Package: base Severity: normal I have just noticed a problem with the man pages for hosts and resolv.conf: /etc/hosts, /etc/host.conf, and /etc/resolve.conf are all important in name resolution. All have their own man pages, which is good. But only the man page for /etc/host.conf mentions the other two files in the Files section. I think all three man pages should mention the other two files.
>From the point of view of how the resolver decision tree works, host.conf is must be the first file that the resolver examines, and the other two files are visited in the order specified there. This was something of a minor epiphany for me this evening, and on investigating the man pages, I think I have found something of an excuse for not having understood this years ago. In more general terms: Consideration should be given to attempting to have the man pages for files have a subsection under files which lists the files whose man pages list this file. i.e. make all Files: section references bi-directional. I see that this is a grubby clerical task, but once it is done for the base system, the symmetry of the Unix/Posix system will be much easier for a student to discover. -- System Information: Debian Release: 3.1 APT prefers testing APT policy: (600, 'testing'), (60, 'unstable') Architecture: i386 (i686) Kernel: Linux 2.4.26-1-686 Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
