Bug#390397: groff -Tascii broken: should not output ANSI escape sequences

[Michael Paoli]

Package: groff-base
Version: 1.18.1.1-7
Severity: normal


from groff-base 1.18.1.1-7 we have:
$ echo '.BR foo bar' |
> 2>>/dev/null groff -te -msafer -mtty-char -mm -Tascii |
> fgrep f | cat -v
       ^[[1mfoo^[[22mbar
$ 
Apparently with groff-base 1.18.1.1-7, -Tascii is outputting ANSI
escape sequences, and this of course breaks all kinds of stuff (e.g.
this no longer works on dumb line printers and other devices that
perfectly well understand ^H, ^I, ^L and printable ASCII characters,
but know nothing of ANSI escape sequences; this similarly breaks
stuff passed to less or col -b, etc., generally resulting in quite a
mess).

This works fine on oldstable (woody) groff-base 1.17.2-15.woody.1 as
seen here:
$ echo '.BR foo bar' |
> 2>>/dev/null groff -te -msafer -mtty-char -mm -Tascii |
> fgrep f | cat -v
       f^Hfo^Hoo^Hobar
$ 

If one wants ANSI escape sequences, perhaps there should be a -Tansi,
but please, -Tascii should continue to only generate printable ASCII
characters and well defined common ASCII control codes (e.g. ^H, ^I,
^L), and should *not* generate ANSI escape sequences, as the actions
of these escape sequences are not defined in the ASCII character set.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.4.29
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)

Versions of packages groff-base depends on:
ii  libc6                 2.3.2.ds1-22sarge4 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libgcc1               1:3.4.3-13sarge1   GCC support library
ii  libstdc++5            1:3.3.5-13         The GNU Standard C++ Library v3

-- no debconf information