Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2022 10:00:54 +0200 From: Ralf Mardorf <ralf-mardorf@riseup.net> To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Conventions for FreeBSD manual pages Message-ID: <20220420100054.07129046@archlinux> In-Reply-To: <3755196b-8803-ff72-364e-6b3b067f9702@gmail.com> References: <3755196b-8803-ff72-364e-6b3b067f9702@gmail.com>
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On Wed, 20 Apr 2022 07:46:54 +0100, Graham Perrin wrote: >I expect alphabetical order, by name. Hi, first a note related to sorting in general and than related to the man pages "SEE ALSO". You shouldn't expect alphabetical order when using software running on any operating system. Computers tend to lexicographical order (this more or less is the alphabetical order), but it comes with pitfalls. Some pitfalls are relatively easy to resolve, such as caused by the Icelandic or German alphabet, but for logographic writing systems it's probably not that easy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabetical_order#Similar_orderings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexicographic_order https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logogram I suspect anything listed by a man page's "SEE ALSO" section is equal in all languages, even when using a logographic writing system, however, sorting by manual sections isn't a bad idea. To separate commands from e.g. devices and drivers can be helpful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_page#Manual_sections Taking a look at the FreeBSD and Linux man pages for "hier", I can't see a difference for the rational behind the "SEE ALSO" sorting. Manual section first, lexicographical order of the names second. [rocketmouse@archlinux ~]$ man hier | grep SEE\ ALSO -A1 SEE ALSO find(1), ln(1), proc(5), file-hierarchy(7), mount(8) https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?hier(7) : SEE ALSO apropos(1), find(1), finger(1), grep(1), ls(1), whatis(1), whereis(1), which(1), fd(4), devfs(5), fsck(8) It apparently a common standard, shared by FreeBSD and Linux, that alone already makes it good. Regards, Ralf
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