Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 22:51:09 -0800 (PST) From: Rich Morin <rdm@cfcl.com> To: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@freebsd.org Subject: docs/25405: misleading warning from catman(1), etc. Message-ID: <200102270651.WAA21848@cfcl.com>
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>Number: 25405
>Category: docs
>Synopsis: misleading warning from catman(1), etc.
>Confidential: no
>Severity: non-critical
>Priority: low
>Responsible: freebsd-doc
>State: open
>Quarter:
>Keywords:
>Date-Required:
>Class: doc-bug
>Submitter-Id: current-users
>Arrival-Date: Mon Feb 26 23:00:01 PST 2001
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator: Rich Morin
>Release: FreeBSD 4.2-RELEASE i386
>Organization:
Canta Forda Computer Laboratory
>Environment:
FreeBSD fb42.cfcl.com 4.2-RELEASE FreeBSD 4.2-RELEASE #0:
Mon Nov 20 13:02:55 GMT 2000
jkh@bento.FreeBSD.org:/usr/src/sys/compile/GENERIC i386
>Description:
If catman(1) is run as root, the message:
Don't start this program as root, use:
echo /usr/bin/catman | nice -5 su -m man
appears. There are really several problems here:
1) The program should check whether catman is actually
being run by root before issuing the warning.
2) If an error has occurred, the program should exit,
rather then going on to write root-owned files in
/usr/share/man/cat* (or wherever...).
3) The program should be clever enough to _do_ the
necessary work, rather than telling the user how to
do it. Basically, the programmer has gratuitously
broken the method of operation for a command.
4) The programmer's instructions to the user make use
of an undocumented feature of man(1). What, exactly,
is going on when we pipe this text string into man?
In passing, I will note that the warning messages emitted
by this command string:
Unknown FreeBSD version ``),'' at line 320
Unknown BSD version ``'' at line 5
Unknown BSD version ``'' at line 5
are essentially useless, as the user has no way of knowing
which man page is being discussed.
>How-To-Repeat:
% su
# catman
>Fix:
Recode catman, as described above.
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:
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