Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 21:26:26 +1000 (EST) From: Andy Farkas <andyf@speednet.com.au> To: Ruslan Ermilov <ru@freebsd.org> Cc: current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: man(1) oddity - was: HEADS UP: bzip2(1) compression for manpages... Message-ID: <20030519210120.K93323-100000@hewey.af.speednet.com.au> In-Reply-To: <20030519104226.GA17366@sunbay.com>
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On Mon, 19 May 2003, Ruslan Ermilov wrote:
> > A normal user has to wait staring at a flashing cursor for 11.5 seconds
> > before *anything* happens, but root is told "Formatting page, please
> > wait..."
> >
> > Am I explaining it enough?
> >
> You're not being quite right here. Just to demonstrate things,
> take a 4-STABLE box, then temporary rename /usr/share/man/cat8 to
> something else, and try "man 8 ppp"; you'll be presented with the
> output shortly after (without any message), and much quicker than
> after 11.5 seconds, as you trying to tell me.
# grep CPU /var/run/dmesg.boot
CPU: Pentium Pro (199.74-MHz 686-class CPU)
#
# sysctl -a | grep kern.version
kern.version: FreeBSD 4.8-RELEASE #0: Sat Apr 5 15:40:01 EST 2003
#
# mv /usr/share/man/cat8 /usr/share/man/cat8-
#
# logout
$
$ /usr/bin/time man ppp > /dev/null
14.20 real 10.34 user 0.18 sys
$ /usr/bin/time man ppp > /dev/null
11.53 real 10.22 user 0.15 sys
(yes, i did it twice)
No message, similar to fbsd 5.1-B.
Now I put cat8/ back:
(in other window)
# mv /usr/share/man/cat8- /usr/share/man/cat8
# rm -f /usr/share/man/cat8/ppp.8.gz
(back to 1st window)
$ /usr/bin/time man ppp > /dev/null
Formatting page, please wait...Done.
12.07 real 10.45 user 0.22 sys
$ /usr/bin/time man ppp > /dev/null
0.12 real 0.08 user 0.03 sys
(yes, i did it twice again. no message the 2nd time)
User gets a message (1st time) before waiting 12 seconds, unlike in 5.1-B.
> When catpages get
> created, the text is displayed only after the whole manpage was
> formatted (and saved to a .cat file). When not creating catpages,
> the formatter passes the output directly to your ${PAGER}, so
> while groff(1) is still formatting the manpage, you can already
> view it (head of it).
Here is a table of what I *really* see:
FreeBSD-4.8:
| no catpage | catpage
Normal user | fmt msg, waits | no msg, no wait
Super user | fmt msg, waits | no msg, no wait
FreeBSD-5.1-B:
Normal user | no msg, waits | no msg, no wait
Super user | fmt msg, waits | no msg, no wait
The difference is Normal user.
--
:{ andyf@speednet.com.au
Andy Farkas
System Administrator
Speednet Communications
http://www.speednet.com.au/
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