jmc noted that I didn't include my actual line, so here it is. First I was using only
.Dd $Mdocdate$ but that warned me mandoc: ./files/varnishreload.1:2:2: WARNING: missing date, using today's date so I did what I was told, according to mdoc(7) .Dd $Mdocdate: May 19, 2019 $ but it still warned me mandoc: ./files/varnishreload.1:2:2: WARNING: cannot parse date, using it verbatim: $Mdocdate: May 19, 2019 $ So I removed the comma and mandoc(1) was happy. .Dd $Mdocdate: May 19 2019 $ What should be used here? Either I'm warned or I'm using undocumented syntax, both seems wrong to me.