[bug #57485] [PATCH] accept any number of arguments for .Dd in the groff_mdoc(7) macros

[G. Branden Robinson]

Update of bug #57485 (project groff):

                  Status:                    None => Fixed                  
             Open/Closed:                    Open => Closed                 
         Planned Release:                    None => 1.23.0                 

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Follow-up Comment #3:


commit 8545b5a6cc845a67547a393c6053c3b4ffc0d4ac
Author: Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>
Date:   Sat Jan 18 17:38:49 2020 +0100

    Accept any number of arguments for .Dd in the groff_mdoc(7) macros.
    
    * tmac/doc-common-u:
    The .Dd macro behaved in a weird way:
    Without arguments, it printed the string "Epoch".
    With one, two, four, or more arguments, it ignored all arguments
    and used the current date instead.
    Only for exactly three arguments, it printed the arguments.
    None of this made sense.  Giving the date as "Epoch" is
    absurd, and printing the current date is just misleading:
    why should a document be considered up-to-date when the author
    did not even bother to state the date of the last change?
    Admittedly, the behaviour for 0 and 4 or more arguments
    already appeared 4.3BSD-Reno, and the behaviour for 2 or 3
    arguments in 4.4BSD.  But it was already wrong even in those
    days: several manual pages in 4.4BSD gave .Dd a single, quoted
    argument, e.g. .Dd "June 9, 1993": cap_mkdb(1), id(1), sed(1),
    err(3), getcap(3), sysctl(3), amd(8), disklabel(8), and others.
    Consequently, simply print all the arguments, no matter how
    many there are.
    
    This bug was found by Jonathan Gray <jsg@openbsd.org>
    while he looked at 4.xBSD manual pages.
    
    Using feedback from cjwatson@ and Ralph Corderoy;
    OK bgarrigues@, and cjwatson@ agrees with the behaviour change.


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