Gerard Lally <lists+netbsd.users%netmail.ie@localhost> writes:
> While reading the INSTALL notes for amd64 today, I learned that groff(1)
> is to be phased out in a future release, since man pages are handled
> with mandoc(1), and groff(1) can still be found in pkgsrc as textproc/groff.
>
> As someone who uses groff as a lightweight alternative to TeX and
> friends**, I wonder if it could be kept in the base system. One of my
> NetBSD systems is a small VPS server, where I don't have any need, or
> indeed much space, to use pkgsrc. I maintain a couple of other NetBSD
> systems as backup servers, and pkgsrc is not installed on them either,
> but I do use groff to format automated {daily,weekly,monthly} reports.
Using pkgsrc doesn't really take up much space if you install binary
packages, which is the logical analog of having things in base.
The problem with items being in base is that they are present on
everyone's system, not just those that want it. It is always a tough
call as to what to add and what to retire.
The groff we have is the GNU version, not the original minimalist
nroff/troff from the V7 days.
Arguably we need to have a groff-nox11 package (or make this one like
that and add groff-x11) before removal, though, as the current package
drags in a lot.
Keep in mind too that theories of future removal are often exaggerated.
Thanks for noting your opinion, and I'm not really in favor of removing
it either.
Attachment:
pgpJVeDVhHoJf.pgp
Description: PGP signature