Re: [ITP] man-pages-linux

[Brian Inglis <Brian.Inglis@SystematicSw.ab.ca>]

On 2021-09-30 08:38, Jon Turney wrote:
> On 28/09/2021 00:04, Brian Inglis wrote:
>> I would like to provide Cygwin packages for the Linux kernel man pages 
>> project, for those who are concerned about interoperability and 
>> portability, from Michael Kerrisk (http://man7.org/), who also 
>> releases man-pages-posix, and recently released Linux man-pages 5.13.
>>
>> I do it for my own use anyway, to have the latest docs, just to save 
>> flipping to Linux from Cygwin or Windows.
>>
>> The install location is under the standard /usr/share/man/linux/ which 
>> can only by default be used by specifying
>>
>>      $ man -m|--systems linux ...
>>
>> but can also be added explicitly to a users' MANPATH or alias e.g.
>>
>>      $ alias man='man -m man,linux'
>>
>> or swap the order to prioritize Linux, or for parallel installs add 
>> each in your preferred order.
> 
> This is great.  Go ahead.
> 
> I wonder if there's any scope for putting these pages in section 
> suffixed L or something e.g. 3L etc., so that pages could be found by 
> default for things which only exist on linux?
> 
> (But possibly that also requires some adjustment to the man configuration?)

That would require idempotent editing of /etc/man_db.conf to add 
sections 1l-8l in non-inappropriate places and deciding where they 
should go:

$ grep '[0-9]p' /etc/man_db.conf
SECTION         1 1p 8 2 3 3p 4 5 6 7 9 0p n

$ sed -i -e '/^SECTION\s.*\sn$/s!$! 1l 8l 2l 3l 4l 5l 6l 7l!' \
	/etc/man_db.conf

I would prefer to use 1L-8L to be visibly different despite fonts and 
that also looks nasty!

> Then I guess it would also be nice if a prologue similar to that of the 
> POSIX man pages (saying "this is the linux manpage, the cygwin 
> implementation may differ of be absent", could be added)

Those pages already have a .SH PROLOG mentioning *Linux* which we just 
mass `sed -i` to *Cygwin*.
We would have to insert the whole Cygwin prolog section before the first 
section.
We could also have appended to .SH COLOPHON but not all pages have them.

Those pages are already well labelled as Linux ... Manual, most with 
system Linux (some GNUtilities) with Linux caveats and mentions in many.

Testing multi-system man configs, I have found keeping them in separate 
trees allows and forces me to prioritize whether I prefer defacto 
standard Linux next, the BSDs we frequently borrow from, and in which 
order, or Fedora on which we base some other stuff. I also add other 
distros, and my own local system cat1/cat8 pages from Windows and other 
utilities, so `man -awW ...` is my friend! ;^>

-- 
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

This email may be disturbing to some readers as it contains
too much technical detail. Reader discretion is advised.
[Data in binary units and prefixes, physical quantities in SI.]