _groff_s to
"Important", but as noted, this matter regards handling of ill-formed
documents.  Among other problems, such input is un-indexable by _mandb_(8),
which I suspect explains why I haven't heard a complaint from anyone despite
1.23.0 being out for over 2 years now.







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