> I'd respectfully recommend the opposite approach: Blacklist the (few) > systems where man -w is broken (if you don't want to test dynamically).
Tips on testing dynamically? A `configure`-like script was my original idea, but I don't want tests to bring about unwanted side-effects for the user... There's also the issue of cat-paths being returned by `man -k` when the source files are required. I don't think I can just swap a few directory names out and expect to always find the unformatted version of a catted man-page. For example: $ uname -a OpenBSD titan.my.domain 6.3 GENERIC.MP#8 amd64 $ man -w groff_diff /usr/local/man/cat7/groff_diff.0 $ stat /usr/local/man/man7/groff_diff.? stat: /usr/local/man/man7/groff_diff.?: No such file or directory So this means we need to rely on man(1) having an option for *"un-catted pages only please"*. On Sat, 1 Sep 2018 at 23:01, Ingo Schwarze <schwa...@usta.de> wrote: > Hi John, > > John Gardner wrote on Sat, Sep 01, 2018 at 10:26:40PM +1000: > > > Ah I see, thanks. I might end up whitelisting sane systems (*BSD) and > > stupidly predictable ones (macOS), falling back to a JS-based > > implementation for all other cases. > > I'd respectfully recommend the opposite approach: Blacklist the (few) > systems where man -w is broken (if you don't want to test dynamically). > That way, you don't punish new systems. Just because something has > a weird name we haven't heard yet doesn't mean it's insane and deleted > features that have been reliable since Unix v7 in 1979. > > > It gets better (or worse). Here's what Solaris 11.3's `man -k grep` > emits: > > > > $ ~: man -k grep > > > > 1. grep(1) /usr/share/man/man1/grep.1 > > grep - search a file for a pattern > > That's relatively recent: > > > uname -a > SunOS unstable10s 5.10 Generic_150400-17 sun4v sparc > SUNW,SPARC-Enterprise-T5220 > > man -k grep | head -n 2 > bzegrep bzgrep (1) - search possibly bzip2 compressed files > for a regular expression > bzfgrep bzgrep (1) - search possibly bzip2 compressed files > for a regular expression > > > ... which is probably the closest I've come to finding an equivalent to > > `man -k` on Solaris.. > > But it will only work on Solaris 11. Neither on 9 nor 10. > Who knows about Illumos. > > In general, if something works on Solaris 11, don't assume it's the same > on Solaris 10, and even less so on Solaris 9. These systems differ a lot, > in particular with respect to questions of portability. > > > I blame Oracle. Always blame Oracle. > > I certainly don't like Oracle - but you shouldn't blame people for > evils predating any of their actions: > > > uname -a > SunOS unstable9s 5.9 Generic_Virtual sun4u sparc > SUNW,SPARC-Enterprise-T5220 > > man -w ls > usage: man [-] [-adFlrt] [-M path] [-T macro-package ] [ -s section ] > name ... > man [-M path] -k keyword ... > man [-M path] -f file ... > > SunOS 5.9 was released in 2002, and Oracle aquired SUN in 2010. > So i fear for this particular bug, you have to blame good old SUN... > > Yours, > Ingo >
