2006-01-27 09:27:11

by Karel Kulhavy

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Subject: Kernel manual pages

Who is responsible for writing the linux kernel manual pages? I went to
vger.kernel.org and there is "There is much information about Linux on
the web." which points to 7 different 3rd party websites. I searched
for "manual" and "manpage" in all 7 and didn't find any mention of
manual pages.

I also suggest the http://kernel.org/links.html to be structured
according to topic, and not according to name of the website. Because
if the user comes, he mostly needs to know information about particular
topic. This way he doesn't know which link to click to obtain the
information.

Furthermore I suggest "Manuals" section to be added to vger.kernel.org
in the style OpenBSD has:
http://openbsd.org/
http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi

CL<


2006-01-27 14:30:54

by Erik Mouw

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Subject: Re: Kernel manual pages

On Fri, Jan 27, 2006 at 10:26:23AM +0100, Karel Kulhavy wrote:
> Who is responsible for writing the linux kernel manual pages? I went to
> vger.kernel.org and there is "There is much information about Linux on
> the web." which points to 7 different 3rd party websites. I searched
> for "manual" and "manpage" in all 7 and didn't find any mention of
> manual pages.

The manpage editor, which is a completely different project than the
linux kernel itself. The manual pages are usually edited by the
distributions, so use the package manager for your distribution figure
out which manpage they belong to and file a patch/bug for the pages you
(dis)like:

dpkg -S /usr/share/man/man4/ttyS.4.gz (debian based distros)
rpm -qf /usr/share/man/man4/ttyS.4.gz (rpm based distros)

The distribution maintainer should take care of submitting the changes
upstream.

> I also suggest the http://kernel.org/links.html to be structured
> according to topic, and not according to name of the website. Because
> if the user comes, he mostly needs to know information about particular
> topic. This way he doesn't know which link to click to obtain the
> information.

Kernel.org is for distribution of the linux kernel for use by
developers and advanced users. Joe Random User shouldn't be compiling
his kernel in the first place, so making kernel.org "user friendly"
doesn't serve any purpose. The amount of links on that particular page
also doesn't really need a structure, even Joe Random User would be
able to navigate it.

> Furthermore I suggest "Manuals" section to be added to vger.kernel.org
> in the style OpenBSD has:
> http://openbsd.org/
> http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi

Manpages are userland stuff and therefore do not belong on kernel.org.
The kernel is documented in the Documentation/ directory in the source
tree, and ultimately in the source itself.


Erik

--
+-- Erik Mouw -- http://www.harddisk-recovery.com -- +31 70 370 12 90 --
| Lab address: Delftechpark 26, 2628 XH, Delft, The Netherlands

2006-01-27 14:36:20

by Sean

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Kernel manual pages

On Fri, 27 Jan 2006 10:26:23 +0100
Karel Kulhavy <[email protected]> wrote:

> Who is responsible for writing the linux kernel manual pages? I went to
> vger.kernel.org and there is "There is much information about Linux on
> the web." which points to 7 different 3rd party websites. I searched
> for "manual" and "manpage" in all 7 and didn't find any mention of
> manual pages.
>

Take a look in the MAINTAINERS file in the kernel source:

MAN-PAGES: MANUAL PAGES FOR LINUX -- Sections 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7
P: Michael Kerrisk
M: [email protected]
W: ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/docs/manpages
S: Maintained


Sean