Bug#490918: debian-refcard: corrections and suggestions
Many thanks for your corrections and suggestions. I will
probably apply almost all of them.
On 2008-07-15 11:33, Justin B Rye wrote:
> - <glossentry id="boot-expert">
...
> - <glossentry id="boot-26">
...
> These boot options are distinctly Oldstablish; Lenny doesn't support
> Linux 2.4, and its GUI installer has a menu item for "expert mode".
In fact, boot-26 is already gone in SVN. I will remove
boot-expert, too. The refcard originally has been created in the
long waiting period ante-sarge and obviously needs face-lifting.
> - <glossentry id="nano">
...
> + <glossentry id="editor">
Sounds right.
> - <glossentry id="webmin">
Webmin is already gone in SVN.
> <glossentry id="update-grub">
> <glossterm>update-grub</glossterm>
> - <glossdef><para>After installing a new
> + <glossdef><para>After installing a new non-Debian
...
> Packaged kernels do the update-grub for you; indeed, this is a
> utility that normal users don't really need to know about.
Yes, either I will remove the entry or change it to: "After
changing /etc/boot/menu.lst." or sth.
> - <glossentry id="less">
...
> + <glossentry id="pager">
OK.
> - <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</filename>. Run, if the
> - contents of one of repositories, the file changed, or if
> - unsure.</para></glossdef>
> + <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</filename>. Required whenever that
> + file or the contents of the repositories change.</para></glossdef>
OK.
> - <glossdef><para>List all packages needed by the
> + <glossdef><para>List all packages needed by the one
...
> - <glossdef><para>List all packages that need the
> + <glossdef><para>List all packages that need the one
OK.
> - <glossdef><para>Show packages, on that no other packages
> - depend (<emphasis>orphans</emphasis>), needs
> + <glossdef><para>Show packages that no other packages
> + depend on (<emphasis>orphans</emphasis>); needs
...
> Fixing the broken English. Actually these days I wouldn't bother
> telling newbies about "deborphan" when they can get the same thing
> from aptitude. I'm not sure I'd even tell them about apt-get.
I don't have aptitude on my systems... :~) But the deborphan
entry can be removed anyway, as apt-get now knows about
automatically installed packages.
> <glossentry id="dpkg-divert">
...
> (And I certainly wouldn't tell them about dpkg-divert.)
I put that in after people (with admin rights, but not
necessarily well-educated admins) started to just drop files
here and there. So I would like to leave it in.
> ("ifconfig" is being slowly deprecated in favour of the tools in
> iproute2. However, it's still more likely to be installed.)
Right. (When did I last use ifconfig?)
> - <glossentry id="etc-network">
...
> + <glossentry id="etc-network-interfaces">
OK.
> - module, create a symbolic link into
> - <filename>/etc/apache2/mods-enabled/</filename>.</para></glossdef>
> + module, use <literal>/usr/sbin/a2enmod</literal>.</para></glossdef>
OK.
> <section id="postgresql">
...
> This stuff certainly doesn't belong on a list of the top things you
> _need_ to know; I've been using Debian for twelve years without ever
> once needing to install PostgreSQL. I'd be in favour of ripping out
> the whole section and replacing it with mentions of more important
> packages, such as iptables or mount or procps or apt-listbugs or
> apt-listchanges or cron-apt or debtags or locate(/mlocate/slocate)
> or dlocate or anacron or file or mime-support or mc or logcheck...
Yes. The original refcard was made specifically for some
colleagues, who had to deal (without much time for learning)
with a Debian system, Apache and PostgreSQL included (and other
even more specialised - CORBA - stuff, I already removed from
the refcard). I will remove PostgreSQL from the refcard, but let
a2enmod in, because it's specific to Debian and Apache is still
the most popular webserver (according to popcon).
I'm not sure about Samba.
> Couldn't you get through half of the entries in a single go by
> listing the command names and saying "Read The Fine Manual"?
That's not the purpose of a reference card :~)
> whatis $( echo ${PATH//:/ } | xargs -n1 ls | sort -u )
An entry about whatis is really missing.
> On the other hand, you should probably also mention info, especially
> when it comes to tricky cases like "info coreutils".
info, unfortunately, should be mentioned.
> Also, wouldn't it make sense to factor some things out into
> footnotes, like this?
No. I think, that footnotes make a reference card hard to read.
The short entries should function as a reminder only. For
further information users have to RTFM anyway.
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