Christian PERRIER wrote:
>> David Kalnischkies <kalnischkies@gmail.com> writes:
>>> I would like to ask if someone here is willing to do a (partial) review
>>> of the manpages associated to debians beloved package manager APT.
[...]
> deity@lists.debian.org is the APT development mailing list. I think
> that CC'ing the list wouldn't harm.
Okay, just to test the waters here's a review for apt-cache.8.xml.
First general point: the example given is pretty cobwebby.
[...]
> <para>Thus it may be seen that libreadline2, version 2.1-12, depends on
> libc5 and ncurses3.0 which must be installed for libreadline2 to work.
> In turn, libreadlineg2 and libreadline2-altdev depend on libreadline2. If
> libreadline2 is installed, libc5 and ncurses3.0 (and ldso) must also be
> installed; libreadlineg2 and libreadline2-altdev do not have to be
> installed. For the specific meaning of the remainder of the output it
> is best to consult the apt source code.</para></listitem>
> </varlistentry>
It doesn't matter so much that libreadline2 and libc5 are long dead;
more significant is the passing reference to "ldso". Do I understand
that was an essential package back in the nineties?
I've left this unchanged, but I *have* changed "the Debian GNU/Linux
system" to "the Debian system" throughout.
[...]
> <listitem><para><literal>Total distinct</literal> versions is the number of package versions
> found in the cache; this value is therefore at least equal to the
> number of total package names. If more than one distribution (both
> "stable" and "unstable", for instance), is being accessed, this value
> can be considerably larger than the number of total package names.</para>
> </listitem>
Slightly unidiomatic and mis-punctuated. I suggest "If more than one
distribution is being accessed (for instance, both "stable" and
"unstable"), [...]"
I suspect it's also very subtly cobwebby (pre-dating "testing"), but
never mind. For all I know the word "architecture" (singular) might
also need attention in one or two places, but I haven't tried to catch
cases like this.
[...]
> <varlistentry><term><option>showsrc</option> <option><replaceable>&synopsis-pkg;</replaceable>…</option></term>
> <listitem><para><literal>showsrc</literal> displays all the source package records that match
> the given package names. All versions are shown, as well as all
> records that declare the name to be a Binary.</para></listitem>
> </varlistentry>
A sudden unexplained technical term in Germancaps; I've substituted "a
binary package".
[...]
> <varlistentry><term><option>dumpavail</option></term>
> <listitem><para><literal>dumpavail</literal> prints out an available list to stdout. This is
> suitable for use with &dpkg; and is used by the &dselect; method.</para></listitem>
> </varlistentry>
Obviously dated, but presumably still true. I would prefer it if it
gave more of a hint that "an available list" is jargon (or even
defined it), and maybe referred to "standard output", but that's not
in my patch.
[...]
> <para>The resulting nodes will have several shapes; normal packages are boxes,
> pure provides are triangles, mixed provides are diamonds,
> missing packages are hexagons. Orange boxes mean recursion was stopped
> [leaf packages], blue lines are pre-depends, green lines are conflicts.</para>
The terms you defined above were "pure virtual packages" and "mixed
virtual packages", so please use the jargon the translators have
already worked out equivalents for, not this confusing alternative.
Also (but not in my patch), why the []s?
> <para>Caution, dotty cannot graph larger sets of packages.</para></listitem>
> </varlistentry>
>
> <varlistentry><term><option>xvcg</option> <option><replaceable>&synopsis-pkg;</replaceable>…</option></term>
> <listitem><para>The same as <literal>dotty</literal>, only for xvcg from the
> <ulink url="http://rw4.cs.uni-sb.de/users/sander/html/gsvcg1.html";>VCG tool</ulink>.
> </para></listitem></varlistentry>
Very cobwebby; the homepage is a fossil, and the package was RMed when
GraphViz went free. But presumably it's still true...
[...]
> <varlistentry><term><option>madison</option> <option><replaceable>&synopsis-pkg;</replaceable>…</option></term>
> <listitem><para><literal>apt-cache</literal>'s <literal>madison</literal> command attempts to mimic
> the output format and a subset of the functionality of the Debian
> archive management tool <literal>madison</literal>. It displays
> available versions of a package in a tabular format. Unlike the
> original <literal>madison</literal>, it can only display information for
> the architecture for which APT has retrieved package lists
> (<literal>APT::Architecture</literal>).</para></listitem>
> </varlistentry>
> </variablelist>
> </refsect1>
Madison has been an alias for "dak ls" for ages now (did users ever
have access to it anyway?), so it's a bit unfair to use the term as if
readers could be expected to know what functionality it implies.
