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Re: [groff] An alternative to info(1) ?


From: Jan Stary
Subject: Re: [groff] An alternative to info(1) ?
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2020 17:47:26 +0100

On Feb 17 08:58:04, address@hidden wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 16, 2020 at 07:55:31PM -0800, Larry McVoy wrote:
> > I *hate* info.  It has made Linux less available to a lot of people.
> 
> BUT info sometimes has information that man(1) lacks.

AFAIK, it is quite usual in GNU to maintain a texinfo documentation,
to not maintain a manpage, and to publish both. For example:

SEE ALSO
       The full documentation for gmake is maintained as a Texinfo
       manual.  If the info and gmake programs are properly installed
       at your site, the command info 'GNU make' should give you access
       to the complete manual.

The format has nothing to do with it:
this is hardly an advantage on info as such over man as such.

Personaly, I find the practice of maintaining one copy,
leaving one copy behind, and publishing both quite dubious.
I read the above paragraph as

        If you have read this manpage in the hope that it will give you
        the full detail of what this utility does, as you might have
        expected form a UNIX manpage, you have just wasted your time.
        This is not the real thing; you have to go read this other thing.
        That _is_ the real thing, promise.

Jan




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