Re: .Bl -width (Was: CVS commit: src/sbin/shutdown)

[Valery Ushakov <uwe%stderr.spb.ru@localhost>]

On Wed, Feb 15, 2023 at 19:22:11 +0100, Steffen Nurpmeso wrote:

>  |Please, can people at least *skim* through mdoc.samples(7) *once*...
>  |
>  |It's best to use default width.  Yes, some option .It may require a
>  |line break, but it gives consistent formatting across man pages.
>  |
>  |  .Bl -tag -width Fl
>  |
>  |If for some reason you absolutely must tailor the formatting for the
>  |contents of the list, don't do this cargo cult padding of "-width"
>  |that doesn't even work to begin with, b/c PostScript and other
>  |backends do exist.
>  |
>  |What you meant to say was really:
>  |
>  |  .Bl -tag -width ".Fl b Ar bootstr"
>  |  .It Fl b Ar bootstr
> 
> It does not really matter, as (1) NetBSD uses mandoc not (g)roff,
> and (2) NetBSD is not interested in mdoc references,

For (1) the complete correct statement is: NetBSD man(1) command uses
mandoc(1) that can interpret mdoc(7) macros.  The same manpage source
can also be fed to groff to get PostScript output.  And I wish we also
had something more modern than xman(1) that can interpret ditroff(7)
output from groff to render manpages under X with vector fonts etc.

As for (2) - I have no idea where you might have gotten that
impression.


> point out nonetheless that doing the above, in the original
> mdoc(7) macros, performs a full evaluation of ".Fl b Ar bootstr"; 

Yes, and that's what mdoc(7) explicitly recommends.


> that is, the "b" flag is "defined" twice.

I don't understand what "defined" is supposed to mean in this context.


-uwe