Re: man : work in progress
On Tue, Mar 16, 1999 at 08:29:59AM +0200, Fabrizio Polacco wrote:
> > > People can start installing manpages into /usr/share/man instead of
> > > /usr/man .
> >
> > What about those manpages from /usr/X11R6/man directory?
>
> Wrom the FHS that I have (which could not be the latest, please correct
> me if I'm wrong) it seems that they stay there.
Can anyone (from the mailing list) confirm this?
> > > Don't make these packages depend on man. If you're concerned
> > > about users not upgrading their configuration, grep manpath.config in
> > > postinst and issue a warning, or send email.
> >
> > I don't think anyone should do this, especially if there's also
> > a keypress required after that message.
>
> In fact, I mentioned email to avoid those nasty press any key ...
Good. One step closer to non-interactive installs :)
> Do you think that man-db should supply an utility to automatically
> update the config file, so other packages can use it to inspect/correct
> so no user will find itself out of manpages?
> The utility would wait for dpkg to unlock, so it would be run only once
> per installation and not per package.
> It would have the benefit to avoid people to merge manually their custom
> config files.
> A bonus benfit would have been to recreate the man indexes only after
> the installation/upgrade is done, and not during it, like it happens
> now.
How big is the possibility of error in the program, like could it
screw up users' config files completely?
If it isn't dangerous too much, it should definintely be provided,
at least as an adittional possibility.
> > IIRC someone (you?) said man-db supports /usr/share/man directory
> > since '93. or such - so recompiling the package for convenience of
> > hamm, bo, etc users isn't neccessary?
>
> In fact, this move is simply a configuration change, which, from the
> packaging prospective is a mess :-)
AFAIK it is just adding an additional path in some variable?
> > > Need to modify lintian.
> >
> > What about debhelper and debmake?
>
> Well, probably yes; I don't know for sure, as I don't use them.
I'll file wishlist (with priority raise to normal when this starts
being official policy) bugs against these.
> It is a major change in policy, so need also to update debian-policy :-)
Of course.
> > > * absolutely DON'T SYMLINK /usr/man !! Otherways you'll get double
> > > entries in the database.
> >
> > Here's an item for future Potato Release Notes.
>
> Well, this wasn't a warning to users, but to developers thinking of an
> "easy" way to accomplish the thing.
> This is an issue also for translated manpages, where there is the
> temptation to symlink directories between common locale names.
But if anyone else symlinks these directories he'll get double
entries in the database? Consider putting it in README.Debian,
at least.
--
enJoy -*/\*- http://jagor.srce.hr/~jrodin/
Reply to: