GNU bug report logs - #53946
Errors in man pages of GNU_coreutils

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Package: coreutils;

Reported by: Helge Kreutzmann <debian <at> helgefjell.de>

Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2022 05:58:01 UTC

Severity: normal

Done: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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From: help-debbugs <at> gnu.org (GNU bug Tracking System)
To: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
Cc: tracker <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#53946: closed (Errors in man pages of GNU_coreutils)
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2022 18:51:02 +0000
[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
Your message dated Sat, 12 Feb 2022 18:50:48 +0000
with message-id <b1b866f7-6118-2c97-5e7b-a70f5a8db557 <at> draigBrady.com>
and subject line Re: bug#53946: Errors in man pages of GNU_coreutils
has caused the debbugs.gnu.org bug report #53946,
regarding Errors in man pages of GNU_coreutils
to be marked as done.

(If you believe you have received this mail in error, please contact
help-debbugs <at> gnu.org.)


-- 
53946: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=53946
GNU Bug Tracking System
Contact help-debbugs <at> gnu.org with problems
[Message part 2 (message/rfc822, inline)]
From: Helge Kreutzmann <debian <at> helgefjell.de>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: Errors in man pages of GNU_coreutils
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2022 06:57:18 +0100
[Message part 3 (text/plain, inline)]
Dear coreutils maintainer,
the manpage-l10n project maintains a large number of translations of
man pages both from a large variety of sources (including coreutils) as
well for a large variety of target languages.

During their work translators notice different possible issues in the
original (english) man pages. Sometimes this is a straightforward
typo, sometimes a hard to read sentence, sometimes this is a
convention not held up and sometimes we simply do not understand the
original.

We use several distributions as sources and update regularly (at
least every 2 month). This means we are fairly recent (some
distributions like archlinux also update frequently) but might miss
the latest upstream version once in a while, so the error might be
already fixed. We apologize and ask you to close the issue immediately
if this should be the case, but given the huge volume of projects and
the very limited number of volunteers we are not able to double check
each and every issue.

Secondly we translators see the manpages in the neutral po format,
i.e. converted and harmonized, but not the original source (be it man,
groff, xml or other). So we cannot provide a true patch (where
possible), but only an approximation which you need to convert into
your source format.

Finally the issues I'm reporting have accumulated over time and are
not always discovered by me, so sometimes my description of the
problem my be a bit limited - do not hesitate to ask so we can clarify
them.

I'm now reporting the errors for your project. If future reports
should use another channel, please let me know.

Man page: arch.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"uname(1), uname(2)"
--
Man page: b2sum.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"cksum(1)"
--
Man page: basename.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"dirname(1), readlink(1)"
--
Man page: chgrp.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"chown(1), chown(2)"
--
Man page: chmod.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"chmod(2)"
--
Man page: chown.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"chown(2)"
--
Man page: chroot.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"chroot(2)"
--
Man page: chroot.8
Issue: missing markup (B<>)

"chroot(2)"
--
Man page: comm.1
Issue: missing markup (B<>)

Issue: "join(1), uniq(1)"
--
Man page: dirname.1
Issue: missing markup (B<>)

 "basename(1), readlink(1)"
--
Man page: env.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"sigaction(2), sigprocmask(2), signal(7)"
--
Man page: expand.1
Issue:    Missing full stop

"use comma separated list of tab positions.  The last specified position can "
"be prefixed with '/' to specify a tab size to use after the last explicitly "
"specified tab stop.  Also a prefix of '+' can be used to align remaining tab "
"stops relative to the last specified tab stop instead of the first column"
--
Man page: expand.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"unexpand(1)"
--
Man page: head.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"tail(1)"
--
Man page: hostid.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"gethostid(3)"
--
Man page: join.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"comm(1), uniq(1)"
--
Man page: link.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"link(2)"
--
Man page: ln.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"link(2), symlink(2)"
--
Man page: ls.1
Issue:    seems to be an unnecessary split of paragraphs; join with next one

"can be augmented with a B<--sort> option, but any use of B<--sort>=I<\\,none"
"\\/> (B<-U>) disables grouping"
--
Man page: ls.1
Issue:   seems to be an unnecessary split of paragraphs; join with next one

msgid "that points to a directory"
--
Man page: ls.1
Issue 1:  LS_COLORS → B<LS_COLORS>
Issue 2:  dircolors → B<dircolors>(1)

"Using color to distinguish file types is disabled both by default and with "
"B<--color>=I<\\,never\\/>.  With B<--color>=I<\\,auto\\/>, ls emits color "
"codes only when standard output is connected to a terminal.  The LS_COLORS "
"environment variable can change the settings.  Use the dircolors command to "
"set it."
--
Man page: md5sum.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"cksum(1)"
--
Man page: mkdir.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"mkdir(2)"
--
Man page: mkfifo.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"mkfifo(3)"
--
Man page: mknod.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"mknod(2)"
--
Man page: mv.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"rename(2)"
--
Man page: nice.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"nice(2), renice(1)"
--
Man page: printf.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"printf(3)"
--
Man page: pwd.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"getcwd(3)"
--
Man page: readlink.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"readlink(2), realpath(1), realpath(3)"
--
Man page: realpath.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"readlink(1), readlink(2), realpath(3)"
--
Man page: realpath.1
Issue:    shred(1) → B<shred>(1)

