From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Sat Sep 30 20:14:55 2017 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@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 69BCFE2E60A for ; Sat, 30 Sep 2017 20:14:55 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mailrelay11.qsc.de (mailrelay11.qsc.de [212.99.187.252]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client CN "*.antispameurope.com", Issuer "TeleSec ServerPass DE-2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id CCD357F034 for ; Sat, 30 Sep 2017 20:14:53 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx01.qsc.de ([213.148.129.14]) by mailrelay11.qsc.de; Sat, 30 Sep 2017 22:14:50 +0200 Received: from r56.edvax.de (port-92-195-63-92.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.63.92]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx01.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 03B403CCD5; Sat, 30 Sep 2017 22:14:52 +0200 (CEST) Received: from r56.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r56.edvax.de (8.14.5/8.14.5) with SMTP id v8UKEmD3002008; Sat, 30 Sep 2017 22:14:48 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2017 22:14:48 +0200 From: Polytropon To: "Steve O'Hara-Smith" Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, Polytropon Subject: Re: list of built-in tools Message-Id: <20170930221448.dbeaaf6c.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <20170930064846.b9544fc8be7abda477148471@sohara.org> References: <59CEA922.3070408@gmail.com> <20170929221727.ddba4ff1.freebsd@edvax.de> <20170930064846.b9544fc8be7abda477148471@sohara.org> Reply-To: Polytropon Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-cloud-security-sender: freebsd@edvax.de X-cloud-security-recipient: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-cloud-security-Virusscan: CLEAN X-cloud-security-disclaimer: This E-Mail was scanned by E-Mailservice on mailrelay11.qsc.de with A0C516A3567 X-cloud-security-connect: mx01.qsc.de[213.148.129.14], TLS=1, IP=213.148.129.14 X-cloud-security: scantime:.1554 X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2017 20:14:55 -0000 On Sat, 30 Sep 2017 06:48:46 +0100, Steve O'Hara-Smith wrote: > On Fri, 29 Sep 2017 22:17:27 +0200 > Polytropon wrote: > > > On Fri, 29 Sep 2017 16:12:18 -0400, Ernie Luzar wrote: > > > Looking for a list or index of all the basic system utilities. > > > > > > Like uniq, rev, tr and so on. > > > > > > Are they documented someplace? > > > > Implicitely documented - "ls /usr/bin". ;-) > > Better ls /usr/share/man/man1 This is "which tools are documented", not "which tools are actually present". On FreeBSD, it effectively doesn't make a difference due to the excellent documentation situation, but it might be surprising on Linux. ;-) > > On the web, there are several blog pages or texts on Github > > which explain how to use this kind of tools, but FreeBSD does > > not (as far as I'm aware of) contain a kind of list that covers > > text processing tools provided by the OS. > > This is one of the longest standing weaknesses of unix > documentation, there are no entry points. There are some "section entry points", typically called "intro", such as "man 1 intro", but it covers general aspects of the section, often in a short manner. > Somebody should make a simple > index page of all the commands with a one liner description and a man page > - bonus for splitting them by category. This can be automated with tools like apropos, and then an output filter that generates groff source for the manpage. Do you know the xman program? It has an interactive chooser for section and individual manual page. What I'd think would be helpful would be a topic-oriented summary page - as you suggested with a one-liner that quickly describes each entry - for each "practical topic", such as an imaginary (for now) "man textproc". It can be discussed in how far such a manpage could be partially auto-generated and if it should be part of the OS or a port. The system already contains "meta-manuals" that do not describe a single program, file, or interface, but instead describe processes and "bigger constructs", for example "man release". -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...