Bug 1663919 - Man pages for Perl modules shown before C library functions
Summary: Man pages for Perl modules shown before C library functions
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED ERRATA
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: man-db
Version: 29
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Unspecified
unspecified
unspecified
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Nikola Forró
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2019-01-07 10:05 UTC by Jonathan Wakely
Modified: 2019-01-13 02:31 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

Fixed In Version: man-db-2.8.4-3.fc29
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2019-01-13 02:31:08 UTC
Type: Bug
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Jonathan Wakely 2019-01-07 10:05:01 UTC
Description of problem:

Man pages in section 3pm are prioritized before those in section 3p, so trying to read the man page for the standard POSIX "open" function from libc shows a Perl doc instead.


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

man-db-2.8.4-1.fc29.x86_64


How reproducible:

Always.


Steps to Reproduce:
1. man open -> shows open(2) kernel doc, oops, I want the libc version.
2. man 3 open -> shows open(3pm) Perl module, wtf?
3. man 3p open -> shows the page I actually want.


Actual results:

You have to know that glibc's man pages are really in section 3p not 3, otherwise you can't find them.


Expected results:

"man 3 open" should find t he expected page. Ideally "man open" would find it too, but for some reason we still prioritize the kernel syscall pages.

Most devs are looking for the public libc function, not the syscall, and not the Perl module. But there's no open(3) page, and asking for it gets the Perl doc.

It seems reasonable for people looking for the Perl docs to use "perldoc open" or "man 3pm open", so it doesn't need to be easier to find that than to find open(3).

Additional info:

This can easily be fixed by adding 3pm to the SECTION directive in man_db.conf, so that it comes after 3p:

--- /etc/man_db.conf    2018-07-30 15:18:57.000000000 +0100
+++ /etc/man_db.conf    2019-01-07 09:55:00.913453341 +0000
@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@
 # particular order. Sections with extensions should usually be adjacent to
 # their main section (e.g. "1 1mh 8 ...").
 #
-SECTION                1 1p 8 2 3 3p 4 5 6 7 9 0p n l p o 1x 2x 3x 4x 5x 6x 7x 8x
+SECTION                1 1p 8 2 3 3p 3pm 4 5 6 7 9 0p n l p o 1x 2x 3x 4x 5x 6x 7x 8x
 #
 #---------------------------------------------------------
 # Range of terminal widths permitted when displaying cat pages. If the


Please consider making this change in Fedora.

Comment 1 Nikola Forró 2019-01-07 12:26:15 UTC
Sounds resonable, I'm on it.

Comment 3 Fedora Update System 2019-01-07 12:53:44 UTC
man-db-2.8.4-3.fc29 has been submitted as an update to Fedora 29. https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2019-8eaa9e8678

Comment 4 Jonathan Wakely 2019-01-07 13:10:04 UTC
Thanks!

Comment 5 Fedora Update System 2019-01-08 02:05:03 UTC
man-db-2.8.4-3.fc29 has been pushed to the Fedora 29 testing repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.
See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing for
instructions on how to install test updates.
You can provide feedback for this update here: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2019-8eaa9e8678

Comment 6 Fedora Update System 2019-01-13 02:31:08 UTC
man-db-2.8.4-3.fc29 has been pushed to the Fedora 29 stable repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.


Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.