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Date:      Mon, 24 Mar 2003 23:03:52 +0200
From:      Ruslan Ermilov <ru@FreeBSD.ORG>
To:        Jarkko Santala <jake@iki.fi>
Cc:        Christian Brueffer <chris@unixpages.org>, Kevin Oberman <oberman@es.net>, Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@phk.freebsd.dk>, current@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: MAKEDEV(8) manpage
Message-ID:  <20030324210352.GB99926@sunbay.com>
In-Reply-To: <20030324202245.D401@trillian.santala.org>
References:  <20030324133457.GR36490@unixpages.org> <20030324171215.7DBD85D07@ptavv.es.net> <20030324181450.GU36490@unixpages.org> <20030324202245.D401@trillian.santala.org>

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On Mon, Mar 24, 2003 at 08:29:59PM +0200, Jarkko Santala wrote:
> On Mon, 24 Mar 2003, Christian Brueffer wrote:
>=20
> > On Mon, Mar 24, 2003 at 09:12:15AM -0800, Kevin Oberman wrote:
> > > > Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 14:34:57 +0100
> > > > From: Christian Brueffer <chris@unixpages.org>
> > > > Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG
> > > >
> > > > On Mon, Mar 24, 2003 at 09:40:32AM +0200, Jarkko Santala wrote:
> > > > > On Sun, 23 Mar 2003, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > > In message <20030323143507.GG36490@unixpages.org>, Christian Br=
ueffer w=3D
> > > > rites:
> > > > > > >now that MAKEDEV has been gone for a while, the manpages (alph=
a and i3=3D
> > > > 86)
> > > > > > >can be nuked as well, right?
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Right.
> > > > >
> > > > > Although it might be considered dragging old baggage around, woul=
d it
> > > > > make sense to instead of zapping the man page completely write a =
new one
> > > > > that would at least give a clue on how things are done these days?
> > > > >
> > > > > Otherwise unclued people might just think there's something wrong=
 with
> > > > > their system because the man page is missing and get even more co=
nfused.
> > > >
> > > > Well, people are supposed to read UPDATING before updating the syst=
em.
> > > > UPDATING already has an entry about this, so has the handbook, the
> > > > release notes etc.
> > > >
> > > > I think we can't really help people that don't read the recommended
> > > > documentation.
> > >
> > > I think POLA should apply to things like this (even across major
> > > releases). MAKEDEV has been around for a long time and most folks are
> > > used to it being there. It's simply something that most people assume
> > > will be there on a Unix-like system.
> > >
> > > Yes, people should read UPDATING and, better still, the release
> > > notes. But taking the added step of having a simple man page with a
> > > pointer to the devfs paper and saying that MAKEDEV is no more there w=
ill
> > > avoid a lot of confusion.
> > >
> > > The goal of documentation should not be to make it possible for
> > > sophisticated users to use the system. It should make it as
> > > easy as possible for all levels of users, including those new to Unix
> > > and BSD to use the system.
> >
> > I'll write a small manpage this evening which says that MAKEDEV is gone=
 now
> > with a short summary of what devfs does.
> > Does that resolve your worries?
>=20
> Exactly what I had in mind, so sounds good to me. ;) You probably want to
> make it as generic as possible, so that keeping it up-to-date doesn't
> become a burden in the future. I'd hate to create any extra maintenance
> work to anyone, no matter how small.
>=20
I'd rather just MLINK mount_devfs(8) to MAKEDEV(8) for the
time being, say until 5.2 is out, like is the case for
vnconfig(8).


Cheers,
--=20
Ruslan Ermilov		Sysadmin and DBA,
ru@sunbay.com		Sunbay Software AG,
ru@FreeBSD.org		FreeBSD committer,
+380.652.512.251	Simferopol, Ukraine

http://www.FreeBSD.org	The Power To Serve
http://www.oracle.com	Enabling The Information Age

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