From owner-freebsd-current@freebsd.org  Tue Sep 12 19:17:08 2017
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-current@freebsd.org>
Delivered-To: freebsd-current@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org
 [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1])
 by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8DD13E18D52
 for <freebsd-current@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org>;
 Tue, 12 Sep 2017 19:17:08 +0000 (UTC)
 (envelope-from lyndon@orthanc.ca)
Received: from mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (mailman.ysv.freebsd.org
 [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::50:5])
 by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 76F78824E4
 for <freebsd-current@freebsd.org>; Tue, 12 Sep 2017 19:17:08 +0000 (UTC)
 (envelope-from lyndon@orthanc.ca)
Received: by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix)
 id 762C8E18D51; Tue, 12 Sep 2017 19:17:08 +0000 (UTC)
Delivered-To: current@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org
 [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1])
 by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 75BC5E18D50
 for <current@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org>; Tue, 12 Sep 2017 19:17:08 +0000 (UTC)
 (envelope-from lyndon@orthanc.ca)
Received: from orthanc.ca (orthanc.ca [IPv6:2607:f2f8:abf8::2])
 (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits))
 (Client CN "orthanc.ca", Issuer "Let's Encrypt Authority X3" (verified OK))
 by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 60A68824E3
 for <current@freebsd.org>; Tue, 12 Sep 2017 19:17:08 +0000 (UTC)
 (envelope-from lyndon@orthanc.ca)
Received: from localhost (localhost [IPv6:0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1])
 by orthanc.ca (8.15.2/8.15.2) with ESMTPS id v8CJH7TI063181
 (version=TLSv1.2 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NO);
 Tue, 12 Sep 2017 12:17:07 -0700 (PDT)
 (envelope-from lyndon@orthanc.ca)
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2017 12:17:07 -0700 (PDT)
From: Lyndon Nerenberg <lyndon@orthanc.ca>
To: Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@phk.freebsd.dk>
cc: Gordon Tetlow <gordon@tetlows.org>, current@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Removal of catman from base
In-Reply-To: <77524.1505242222@critter.freebsd.dk>
Message-ID: <alpine.BSF.2.21.1709121210140.54096@orthanc.ca>
References: <20170912184200.GD99742@gmail.com>
 <77524.1505242222@critter.freebsd.dk>
User-Agent: Alpine 2.21 (BSF 202 2017-01-01)
Organization: The Frobozz Magic Homing Pigeon Company
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED autolearn=ham
 autolearn_force=no version=3.4.1
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.1 (2015-04-28) on orthanc.ca
X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23
Precedence: list
List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current
 <freebsd-current.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/options/freebsd-current>, 
 <mailto:freebsd-current-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-current@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-current-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current>, 
 <mailto:freebsd-current-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2017 19:17:08 -0000

> That was actually not why catman was brought into the world:  ATT/USL
> thought text-processing was The Goods so they unbundled it base SVR
> and invented catman to make up for the missing nroff.

Not quite.  They (AT&T) sold the rights to sell typeset manuals to some 
publishing house (I forget which), at which point they stopped shipping 
the *roff source for the manpages on the source tapes.  Instead, you got 
pre-formatted "cat" pages on the source tape.  I think this happened 
starting with SVR3.

catman(1) was always about doing bulk nroff runs against the whole of 
/usr/man, because, back in the day, running nroff on demand was slow. 
Even on a 785.  (catman without nroff would have been a no-op.)

--lyndon