Re: [docutils:bugs] #477 Generated man page leads to groff warning "TE macro called with TW register undefined"

"G. Branden Robinson" <[email protected]> Sun, 12 Nov 2023 15:37:46 -0600

Newsgroups	gmane.text.docutils.devel
Message-ID	<20231112213746.zdsr6j2hyp3i5xtz@illithid>

Hi Dmitry,

Thanks for looping me in.

At 2023-11-12T18:15:10-0000, Dmitry Shachnev via Docutils-develop wrote:
> Here is a minimal reproducing example:
> ```
> $ cat table.rst
> .. list-table::
> 
>    * - Foo
>      - Bar
> $ rst2man table.rst | MANROFFSEQ='' man -l -Z - >/dev/null
> an.tmac:<standard input>:43: warning: tbl preprocessor failed, or it or soelim was not run; table(s) likely not rendered (TE macro called with TW register undefined)
> ```
> 
> According to [this email](https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2023/08/msg00220.html), to fix this error, `rst2man` should add this line on top of the generated man page:
> 
>     '\" t
> 
> Cc @branden — I think you are interested in all manpage-related issues.

Yes, that is correct.  If you know you are going to be generating a
tbl(1) table, then including

    '\" t

at the beginning of the generated man page is important.  It tells the
man(1) program to run tbl(1) and ensures that the table will be properly
formatted.

You _could_ just include the `'\" t` unconditionally, since tbl(1) will
not do any damage to a well-formed man page that doesn't use tables, and
the time tbl(1) takes to run has not been noticeable for decades.

I would do whichever is easier.

Regards,
Branden

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