Hi list, I have not followed every message in the thread so forgive me if I write something totally irrelevant....
Just want to say that I totally agree with Igor - joining new networks to yer obsd box is non-trivial if you are a beginner - collecting a few more instructive examples in ifconfig(8) would not be amiss in my opinion. It is true that the information one needs to set up for example a Baatand or other wireless network is there to find among the man-pages, but I believe a first contact with OpenBSD would be easier looks more like for example the man page for /etc/fstab giving examples of things like mfs_mounts. Just my very personal and unqualified view /Johan On 11/7/06, Bob Beck <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > * Jason McIntyre <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2006-11-07 11:25]: > > On Tue, Nov 07, 2006 at 06:52:19PM +0100, Igor Sobrado wrote: > > > > > > Can I suggest adding atalk(4), inet6(4), ipsec(4), pf(4), pflog(4), > > > eon(5), hostapd(8), and tcpdump(8) to the "SEE ALSO" section of > > > ifconfig(8)? I think that, as these manual pages are being cited > > > in the ifconfig(8) manual page, they should be added to this section. > > > > > > Just want to check the opinion on this change before submitting a PR. > > > > > > The proposed patch is added to this message. > > > > > > > once upon a time i was inclined to go by the rule that if a man page > > referred to another, it should be listed in the SEE ALSO. i no longer > > think that though, since invariably i see overly large SEE ALSO, most of > > which is ignored anyway. so now my personal opinion is somewhere along > > the lines of "if reading this man page will help the reader understand > > this man page, i should include it in SEE ALSO". > > > > i am now sorely tempted to kill about 2/3 of the references in SEE ALSO, > > rather than actually add to it. it is much more important that stuff > > which uses ifconfig(8) (the various interfaces and so on) all point to > > ifconfig(8), rather than the other way round. > > > > we do not have an eon(5) man page, btw, but there was a fine piece of > > vinyl called "void dweller" which eon released about 15 years ago... > > start the machine! > > > > > I hear you in general jmc, but ifconfig is a bit of an odd duck. > > To give you an example. let us answer the simple question of "how > do > I join wireless network "bob"" - the answer from the lists is "use > ifconfig" - ok, so if I read the man page for ifconfig, there is > notably no examples of doing this, however, for example, there are > examples of doing in in wi(4) - and very similar examples in ath(4) > Similarly, the same examples are repeated in ral(4).. See what I mean? > you really do need those "see also" entries as a dummy to be able to > find a reasnoable example in the man pages at the moment. and I am a > firm believer in the man page should have real examples - failing that > we end up with linux faq's. Unfortunately ifconfig is probably the > nastiest example of a man page to have this discussion with. Should > we be re-coalescing those examples back into ifconfig(8)? > > The core problem is simple - a user will be told "use ifconfig" > to do something not "use ath" - so they start at the ifconfig(8) point. > What's the best way to make that as painless as possible? > > -Bob
