Re: Bug#388684: coreutils: "info ls" opens the man page, not the info documentation

[Jim Meyering]

address@hidden (Bob Proulx) wrote:
> Jim Meyering wrote:
>> Michael Stone wrote:
>> >       The full documentation for ls is maintained as a  Texinfo
>> > manual. If the  info and ls programs are properly installed     at
>> > your site (on debian they aren't), the command
>> >
>> >              info ls
>> >
>> >       should give you access to the complete manual.
>> >       The info documentation can also be read at
>> > http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/index.html
>> >
>> > The down side to this is that link won't be in sync with the debian
>> > package, but I just can't think of a better answer at this point.
>>
>> Another down side: it requires web access.
>
> I don't prefer it either.  People who are inclined to use web
> documentation will already be using it.  People who don't will be
> annoyed by it.  (I am in the latter camp.)
>
>> What do you think of "info coreutils ls"?  It doesn't work for "info
>> coreutils pr" (because info matches the "pr" in the earlier
>> "Printing text" node, but I suppose I could special case that one
>> and have "info coreutils 'pr invocation'".  I think there were a few
>> other ones like that, but getting ~96/100 is a lot better than
>> 0/100.
>
> I think it should be the normal case for all of the coreutils commands
> and not the special case just for pr.  Why not have this done uniformly?
>
>   info coreutils "ls invocation"
>
> To me that looks nice enough to be used for all of the commands.  Most
> people would simply cut and paste it directly without typing it so the
> extra characters wouldn't be a burden.  I think that should work for
> all of the commands without any special cases.  And if it doesn't,
> then it should.

I've just applied this:

 2008-01-26  Jim Meyering  <address@hidden>

        Emit "info coreutils 'PROG invocation'" into the man page,
        rather than just "info PROG".  The latter would often fail
        or simply display the man page.
        * man/help2man: Change the template.
        Prompted by http://bugs.debian.org/399684

diff --git a/man/help2man b/man/help2man
index e28d2a4..1bc12cf 100755
--- a/man/help2man
+++ b/man/help2man
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/perl -w

 # Generate a short man page from --help and --version output.
-# Copyright (C) 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004
+# Copyright (C) 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008
 # Free Software Foundation, Inc.

 # This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
@@ -567,7 +567,7 @@ and
 .B %s
 programs are properly installed at your site, the command
 .IP
-.B info %s
+.B info coreutils '%s invocation'
 .PP
 should give you access to the complete manual.
 EOT
--
1.5.4.rc4.26.g228a