Hi Lukas, At 2023-11-19T17:31:40+0100, Lukas Javorsky wrote: > I've been approached by a maintainer of the `psutils` package that the > groff is the only package that still requires it. He wants to get rid > of the package as many of the dependencies have shifted from it, but > the groff is still remaining > > I wanted to ask what is the exact reason groff needs to require > `psutils`. I've found only a small mention in the README, however not > much more: > > > Ghostscript is required for creation of PDF and (X)HTML output. > > Production of (X)HTML furthermore demands tools from the 'netpbm' > > and 'psutils' packages. > > > > Thank you for your answers.
This is not documented as well as it could be. I expected to find the answer in the GNU Autoconf tests that groff uses, but unless one already knows what binaries psutils ships, one can't find it. Long story short: we need the "psselect" command. Longer story. This appears to be the only psutils command we need. $ cat -n m4/groff.m4|sed -n '173,191p' 173 # grohtml needs the following programs to produce images from tbl(1) 174 # tables and eqn(1) equations. 175 176 dnl Any macro that tests $use_grohtml should AC_REQUIRE this. 177 178 AC_DEFUN([GROFF_CHECK_GROHTML_PROGRAMS], [ 179 AC_REQUIRE([GROFF_GHOSTSCRIPT_PATH]) 180 181 use_grohtml=no 182 missing= 183 m4_foreach([groff_prog], 184 dnl Keep this list of programs in sync with grohtml test scripts. 185 [[pnmcrop], [pnmcut], [pnmtopng], [pnmtops], [psselect]], [ 186 AC_CHECK_PROG(groff_prog, groff_prog, [found], [missing]) 187 if test $[]groff_prog = missing 188 then 189 missing="$missing 'groff_prog'" 190 fi 191 ]) I have a long-term notion to eliminate the pre-grohtml program (the preprocessor for grohtml) altogether; that would eliminate psselect and at least some of our dependency on netpbm. (I think we have another dependency on netpbm.) But "long-term" may mean "years away". What does it do? psselect(1): Psselect selects pages from a PostScript document, creating a new PostScript file. The input PostScript file should follow the Adobe Document Structuring Conventions. If someone knows of a replacement for psselect, possibly in a more widely deployed and used package, we could conceivably transition to it. This would require some testing. Regards, Branden
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