Re: misc/37981: shell builtin manpages are for csh(1) only...

["Greg A. Woods" <woods%planix.com@localhost>]

The following reply was made to PR misc/37981; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: "Greg A. Woods" <woods%planix.com@localhost>
To: NetBSD GNATS <gnats-bugs%NetBSD.org@localhost>
Cc: 
Subject: Re: misc/37981: shell builtin manpages are for csh(1) only...
Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:07:53 -0400

 At Fri,  8 Feb 2008 12:50:00 +0000 (UTC), Ephaeton%gmx.net@localhost wrote:
 Subject: misc/37981: shell builtin manpages are for csh(1) only...
 > 
 
 This particular subject has bothered me for many years now too!
 
 >      Given that on a multi-user system there's no easy way to map virtual 
 > manpages
 >      for all the builtins of the current running shell into the manpage of 
 > this
 >      very shell, I suggest to simply remove the list of linked manpages, or 
 > replace
 >      them by a comment like (e.g. alias):
 
 Well actually if one assumes $SHELL is set to the user's current shell
 then the likes of man(1) could do the same kind of referencing for
 shell-specific manual pages as it does for the system architecture type,
 i.e. they would be in shell-named sub-directories in the man-page
 documentation directories.  It's not perfect, but it's _way_ better than
 what we have now.
 
 Personally I think the POSIX standard commands do need to be documented
 with their own separate manual pages regardless of what shell the user
 is using at the moment.
 
 For certain I think the csh(1)-specific manual pages need to be removed.
 (personally I remove all trace of csh from all of my own sytems :-))
 
 Alternately it might be helpful if the built-in command manual pages
 were named with their shell name as a prefix, then at least apropos(1)
 would find them, eg:
 
        sh-alias(1)
        csh-alias(1)
        ksh-alias(1)
 
 
 I think it would also help if all the built-in command provided more
 useful output when given the "-?" option.  The usage and help
 information provided should also reference the appropriate manual page
 too.  Eg.:
 
        $ alias -?
        Usage: alias [-ptx] [name=[value]...]
        See also ksh(1)
 
 or
 
        % alias -?
        Usage: alias [name [value]...]
        See also csh(1)
 
 -- 
                                                Greg A. Woods
                                                Planix, Inc.
 
 <woods%planix.com@localhost>     +1 416 489-5852 x122     
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