Let MANROFFOPT choose ragged-right manual pages

nroff now accepts groff's -d option to define a string, and man appends
$MANROFFOPT to the nroff command line, as man-db does. Since nroff
already honors the man(7) AD string, MANROFFOPT=-dAD=l sets pages
ragged-right instead of adjusting them to both margins.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

man/man1/man.1

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-.TH MAN 1 2026-10-20 "w64devkit" "w64devkit Manual"
+.TH MAN 1 2026-10-22 "w64devkit" "w64devkit Manual"
 .SH NAME
 man \- display manual pages
 .SH SYNOPSIS
@@ -157,7 +157,10 @@ The page is its standard input, and its options are
 .BI \-T charset\fR,
 .BI \-rLL= w n\fR,
 and
-.BI \-rLT= w n\fR.
+.BI \-rLT= w n\fR,
+followed by the value of
+.B MANROFFOPT
+when that is set.
 Its output and error messages go to the pager.
 .PP
 The
@@ -323,6 +326,18 @@ still counts, and then nothing is displayed.
 .B MANPATH
 Manual directories to search first, separated by semicolons.
 .TP
+.B MANROFFOPT
+Further options for
+.BR nroff ,
+added to its command line, where
+.B sh
+splits them into words.
+For example,
+.B \-dAD=l
+sets man(7) pages ragged-right instead of adjusting them to both
+margins; see
+.BR nroff (1).
+.TP
 .B PAGER
 The pager, when
 .B MANPAGER
@@ -413,6 +428,15 @@ Save a page as plain text, formatted for a 100-column display:
 $ COLUMNS=100 man gcc >gcc.txt
 .EE
 .RE
+.PP
+Show pages with a ragged right margin, for example from
+.IR $HOME/.profile :
+.PP
+.RS 4
+.EX
+export MANROFFOPT=\-dAD=l
+.EE
+.RE
 .SH NOTES
 Differences from the
 .B man

man/man1/nroff.1

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-.TH NROFF 1 2026-10-20 "w64devkit" "w64devkit Manual"
+.TH NROFF 1 2026-10-22 "w64devkit" "w64devkit Manual"
 .SH NAME
 nroff \- format manual pages for a terminal
 .SH SYNOPSIS
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ nroff \- format manual pages for a terminal
 .RB [ \-Tascii " | " \-Tutf8 ]
 [\fB\-rLL=\fIN\fBn\fR]
 [\fB\-r\fIreg\fB=\fIN\fR]
+[\fB\-d\fIname\fB=\fIstring\fR]
 .RB [ \-w ]
 .RI [ file ...]
 .SH DESCRIPTION
@@ -57,7 +58,9 @@ a line also breaks after an em dash written as
 .B \e(em
 between two letters.
 man(7) pages are adjusted to both margins, as in groff, unless the page
-asks otherwise; mdoc(7) pages are left-aligned, as in mandoc.
+asks otherwise or
+.B \-dAD=l
+is given; mdoc(7) pages are left-aligned, as in mandoc.
 .PP
 Bold text is written between the SGR escape sequences
 .B ESC[1m
@@ -562,9 +565,10 @@ are approximated.
 .SH OPTIONS
 Options are not grouped.
 The arguments of
-.B \-T
+.BR \-T ,
+.BR \-r ,
 and
-.B \-r
+.B \-d
 may be attached or separate, and
 .B \-\-
 ends the options.
@@ -622,6 +626,37 @@ which
 .BR man (1)
 passes, has no effect.
 .TP
+\fB\-d\fIname\fB=\fIstring\fR
+Define the string
+.I name
+as
+.IR string ,
+as
+.B .ds
+does.
+Without
+.BR = ,
+the first character is the name and the rest is the string, as in
+groff.
+A man(7) page reads the string
+.B AD
+at
+.B .TH
+and at each paragraph macro to choose its adjustment, as groff does:
+.B l
+sets text ragged-right,
+.B c
+centers it,
+.B r
+aligns it right, and anything else, the default, adjusts it to both
+margins.
+.BR man (1)
+passes this option from
+.BR MANROFFOPT ,
+so
+.B MANROFFOPT=\-dAD=l
+gives ragged-right pages.
+.TP
 .B \-w
 Warn on standard error, with file names and line numbers, about unknown
 macros, requests, escapes, and glyphs, undefined strings,

