[bug #64202] [man pages] groff_man(7) inconsistently (and redundantly) guards some .MR references with '\%'

[G. Branden Robinson]

Update of bug #64202 (group groff):

                  Status:                Rejected => Invalid                

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Follow-up Comment #9:

[comment #1 comment #1:]
> 1.  The new `MR` macro unconditionally prefixes its first argument with a
`\%` escape sequence to suppress hyphenation.

This is incorrect.  I think I was doing that for a while when I had `MR` under
development, but
[https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git/commit?id=999f5083158c77871efdcbbbc072df25039b021f
it was not the case when I landed the feature] and has not become true
subsequently.

> 2.  All of _groff_'s man pages (.[157]) files are produced in the build tree
from from .man inputs.

This was and remains true.

> 3.  The reason for that is that man page content is partially dynamic.  The
redundancy you're observing is the result of the "@g@" character sequence
being replaced by the ./configure-d command prefix in use by the build.  By
default, and in many build scenarios (of those I've seen personally, all
except for Solaris), this prefix is empty.

This was and remains true.

> 4.  @g@ is expanded in several contexts, not just the first argument of
`MR`.  Wherever it occurs, it is part of a literal to which we do not want
automatic hyphenation to apply.

This was and remains true.

> 5.  Therefore in some cases you get doubled `\%`s.

This is not true and I have no evidence that it ever was.

(There is one instance of a manually placed[1] doubled `\%` in the sources in
Git HEAD.  I've committed a fix to my working copy.  It is not in a man page
cross reference or any other sort of link text, so it immaterial to this
ticket anyway.)

A built _groff_ 1.23.0 tree does not produce any instances of `\%\%` in any of
its man pages, as a _grep_ will readily confirm.
 
> The title mostly says it all.

Your ticket title appears to have been deceptive.  I should have demanded
evidence from you at the time; I will have settle for doing so now.

In the absence of such evidence, I regard your claim of bugginess as
unfounded.  Changing status to "Invalid".

[1] it was probably a sed(1) script I ran months _after_ the _groff_ 1.23.0
release


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