Subject: Re: admin tools in man1 (or user tools in sbin)
To: Jeremy C. Reed <reed@reedmedia.net>
From: Andrew Brown <atatat@atatdot.net>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 01/22/2003 03:16:14
>I see that several tools in /usr/sbin have corresponding man pages under
>man1 instead of man8.

i've noticed that, too, so to speak.  most notably:

	# whatis modload modstat modunload
	modload (8) - load a kernel module
	modstat (8) - display status of loaded kernel modules
	modunload (8) - unload a kernel module
	# where modload modstat modunload
	/sbin/modload
	/usr/bin/modstat
	/sbin/modunload

i moved pmap to /usr/bin because section didn't seem appropriate
(based on the "prior art" of fstat, netstat, nfsstat, systat, vmstat,
etc).

>Is this correct?

imho, no.  in particular, modstat should move to /usr/sbin.  its man
page is in section 8, and its two "comrades" are in sbin directories.

>...
>As you can see, most of the above listed tools are not general use
>commands, but commands for system operations (for administrators).

mostly, yes.  you should try the other cut, though (check for section
8 man pages for programs in /usr/bin):

# cd /usr/bin
# whatis  * | fgrep '(8)'
cvsbug (8) - send problem report (PR) about CVS to a central support site
dhclient-script (8) - DHCP client network configuration script
error (8) - Postfix error mailer
mail.local (8) - store mail in a mailbox
modstat (8) - display status of loaded kernel modules
newsyslog (8) - maintain system log files to manageable sizes
nslookup (8) - query Internet name servers interactively
nsupdate (8) - update Internet name servers interactively
renice (8) - alter priority of running processes
rpcinfo (8) - report RPC information
sftp-server (8) - SFTP server subsystem
showmount (8) - show remote nfs mounts on host
ssh-keysign (8) - ssh helper program for hostbased authentication
string2key (8) - map a password into a key

nslookup is used by users a lot, cvsbug is probably of interest to
users, rpcinfo would conceivably be used by people developing
rpc-based applications (do people do that?), etc.  mail.local is a red
herring...  :)

>I am suggesting that some man pages be listed in section 8 for man
>pages and that some tools be moved to /usr/bin.

and vice versa.  yes.

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