Remove the encoding requirement for manual pages

Previously, all characters in a manual page had to be representable in
the legacy encoding for that language due to limitations in groff.  The
current release of groff removes that limitation, so this restriction
can be lifted.

Patch from Colin Watson.  Debian Bug#537707.

diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 71bbb23d91891f5590250108dcfeb4241a915051..fd2a6cbfbb2f26fbe098bbedb4f09ef2cce1060b 100644 (file)
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -34,6 +34,11 @@ debian-policy (3.8.3.0) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
     Seconded: Helge Kreutzmann <debian@helgefjell.de>
     Seconded: Julien Cristau <jcristau@debian.org>
     Closes: #493007
+  * Policy: Remove restriction on manual page character encoding
+    Wording: Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>
+    Seconded: Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>
+    Seconded: Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@golden-gryphon.com>
+    Closes: #537707
   * Perl Policy: Remove obsolete dependency requirements
     Wording: Cyril Brulebois <kibi@debian.org>
     Seconded: Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>

diff --git a/policy.sgml b/policy.sgml
index 84a85db6ae9c79ed940f24e1db100475734f887e..91ec2e68dd5e692f152676812e2ae2c999d1867f 100644 (file)
--- a/policy.sgml
+++ b/policy.sgml
@@ -8826,15 +8826,6 @@ name ["<var>syshostname</var>"]:
          </footnote>
        </p>
 
-       <p>
-         Due to limitations in current implementations, all characters
-         in the manual page source should be representable in the usual
-         legacy encoding for that language, even if the file is
-         actually encoded in UTF-8. Safe alternative ways to write many
-         characters outside that range may be found in
-         <manref name="groff_char" section="7">.
-       </p>
-
        <p>
          If a localized version of a manual page is provided, it should
          either be up-to-date or it should be obvious to the reader that

diff --git a/upgrading-checklist.html b/upgrading-checklist.html
index 206f6fa1f764afff6b39d06f2ba912c7ee529318..04e5e3161e3313fbb490bca029260b48f82547e0 100644 (file)
--- a/upgrading-checklist.html
+++ b/upgrading-checklist.html
@@ -57,6 +57,8 @@ picking your way through this list.
      * Clarify installation directories for X programs and remove the
        requirement to pre-depend on x11-common before installing into
        /usr/include/X11 and /usr/lib/X11.                        [11.8.7]
+     * Remove the requirement that all characters in a manual page be
+       representable in the legacy encoding for that language.   [12.1]
      * Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with the
        original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either with
        warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the