Re: Symlinked manpages
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
Mail: Meiko Limited Meiko Inc.
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