Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2017 15:34:37 -0700 From: Russell Haley <russ.haley@gmail.com> To: Andriy Gapon <avg@freebsd.org> Cc: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org, freebsd-fs@freebsd.org Subject: Re: re-synchronize zfs man pages with illumos Message-ID: <CABx9NuTU8eL3wNt1byHpVmMKefPyScS91ETzQVbQAUsxZSWNZw@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <19090d61-57d1-e436-f1d1-4e6e49ec291e@FreeBSD.org> References: <19090d61-57d1-e436-f1d1-4e6e49ec291e@FreeBSD.org>
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On Fri, Sep 8, 2017 at 3:07 PM, Andriy Gapon <avg@freebsd.org> wrote: > > Originally ZFS manual pages were written using a different formatting language > from what we use in FreeBSD. I am not very knowledgeable in this area, but the > experts should recognize the language by things like \fB, \fR, etc. > > Martin Matuska (mm) converted the manuals to the FreeBSD mdoc in r228019 > https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base?view=revision&revision=228019 > > Recently illumos switched to using mdoc format as well. > That happened gradually and the changes were usually mixed with other changes. > For example, the zpool manual was converted in this change: > https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base?view=revision&revision=318936 > https://github.com/illumos/illumos-gate/commit/c8323d4323a565676ba44883bfeb289d9ed8813e > > It is not surprising, of course, that the illumos mdoc pages are quite different > from their FreeBSD counterparts given the independent conversions. > > So, at the moment we have several classes of differences that are not easy to > identify via textual differences of the source files alone. > > 1. Differences in the content due to underlying differences between illumos and > FreeBSD, e.g. zones vs jails or different sample disk names, etc. > > 2. Whitespace differences where exactly the same words are split differently > between the lines, etc. > > 3. Style differences. For example, explicit parentheses vs Pq/Po/Pc; use of Tn > in FreeBSD; much more frequent use of Ns macro in illumos; quotes vs a different > font (e.g. Qq vs Sy); etc. > > 4. Mistakes in either FreeBSD or illumos version. For example, the FreeBSD > versions often continue a line after a period. > > 5. Independent / diverging language corrections. > > My impression is that the illumos pages are cleaner than the FreeBSD ones at the > moment. My inclination is to suggest that we "restart" our pages from the > current illumos pages and "rebase" FreeBSD-specific changes on top of those. > > I realize that that would be a lot of work. But the benefits are quite obvious > as it would be much easier to merge changes both ways. > > Comments, suggestions, offers of help are all very welcome! > Thanks. I think anything that can be done to both strengthen the Illumos projects and create tighter coupling between BSD projects is a good thing. Documentation work is also an excellent way to learn a technology. I would happily contribute to this project and it would be a good one to push towards new comers looking to learn/leverage ZFS. It would also create an uptick in activity and could be used as advocacy/advertising in tech publications. ZFS is a big pull from GNU/Linux to FreeBSD. I also think that DTrace documentation on FreeBSD could use some cleanup and renewal. It's such an awesome feature. Russ
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