Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rice!uw-beaver!fluke!gtisqr!roger
From: roger@gtisqr.uucp (Roger Droz)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Printing file modification date in *roff.
Message-ID: <1990May30.163357.6070@gtisqr.uucp>
Date: 30 May 90 16:33:57 GMT
Reply-To: roger@gtisqr.UUCP (Roger Droz)
Distribution: na
Organization: Global Tech International Inc.
Lines: 37

I am always forgetting to change the revision date when I modify a
document, so I wonder if there is a way to automatically date a file
with its modification date.

I don't think that nroff has access to the name of the file it is
processing, so I don't think that nroff has any information it can use
to ask the system for a modification date.  

Since most documents I want to date are maintained using rcs(1), it
should be possible to reformat the ouput of the rcs $Date$ macro to
something that looks nicer than:

	$Date: 90/05/29 12:07:53 $

I am thinking in terms of a few commands, or perhaps a macro, that can
be placed at the beginning of the file to translate the above string
into an nroff string that contains the date as month/day/year.

	.\" include my favorite macros
	.so format.n	
	.\" RCS expands $Date$ as above; 
	.\" macro translates it to mm/dd/yy in string dT.
	.mymacro $Date$

    	Last revised on \*(dT

Perhaps there is a wizzard on the net who has already done this.  I'm
enough of a novice at writing nroff macros that its quicker to ask the
net than to RTM and come up the learning curve.
____________
               Roger Droz       UUCP: uw-beaver!gtisqr!roger
()       ()    Maverick MICRoSystems / Global Technology International
 (_______)     Mukilteo, WA 
  (     )      
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