Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2002 05:11:40 +0100 From: Cliff Sarginson <cliff@raggedclown.net> To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: A question from a convert from Windows to FreeBSD Message-ID: <20020126041140.GD1290@raggedclown.net> In-Reply-To: <02012614002402.01182@BAPhD.gihon.org.au> References: <0ffe01c1a371$661d1b20$6600640a@attbi.com> <02012512323903.01099@BAPhD.gihon.org.au> <02012421455703.07381@proxy.pt.com> <02012614002402.01182@BAPhD.gihon.org.au>
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On Sat, Jan 26, 2002 at 02:00:24PM +1030, Brian Astill wrote: > On Friday 25 January 2002 13:15, Bill Moran wrote: > > > From your reaction, I'm guessing you have yet to discover the > > built-in man pages > > I had a recent problem of somehow not being able to enter my system as > user. I needed to change the me-as-user password and thought I would > need to know the password FreeBSD was already holding in order to do > this. I searched the man pages for passwd ypasswd etc etc, but NOWHERE > could I find anything that told me how to make the change without > knowing the existing password. > When I asked on this list, the answer was somewhat embarrassing <blush>. > > However, what I am saying is that the simple sentence "passwords can be > changed by root without knowledge of a users existing password" was > simply not there on any man page - heaps and heaps of well-written > detail I did not need, was. > > So just RTFM isn't any kind of solution for a newbie, who is likely to > suffer information overload and STILL not find a solution to his or her > problem. > Mmm. The man page should contain this sentence, you are correct. Man pages are minimalist, in the sense that they are supposed to be a concise, but complete, summary of something (they are not much use as teaching aids generally). If this is not stated on the man page then it should be, since the man page without it is incomplete. I think as a general point you can safely assume that anything that may need to be done can be done by root if it cannot be done by an ordinary user. Anyway, long live manual pages, just keep them complete. We should be glad FreeBSD has not yet taken to the eccentric and perverse decision made by the GNU people to try and replace them with the appalling "info" interface. -- Regards Cliff To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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