Subject: misc/9705: meaning of .Dd in manpages is not totally clear
To: None <gnats-bugs@gnats.netbsd.org>
From: John Hawkinson <jhawk@mit.edu>
List: netbsd-bugs
Date: 03/29/2000 17:11:58
>Number: 9705
>Category: misc
>Synopsis: meaning of .Dd in manpages is not totally clear
>Confidential: no
>Severity: non-critical
>Priority: low
>Responsible: misc-bug-people (Misc Bug People)
>State: open
>Class: doc-bug
>Submitter-Id: net
>Arrival-Date: Wed Mar 29 17:12:01 2000
>Last-Modified:
>Originator: John Hawkinson
>Organization:
MIT
>Release: NetBSD 1.4.2
>Environment:
System: NetBSD zorkmid.mit.edu 1.4.2 NetBSD 1.4.2 (ZORKMID) #10: Mon Mar 27 12:33:31 CST 2000 jhawk@zorkmid.mit.edu:/usr/src/sys/arch/i386/compile/ZORKMID i386
>Description:
It's not 100% clear from mdoc(7) or mdoc.samples(7) just
what the date of a manpage (Dd) is supposed to mean. Obvious choices are:
a) Last modification date
b) Last significant modification date (skip it for typos)
c) Date the manpage was written or drastically re-written.
I think b) most accurately reflects current-practice.
>How-To-Repeat:
>Fix:
===================================================================
RCS file: share/man/man7/RCS/mdoc.samples.7,v
retrieving revision 1.1
retrieving revision 1.2
diff -c -r1.1 -r1.2
*** share/man/man7/mdoc.samples.7 2000/03/30 00:57:45 1.1
--- share/man/man7/mdoc.samples.7 2000/03/30 01:04:52 1.2
***************
*** 579,585 ****
macro is not present, the bottom left corner of the page
will be ugly.
.It Li \&.Dd month day, year
! The date should be written formally:
.Pp
.ne 5
.Dl January 25, 1989
--- 579,586 ----
macro is not present, the bottom left corner of the page
will be ugly.
.It Li \&.Dd month day, year
! The date of the last significant revision to the manual page;
! the date should be written formally:
.Pp
.ne 5
.Dl January 25, 1989
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: