Question on refer(1) and the use of et-al

[Sigurd Hermann]

Hey. I have a problem with refer, and the setting `et-al`.
I looked through this previous thread hoping for some answers:
    https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/groff/2019-09/msg00004.html

and the problem I have is that the proposed solutions in this thread
do not work for me. My question then is this: what should I do in order
to make it work?

If necessary I can of course reproduce the selected database records
that I am using when I cite, if this helps in any way.

I looked through the replies and I did test them and they did not yield
the expected results, where after some N number of authors in a record,
the label printed should be first author and then appended et al and then
rest of the label string.

Now, to be honest I am using a slightly outdated build of refer, so perhaps
this behavior has been fixed in some later version, I don't know, I
didn't pull from git HEAD and build groff and refer in order to check.

As far as I could tell, the only way to make refer use the string in
the et-al setting or whatever the name is for this functionality in refer,
is to use `@` in the label expression, which will expand somehow either
with join-authors, or use et-al when some condition is met.

I confess to be slightly bewildered by the prose that documents both
`@` and `et-al`, so it would be nice to understand how properly use this
feature, instead of a work around I use now where I just use
`short-label` instead when i want to use `et-al`.

If it helps, here is the version I am on:
    refer --version
    GNU refer (groff) version 1.22.3