tags 39830 - fixed
retitle 39830 [AMENDMENT 30/10/2002] get rid of undocumented(7) symlinks
thanks

On Wed, Oct 30, 2002 at 10:54:08AM +0100, Martin Godisch wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 28, 1999 at 16:26:50 +0200, Roland Rosenfeld wrote:
> > I proposed to change the "Manual pages" section of our policy to get
> > rid of the undocumented(7) symlinks.
> > 
> > This proposal was seconded by Chris Waters <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> and Chris
> > Lawrence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, so I change the status to
> > "amendment" now.
> 
> I second this proposal. Why has it been rejected?

I also second this proposal, and would like it to be revived. I would
add to Roland's suggested diff that there are additional examples
available in the /usr/share/doc/man-db/examples/ directory.

Manoj said with regard to this proposal:

#         The second set of commands clear out old and stalled proposals
#  out of the policy BTS. I am labeling them fixed, rather than closing
#  them, since people may wish to resurrect some of these proposals.

Here's an updated version of Roland Rosenfeld's diff:

--- policy.sgml.orig    2002-10-30 10:51:25.000000000 +0000
+++ policy.sgml 2002-10-30 10:58:10.000000000 +0000
@@ -7476,22 +7476,26 @@
          page included as well.
        </p>
 
-       <p>
-         If no manual page is available for a particular program,
-         utility, function or configuration file and this is reported
-         as a bug to the Debian Bug Tracking System, a symbolic link
-         from the requested manual page to the <manref
-         name="undocumented" section="7"> manual page may be
-         provided.  This symbolic link can be created from
-         <file>debian/rules</file> like this:
-         <example compact="compact">
-ln -s ../man7/undocumented.7.gz \
-  debian/tmp/usr/share/man/man[1-9]/<var>requested_manpage</var>.[1-9].gz
-         </example>
-         This manpage claims that the lack of a manpage has been
-         reported as a bug, so you may only do this if it really has
-         (you can report it yourself, if you like).  Do not close the
-         bug report until a proper manpage is available.</p>
+        <p>
+         There must be a manual page at least for every program.  If
+         no manual page is available, this is considered as a bug and
+         should be reported to the Debian Bug Tracking System (the
+         maintainer of the package is allowed to write this bug report
+         himself, too).  Do not close the bug report until a proper
+         manpage is available.<footnote>
+           <p>
+             It is not very hard to write a man page. See the <url
+             id="http://www.schweikhardt.net/man_page_howto.html";
+             name="Man-Page-HOWTO">, <tt>man(7)</tt>, the examples
+             created by <tt>debmake</tt> or <tt>dh_make</tt>, or the
+             directory <file>/usr/share/doc/man-db/examples</file>.
+           </p>
+         </footnote>
+         To avoid duplicate bug reports about missing manual pages,
+         you should inform the user that you know about the missing
+         manual page in
+         <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/TODO.Debian</file>.
+       </p>
 
        <p>
          You may forward a complaint about a missing manpage to the

This proposal has already been proposed and seconded several times
(proposed by Roland Rosenfeld in
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, seconded by Chris Waters in
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, by Chris Lawrence in
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, by Martin Lodisch above
(are you a developer?), and by me in this message), so assuming that
those people still agree then it's an amendment. I propose a two-week
discussion period.

Cheers,

-- 
Colin Watson                                  [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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