On Tuesday 26 September 2017 10:04:42 Darac Marjal wrote: > On Tue, Sep 26, 2017 at 09:09:47AM -0400, Greg Wooledge wrote: > >On Mon, Sep 25, 2017 at 02:12:07PM -0700, Don Armstrong wrote: > >> On Mon, 25 Sep 2017, Greg Wooledge wrote: > >> > On Mon, Sep 25, 2017 at 12:20:45PM -0700, Don Armstrong wrote: > >> > > as is documented in dhclient-script(8): > >> > > >> > Well now that's just EVIL. :-( > >> > >> It's much more powerful than a single variable because you can have > >> it do *anything*. > > > >No, you don't understand. I had no idea that man page EXISTED! > >For years, I have been searching back and forth and up and down in > >dhclient(8) and dhclient.conf(5) and finding NOTHING. > > > >Turns out the REASON I couldn't find anything was because some bright > >spark decided to split the documentation into multiple man pages. > > > >> > Well now that's just EVIL. :-( > > > >So, apparently the only way to find anything is to open umpteen > > terminal windows, one man page in each terminal window. Jump to the > > bottom of each man page, find the SEE ALSO section, open EVERY > > linked man page in another terminal window. Recursively. Then > > perform your searches in every single window in parallel until one > > of them hits. > > [cut] > > >All this grief and agony because they couldn't just put all the > >information that THE MOST COMMON USE CASES will need into a single > >document. > > [tl;dr] > > I think you might be under a misconception about what man pages are > FOR. > > From the first few lines of "man man": > > man - an interface to the on-line reference manuals > > They are *reference* manuals. I believe that the point of man pages is > to answer questions such as: > > * What's the option for filtering out files: --filter or --exclude > * What was that weird option for doing something dangerous > "DoWhatIWant"... "YesIReallyMeanThis"... something like that. > * Can I perform this action recursively? > > As a result, man pages are usually little more than lists of command > line parameters which explanations of what they do. > > What man pages generally DON'T cover are: > > * How do I use this program for X? > * Why do I need this program? > * What the difference between this program and that program? > * How do I use this program with that program? > > The GNU solution to that was the 'info' system. 'info' is a > hyperlinked text format - a bit like having a web site on your > computer. Look at the info page for grub, as an example: the > information is grouped by topic, there's obscure things like > limitations on the core size per platform and so on. > > It's just a pity that most programs don't provide info pages.
Ditto the more intelligent yet, pinfo. Cheers, Gene Heskett -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
