Bug 2020555

Summary: The grub2-editenv man page is incorrect
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Reporter: Jan Pazdziora <jpazdziora>
Component: grub2Assignee: Bootloader engineering team <bootloader-eng-team>
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX QA Contact: Release Test Team <release-test-team>
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Version: 9.0   
Target Milestone: rc   
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Last Closed: 2023-05-05 07:28:26 UTC Type: Bug
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Description Jan Pazdziora 2021-11-05 09:33:59 UTC
This bug was initially created as a copy of Bug #1747364

I am copying this bug because: 

The issues is still present with grub2-tools-minimal-2.06-2.el9.x86_64 and there is some confusion about the default and desired behaviour of anaconda and grub2 WRT for example setting kernel command-line parameters on RHEL 9 -- more bugzillas to come. The grub2 itself having wrong information in the man page adds to the confusion.

Description of problem:

The grub2-editenv(1) says:

SYNOPSIS
       grub-editenv [-v | --verbose] [FILE]
                     <create | list | set NAME=VALUE | unset NAME>

DESCRIPTION
       grub-editenv is a command line tool to manage GRUB's stored environment.

OPTIONS
       --verbose
              Print verbose messages.

       FILE
              File name to use for grub environment.  Default is /boot/grub/grubenv .

But the [FILE] is not optional, the default is not /boot/grub/grubenv, and it seems that to use the actual default, - needs to be specified.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

grub2-tools-minimal-2.02-76.el8.x86_64

How reproducible:

Deterministic.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Per the SYNOPSIS, try to set env via grub2-editenv set jezek=18

Actual results:

# grub2-editenv set jezek=18
Unknown command `jezek=18'.
Usage: grub2-editenv [OPTION...] FILENAME COMMAND
Try 'grub2-editenv --help' or 'grub2-editenv --usage' for more information.

Expected results:

The jezek=18 set in the default file.

Additional info:

The [FILE] in the SYNOPSIS should say just FILE, and the description of the FILE option should say that the default is /boot/grub2/grubenv and that to use that default, - needs to be specified. I've found the - documented at https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/8/html/managing_monitoring_and_updating_the_kernel/configuring-kernel-command-line-parameters_managing-monitoring-and-updating-the-kernel#what-is-grubby_configuring-kernel-command-line-parameters

Comment 5 RHEL Program Management 2023-05-05 07:28:26 UTC
After evaluating this issue, there are no plans to address it further or fix it in an upcoming release.  Therefore, it is being closed.  If plans change such that this issue will be fixed in an upcoming release, then the bug can be reopened.