Description of problem: man -k outputs (rpm) entries from the whatis database. This appears to be a consequence of request 175595, however, it breaks apropos. Finding (rpm) entries with apropos is not useful, it makes it hard to find commands, and it makes the man page for appopos wrong. Outputting the (rpm) entries means that the whatis database is no longer a "set of database files containing short descriptions of system commands" because the things it puts in there are *not* system commands. It makes it particularly difficult to find commands for unfamiliar software, because the output is misleading. For example typing "man -k kdm" displays fedorawaves-kdm-theme (rpm) - Fedora Waves KDM theme kde-settings-kdm (rpm) - Config files for kdebase-workspace(kdm) Which gives no information for the "kdm" command, but makes it appear as if kde-settings-kdm is a command. Additionally frustrating is that there is no man page for kde-settings-kdm. Even if the man pages for kdm has been correctly installed, this (bug/feature) makes it more difficult to find them. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): How reproducible: Every time Steps to Reproduce: 1. man -k kdm 2. 3. Actual results: fedorawaves-kdm-theme (rpm) - Fedora Waves KDM theme kde-settings-kdm (rpm) - Config files for kdebase-workspace(kdm) Expected results: Info on KDM man page Additional info:
I have looked at this on Ivana's request. I would have to agree with the submitter that it is a bug - makewhatis should be indexing man pages only, not packages. One option would be to index only man pages in packages (not package names), and flagging them with "(not installed)" in front of the usual "name - description" pair, but I understand that that is not what the current patch does.
Thanks for the bug report and thanks to Frederico for his opinion. I have removed the including of rmp data to whatis database in man-1.6f-11.fc10.