man-pages bug report for "date(1) — Linux manual page"

man-pages bug report for "date(1) — Linux manual page"

[Michael Aramini]

Alejandro, et al.,

This is a /man-pages/ bug report for "date(1) — Linux manual page" ( 
https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/date.1.html ) pertaining to 
formatting of the man page.

The line

        *date *[/-u|--utc|--universal/] [/MMDDhhmm/[[/CC/]/YY/][/.ss/]]

represented in HTML as

<b>date </b>[<i>-u|--utc|--universal</i>] 
[<i>MMDDhhmm</i>[[<i>CC</i>]<i>YY</i>][<i>.ss</i>]]

should, following man page formatting style, be formatted

        *date *[*-u*|*--utc*|*--universal*] [/MMDDhhmm/[[/CC/]/YY/][*.*/ss/]]

represented in HTML as

<b>date </b>[<b-u</b>|<b>--utc</b>|<b>--universal</b>] 
[<i>MMDDhhmm</i>[[<i>CC</i>]<i>YY</i>][<b>.</b><i>ss</i>]]

I.e. the "*-u*", "*--utc*", "*--universal*", and decimal point should be 
(*non*-italic) *bold* as they are are not variables, but are potentially 
verbatim text on the command line.  Also, the vertical bars are syntax 
symbols, which are neither variables nor verbatim text, thus should be 
in regular/roman typeface, *not* italic (nor bold).

-Michael

Re: man-pages bug report for "date(1) — Linux manual page"

[Alejandro Colomar]

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Hi Michael,

On Sun, Jan 25, 2026 at 09:02:05AM -0500, Michael Aramini wrote:
> Alejandro, et al.,
> 
> This is a /man-pages/ bug report for "date(1) — Linux manual page" (
> https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/date.1.html ) pertaining to formatting
> of the man page.

The date(1) manual page is maintained by GNU coreutils; it's not part of
the Linux man-pages project.  I've CCed them.

> 
> The line
> 
>        *date *[/-u|--utc|--universal/] [/MMDDhhmm/[[/CC/]/YY/][/.ss/]]
> 
> represented in HTML as
> 
> <b>date </b>[<i>-u|--utc|--universal</i>]
> [<i>MMDDhhmm</i>[[<i>CC</i>]<i>YY</i>][<i>.ss</i>]]
> 
> should, following man page formatting style, be formatted
> 
>        *date *[*-u*|*--utc*|*--universal*] [/MMDDhhmm/[[/CC/]/YY/][*.*/ss/]]
> 
> represented in HTML as
> 
> <b>date </b>[<b-u</b>|<b>--utc</b>|<b>--universal</b>]
> [<i>MMDDhhmm</i>[[<i>CC</i>]<i>YY</i>][<b>.</b><i>ss</i>]]
> 
> I.e. the "*-u*", "*--utc*", "*--universal*", and decimal point should be
> (*non*-italic) *bold* as they are are not variables, but are potentially
> verbatim text on the command line.  Also, the vertical bars are syntax
> symbols, which are neither variables nor verbatim text, thus should be in
> regular/roman typeface, *not* italic (nor bold).

I agree with the bug report.


> -Michael

Have a lovely day!
Alex

-- 
<https://www.alejandro-colomar.es>

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