malformed man pages

[Sagara Wijetunga]

Dan Nelson wrote:
> In the last episode (Dec 04), Sagara Wijetunga said:
>   
>> Hi FreeBSD community
>>
>> We have an issue on Tomahawk Desktop (an upcoming FreeBSD-based distro)
>> that all man pages malformed.
>>
>> Eg. man tar shows as follows:
>> 1mNAME0m
>>      1mtar 22m-- format of tape archive files
>>
>> 1mDESCRIPTION0m
>>      The 1mtar 22marchive format collects any number of files, 
>> directories, and
>>     
>
> That looks sort of like malformed ANSI escape codes (bold would be "ESC [ 1
> m", but the man utilities shouldn't be generating those.  If you run "man 5
> tar | hd | head", what do you get?  I get this:
>
> 00000000  54 41 52 28 35 29 09 09  09 20 20 46 72 65 65 42  |TAR(5)...  FreeB|
> 00000010  53 44 20 46 69 6c 65 20  46 6f 72 6d 61 74 73 20  |SD File Formats |
> 00000020  4d 61 6e 75 61 6c 09 09  09 54 41 52 28 35 29 0a  |Manual...TAR(5).|
> 00000030  0a 4e 08 4e 41 08 41 4d  08 4d 45 08 45 0a 20 20  |.N.NA.AM.ME.E.  |
> 00000040  20 20 20 74 08 74 61 08  61 72 08 72 20 2d 2d 20  |   t.ta.ar.r -- |
> 00000050  66 6f 72 6d 61 74 20 6f  66 20 74 61 70 65 20 61  |format of tape a|
> 00000060  72 63 68 69 76 65 20 66  69 6c 65 73 0a 0a 44 08  |rchive files..D.|
> 00000070  44 45 08 45 53 08 53 43  08 43 52 08 52 49 08 49  |DE.ES.SC.CR.RI.I|
> 00000080  50 08 50 54 08 54 49 08  49 4f 08 4f 4e 08 4e 0a  |P.PT.TI.IO.ON.N.|
> 00000090  20 20 20 20 20 54 68 65  20 74 08 74 61 08 61 72  |     The t.ta.ar|
>
> The doubled letters are handled by /usr/bin/less and converted to bold
> before displaying.  If you get the same hd output as I have above, then we
> know that the manpage is fine, and your problem is in /usr/bin/less or your
> terminal type is incorrect.  If you see ANSI escape codes in the hd output,
> then we know the problem is with the manpage tools.
>
>   
Here is what I get:

man 5 tar | hd | head

/usr/share/groff/1.20.1/tmac/doc.tmac:3375: bad character definition
00000000  54 41 52 28 35 29 09 09  09 20 20 20 20 42 53 44  
|TAR(5)...    BSD|
00000010  20 46 69 6c 65 20 46 6f  72 6d 61 74 73 20 4d 61  | File 
Formats Ma|
00000020  6e 75 61 6c 09 09 09 54  41 52 28 35 29 0a 0a 31  
|nual...TAR(5)..1|
00000030  6d 4e 41 4d 45 30 6d 0a  20 20 20 20 20 31 6d 74  
|mNAME0m.     1mt|
00000040  61 72 20 32 32 6d 2d 2d  20 66 6f 72 6d 61 74 20  |ar 22m-- 
format |
00000050  6f 66 20 74 61 70 65 20  61 72 63 68 69 76 65 20  |of tape 
archive |
00000060  66 69 6c 65 73 0a 0a 31  6d 44 45 53 43 52 49 50  
|files..1mDESCRIP|
00000070  54 49 4f 4e 30 6d 0a 20  20 20 20 20 54 68 65 20  |TION0m.     
The |
00000080  31 6d 74 61 72 20 32 32  6d 61 72 63 68 69 76 65  |1mtar 
22marchive|
00000090  20 66 6f 72 6d 61 74 20  63 6f 6c 6c 65 63 74 73  | format 
collects|
Error executing formatting or display command.
system command exited with status 36096
No entry for tar in section 5 of the manual

We use /usr/bin/less from ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/less, the 
less-382.tar.gz, unpatched.

Does the less need to be patched in FreeBSD? If so, is there such a 
patch exist?

Regards
Sagara