Bug#985635: ghostscript 9.53 produces incorrect output with xelatex and PStricks

[Jim McCloskey <mcclosk@ucsc.edu>]

Package: ghostscript
Version: 9.53~dfsg-2+deb10u4
X-Debbugs-Cc: mcclosk@ucsc.edu, debian-tex-maint@lists.debian.org
Severity: normal
Tags: upstream

Dear Maintainer,

A LaTeX document which includes a call to PStricks and the pst-jtree package produces correct
PDF output when compiled with xelatex in Debian buster.  Following an upgrade to bullseye, the
same document compiled in exactly the same way produces incorrect output.

Investigation suggests that the source of the problem was an upgrade to ghostscript -- as far
as version 9.53. When I downgraded ghostscript to the version in buster (ghostscript 9.27) and
made no other changes, compiling with xelatex produced correct output.  Version 9.52 of
ghostscript is not available in the Debian archive, it seems. But I downloaded a binary from:
https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/ghostpdl-downloads/releases/tag/gs952 and created a symlink
between the 9.52 version in /opt and /usr/bin/gs. This adjustment also led to a successful
compilation. The problem, then, seems to have been introduced in the transition from
ghostscript 9.52 to ghostscript 9.53.

The nature of the problem is revealed in the attached files -- one source-file (tree.tex) was
compiled with xelatex in three different contexts:

   -  with ghostscript 9.53 in bullseye (tree-gs-9.53.pdf)
   -  with ghostscript 9.27 in buster   (tree-gs-9.27.pdf)
   -  with ghostscript 9.52             (tree-gs-9.52.pdf)

Under gs-9.53 all of the various labels are incorrectly gathered at the root of the tree and
are superimposed on one another. Under earlier versions of ghostscript (9.52 and 9.27), the
document is rendered as intended -- with the labels distinct and printed at the intended nodes.

Thank you for all of your work,

Jim McCloskey


-- System Information:
Debian Release: bullseye/sid
  APT prefers testing-security
  APT policy: (500, 'testing-security'), (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 5.10.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU threads)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages ghostscript depends on:
ii  libc6   2.31-9
ii  libgs9  9.27~dfsg-2+deb10u4

Versions of packages ghostscript recommends:
ii  gsfonts  1:8.11+urwcyr1.0.7~pre44-4.5

Versions of packages ghostscript suggests:
pn  ghostscript-x  <none>

-- no debconf information

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
%%
%%   FONTS
%%
\usepackage{textcomp}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[Numbers={OldStyle}]{Linux Libertine}  
%%
%%
%\usepackage{pst-all}    % makes no difference
\usepackage{pstricks}
\usepackage{pst-jtree}
%%
%%
\begin{document}

{\centering

\vspace*{4\baselineskip}

\jtree[xunit=1.5,yunit=1.5] 
\start
{CP}
<left> {C}    !a  ^ <right> {TM1P}
<left> {TM1}  !b  ^ <right> {POLP}
<left> {POL}  !c  ^ <right> {TLOP}
<left> {subj}     ^ <right>   
<left> {TLO}      ^ <right> {VceP}
<left> {Vce}      ^ <right> {vP}
<vartri> {\itshape pro ól an nimh}.
\adjoin at !a <shortvert> {\textit{gu-}}.
\adjoin at !b <shortvert> {\textit{-r}} .
\adjoin at !c <shortvert> {\itshape ól-adar} .
\endjtree

}


\end{document}

Attachment: tree-gs-9.53.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

Attachment: tree-gs-9.27.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

Attachment: tree-gs-9.52.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document