On Mon, 18 May 2020 at 18:07, Andras Farkas <deepbluemist...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Not sure whether to post this on misc@ or tech@, so trying misc@ first: > > Why isn't src included on OpenBSD, perhaps as an install fileset? > Lots of documentation is unavailable outside of the /usr/src tree. > > For example, today I had a server mishap which had me using fsck_ffs > after. I needed to figure out what > PARTIALLY TRUNCATED INODE I= > meant. > I saw in fsck_ffs.8 > https://man.openbsd.org/fsck_ffs.8 > that the answers could be found in > Fsck_ffs - The UNIX File System Check Program > This is perfectly fine. Not every piece of information belongs in a > man page. Man pages are the right format for some sorts of info, and > absolutely the wrong format for some other sorts. > BUT: I looked and couldn't find it, and ended up using > https://docs.freebsd.org/44doc/smm/03.fsck/paper.pdf > which is where I found my answer. > Only after I already solved the problem did I find that the mentioned > file exists here: > https://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/sbin/fsck_ffs/SMM.doc/ > This is a situation I occasionally run into, where useful > documentation isn't included with OpenBSD, nor is available on > OpenBSD's website (FAQ, etc). It's occasional, but it's frustrating > every time. > > Not only are the USD, PSD, and SMM missing, but other bits of info > often are, too. For example, I first learnt vi a few years ago, back > when I was first learning Unix, with these files: > https://cvsweb.openbsd.org/src/usr.bin/vi/docs/tutorial/ > Without them, or if I didn't find them, I'd have had a much more > difficult time learning vi. > > People too young to have grown up with Unix need this sort of > documentation. We can't live on man pages alone. >
I believe you are referring to the historic 4.4 BSD lite documents. These are interesting for their historical value, and in some cases (for example vi and the lpd tutorials) are somewhat still relevant. Some of these documents have a proprietary licence attached to it and I believe it's due to the 1994 AT&T settlement. There are third party collections (like this: https://github.com/sergev/4.4BSD-Lite2) but I'm not sure if one could import them all in the source tree or in the ports tree without violating some copyright here and there. -- Ottavio Caruso
