Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 06:00:02 -0800 (PST) From: Nik Clayton <nik@freebsd.org> To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: docs/14563: Wrong manpage produced by `man 4 fd' Message-ID: <199912141400.GAA12714@freefall.freebsd.org>
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The following reply was made to PR docs/14563; it has been noted by GNATS.
From: Nik Clayton <nik@freebsd.org>
To: rfg@monkeys.com
Cc: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: docs/14563: Wrong manpage produced by `man 4 fd'
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 13:29:52 +0000
On Mon, Dec 13, 1999 at 01:48:04AM -0800, Ronald F. Guilmette wrote:
> >If you want it fixed, did you have anything in mind?
>
> I thought that the solution I was proposing was abundantly clear in what
> I wrote:
>
> >> `man 4 fd' should produce documentation relating to the `fd' (floppy
> >> disk) device type.
>
> >As things
> >stand, section 4 of the manuals seems to be the right place to put both
> >the fd and fdc manual pages.
>
> I agree completely, but `man 4 fd' *should* yield a man page that talks
> about floppy disk device files... *not* one that talks about UNIX file
> descriptors. (You can just trash the one that talks about file descrip-
> tors as far as I'm concerned. If people want to know about those, they
> should go buy a general book about UNIX/C programming.)
Yeah, but the problem is that different people have different ideas about
what the default should be.
/dev/fd is a directory of file descriptors, not a floppy disk device control
node, so making fd(4) give information about the floppy disk device would
then leave /dev/ and the manual pages inconsistent, which would be bad.
Note, also, that manual pages like sa(4) or da(4) all stem from 'device'
lines in the kernel config file, whereas the floppy disk entries stem
from 'disk' lines in the kernel config file.
Your best bet is probably to take this up with the -hackers mailing list,
and see what the prevailing sentiment there is.
N
--
If you want to imagine the future, imagine a tennis shoe stamping
on a penguin's face forever.
--- with apologies to George Orwell
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