Re: Symlinked manpages

[Alvar Bray <alvar@meiko.co.uk>]

Hi All,

   >    From: Bruce Perens <bruce@Pixar.com>
   >    We then have to lstat() _every_ page, and readlink() it if there is a link,
   >    when we build the index. I guess it wouldn't slow down the program too much,
   >    but why bother?
   > 
   > I assumed it would be easier to fix man once than to get package
   > maintainers to introduce the new files every time a new version is released
   > by the upstream source.
   > 
   > Easier yet would be to not worry about it, though I am guessing that the
   > cost of the duplicate, compressed pages is significant.

   Easiest would be to just try it yourself and pleasantly find that the
   current man package (2.3.7-4) already handles symlinks appropriately
   -- only one catpage is generated and all entries are kept in the index.

David is indeed correct.

e.g. (with man-2.3.7-4)

<purge all man dbs>
root@tigger# cd /usr/local/man/man8
root@tigger# cp pppd.8 foo.8
root@tigger# ln -s foo.8 bar.8
root@tigger# ls -l
total 62
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root            5 Aug  5 12:46 bar.8 -> foo.8
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root         9795 May 25  1994 chat.8
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        25387 Aug  5 12:46 foo.8
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root        25387 Jun 11  1994 pppd.8
root@tigger# ls -l /var/catman/local/cat8
total 0
root@tigger# man bar
Reformatting bar(8), please wait...

PPPD(8)                                                   PPPD(8)

NAME
       pppd - Point to Point Protocol daemon
<...>
<q>
Still saving the page, please wait...
root@tigger# ls -l /var/catman/local/cat8
total 11
-rw-r--r--   1 man      root        10641 Aug  5 13:08 foo.8.gz
root@tigger# man -k point
pppd (8)             - Point to Point Protocol daemon
bar (8)              - Point to Point Protocol daemon
foo (8)              - Point to Point Protocol daemon
<...>
root@tigger#

Is this what people are wanting man to do or am I confused?

The new man package (2.3.10-1) will be released real soon now. This
also handles symbolic links correctly - only one catpage is generated
and the indexing seems OK.


alvar (current man package maintainer)

--
Alvar Bray

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