Bug 14563

Comment 1 nik 1999-12-12 10:46:42 UTC

On Wed, Oct 27, 1999 at 05:06:22PM -0700, Ronald F. Guilmette wrote:
> >Synopsis:       Wrong manpage produced by `man 4 fd'
>
> >Description:
> 
> 	Typing "man 4 fd" produces a man page talking generally about UNIX
> 	file descriptors.
> 
> 	This is in conflict with the established convention that `man 4 foo'
> 	produces documentation for the `foo' device type (and its driver).
> 
> 	`man 4 fd' should produce documentation relating to the `fd' (floppy
> 	disk) device type.  (See `man 4 fdc')
> 
> >How-To-Repeat:
> 
> 	man 4 fd
> 
> >Fix:
> 
> 	Use `man 4 fdc' instead.

Sorry, I don't understand.  The situation is as you say it is.  Are you
documenting the fact, or do you want it fixed?

If you want it fixed, did you have anything in mind?

    % apropos fd

works, with the fdc manual page being the third thing it lists.  As things
stand, section 4 of the manuals seems to be the right place to put both
the fd and fdc manual pages.

N
-- 
    If you want to imagine the future, imagine a tennis shoe stamping
    on a penguin's face forever.
        --- with apologies to George Orwell

In message <19991212104642.B82758@catkin.nothing-going-on.org>, you wrote:

>On Wed, Oct 27, 1999 at 05:06:22PM -0700, Ronald F. Guilmette wrote:
>> >Synopsis:       Wrong manpage produced by `man 4 fd'
>>
>> >Description:
>> 
>> 	Typing "man 4 fd" produces a man page talking generally about UNIX
>> 	file descriptors.
>> 
>> 	This is in conflict with the established convention that `man 4 foo'
>> 	produces documentation for the `foo' device type (and its driver).
>> 
>> 	`man 4 fd' should produce documentation relating to the `fd' (floppy
>> 	disk) device type.  (See `man 4 fdc')
>> 
>> >How-To-Repeat:
>> 
>> 	man 4 fd
>> 
>> >Fix:
>> 
>> 	Use `man 4 fdc' instead.
>
>Sorry, I don't understand.  The situation is as you say it is.  Are you
>documenting the fact, or do you want it fixed?

I'd like to see it fixed.

>If you want it fixed, did you have anything in mind?

I thought that the solution I was proposing was abundantly clear in what
I wrote:

>>      `man 4 fd' should produce documentation relating to the `fd' (floppy
>>      disk) device type.

>As things
>stand, section 4 of the manuals seems to be the right place to put both
>the fd and fdc manual pages.

I agree completely, but `man 4 fd' *should* yield a man page that talks
about floppy disk device files... *not* one that talks about UNIX file
descriptors.  (You can just trash the one that talks about file descrip-
tors as far as I'm concerned.  If people want to know about those, they
should go buy a general book about UNIX/C programming.)

Comment 3 nik 1999-12-14 13:29:52 UTC

On Mon, Dec 13, 1999 at 01:48:04AM -0800, Ronald F. Guilmette wrote:
> >If you want it fixed, did you have anything in mind?
> 
> I thought that the solution I was proposing was abundantly clear in what
> I wrote:
> 
> >>      `man 4 fd' should produce documentation relating to the `fd' (floppy
> >>      disk) device type.
> 
> >As things
> >stand, section 4 of the manuals seems to be the right place to put both
> >the fd and fdc manual pages.
> 
> I agree completely, but `man 4 fd' *should* yield a man page that talks
> about floppy disk device files... *not* one that talks about UNIX file
> descriptors.  (You can just trash the one that talks about file descrip-
> tors as far as I'm concerned.  If people want to know about those, they
> should go buy a general book about UNIX/C programming.)

Yeah, but the problem is that different people have different ideas about
what the default should be.

/dev/fd is a directory of file descriptors, not a floppy disk device control
node, so making fd(4) give information about the floppy disk device would
then leave /dev/ and the manual pages inconsistent, which would be bad.

Note, also, that manual pages like sa(4) or da(4) all stem from 'device'
lines in the kernel config file, whereas the floppy disk entries stem
from 'disk' lines in the kernel config file.

Your best bet is probably to take this up with the -hackers mailing list,
and see what the prevailing sentiment there is.

N
-- 
    If you want to imagine the future, imagine a tennis shoe stamping
    on a penguin's face forever.
        --- with apologies to George Orwell

Comment 4 nik 2000-06-21 22:57:57 UTC

State Changed
From-To: open->closed

Executive decision.  I think the man page assignment is OK.