Re: warnings running man?
Lee Bradshaw wrote:
>
> I'm having problems with some man pages. The warnings about "bad symlink
> or ROFF `.so' request" sometimes show up when typing "man somecommand".
> Is there a way to get rid of these warnings? Here are some of the
> relevant files and warnings:
>
> freefall /usr/man/man1 # ls -l gnu*
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 32 Jul 23 01:23 gnuattach.1.gz ->
> /etc/alternatives/gnuattach.1.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 60 Apr 21 01:50 gnuattach.xemacs20.1.gz
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 32 Jul 23 01:23 gnuclient.1.gz ->
> /etc/alternatives/gnuclient.1.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 60 Apr 21 01:50 gnuclient.xemacs20.1.gz
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 30 Jul 23 01:23 gnudoit.1.gz ->
> /etc/alternatives/gnudoit.1.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 58 Apr 21 01:50 gnudoit.xemacs20.1.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3060 Mar 27 05:04 gnuplot.1.gz
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4620 Apr 21 01:50 gnuserv.xemacs20.1.gz
>
> freefall /usr/man/man1 # mandb -c
> Processing manual pages under /usr/man...
> mandb: warning: /usr/man/man8/mailq.8.gz: whatis parse for mailq(8) failed
> mandb: warning: /usr/man/man8/sendmail.8.gz: whatis parse for sendmail(8)
> failed
> mandb: warning: /usr/man/man8/runq.8.gz: whatis parse for runq(8) failed
> mandb: warning: /usr/man/man8/rmail.8.gz: whatis parse for rmail(8) failed
> mandb: warning: /usr/man/man8/rsmtp.8.gz: whatis parse for rsmtp(8) failed
> mandb: warning: /usr/man/man8/in.smtpd.8.gz: whatis parse for in.smtpd(8)
> failed
> mandb: warning: /usr/man/man1/uupath.1.gz: whatis parse for uupath(1) failed
> mandb: can't open /usr/man/man1/gnuserv.1: No such file or directory
> mandb: warning: /usr/man/man1/gnuclient.xemacs20.1.gz: bad symlink or ROFF
> `.so' request
> mandb: can't open /usr/man/man1/gnuserv.1: No such file or directory
> mandb: warning: /usr/man/man1/gnuattach.xemacs20.1.gz: bad symlink or ROFF
> `.so' request
> mandb: can't open /usr/man/man1/gnuserv.1: No such file or directory
> mandb: warning: /usr/man/man1/gnuclient.1.gz: bad symlink or ROFF `.so'
> request
> mandb: can't open /usr/man/man1/gnuserv.1: No such file or directory
> mandb: warning: /usr/man/man1/gnuattach.1.gz: bad symlink or ROFF `.so'
> request
> mandb: can't open /usr/man/man1/gnuserv.1: No such file or directory
> mandb: warning: /usr/man/man1/gnudoit.1.gz: bad symlink or ROFF `.so' request
> mandb: warning: /usr/man/man1/pstogif.xemacs20.1.gz is a dangling symlink
> mandb: can't open /usr/man/man1/pstogif.1: No such file or directory
> mandb: warning: /usr/man/man1/pstogif.1.gz: bad symlink or ROFF `.so' request
> mandb: can't open /usr/man/man1/gnuserv.1: No such file or directory
> mandb: warning: /usr/man/man1/gnudoit.xemacs20.1.gz: bad symlink or ROFF `.so'
> request
> mandb: warning: /usr/man/man7/pgp-intro.7.gz: whatis parse for pgp-intro(7)
> failed
> mandb: warning: /usr/man/man7/pgp-integration.7.gz: whatis parse for
> pgp-integration(7) failed
> Checking for stray cats under /usr/man...
> Checking for stray cats under /var/catman...
> Processing manual pages under /usr/local/man...
> mandb: warning: /usr/local/man/man7/pgp-integration.7: whatis parse for
> pgp-integration(7) failed
> mandb: warning: /usr/local/man/man7/pgp-intro.7: whatis parse for pgp-intro(7)
> failed
> Checking for stray cats under /usr/local/man...
> Checking for stray cats under /var/catman/local...
> Processing manual pages under /usr/X11R6/man...
> Checking for stray cats under /usr/X11R6/man...
> Checking for stray cats under /var/catman/X11R6...
> 23 man subdirectories contained newer manual pages.
> 2920 manual pages and 0 stray cats were added.
> freefall /usr/man/man1 #
>
> --
> Lee Bradshaw lee@sectionIV.com (preferred)
> Alantro Communications lee@alantro.com
>
I have been getting these same errors for quite some time. It involves
symlinks to and from the /etc/alternatives dir. I've never been quite
sure what the problem is, so I don't know which package is at fault for
this, but something needs a bug report filed against it for this.
--
Ed C.
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