[...]
> <varlistentry><term><option>-i</option></term><term><option>--important</option></term>
> <listitem><para>Print only important dependencies; for use with unmet and depends. Causes only Depends and
> Pre-Depends relations to be printed.
"Unmet" and "depends" need <literal> tags.
[...]
> <varlistentry><term><option>-a</option></term><term><option>--all-versions</option></term>
> <listitem><para>Print full records for all available versions. This is the
> default; to turn it off, use <option>--no-all-versions</option>.
> If <option>--no-all-versions</option> is specified, only the candidate version
> will displayed (the one which would be selected for installation).
^
This is the only absolutely necessary English fix: insert "be".
--
JBR with qualifications in linguistics, experience as a Debian
sysadmin, and probably no clue about this particular package
diff -ru old/apt-cache.8.xml new/apt-cache.8.xml
--- old/apt-cache.8.xml 2012-05-21 10:41:17.000000000 +0100
+++ new/apt-cache.8.xml 2012-05-24 09:53:53.783392356 +0100
@@ -100,20 +100,20 @@
<listitem><para><literal>Pure virtual packages</literal> is the number of packages that exist
only as a virtual package name; that is, packages only "provide" the
virtual package name, and no package actually uses the name. For
- instance, "mail-transport-agent" in the Debian GNU/Linux system is a
+ instance, "mail-transport-agent" in the Debian system is a
pure virtual package; several packages provide "mail-transport-agent",
but there is no package named "mail-transport-agent".</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para><literal>Single virtual packages</literal> is the number of packages with only
one package providing a particular virtual package. For example, in the
- Debian GNU/Linux system, "X11-text-viewer" is a virtual package, but
+ Debian system, "X11-text-viewer" is a virtual package, but
only one package, xless, provides "X11-text-viewer".</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para><literal>Mixed virtual packages</literal> is the number of packages that either
provide a particular virtual package or have the virtual package name
- as the package name. For instance, in the Debian GNU/Linux system,
+ as the package name. For instance, in the Debian system,
"debconf" is both an actual package, and provided by the debconf-tiny
package.</para>
</listitem>
@@ -127,8 +127,8 @@
<listitem><para><literal>Total distinct</literal> versions is the number of package versions
found in the cache; this value is therefore at least equal to the
- number of total package names. If more than one distribution (both
- "stable" and "unstable", for instance), is being accessed, this value
+ number of total package names. If more than one distribution is being accessed
+ (for instance, both "stable" and "unstable"), this value
can be considerably larger than the number of total package names.</para>
</listitem>
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@
<varlistentry><term><option>showsrc</option> <option><replaceable>&synopsis-pkg;</replaceable>…</option></term>
<listitem><para><literal>showsrc</literal> displays all the source package records that match
the given package names. All versions are shown, as well as all
- records that declare the name to be a Binary.</para></listitem>
+ records that declare the name to be a binary package.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><option>dump</option></term>
@@ -216,7 +216,7 @@
set the <literal>APT::Cache::GivenOnly</literal> option.</para>
<para>The resulting nodes will have several shapes; normal packages are boxes,
- pure provides are triangles, mixed provides are diamonds,
+ pure virtual packages are triangles, mixed virtual packages are diamonds,
missing packages are hexagons. Orange boxes mean recursion was stopped
[leaf packages], blue lines are pre-depends, green lines are conflicts.</para>
@@ -273,7 +273,8 @@
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><option>-i</option></term><term><option>--important</option></term>
- <listitem><para>Print only important dependencies; for use with unmet and depends. Causes only Depends and
+ <listitem><para>Print only important dependencies; for use with <literal>unmet</literal>
+ and <literal>depends</literal>. Causes only Depends and
Pre-Depends relations to be printed.
Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Cache::Important</literal>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
@@ -301,7 +302,7 @@
<listitem><para>Print full records for all available versions. This is the
default; to turn it off, use <option>--no-all-versions</option>.
If <option>--no-all-versions</option> is specified, only the candidate version
- will displayed (the one which would be selected for installation).
+ will be displayed (the one which would be selected for installation).
This option is only applicable to the <literal>show</literal> command.
Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Cache::AllVersions</literal>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
Attachment:
apt-cache.8.xml
Description: XML document