For reference: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=729911
I think this commit causes a regression:
http://sourceforge.net/p/docbook/code/9206/
I have such a refentry:
<refentry id="GtkdocObject2">
<refmeta>
<refentrytitle role="top_of_page" id="GtkdocObject2.top_of_page">GtkdocObject2</refentrytitle>
<refmiscinfo>TESTER Library</refmiscinfo>
</refmeta>
<refnamediv>
<refname>GtkdocObject2</refname>
<refpurpose>class that implements <link linkend="GtkdocIface"><type>GtkdocIface</type></link></refpurpose>
</refnamediv>
...
</refentry>
These produce such html:
<dt>
<span class="refentrytitle"><a href="GtkdocObject2.html">GtkdocObject2</a></span>
<span class="refpurpose"> — class that implements <a class="link" href="GtkdocIface.html" title="GtkdocIface"><span class="type">GtkdocIface</span></a> </span>
</dt>
The regression is that if the refpurpose contains further docbook (such as the link above), the space-emdash-space combination is not emitted. This is normally done by refpurpose template from html/refentry.xsl. As a workaround I copied the template and added the mode="no.anchor.mode" and that fixes it. Not sure what the proper fix is though.
This was indeed an oversight. The bug is triggered by a link or other href generating element in refpurpose. I added a template for refpurpose in mode="no.anchor.mode".