Bug#39830: [AMENDMENT]: get rid of undocumented(7) symlinks
Hi,
[Please followup to the 39830@bugs.debian.org]
There is a proposal under consideration for changing the
undocumented(7) man page. The current proposal is included below; it
is not yet the final form; and input of the general community is
solicited. I have brought this modification to the notice of the full
developer list since I think that this may impact a number of people,
including users, whose views should be taken into account.
I personally find the undocumented (7) man page frustrating,
since I expected to see documentation, and was told there was none
after a wait (yes, I had a slow machine). I would have much rather
not had my hopes raised, and that man itself told me there was no
manual page.
In any case, please follow up to the address given.
manoj
--- policy.sgml.orig 2002-11-12 12:50:40.000000000 +0000
+++ policy.sgml 2002-11-12 12:51:30.000000000 +0000
@@ -7485,22 +7485,22 @@
page included as well.
</p>
- <p>
- If no manual page is available for a particular program,
- utility, function or configuration file and this is reported
- as a bug to the Debian Bug Tracking System, a symbolic link
- from the requested manual page to the <manref
- name="undocumented" section="7"> manual page may be
- provided. This symbolic link can be created from
- <file>debian/rules</file> like this:
- <example compact="compact">
-ln -s ../man7/undocumented.7.gz \
- debian/tmp/usr/share/man/man[1-9]/<var>requested_manpage</var>.[1-9].gz
- </example>
- This manpage claims that the lack of a manpage has been
- reported as a bug, so you may only do this if it really has
- (you can report it yourself, if you like). Do not close the
- bug report until a proper manpage is available.</p>
+ <p>
+ There should be a manual page at least for every program. If
+ no manual page is available, this is considered as a bug and
+ should be reported to the Debian Bug Tracking System (the
+ maintainer of the package is allowed to write this bug report
+ himself, too). Do not close the bug report until a proper
+ manpage is available.<footnote>
+ <p>
+ It is not very hard to write a man page. See the <url
+ id="http://www.schweikhardt.net/man_page_howto.html";
+ name="Man-Page-HOWTO">, <tt>man(7)</tt>, the examples
+ created by <tt>debmake</tt> or <tt>dh_make</tt>, or the
+ directory <file>/usr/share/doc/man-db/examples</file>.
+ </p>
+ </footnote>
+ </p>
<p>
You may forward a complaint about a missing manpage to the
--
Prediction is very difficult, especially of the future. Niels Bohr
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
1024R/C7261095 print CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05 CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E
1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B 924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C
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