man.font.links — Specifies font for links
The man.font.links parameter
specifies the font for output of links (ulink instances
and any instances of any element with an xlink:href attribute).
The value of man.font.links must be
either B or I, or empty. If
the value is empty, no font formatting is applied to links.
If you set man.endnotes.are.numbered and/or
man.endnotes.list.enabled to zero (disabled), then
you should probably also set an empty value for
man.font.links. But if
man.endnotes.are.numbered is non-zero (enabled),
you should probably keep
man.font.links set to
B or I[5].
[5] The main purpose of applying a font format to links in most output formats it to indicate that the formatted text is “clickable”; given that links rendered in man pages are not “real” hyperlinks that users can click on, it might seem like there is never a good reason to have font formatting for link contents in man output.
In fact, if you suppress the
display of inline link references (by setting
man.endnotes.are.numbered to zero), there is no
good reason to apply font formatting to links. However, if
man.endnotes.are.numbered is non-zero, having
font formatting for links (arguably) serves a purpose: It provides
“context” information about exactly what part of the text
is being “annotated” by the link. Depending on how you
mark up your content, that context information may or may not
have value.