doc/*.6: Tweak copyright notices in man pages

Use *roff special character `\(co` for copyright sign.  This special
character identifier is _almost_ universally portable, dating back to
Ossanna troff in 1976.[1]  The exception is Plan 9 nroff, which claims
to be thoroughly UTF-8 oriented and should be able to render a copyright
sign.[2]  If no glyph for the character is available, the output device
driver degrades it to "c" (which is technically correct[3]), except for
groff, which falls back to "(C)"[4] only on its "ascii" output device.
All of groff's other devices have a a proper copyright sign.[5]

References:
[1] https://archive.org/details/unix-programmers-manual-seventh-edition-vol-2-1983/
    (pp. 196ff., see esp. "Table II", p. 227)
[2] https://github.com/9fans/plan9port/pull/735#issuecomment-3391733330
[3] https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ03.pdf
[4] https://github.com/GitMirroring/groff/blob/a4d6e619afc8042b12084527c3c11eae919533e2/tmac/tty.tmac#L123
[5] https://paste.c-net.org/ComradesCourage
This commit is contained in:
G. Branden Robinson
2026-05-06 04:39:57 -05:00
parent 56d0708ac7
commit a33da92029
4 changed files with 28 additions and 4 deletions
+7 -1
View File
@@ -148,5 +148,11 @@ determine.
should be taught to use the nethack playground locking mechanism to
avoid conflicts.
.SH COPYRIGHT
This file is Copyright (C) \*(Na, \*(Nd for version \*(Nb:\*(Nr.
.\" All troffs and nroffs support `\(co` except Plan 9 nroff, but Plan 9
.\" offers no test for special character availability, and its feature
.\" set too closely resembles DWB 3.3 to test for it. Use a string with
.\" any nroff-mode formatter not claiming groff compatiblity.
.ds co \(co
.if !\n(.g .if n .ds co (C)\" in principle, should be just "c"
This file is Copyright \*(co \*(Na, \*(Nd for version \*(Nb:\*(Nr.
NetHack may be freely redistributed. See license for details.