Hi, given that two authoritative manual pages for the mdoc language exist that describe exactly the same language, but in a somewhat different style, an anonymous coward calling himself "B 9" just suggested in passing in a remark in a bugtracking ticket that it might occasionally help users if both authoritative pages would reference each other. So i went ahead and added this sentence to the SEE ALSO section of the mdoc(7) manual page in the mandoc distribution:
The manual page groff_mdoc(7): https://man.voidlinux.org/groff_mdoc contained in the "groff" package documents exactly the same language in a somehwat different style. Are GNU troff developers OK with adding the reverse link to the SEE ALSO section of the groff_mdoc(7) manual page, as in the patch below? Of course, i'm open to tweaks of the wording. The point in not using .Xr in such an unusual case is two-fold: on the one hand, people having installed groff do not necessarily have mandoc installed and vice versa, so an .Xr can easily result in dead links. On the other hand, the bare manual page name mdoc(7) without an URI could lead people to the wrong manual page, the ancient mdoc(7) page that became obsolete twenty years ago but unfortunately still floats in various places on the web. This patch seemed too minor to open a ticket, i thought feedback is likely to be quicker and simpler with just a straightforward email. OK? Ingo P.S. Regarding the link in the mandoc mdoc(7) page, i would have preferred an authoritative URI below https://www.gnu.org/ but couldn't find any. Void Linux is generally very well maintained and very up-to-date, so i see no risk that the link dies next year. Debian would of course work, too, but the URI https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/mandoc/mandoc_mdoc.7.en.html unfortunately feels excessively ugly... diff --git a/tmac/groff_mdoc.7.man b/tmac/groff_mdoc.7.man index 6aec5a11..03f06395 100644 --- a/tmac/groff_mdoc.7.man +++ b/tmac/groff_mdoc.7.man @@ -4245,6 +4245,12 @@ Multiple man pages (in either format) can be handled. .Xr man 1 , .Xr troff 1 , .Xr groff_man 7 +.Pp +The manual page +.Lk https://man.openbsd.org/mdoc.7 "mdoc(7)" +contained in the +.Dq mandoc +package documents exactly the same language in a somehwat different style. . . .Sh BUGS