2014/1/24 Ingo Schwarze <[email protected]>:
> Hi Vadim,
>
> Vadim Zhukov wrote on Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 08:05:36PM +0400:
>
>> The following port installs the POSIX standard as manual pages.
>> This could be handy when developing new code.
>
> I agree that a port is useful and /books/ is the right primary
> category.  However, i object to multiple aspects of what you have done.
> Please do not commit this as it is.
>
> Besides, as it stands, the port would need USE_GROFF.  There are
> many mandoc errors, and i did not yet find the time to investigate
> in detail.  But one class of errors is clear:  The layout of
> some tbl(7) code contained therein is not supported by mandoc,
> so these tables are missing from mandoc output.  USE_GROFF would
> be very unfortunate in a port of this kind, and in addition to that,
> the license specifically forbids it.
>
> Probably, fixing mandoc to deal with the table layouts won't be
> a big deal, but i need to come round to it.  I suggest you don't
> worry about the tables for now.  They will be broken at first, but
> i will repair them at some time in the future.
>
>> Due to the fact that we use "p" suffix in category names for Perl, and
>> do not have "0" category, I renamed the pages:
>>
>> 1p => 1u   (programs)
>> 3p => 3u   (API)
>> 0p => 7u   (headers)
>
> I strongly object to both versions, that is, 1u/3u/7u is about as bad
> as 1p/3p/0p.  The port is clearly not important enough to warrant
> inventing dedicated section numbers, which would entail supporting
> them in the tools.  Neither mandoc nor groff will support such
> categories properly right now.
>
> Do not install these manuals to /usr/local/man/,
> but to a dedicated directory, something like
>
>   /usr/local/share/doc/posix/man/man{1,3}/*.{1,3}
>
> These are not real manuals documenting real software you can install
> and use.  They are just a book, a standard.  As an analogy,
> consider that we do not even install tcl manuals to /usr/local/man/
> but to there dedicated, separate tree.
>
> The point is that they must not show up in man(1) unless you
> add the path to them to /etc/man.conf, which nobody in their
> right mind would ever do.  You would use them as follows:
>
>   alias poman='man -M /usr/local/share/doc/posix/man'
>   poman ls
>   poman chmod
>   poman 1 chmod
>   poman 3 chmod
>
> You might be tempted to add
>
>   posix /usr/local/share/doc/posix/man/
>
> to /etc/man.conf.  But that's of questionable worth.  Sure,
> now you can say
>
>   man -s posix chmod
>
> but now you can no longer select chmod(1) or chmod(3) below -s posix.
>
> Also, 7 seems like the wrong section for headers.
> Basically, header file documentation belongs so library
> documentation, so i'd suggest putting it into section 3.
> Watch out for collisions, though, and fix any you find.
>
>> This probably needs a note about man.conf tweaking, but I'm totally
>> lost at wording.
>
> It's not a matter of wording.  I think our docs should warn
> *against* tweaking man.conf and advertise using -M, preferably
> using the alias shown above.
>
> Unfortunately, man.conf(5) is on the one hand bloated and
> overengineered, on the other hand feature-imcomplete and clumsy
> at the same time.  This is biting us in such cases.
> I guess i will have to redesign man.conf from scratch one day.
>
>> Given that it's a one line as of now, I've put it in
>> MESSAGE rather than in README.
>
> Maybe make this files/posix.7 and install it to /usr/local/man/man7/posix.7?
> That way, it would show up in apropos(1), and we could add some
> more background information as needed.  Of course, a README would be
> OK with me, too, if you don't like the posix.7 idea.
>
>> Also, I'm not sure that I got PERMIT_* right.
>
> The relevant part of the POSIX-COPYRIGHT file reads:
>
>   Redistribution of this material is permitted so long as this
>   notice and the corresponding notices within each POSIX manual
>   page are retained on any distribution, and the nroff source is
>   included. Modifications to the text are permitted so long as any
>   conflicts with the standard are clearly marked as such in the
>   text.
>
> The port can easily comply with that, so i consider
>
>   # Custom permissive license, see POSIX-COPYRIGHT
>   PERMIT_PACKAGE_CDROM = Yes
>
> to be in order.

Thank you, Ingo. Your input is invaluable. I've reworked the port
based on your feedback.

I preferred a README instead of posix.7 because it will get noticed at
the install time, and with "posix" you'll have a clash with POSIX(3p)
from base, too. But I like the idea of being reached via apropos, too,
so if someone will have stronger opinion, I'll rework this part.

--
  WBR,
  Vadim Zhukov

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