Re: groff 1.24.0.rc1 dependencies

Bruno Haible via GNU roff typesetting system discussion <[email protected]> Mon, 19 Jan 2026 21:47:17 +0100

Newsgroups	gmane.comp.printing.groff.general
Organization	GNU
Message-ID	<6507266.axxuzLQ8MY@nimes>

Hi,

The INSTALL.extra file has a section "Dependencies", but it is
incomplete:

1) It should list the 'm4' (or GNU m4 ?) program. Without 'm4'
   in $PATH, there is a build failure already at the configure
   step (seen e.g. in Debian or Manjaro 23):

     checking for m4... no
     checking for gm4... no
     configure: error: could not find an m4 program

2) It should list not only Perl, but also that specific Perl modules
   are needed.

   For instance, on CentOS 8-stream and CentOS Stream 9, "make check"
   fails with 1 test failure:

   FAIL: contrib/chem/tests/smoke-test.sh

   The error is "Can't locate Math/Trig.pm in @INC", see attached
   test-suite.log.

Bruno

test-suite.log (text/x-log, 4.6 KB)

==================================================
   GNU roff 1.23.0.5077-7dcc8: ./test-suite.log
==================================================

# TOTAL: 309
# PASS:  301
# SKIP:  3
# XFAIL: 4
# FAIL:  1
# XPASS: 0
# ERROR: 0

.. contents:: :depth: 2

FAIL: contrib/chem/tests/smoke-test.sh
======================================

Can't locate Math/Trig.pm in @INC (you may need to install the Math::Trig module) (@INC contains: /usr/local/lib64/perl5 /usr/local/share/perl5 /usr/lib64/perl5/vendor_perl /usr/share/perl5/vendor_perl /usr/lib64/perl5 /usr/share/perl5) at /home/bruno/groff-1.23.0.5077-7dcc8/build-64/chem line 42.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /home/bruno/groff-1.23.0.5077-7dcc8/build-64/chem line 42.
FAIL contrib/chem/tests/smoke-test.sh (exit status: 4)

XFAIL: tmac/tests/pdf_bookmark-starting-with-control-char-works.sh
==================================================================

x X ps:exec [/Dest /pdf:bm1 /View [/FitH -19000 u] /DEST pdfmark
x X ps:exec [/Dest /pdf:bm1 /Title (Attack...) /Level 1 /OUT pdfmark
x X ps:exec [/Dest /pdf:bm2 /View [/FitH -43000 u] /DEST pdfmark
x X ps:exec [/Dest /pdf:bm2 /Title (...Decay...) /Level 1 /OUT pdfmark
x X ps:exec [/Dest /pdf:bm3 /View [/FitH -67000 u] /DEST pdfmark
x X ps:exec [/Dest /pdf:bm3 /Title (\&...Sustain...) /Level 1 /OUT pdfmark
x X ps:exec [/Dest /pdf:bm4 /View [/FitH -91000 u] /DEST pdfmark
x X ps:exec [/Dest /pdf:bm4 /Title (Release) /Level 1 /OUT pdfmark
checking bookmark with trailing ellipsis
checking bookmark with leading and trailing ellipsis
checking bookmark with leading and trailing ellipsis (and dummy character workaround)
...FAILED
checking bookmark with no ellipsis
XFAIL tmac/tests/pdf_bookmark-starting-with-control-char-works.sh (exit status: 1)

SKIP: src/preproc/preconv/tests/smoke-test.sh
=============================================

testing -e flag override of BOM detection
testing detection of UTF-32BE BOM
testing detection of UTF-32LE BOM
testing detection of UTF-16BE BOM
testing detection of UTF-16LE BOM
testing detection of UTF-8 BOM
testing detection of Emacs coding tag in piped input
../src/preproc/preconv/tests/smoke-test.sh: preconv lacks uchardet support; skipping
SKIP src/preproc/preconv/tests/smoke-test.sh (exit status: 77)

XFAIL: src/roff/groff/tests/current-language-and-environment-in-sync.sh
=======================================================================

1 en=en
2 (empty)=en
3 fr=fr
4 en=fr
5 fr=fr
6 (empty)=fr
7 de=de
8 (empty)=de
9 de=de
A fr=de
B en=de
C (empty)=de
D fr=de
E (empty)=de
F en=en
verifying that language code on startup is 'en'
verifying that language code in new environment is empty (1)
...FAILED
verifying that language code can be set to 'fr'
verifying that language code reverts on environment pop (1)
...FAILED
verifying that language code restored on environment push (1)
verifying that language code in new environment is empty (2)
...FAILED
verifying that language code can be set to 'de'
verifying that language code in new environment is empty (3)
...FAILED
verifying that language code restored on environment pop (2)
verifying that language code restored on environment pop (3)
...FAILED
verifying that language code restored on environment pop (4)
...FAILED
verifying that language code in new environment is empty (4)
...FAILED
verifying that `evc` request copies language code
...FAILED
verifying that empty language code restored on environment push
...FAILED
verifying that assertion holds when using `hla` request
XFAIL src/roff/groff/tests/current-language-and-environment-in-sync.sh (exit status: 1)

SKIP: src/roff/groff/tests/html-device-smoke-test.sh
====================================================

cannot locate 'pnmcrop' command; skipping test
SKIP src/roff/groff/tests/html-device-smoke-test.sh (exit status: 77)

SKIP: src/roff/groff/tests/html-device-works-with-grn-and-eqn.sh
================================================================

../src/roff/groff/tests/html-device-works-with-grn-and-eqn.sh: cannot locate 'pnmcrop' command; skipping
SKIP src/roff/groff/tests/html-device-works-with-grn-and-eqn.sh (exit status: 77)

XFAIL: src/roff/groff/tests/stringup-request-transforms-non-basic-latin.sh
==========================================================================

XFAIL src/roff/groff/tests/stringup-request-transforms-non-basic-latin.sh (exit status: 1)

XFAIL: tmac/tests/e_footnotes-work-with-columns.sh
==================================================

e.tmac:<standard input>:5: changing columnation with footnote pending
e.tmac:<standard input>:7: writing 2-column footnote in 1-column layout
XFAIL tmac/tests/e_footnotes-work-with-columns.sh (exit status: 1)