Hi Branden,

> Date: 2026-08-23 08:27:49-0500
> From: "G. Branden Robinson" <g.branden.robinson@gmail.com>
>
[...]
> 
> > I've tried building groff from git HEAD now, and have some issues.
> > Bootstrap succeeds, configure succeeds, and then make(1) eventually
> > fails:
> > 
> > 	$ make 
> > 	  GEN      doc/groff.html
> > 	Cannot find a locale compatible with document strings translations
> > 	doc/groff.texi:12253: warning: @image file `line-layout' (for HTML) not found, using `line-layout.png'
> > 	doc/groff.texi:26767: warning: @image file `gnu' (for HTML) not found, using `gnu.png'
> > 	cp: cannot stat './doc/gnu.png': No such file or directory
> > 	cp: cannot stat './doc/line-layout.png': No such file or directory
> > 	make: *** [Makefile:20047: doc/groff.html] Error 1
> > 
> > Do you know what's wrong?
> 
> More or less. It turns out to be damned hard to balance the requirements
> of (1) Automake maintainer mode; (2) building from Git repository
> checkouts; and (3) building from distribution archives.  Bruno Haible
> has been helpful in finding scenarios that don't work.
> 
> https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/groff/2026-08/msg00039.html

Hmmmm, now it rings a bell.  bootstrap said something about configure
with maintainer mode, but I ignored that, since I had never used
maintainer mode.

After building with maintainer mode, it works a little bit better.
At least I could install the binaries.  I still see some errors, but
I hope they're unimportant.

	alx@devuan:~/src/gnu/groff/master$ git log --pretty=reference -1
	144585c33ae8 (roff(7): Fix content and style nits., 2026-08-09)
	alx@devuan:~/src/gnu/groff/master$ set -o pipefail;
	alx@devuan:~/src/gnu/groff/master$ ./bootstrap |& tail -n1; echo $?
	./bootstrap: done.  Now you can run './configure --enable-maintainer-mode'.
	0
	alx@devuan:~/src/gnu/groff/master$ ./configure --enable-maintainer-mode --prefix=/opt/local/gnu/groff/test/ |& tail; echo $?
	  a --with-appdefdir option).

	  If the gxditview app-defaults are installed in a directory that is not
	  one of the default X11 directories for this purpose (common defaults
	  are /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults, /usr/share/X11/app-defaults, and
	  /etc/X11/app-defaults), you will have to set the environment variable
	  XFILESEARCHPATH to this path.  More details can be found in the X(7)
	  manual page, or in the document "X Toolkit Intrinsics - C Language
	  Interface manual".
	       
	0
	alx@devuan:~/src/gnu/groff/master$ make |& tail -n1; echo $?
	make[1]: Leaving directory '/srv/alx/src/gnu/groff/master'
	0
	alx@devuan:~/src/gnu/groff/master$ sudo make install |& tail; echo $?
	install: cannot stat 'doc/img/webpage*': No such file or directory
	make[4]: *** [Makefile:19998: install_doc_examples] Error 1
	make[4]: Leaving directory '/srv/alx/src/gnu/groff/master'
	make[3]: *** [Makefile:16833: install-data-am] Error 2
	make[3]: Leaving directory '/srv/alx/src/gnu/groff/master'
	make[2]: *** [Makefile:16426: install-am] Error 2
	make[2]: Leaving directory '/srv/alx/src/gnu/groff/master'
	make[1]: *** [Makefile:13346: install-recursive] Error 1
	make[1]: Leaving directory '/srv/alx/src/gnu/groff/master'
	make: *** [Makefile:16419: install] Error 2
	2

> In the meantime, building from the most recent release candidate archive
> _should_ work.
> 
> https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/groff/groff-1.25.0.rc2.tar.gz
> https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/groff/groff-1.25.0.rc2.tar.gz.sig
> 
> ...at any rate, it just did for me.
> 
> 2026-08-23 08:22:22-0500 mkdir /tmp/rando
> 2026-08-23 08:22:24-0500 cd /tmp/rando
> 2026-08-23 08:22:28-0500 wget 'https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/groff/groff-1.25.0.rc2.tar.gz'
> 2026-08-23 08:22:33-0500 wget 'https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/groff/groff-1.25.0.rc2.tar.gz.sig'
> 2026-08-23 08:23:29-0500 gpg --verify groff-1.25.0.rc2.tar.gz{.sig,}
> 2026-08-23 08:23:36-0500 tar xf groff-1.25.0.rc2.tar.gz
> 2026-08-23 08:23:38-0500 cd groff-1.25.0.rc2/
> 2026-08-23 08:23:55-0500 ./configure --prefix=$HOME && make -j

> Build finished successfully for me in about 60 seconds.

Out of curiosity, where did you get those timestamps from?  Does your
history file store them?

Using groff from git HEAD, I see the list as this:

	$ cat ls.man 
	.TH a s d f
	.SH test
	foo
	.LS
	.IP \[bu] 3
	bar
	.IP \[bu]
	baz
	.LS
	.P
	qwe
	$ /opt/local/gnu/groff/20260823_master/bin/groff -man -Tutf8 ./ls.man 
	a(s)                                                                        a(s)

	test
	     foo

	     •  bar

	     •  baz

	     qwe

	f                                       d                                   a(s)

Is this intended?  I thought it would imply PD 0.


Cheers,
Alex

> 
> Regards,
> Branden



-- 
<https://www.alejandro-colomar.es>