Re: tar manpage improvements

[Dan Jacobson]

>>>>> "Paul" == Paul Eggert <address@hidden> writes:

Paul> But GNU tar doesn't come with a manpage.  Perhaps you're looking at
Paul> some other distribtion; if so, you should write to that distribution's
Paul> maintainer.

indeed, you are right:

         This man page is neither complete, nor current, and was
       included in the Linux-Mandrake packaging of tar entirely to
       reduce the imcomprehension.

However, this one learns only if one reads to the bottom.  Mostly one
just sees

NAME
       tar - The GNU version of the tar archiving utility

DESCRIPTION
       This manual page documents the GNU version  of  tar  ,  an

and even the usual

BUGS
       The GNU folks, in general, abhor  man  pages,  and  create
       info  documents instead.  The maintainer of tar falls into
       this category.  This man page  is  neither  complete,  nor


which we often see, and then only do we find

       current,  and was included in the Linux-Mandrake packaging
       of tar entirely to reduce the imcomprehension.


******* So:
I'd say GNU needs an texinfo --> manpage autoconverter function or
something...

Or: still make sure that you have some kind of manpage for each of
your products.

Otherwise it will be a big waste for others to have to fill the
gap... and what they make will still be seen as something you, GNU,
wrote, unless one looks down to the very bottom...

The simplest way of dealing with it would be to make a man page 15
words long to tell the user to see the info page, and maybe some SEE
ALSO's.
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