Re: Release Candidate 1.23.0.rc1

[Dave Kemper]

On 11/12/20, Bertrand Garrigues via <groff@gnu.org> wrote:
> Release candidate 1.23.0.rc1 is now available from GNU's alpha ftp.  The
> version can be downloaded here:
>
>   https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/groff/.

rc1 from November is still the latest one on this page, so I presume
no others have been created yet.  I've noticed a possible issue in it.

In past releases, groff's -b option activated backtraces for every
warning or error.  In rc1, backtraces appear to be on by default, and
there is no corresponding option to turn them off.  A simple example
is the command

$ echo '.tm \n(ZZ' | groff -ww

Under groff 1.22.4, this emitted to stderr:

troff: <standard input>:1: warning: number register 'ZZ' not defined

But under rc1 it emits:

troff: backtrace: file '<standard input>':1
troff: <standard input>:1: warning: number register 'ZZ' not defined

The rc1 documentation still says that -b turns backtraces on, implying
they should be off by default.  And it lists no new option for turning
them off if they are already on.