[ITP] man-pages-linux

[ITP] man-pages-linux

[Brian Inglis]

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.

I have Linux 5.05-5.13 packages available on Google drive:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1r3vhlN4fsCAGAtxpVD9PJPVpahCmnIPE

More information is available at the project home page:

	https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/

release blog:

	https://linux-man-pages.blogspot.com/

mailing list:

	https://lore.kernel.org/linux-man/

Sources are at:

	https://github.com/mkerrisk/man-pages
and
	https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/docs/man-pages/man-pages.git

All Linux distros publish these pages.

Re: [ITP] man-pages-linux

[Marco Atzeri]

On 28.09.2021 01:04, 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.
> 

added

Thanks
Marco

Re: [ITP] man-pages-linux

[Jon Turney]

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?)

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)

Re: [ITP] man-pages-linux

[Brian Inglis]

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

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