On 04/19/2017 06:59 AM, Peter Ludikovsky wrote:
On 04/19/2017 01:40 PM, Richard Owlett wrote:I've an idea for something to be added to some man pages. It has not risen even the "wishlist bug" stage yet. To rise that far I have to convince myself that the modification of so many existing man pages could be automated. A web search turned up very low level details but not the need overview. Suggestions? TIA1) What do you want to do? I'm asking this because it decides whether this change could be interesting for others or not.
I debated mentioning the items that triggered my question. I'm not personally convinced that a man page would be the optimal place for the specific items. I phrased the subject line as I did because I have a long term felling that man pages aren't perfect ;/ But maybe the imperfection is more in me for not seeing that information really does not belong in a man page.
I think it 'should' be of interest to others. But considering answers I've gotten on other topics, I may be representative of a small minority.
2) Does it affect only Debian-specific man pages, or man pages in general? This answer decides if the change is a relatively small one (1 or 2 packages), or if you'll have to contact every upstream project to get the changes included.
For want of a better term, they might be considered to be "Debian specific footnotes
3) For any change you want to do & submit an patch for you should read up on groff/troff, as that syntax is the base for man.
That was one of the specifics that triggered mention of "very low level details".
Regards /peter