URL: <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?68356>
Summary: [troff] make warnings in category "missing" more
helpful
Group: GNU roff
Submitter: gbranden
Submitted: Sun 17 May 2026 05:52:32 PM UTC
Category: Core
Severity: 3 - Normal
Item Group: Warning/Suspicious behaviour
Status: None
Privacy: Public
Assigned to: None
Open/Closed: Open
Discussion Lock: Unlocked
Planned Release: None
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Follow-up Comments:
-------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun 17 May 2026 05:52:32 PM UTC By: G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Often, when arguments are omitted from string or macro defining or appending
requests, the diagnostic does not disclose which request was in operation.
Over the past several years, diagnostics have largely come to do so, which is
a useful property because requests can be renamed. It also helps the user
figure out when they've misspelled one request name for another, revealing
that their intentions were utterly mistaken by the formatter.
$ ./build/test-groff -ww
.ds
troff:<standard input>:1: warning: missing identifier [-w missing]
.de
troff:<standard input>:2: warning: missing identifier [-w missing]
.as
troff:<standard input>:3: warning: missing identifier [-w missing]
.am
troff:<standard input>:4: warning: missing identifier [-w missing]
.tr\" let's say 'tm' was meant
troff:<standard input>:5: warning: character translation request expects
sequence of character pairs as argument [-w missing]
Improve this situation.
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