Re: Man pages point to non-free documentation
Douglas Allan Tutty writes:
> I'll have to work on writing man pages. Since I don't fancy learning
> roff just for that and I'm currently learning latex, I'll work on
> learning to write man pages.
The nroff required to write man pages is trivial. Just use another page as
a template.
> Is there an overall Debian plan for addressing the GFDL?
Not that I am aware of.
> I have a problem with the GNU stuff having basically a stub man page that
> says look at the info docs.
I find both man pages and info docs usable. However, many info docs from
the FSF are not DFSG-free.
> Is there a style guide for writing debian documentation?
Not that I know of. I suggest following GNU standards.
> Also, if we take tar as an example, if the documentation as it is now
> can't be used and presumably the program has changed since the last
> version who's docs could be used, how does one write documentation on the
> differences without using the non-free docs as the only souce without
> violating the now-non-free licence?
Go right ahead and refer to the non-free docs. Just put the information in
your own words. Copyright only protects original, creative work. Bits
that can only be said one way, are commonplace, are dictated by external
factors or are noncreative structures such as simple lists are not
protected.
You may also be able to find old pre-GFDL documents to start from. That is
what I did with the diffutils docs.
--
John Hasler
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