Bug#49962: Debian FSS-upgrade process: man pages
Package: general
In short:
A reasonably new version of "man-db" should be required on
my system automatically, through Debian package dependencies,
whenever I install any Debian package that has FSS man pages.
The full story:
I started with a slink Debian-i386 system. I upgrade
packages one at a time to potato, as I see fit. I never
leave package dependencies dangling. Other than that, I
still have many slink packages around. (My internet
connection is charged by the minute.)
It happened repeatedly to me that I upgraded to a new
package and couldn't read the manual page. FSS strices
again. I can always fix that by setting MANPATH to
something appropiate with "share" in it.
I'm sure there has been a version of the man-programs
(package man-db) around for some time that can read
FSS-compliant man pages all right. Otherwise, you package
maintainers would have long ago addressed the problem.
Here is my wish of the Debian system:
A reasonably new version of "man-db" should be required on
my system automatically, through Debian package
dependencies, whenever I install any Debian package that has
FSS man pages.
I ask Fabrizio, the man-db maintainer, to kindly provide the
version number of man-db that should be used in a package
dependency for this purpose. (The current version seems to
be "2.3.10-69s", so maybe that's the answer.) Or any other
input on this he sees fit. Thank you.
Maybe someone should construct a Perl script or something that:
+ Parses through the various
.../debian/dists/unstable/Contents*.gz files,
+ catches any package that has share/man - files,
+ cross check whether such a package mentions any man-db -
version in its dependency requirements (or is man-db itself),
+ file a bug against any that doesn't, and
+ remember enough state so that the process can be repeated
later without resending that same bug report to packages
that have already received it.
Maybe there's an even smarter way to handle this in the
Debian scheme of things.
Maybe this has helped you. I certainly hope so.
Keep up the good work!
Andreas
andreas.krueger@online.life.de
======================================================================
bash-2.02$ dpkg -l man-db
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge
| Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-===============-==============-============================================
ii man-db 2.3.10-68 Display the on-line manual.
bash-2.02$ env | grep MAN
# No output
bash-2.02$ manpath
/usr/man:/usr/X11R6/man:/usr/local/man
bash-2.02$ apt-cache showpkg man-db
Package: man-db
Versions: 2.3.10-69s(/var/state/apt/lists/source.rfc822.org_pub_mirror_ftp.debian.org_debian_dists_unstable_main_binary-i386_Packages),2.3.10-68(/var/lib/dpkg/status),
Reverse Depends:
libc6-dev,man-db
manpages-fr,man-db
libc6-dev,man-db
boot-floppies,man-db
2utf,man-db
Dependencies:
2.3.10-69s - groff (0 (null)) libc6 (2 2.1) bsdmainutils (0 (null)) man (0 (null)) man (0 (null)) nlsutils (0 (null))
2.3.10-68 - groff (0 (null)) libc6 (0 (null)) bsdmainutils (0 (null)) man (0 (null)) man-aeb (0 (null)) man (0 (null)) man-aeb (0 (null)) nlsutils (0 (null))
Provides:
2.3.10-69s - man-browser man
2.3.10-68 - man-browser man
Reverse Provides:
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