Re: CFR: Replace man/manpath/whatis/apropos with a shell script

On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 12:11 AM, Gordon Tetlow <gordon_at_tetlows.org> wrote:

> All,
>
> I sat down and rewrote the man tools from a relatively old codebase to a
> single shell script. My original motivation was to allow multiple
> configuration files so port installations did not have to mess with
> /etc/manpath.config (like perl for example) when needing to manipulate the
> manpath. After looking at the existing code, I figured I could rewrite it as
> a shell script relatively easily.
>
> Script (install as /usr/bin/man, /usr/bin/manpath, /usr/bin/apropos,
> /usr/bin/whatis)
> http://people.freebsd.org/~gordon/man.sh<http://people.freebsd.org/%7Egordon/man.sh>
>
> Features of the new code:
>
> 1. BSD licensed (old code is GPL).
> 2. Imports configuration from /usr/local/etc/man.d/*.conf and /etc/man.conf
> (purposefully changed the manpath.config file since it is a different
> syntax).
> 3. Allows ports to override the toolset used to display the manpage based
> on language. This was done to try to merge the functionality of the
> japanese/man port into the base system as much as possible.
>
> I've tried to make this mirror the functionality, directory search order,
> and arguments as the current base implementation.
>
> This brings me to my next point. I need some testers willing to try this
> out. It would be particularly great if I could get some foreign language
> testers with localized manpage installations. If something doesn't work the
> way you expect, please contact me and I can help debug it (using man -ddd
> <whatever> will generally give me the debug information I need).
>

I have a new set for testing:
http://people.freebsd.org/~gordon/man.shar<http://people.freebsd.org/%7Egordon/man.shar>

This is going to be my final set before I commit it into the tree, barring
any showstoppers. Now includes manpage documentation for the various parts
of the new utilities. To install:
# sh man.shar
# make
# make -DBINDIR=/usr/bin install

Feedback on the man(1), manpath(1), apropos(1), and man.conf(5) manpages
would be appreciated. I'm new to manpage authoring and could use a review.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,
Gordon