src/busybox/man.patch

@@ -9,11 +9,12 @@ Run the formatter in the manpath element, or in the user's directory for
 an explicit path, so that .so requests in page bodies resolve. Look up
 x86_64-w64-mingw32-NAME and i686-w64-mingw32-NAME as NAME when there is
 no page under the full name. Accept backslashes in absolute paths, and
-CRLF in .so stubs.
+CRLF in .so stubs. Append $MANROFFOPT to the formatter options, as
+man-db does, so that, e.g., MANROFFOPT=-dAD=l sets pages ragged-right.
 
 ---
- miscutils/man.c |   90 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------------
- 1 file changed, 60 insertions(+), 30 deletions(-)
+ miscutils/man.c |   92 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------------
+ 1 file changed, 62 insertions(+), 30 deletions(-)
 
 --- a/miscutils/man.c
 +++ b/miscutils/man.c
@@ -70,7 +71,13 @@ CRLF in .so stubs.
  //testcase:
  // cd /usr/share/man/man2
  // man ./path_resolution.2.gz
-@@ -163,13 +180,20 @@
+@@ -158,18 +175,27 @@
+ 	open_zipped(man_filename, /*die_if_not_compressed:*/ 0); /* guaranteed to use fd 0 (STDIN_FILENO) */
+ 	if (man) {
+ 		int w = get_terminal_width(-1);
++		const char *opt = getenv("MANROFFOPT");
+ 		if (w > 10)
+ 			w -= 2;
  		/* "2>&1" is added so that nroff errors are shown in pager too.
  		 * Otherwise it may show just empty screen.
  		 */
@@ -78,8 +85,9 @@ CRLF in .so stubs.
 -				G.tbl, G.nroff, w, w,
 -				G.pager);
 -	} else {
-+		cmd = xasprintf("%s -T%s -rLL=%un -rLT=%un%s%s",
++		cmd = xasprintf("%s -T%s -rLL=%un -rLT=%un%s%s%s%s",
 +				G.nroff, GetACP() == CP_UTF8 ? "utf8" : "ascii", w, w,
++				opt ? " " : "", opt ? opt : "",
 +				G.pager ? " 2>&1 | " : "", G.pager ? G.pager : "");
 +	} else if (G.pager) {
  		cmd = xstrdup(G.pager);
@@ -95,7 +103,7 @@ CRLF in .so stubs.
  	free(cmd);
  	return 1;
  }
-@@ -273,8 +297,7 @@
+@@ -273,8 +299,7 @@
  	char *token[2];
  #if ENABLE_PLATFORM_MINGW32
  	char **ptr;
@@ -105,7 +113,7 @@ CRLF in .so stubs.
  #endif
  
  	INIT_G();
-@@ -285,8 +308,9 @@
+@@ -285,8 +310,9 @@
  	/* add system drive prefix to filenames, if necessary */
  	for (ptr = argv; *ptr; ++ptr) {
  		if (strchr(*ptr, '/') || strchr(*ptr, '\\'))
@@ -116,7 +124,7 @@ CRLF in .so stubs.
  	chdir_system_drive();
  #endif
  
-@@ -309,8 +333,6 @@
+@@ -309,8 +335,6 @@
  		if (!token[1])
  			continue;
  		if (strcmp("DEFINE", token[0]) == 0) {
@@ -125,7 +133,7 @@ CRLF in .so stubs.
  			G.nroff = if_redefined(G.nroff, "nroff", token[1]);
  			G.pager = if_redefined(G.pager, "pager", token[1]);
  		} else
-@@ -328,15 +350,9 @@
+@@ -328,15 +352,9 @@
  
