[Groff] Re: Bug#176575: mdoc: .Dt ignores volume name

[Colin Watson]

On Mon, Jan 13, 2003 at 09:08:35PM +0100, Robert Bihlmeyer wrote:
> Package: groff-base
> Version: 1.18.1-3
> Severity: minor
> 
> Following advice from you, I've started using the mdoc macros. They're
> really nice.
> 
> A minor nit of mine is that I can't override the volume name
> (displayed at the top center of my manpage). The section is 1 which
> seems to hardcode the volume to "BSD General Commands Manual". First,
> my command is probably not general ... and it sure isn't BSD.

I can only manage to override the volume name (apart from using one of
the volume-as-* architecture names: alpha, amiga, etc.) when I pass ""
as the section number. Otherwise, both arbitrary volume names and the
volume-ds-* names (USD, PS1, etc.) are ignored.

This feels like a bug to me: I would like to be able to specify both a
section number and a customized volume name, rather than just using the
default for the section.

> I think the inability to override the default names is a bug in
> itself. Apart from that the default operating system should be
> "Debian".

There is support for overriding details like this in mdoc.local, but I'm
not sure it's right to do so in a distribution's package, since it will
affect the display of existing mdoc pages imported from BSD. Can an mdoc
expert comment?

> Finally, the section names could be reevaluate: "Manual" is somewhat
> redundant. "User Commands" fits (1) better than "General Commands"
> IMHO.

These are probably historic, but I believe the BSD mdoc maintainers read
the groff list, so I'm forwarding this comment along with your others.

Thanks,

-- 
Colin Watson                                  address@hidden