Originally, "ctladm port" had a "-l" option for "list". In commit 9c887a4f86f5fd4f51c23443dc8435e52783a782, mav removed the description for that option from the itemized list of options and from the summary of the port subcommand's options. But he did not remove mention of that option from a paragraph-form description of the subcommand ("Either get a list of frontend ports .Pq Fl l ,"). Nor did he actually remove the option from the command itself in ctladm.c. Should we finish removing the option, or restore it to the documentation?
Similarly, the "-x" and "-q" options got removed from the man page in the same commit, but are still present in the command.
It is hard to recall why have I done that 9 years ago, but it seems `ctladm port -l` is equivalent to `ctladm portlist`. And `-x` and `-q` arguments are useless without `-l`. I guess I could keep it in the code to not break existing scripts, while remove from documentation to make it more clear. May be I was going to clean up code later, but it just never happened. I don't think I'd like restoring the documentation, preferring probably further cleanup. Whether to remove the actual code, I don't have preference.
That sounds good. Let's remove it completely from the man page. From the binary, let's recognize it but print a warning and remove in FreeBSD 16. I can submit a phabricator patch for this.
A commit in branch main references this bug: URL: https://cgit.FreeBSD.org/src/commit/?id=bb95fbf634b3459363a136899e9b241a2f6c49cd commit bb95fbf634b3459363a136899e9b241a2f6c49cd Author: Alan Somers <asomers@FreeBSD.org> AuthorDate: 2024-06-06 21:09:38 +0000 Commit: Alan Somers <asomers@FreeBSD.org> CommitDate: 2024-06-18 21:13:44 +0000 ctladm: deprecate the undocumented "port -l" option It was mostly removed from the man page in 9c887a4f86f5fd4f51c23443dc8435e52783a782, but left in the command. Fully remove it from the man page, and warn if anybody uses it. Remove it entirely for FreeBSD 16. PR: 279546 MFC after: 2 weeks Reviewed by: mav Sponsored by: Axcient Differential Revision: https://reviews.freebsd.org/D45522 usr.sbin/ctladm/ctladm.8 | 5 +---- usr.sbin/ctladm/ctladm.c | 29 +++++++++++++++++++---------- 2 files changed, 20 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)