Re: [Groff] groff info files for ubuntu

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi Clarke,

> I tried to access the groff texinfo system on my Ubuntu Linux system,
> but it's not there (groff 1.18.1).  When I go to the Add/Remove menu
> item under Applications, it seems unable to find anything (It's
> supposed to be looking at all sources).
> 
> It doesn't seem to find the Debian resources.  All of the normal groff
> stuff seems to be there except info.  So how do I get it through the
> package installer without breaking anything?

On Ubuntu 8.04 with package groff version 1.18.1.1-16 installed I find
typing `info' results in a page with

    Miscellaneous
    * Groff: (groff).               The GNU troff document formatting

some way down the list.  `info groff' takes me straight to it.  `pinfo
groff' fails with

    Caught signal 11, bye!
    pinfo: crash with: No such file or directory

(pinfo is an alternative pinfo viewer) and although plain `pinfo'
presents groff under Miscellaneous, like info, selecting it results in a
`File not found. Press any key...' message.

As for `gnome-open info:groff', that starts gnome-help but it then
crashes on selecting `Introduction'.

The info files themselves are in the groff package.

    $ dpkg -L groff | grep /usr/share/info/
    /usr/share/info/groff-10.gz
    /usr/share/info/groff-11.gz
    /usr/share/info/groff-2.gz
    /usr/share/info/groff-3.gz
    /usr/share/info/groff-5.gz
    /usr/share/info/groff-6.gz
    /usr/share/info/groff-7.gz
    /usr/share/info/groff-8.gz
    /usr/share/info/groff.gz
    /usr/share/info/groff-1.gz
    /usr/share/info/groff-4.gz
    /usr/share/info/groff-9.gz
    $ 

So various ways of viewing them, but info(1) seems to be the only one
that works.  `info --subnodes groff | less' can be a nicer way to
traverse it, although you have to go to the end and back first to clear
out info's verbose progress on stderr;  `Gg'.

Cheers,


Ralph.