From owner-freebsd-doc Wed Jan 3 13:34:30 2001 From owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 3 13:34:28 2001 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Received: from scientia.demon.co.uk (scientia.demon.co.uk [212.228.14.13]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E92C537B400 for ; Wed, 3 Jan 2001 13:34:26 -0800 (PST) Received: from strontium.scientia.demon.co.uk ([192.168.91.36] ident=root) by scientia.demon.co.uk with esmtp (Exim 3.20 #1) id 14DvXc-0000Ht-00; Wed, 03 Jan 2001 21:33:52 +0000 Received: (from ben@localhost) by strontium.scientia.demon.co.uk (8.11.1/8.11.1) id f03LXqs62491; Wed, 3 Jan 2001 21:33:52 GMT (envelope-from ben) Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2001 21:33:51 +0000 From: Ben Smithurst To: Tim McMillen Cc: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: various man page additions Message-ID: <20010103213351.G85794@strontium.scientia.demon.co.uk> References: <0101031429260A.00440@tim.elnsng1.mi.home.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: <0101031429260A.00440@tim.elnsng1.mi.home.com> Sender: ben@scientia.demon.co.uk Sender: owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Tim McMillen wrote: > Hi, I'm new to the doc project and want to help. Welcome! > So some proposed fixes. > --have man(1) state what the default manpage search order is. > > a decent spot is: (but it is not perfectly correct, it needs help) > old: > You may also specify the order to search the sections for entries and > which preprocessors to run on the source files via command line options > or environment variables. If enabled by the system administrator, > formatted man pages will also be compressed with the `/usr/bin/gzip -c' > command to save space. > > new: > You may also specify the order to search the sections for entries and > which preprocessors to run on the source files via command line options > or environment variables. The default search order is sections "1", > "1aout", "8", "2", "3", "n", "4", "5", "6", "7", "9", "l". If enabled > by the system administrator, formatted man pages will also be > compressed with the `/usr/bin/gzip -c' command to save space. This seems like a reasonable idea. > --man(1) should state what the different man section names are. I'm sure I've seen a list of the section numbers and what they are somewhere, though I can't find it now... *shrug* man's manual page seems as good a place as any. > --in either man(1) or whatis(1) or probably both, should have something > like: > Ex. To get a list of the commands in a given section try > whatis 1 or whatis 8 > the output can be somewhat ugly, but useful. A better command would be > well, better. > This should probably also be in each intro page. Putting that into just whatis(1) gets my vote, see what others think... > --help should be a basic command and should be mentioned in the default > motd. > it could display a quick tutorial on how to use the basic resources > available. The FAQ, handbook and manpages. And how to install the > documentation locally if they don't have net access set up yet. I will > write the text and facilitate getting it made into an executeble. I > could just write it as a shell script, but there may be better ways. I'd say it's better to do it in C from the start, saves pain converting it to C later on if you find the program gets a bit too advanced for a shell script. :-) > I will post what I write on my website for comments. cool, let us know a URL. -- Ben Smithurst / ben@FreeBSD.org / PGP: 0x99392F7D To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message