  #if ENABLE_PLATFORM_MINGW32
  	/* allow man pages to be stored relative to the executable */
@@ -144,7 +152,7 @@ CRLF in .so stubs.
  #else
  	if (!man_path_list) {
  		static const char *const mpl[] ALIGN_PTR = { "/usr/man", "/usr/share/man", NULL };
-@@ -356,7 +372,10 @@
+@@ -356,7 +374,10 @@
  
  	if (!isatty(STDOUT_FILENO)) {
  		putenv((char*)"GROFF_NO_SGR=1");
@@ -156,7 +164,7 @@ CRLF in .so stubs.
  	}
  
  	/* is 1st ARG a SECTION? */
-@@ -371,9 +390,12 @@
+@@ -371,9 +392,12 @@
  		const char *cur_path;
  		int cur_mp;
  		int found = 0;
@@ -171,7 +179,7 @@ CRLF in .so stubs.
  			goto check_found;
  		}
  
-@@ -383,7 +405,8 @@
+@@ -383,7 +407,8 @@
  			const char *cur_sect = sec_list;
  
  			/* is MANPAGE of the form NAME.SECTION? */
@@ -181,7 +189,7 @@ CRLF in .so stubs.
  			if (sect_ext && is_section_name(conf_sec_list, sect_ext + 1)) {
  				*sect_ext = '\0';
  				cur_sect = sect_ext + 1;
-@@ -402,7 +425,7 @@
+@@ -402,7 +427,7 @@
  							cur_path,
  							"cat\0man" + (cat0man1 * 4),
  							sect_len, cur_sect,
@@ -190,7 +198,7 @@ CRLF in .so stubs.
  							sect_len, cur_sect);
  					found_here = show_manpage(man_filename, cat0man1, 0);
  					found |= found_here;
-@@ -421,6 +444,13 @@
+@@ -421,6 +446,13 @@
  		}
   check_found:
  		if (!found) {

src/nroff.c

@@ -6919,12 +6919,14 @@ static void run(Ctx *c, Arena scratch)
 static void usage(Output *out)
 {
     print(out, S(
-    "usage: nroff [-man|-mdoc] [-Tascii|-Tutf8] [-rLL=Nn] [-w] [FILE...]\n"
+    "usage: nroff [-man|-mdoc] [-Tascii|-Tutf8] [-rLL=Nn] [-dNAME=STR] [-w]"
+    " [FILE...]\n"
     "  -m*      accepted and ignored; the format is detected\n"
     "  -t       accepted and ignored; tbl is built in\n"
     "  -Tascii  ASCII output (default)\n"
     "  -Tutf8   UTF-8 output\n"
     "  -rLL=N   line length (default: $MANWIDTH, $COLUMNS, or 78)\n"
+    "  -dAD=l   ragged-right man(7) pages (also c, r; default b)\n"
     "  -w       warn about unsupported input\n"
     "  -h       print this message\n"
     "With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.\n"));
@@ -7007,6 +7009,18 @@ static i32 nroff(i32 argc, u8 **argv, Plt *plt, Arena mem)
                 Scaled v = scaled(val, 'u');
                 if (v.ok) setreg(c, key, v.value);
             }
+        } else if (arg.data[1] == 'd') {
+            Str d = cuthead(arg, 2);
+            if (!d.len && i+1<argc) {
+                d = import(argv[++i]);
+            }
+            Cut kv = cut(d, '=');
+            if (!kv.ok) {
+                // groff: -dcs defines the one-character name c
+                kv.head = takehead(d, 1);
+                kv.tail = cuthead(d, 1);
+            }
+            if (kv.head.len) setstring(c, kv.head, kv.tail);
         } else if (equals(arg, S("-w")) || startswith(arg, S("-w")) ||
                    startswith(arg, S("-W"))) {
             c->warn = arg.data[1] == 'w';