Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Mon, 26 Aug 2002 10:09:24 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Mon, 26 Aug 2002 10:09:24 -0400 Received: from smtp-outbound.cwctv.net ([213.104.18.10]:16681 "EHLO smtp.cwctv.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Mon, 26 Aug 2002 10:09:22 -0400 From: To: jdc843@sccoast.net, hjl@gnu.ai.mit.edu, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, gnu@gnu.org Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2002 14:47:58 +0100 Subject: RE:I have a question about packages of programs MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Liberate TVMail 2.6 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="1030369678076" Message-ID: <0b3320947131a82DTVMAIL9@smtp.cwctv.net> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 6087 Lines: 131 --1030369678076 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit We dont make the distros, just the kernel, you will learn to do stuff better, however .config stuff does suck, learn c then suggest a better idea, as one of kurt cobains friends said once"we only make music, dont know nuthin else" and config is a gcc thing, we only do thekernel... On Mon, 26 Aug 2002 00:10:47 -0400 "John D. Coleman" wrote: --1030369678076 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.116.70.75]) by smtp.cwctv.net with Microsoft SMTPSVC(5.5.1877.447.44); Mon, 26 Aug 2002 05:13:26 +0100 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Mon, 26 Aug 2002 00:09:02 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Mon, 26 Aug 2002 00:09:02 -0400 Received: from smtp.sccoast.net ([66.153.204.5]:17927 "EHLO smtp.sccoast.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Mon, 26 Aug 2002 00:09:01 -0400 Received: from sccoast.net (40.191-pool-nas3-sc.sccoast.net [66.153.191.40]) by smtp.sccoast.net (8.12.5/8.12.5) with ESMTP id g7Q4C0D4183237; Mon, 26 Aug 2002 00:12:01 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <3D69AA46.52A2E895@sccoast.net> Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2002 00:10:47 -0400 From: "John D. Coleman" X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: hjl@gnu.ai.mit.edu, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, elenstev@mesatop.com, gnu@gnu.org Subject: I have a question about packages of programs Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-HTC-MailScanner: Found to be clean Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Return-Path: linux-kernel-owner+Hell.Surfers=40cwctv.net@vger.kernel.org as in all the *.gz files that I've been grabbing from GNU and other places. NOTE: This email is primarily addressed to the ncurses maintainer(?) because I liked it's documentation much better. But everyone else can read this also. Now, I don't know if you wrote the ncurses package or not. I found your email address from the README.glibc file in ncurses-5.2.tar.gz I'm new to Linux and still don't know that much about it and I used a Slackware installation as a base from which to compile my own custom Linux by following the information found at Linux From Scratch. Which, in a way, is great because it is forcing me to read a LOT of documentation about the programs that make up Linux. I know that Linux is a 'work in progress' project but *what I really want to know is* : Would it be too much to ask of the writers of these programs to include in the README file or elsewhere :(1) a description of the program, (2) A listing of the files installed, (3) A listing of the files that are required to be present for the correct operation of their program(s) ? A brief installation procedure followed by details of variances of the installation procedure would be very nice also rather than having it scattered throughout a loooong README file as is done in the Linux Kernel README file. BTW Linux kernel - the documentation for devfs REALLY sucks ! I can't log in as 'root' now but I can via a 'su' from a normal user. 'Illegal login from tty1'. I'll just remove the devfsd and reboot. That experiment failed. There was still too much clutter in /dev anyway. I'll just see what happens if I delete unused devices in /dev. I've noticed that the docs in several packages like to include instructions for how to compile a kernel. I really wish that they would stop doing that as their instructions quickly become outdated. If the kernel needs, or might need, to be recompiled then a reference to the kernel sources should be all that is required. Anything else is just too much clutter and a waste of file space on the internet's servers. Man pages many times lists required files but they don't always list EVERY one ! It's a pain to read the man pages of programs such as bash, not find any references to some files that I just happen to stumble across while reading about an entirely different program. For instance, and the file names probably are not correct : Say I read bash's man page because I have a problem with bash. Then I read ncurses man page which has a reference to a file called /etc/motd.issue that is required by bash to do something. I then create the file /etc/motd.issue and that solves my problem. The kicker is : I never saw a reference to the file while reading bash's man page ! Maybe bash supposedly doesn't need that file but making it fixed the problem. Yes I know : 'Newbies should not be trying to compile software'. I'm no way , no how, a newbie to computers. Just Linux. Decent documentation should make software compilation a snap. Sorry. I am NOT going to volunteer to rewrite documentation for programs that you maintain. Because my first project is going to be a major overhaul of the make and/or automake programs. That ./configure --prefix=whatever -- src=here command-line-only-interface has got to go. Having to read upwards of ten or more different documents, scattered in what could be several subdirectories, just to find out what all of the configure switches are is a real pain in the butt. Is anyone out there using anything other than a CRT/monitor with Linux nowadays to compile programs ? Compiling and starting 'X' went pretty easy. I just followed instructions. 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