Re: groff 1.24.0.rc2 available for evaluation

"G. Branden Robinson" <[email protected]> Tue, 3 Feb 2026 10:14:42 -0600

Newsgroups	gmane.comp.printing.groff.general
Message-ID	<20260203161442.uteorbxmfs75ozmj@illithid>

Hi Alexis,

At 2026-01-30T14:45:53+0100, Alexis (surryhill) wrote:
> it seems to me that 1.24.0.rc2 may have introduced a regression
> regarding the URW fonts:
> Using the same configure flags, i.e. including --with-urw-fonts-dir=,
> as with a previous 1.24.0.rc1 build, configure does not find the
> URW fonts: checking for URW fonts in Type 1/PFB format... none found

I think I identified the flaw.  The fix is a one-liner.

$ git show
commit 07af25e43e362dd6fbf22882d11b0e34cf2fae27 (HEAD -> master)
Author: G. Branden Robinson <[email protected]>
Date:   Tue Feb 3 09:49:49 2026 -0600

    XXX: one-liner, fix Alexis issue

diff --git a/m4/groff.m4 b/m4/groff.m4
index f1d2d2193..1fb124eef 100644
--- a/m4/groff.m4
+++ b/m4/groff.m4
@@ -333,7 +333,6 @@
   AC_REQUIRE([GROFF_URW_FONTS_PATH])
   AC_REQUIRE([GROFF_GHOSTSCRIPT_PATH])
   groff_have_urw_fonts=no
-  urwfontsdir=
   if test "$urwfontsupport" != no
   then
     AC_MSG_CHECKING([for URW fonts in Type 1/PFB format])

If you use `--with-urw-fonts-dir=FOO`, then groff's "configure" script
will look in directory FOO and _only_ in FOO for the URW font files.  It
does not fall back to its lengthy built-in search path.

An advantage to this semantic(s) is that it also makes it easier for
developers to test the "basic" and "intermediate" gropdf support level
scenarios.  If you have a system where the URW fonts are in one of the
places our "configure" script expects to find them, you can say, e.g.,
"--with-urw-fonts-dir=/" or "--with-urw-fonts-dir=/tmp" to hide them.

The bug was the unconditional blanking of the `urwfontsdir` shell
variable, which made subsequent logic decide that no
`--with-urw-fonts-dir` option had been specified, so this Autoconf macro
used the built-in search path anyway, which on an exotic system like Nix
that puts things in non-FHS locations, means the URW fonts are unlikely
to be found.

Thanks for the report.

Regards,
Branden

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