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Re: automake/335: Multi-language man pages
From: |
Eric Siegerman |
Subject: |
Re: automake/335: Multi-language man pages |
Date: |
Tue, 3 Sep 2002 13:43:50 -0400 |
User-agent: |
Mutt/1.2.5i |
On Mon, Sep 02, 2002 at 07:55:53PM +0200, Alexandre Duret-Lutz wrote:
> >>> "Josef" == Josef Spillner <address@hidden> writes:
>
> Josef> What is the right way to install man pages with
> Josef> languages different from C (default)?
> Josef> [...]
> Josef> Back in December 2000, someone complained that foo.xx.1
> Josef> was installed as xx/man1/foo.1 instead of
> Josef> man1/foo.xx.1. So I guess extracting the language code
> Josef> from the name (it could also be foo.1.xx) will be a
> Josef> hairy task,
>
> Is there a consensus about how to name these files?
> The first message in PR/335 mentions `pt_BR-parted.8'.
If there isn't a convention, i.e. if this community gets to
invent one, *please* consider making it an extra subdirectory
level instead of a filename component, as in Josef's
"xx/man1/foo.1". Put it that way, too, not "man1/xx/foo.1".
Advantages:
- It capitalizes on the existing MANPATH mechanism. People can
put the appropriate directories in their MANPATH, e.g.:
MANPATH=/usr/share/man/fr:/usr/share/man/en
for someone bilingual in those languages, and they won't get
all the other languages (or
MANPATH=/usr/share/man/en:/usr/share/man/fr
for someone who's basically anglophone but reads French a bit
better than I do :-) and so might be able to dope out a
French man page if necessary)
- It makes the directory listings a lot easier to read; one
doesn't have to filter out all of (what is to them) the noise
Disadvantage:
- It breaks makewhatis
But using filename components -- "foo.xx.1" -- breaks the main
"man" functionality, or else requires users to type "man foo.fr"
or "man foo.en". So neither way works without some retrofitting.
--
| | /\
|-_|/ > Eric Siegerman, Toronto, Ont. address@hidden
| | /
[...] despite reports to the contrary, it is the rare programmer who
permanently loses his sanity while coding ("permanently" being the
operative word).
- Eric E. Allen