Package: man-db
Version: 2.6.5-2
Severity: wishlist
Tags: patch
This is an idea for /etc/mailcap entries to run "man" on man pages.
It allows for example
see /usr/share/man/man1/man.1.gz
to display with man in either X or a tty, and also non-interactive like
the following (though groff-base trumps this just yet ...)
run-mailcap --action=cat /usr/share/man/man1/man.1.gz
The debian/man-db.mime file below can be taken by dh_installmime to
install as /usr/lib/mime/packages/man-db.
/usr/lib/mime/packages/groff-base has a "copiousoutput" entry at
priority=5 which is above what I propose here for man non-interactive,
which means for now the groff bit has precedence in the --action=cat
above.
I think the groff should be lower, but that will be a matter of groff
and man-db cooperating. The priority levels apply before the output
style is considered, so usually any copiousoutput should be below any
interactive viewing.
# priority=6 above the default 5 on the basis that viewing a man page
# with man is above average sensible.
#
# Priority above /usr/lib/mime/packages/groff-base "nroff -mandoc"
# since "man" has the advantage of running preprocessors such as tbl
# specified in the man page and so gives better results. Eg on
# /usr/share/man/man1/gtbl.1.gz (the tbl man page uses tbl). Locale
# charset handling in man is probably better too.
#
# "man -X" is only priority=6 since the gxditview it runs is rather
# basic and perhaps something more sophisticated could be higher. The
# X entry is before the tty so the X is preferred under X. (The tty
# one still works there, in its declared needsterminal.)
#
# "-X100" seems to make better output than the default -X 75 dpi.
# Dunno if that's some font dodginess or matching the X server's
# advertised screen size resolution or something.
#
# "test -e gxditview" because it's in the "groff" package which is
# only a Suggests of man-db and so may not be available.
application/x-troff-man; /usr/bin/man -X100 -l '%s'; test=test -n "$DISPLAY" -a
-e /usr/bin/gxditview; description=Man page; priority=6
application/x-troff-man; /usr/bin/man -l '%s'; needsterminal; description=Man
page; priority=6
# "-Tascii" gives backspace overstriking, so use "col -b" to undo
# that. Piping to col also means "man" has a non-tty output and so
# does not run its usual "more" etc pager, ensuring this entry is
# non-interactive.
#
application/x-troff-man; /usr/bin/man -Tascii -l '%s' | col -b; copiousoutput;
description=Man page; priority=2
-- System Information:
Debian Release: jessie/sid
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (990, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-486
Locale: LANG=en_AU, LC_CTYPE=en_AU (charmap=ISO-8859-1)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Versions of packages man-db depends on:
ii bsdmainutils 9.0.5
ii debconf [debconf-2.0] 1.5.51
ii dpkg 1.17.1
ii groff-base 1.22.2-3
ii libc6 2.17-92
ii libgdbm3 1.8.3-12
ii libpipeline1 1.2.4-1
ii zlib1g 1:1.2.8.dfsg-1
man-db recommends no packages.
Versions of packages man-db suggests:
ii chimera2 [www-browser] 2.0a19-8
ii chromium [www-browser] 29.0.1547.57-3+b1
ii conkeror [www-browser] 1.0~~pre+git130817-1
ii dillo [www-browser] 3.0.3-6
ii elinks-lite [www-browser] 0.12~pre6-1+b1
ii groff 1.22.2-3
ii iceape [www-browser] 2.7.12-1+b1
ii iceweasel [www-browser] 24.0-2
ii less 458-2
ii links [www-browser] 2.7-2
ii links2 [www-browser] 2.7-2
ii lynx-cur [www-browser] 2.8.8dev.16-1
ii netrik [www-browser] 1.16.1-1.1
ii netsurf [www-browser] 2.9-2
ii netsurf-gtk [www-browser] 2.9-2
ii w3-el-e21 [www-browser] 4.0pre.2001.10.27.nodocs-5
ii w3m [www-browser] 0.5.3-11
ii xemacs21-mule [www-browser] 21.4.22-4
-- debconf information:
* man-db/build-database: true
* man-db/rebuild-database: true
* man-db/install-setuid: true
man-db/auto-update: true
