Bug 7018 - system-level daemons should have TFM
Summary: system-level daemons should have TFM
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED ERRATA
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Linux
Classification: Retired
Component: initscripts
Version: 6.1
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Michael K. Johnson
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 1999-11-15 16:38 UTC by Ole Craig
Modified: 2008-05-01 15:37 UTC (History)
0 users

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 1999-12-01 19:37:42 UTC
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Ole Craig 1999-11-15 16:38:21 UTC
I've noticed that many of the system-level building blocks that RedHat
uses are starting to ship without manpages. Ok, I can see gnomehelp or info
pages for userland programs and GUI-related things, but IMnsHO there's no
excuse for shipping system binaries without manpages. While I've seen this
occur with other programs, my beef today is particularly with "ppp-watch"
which seems to be new to rh6.1 -- would it be too difficult to explain
*somewhere* what this program does, what arguments can be passed to it,
what its exit values are, etc? While I *can* go find the source and figure
it out for myself, that's a little difficult when I'm trying to figure out
where the interface configuration is bombing...

	IOW, I'd be happy to RTFM if there *was* a FM. If indeed there is
one, I will happily apologize, swallow my irritation, and publicly flog
myself in return for a pointer to it.

Comment 1 Michael K. Johnson 1999-11-17 15:41:59 UTC
It is not documented because it is not intended to be called
directly.  Perhaps it should be in /lib/initscripts/ or something
like that...  It is intended to be called ONLY via ifup-ppp and
not other use is encouraged.

Comment 2 Ole Craig 1999-11-17 17:25:59 UTC
The fact that RedHat doesn't intend for ppp-watch to be called directly doesn't
mean that end-users won't need information on it in order to debug problems in
the field. Hell, getty is supposed to be invoked only by init, and there's three
different getty-related manpages...

Let me highlight my underlying complaint here: system binaries should be
documented. In particular, system binaries without which critical functionality
(such as remote or network connectivity) is lost *must* be documented in order
for the open-source development model to remain viable. (How can I tell whether
it's a bug if I don't have information on what the program should be doing? How
can I tell which part of the connection process is failing if I don't know what
parts are doing what?)

	So yes, I think that at a minimum there should be information left in
/usr/doc/initscripts-%{version}, if not a complete manpage. Two lines in the rpm
changelog doesn't cut it.

Comment 3 Michael K. Johnson 1999-11-19 21:53:59 UTC
You are right.  I have added ppp-watch.8 for the next release of initscripts.


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