Bug#39830: [AMENDMENT]: get rid of undocumented(7) symlinks
>>"Herbert" == Herbert Xu <herbert@gondor.apana.org.au> writes:
Herbert> Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> wrote:
>>
>> 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.
Herbert> How about if we made this configurable:
Herbert> Move undocumented.7.gz to undocumented.real.7.gz
Herbert> Create a symlink from the former to the latter in the postinst upon
Herbert> installation or upgrading from a version without it. Then people
Herbert> who don't want to see it can simply delete the symlink.
I don't think we should ask people to muck around in /usr/man
in order not to be annoyed.
Herbert> They would get a warning from man of course, but that should be easy
Herbert> to special case in man(1).
Sounds like a Kludge.
Herbert> Personally I think the manual page would be useful to users new
Herbert> to Debian.
I disagree. One should design for the common case; one is a
newbie for a short time, one is irritated by this misfeature for the
rest of ones life.
Instead, there should be an easily accessible, and well
advertised document for newbies, that covers how to get information
about programs, as well as other information geared towards the
newcomer.
A unified document, which serves as a central place, is a much
better option than kludging each and every facility individually.
manoj
--
You have only to mumble a few words in church to get married and few
words in your sleep to get divorced.
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
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