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author | Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org> | 2024-04-27 10:49:50 +0000 |
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committer | Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org> | 2024-04-27 10:49:50 +0000 |
commit | 74b60c5712f2a84904b95d008953c140a9bd5dd2 (patch) | |
tree | dd12cc58c6d4cfb5e2c1183f47757295ce3b5662 /manual/sec.me | |
parent | Initial commit. (diff) | |
download | man-db-upstream.tar.xz man-db-upstream.zip |
Adding upstream version 2.9.4.upstream/2.9.4upstream
Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'manual/sec.me')
-rw-r--r-- | manual/sec.me | 136 |
1 files changed, 136 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/manual/sec.me b/manual/sec.me new file mode 100644 index 0000000..12dd28a --- /dev/null +++ b/manual/sec.me @@ -0,0 +1,136 @@ +.\" Copyright (C), 1995, Graeme W. Wilford. (Wilf.) +.\" Copyright (c) 2002, 2007 Colin Watson. +.\" +.\" You may distribute under the terms of the GNU General Public +.\" License as specified in the file COPYING that comes with the +.\" man-db distribution. +.\" +.\" Thu Sep 21 19:22:47 BST 1995 Wilf. (G.Wilford@ee.surrey.ac.uk) +.\" +.BS 1 "The specifics of Sections" +.BS 2 "Package specific manual page sections" +.lp +The use of package specific manual page +sections is discouraged as packages large enough to warrant their own +section probably contain manual pages that span other sections. +An example might be package +.b foo +that has its own section +.ip +.i /usr/share/man/manfoo +.lp +which contains manual pages +describing its programs, the library routines it offers and the format of +several of its configuration files. +These pages would normally be allocated to sections +.b 1 , +.b 3 +and +.b 5 +respectively and thus combining them all under section +.b foo +is misleading. +Subtle problems will arise if there are any +base name-space clashes with standard manual pages, e.g. +.b exit (3), +.b exit (foo) +and the order in which they should be shown. +.lp +There are two standard solutions to this problem. +.np +Create a separate manual page hierarchy for the package's manual pages such as +.(l +.i /usr/local/packages/foo/man +.)l +.np +Install the pages in their relevant sections, with a unique extension +appended to the filename such that +.(l +.i /usr/share/man/manfoo/exit.foo +.)l +would instead be installed as +.(l +.i /usr/share/man/man1/exit.1foo +.)l +.lp +Only (2) offers a complete +solution to manual page ordering problems and +allows users to access the desired page directly. +.BS 2 "Selecting a section type" +.BS 3 "Specifying a section" +.lp +This is done via use of the section argument to man +.ip +.bx "man 1 exit" +.lp +will look for +.i exit.1* +in section +.b 1 +of the manual. +If +.i exit.1 +exists, it will be displayed in preference to +.i exit.1foo +.ip +.bx "man 1foo exit" +.lp +will look for +.i exit.1foo* +in section +.b 1 +of the manual. +The asterisk (*) represents a wild-card of any type or length, +including length zero. +.lp +For an argument to be interpreted as a section name rather than a page name, it +must either begin with a digit, or be included in the standard section list. +The default section list is defined in +.i include/manconfig.h +to be +.b 1 , +.b n , +.b l , +.b 8 , +.b 3 , +.b 2 , +.b 5 , +.b 4 , +.b 9 , +.b 6 +and +.b 7 . +This should be modified in order and content to meet the local conventions. +It may be altered at run-time using the +.b SECTION +directive in the \*M configuration file. +.lp +Every subdirectory section name in the entire system must be in the list, +including sections found in imported manual page hierarchies. +It is not necessary to list sections with extensions unless a special +ordering for those extensions is desired. +The order is important because in normal operation, +.b man +will only display the first manual page it finds that meets the search +criteria. Using the +.b \-\-all +argument will cause +.b man +to attempt to display all manual pages that meet the criteria. See +.b man (1) +for further information. +.lp +Having an excess of sections listed will not slow +.b man +down. +.BS 3 "Specifying an extension" +.lp +If the section is unknown, but the package extension is, +it is possible to use the extension argument +.ip +.bx "man \-e foo exit" +.lp +to search in all sections for manual pages named +.i exit +from package +.i foo . |