"Note that if you use rm to remove a file, it might be possible to recover "
"some of its contents, given sufficient expertise and/or time.  For greater "
"assurance that the contents are truly unrecoverable, consider using shred(1)."
--
Man page: realpath.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"unlink(1), unlink(2), chattr(1), shred(1)"
--
Man page: rmdir.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"rmdir(2)"
--
Man page: rmdir.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

msgid ""
--
Man page: rmdir.1
Issue:    join this string with the next one "is non-empty"

"ignore each failure that is solely because a directory"
--
Man page: sha1sum.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"cksum(1)"
--
Man page: sha224sum.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"cksum(1)"
--
Man page: sha256sum.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"cksum(1)"
--
Man page: sha384sum.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"cksum(1)"
--
Man page: sha512sum.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"cksum(1)"
--
Man page: sleep.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"sleep(3)"
--
Man page: sort.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"shuf(1), uniq(1)"
--
Man page: stat.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"stat(2), statfs(2), statx(2)"
--
Man page: sync.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"fdatasync(2), fsync(2), sync(2), syncfs(2)"
--
Man page: tail.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

msgid "head(1)"
--
Man page: test.1
Issue:    [ →  test

"Full documentation E<lt>https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/[E<gt>"
--
Man page: timeout.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"kill(1)"
--
Man page: truncate.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"dd(1), truncate(2), ftruncate(2)"
--
Man page: uname.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"arch(1), uname(2)"
--
Man page: unexpand.1
Issue:    Missing full stop

"use comma separated list of tab positions.  The last specified position can "
"be prefixed with '/' to specify a tab size to use after the last explicitly "
"specified tab stop.  Also a prefix of '+' can be used to align remaining tab "
"stops relative to the last specified tab stop instead of the first column"
--
Man page: unexpand.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"expand(1)"
--
Man page: uniq.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"comm(1), join(1), sort(1)"
--
Man page: users.1
Issue:    missing markup (B<>)

"getent(1), who(1)"

-- 
      Dr. Helge Kreutzmann                     debian <at> helgefjell.de
           Dipl.-Phys.                   http://www.helgefjell.de/debian.php
        64bit GNU powered                     gpg signed mail preferred
           Help keep free software "libre": http://www.ffii.de/
[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, inline)]
[Message part 5 (message/rfc822, inline)]
From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: Helge Kreutzmann <debian <at> helgefjell.de>, 53946-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#53946: Errors in man pages of GNU_coreutils
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2022 18:50:48 +0000
[Message part 6 (text/plain, inline)]
On 12/02/2022 05:57, Helge Kreutzmann wrote:
> Dear coreutils maintainer,
> the manpage-l10n project maintains a large number of translations of
> man pages both from a large variety of sources (including coreutils) as
> well for a large variety of target languages.
> 
> During their work translators notice different possible issues in the
> original (english) man pages. Sometimes this is a straightforward
> typo, sometimes a hard to read sentence, sometimes this is a
> convention not held up and sometimes we simply do not understand the
> original.
> 
> We use several distributions as sources and update regularly (at
> least every 2 month). This means we are fairly recent (some
> distributions like archlinux also update frequently) but might miss
> the latest upstream version once in a while, so the error might be
> already fixed. We apologize and ask you to close the issue immediately
> if this should be the case, but given the huge volume of projects and
> the very limited number of volunteers we are not able to double check
> each and every issue.
> 
> Secondly we translators see the manpages in the neutral po format,
> i.e. converted and harmonized, but not the original source (be it man,
> groff, xml or other). So we cannot provide a true patch (where
> possible), but only an approximation which you need to convert into
> your source format.
> 
> Finally the issues I'm reporting have accumulated over time and are
> not always discovered by me, so sometimes my description of the
> problem my be a bit limited - do not hesitate to ask so we can clarify
> them.
> 
> I'm now reporting the errors for your project. If future reports
> should use another channel, please let me know.
> 
> Man page: arch.1
> Issue:    missing markup (B<>)
> 
> "uname(1), uname(2)"

I'm not sure about marking up references like this.
There should be enough context from the reference
for the man page reader to display appropriately.
For e.g. I use vim to display man pages, and references
like this are highlighted, and can be followed.
Also looking at other projects, I don't see explicitly
highlighted referenced man pages.

> Man page: expand.1
> Issue:    Missing full stop
> 
> "use comma separated list of tab positions  The last specified position can"

Already fixed upstream.

> Man page: ls.1
> Issue:    seems to be an unnecessary split of paragraphs; join with next one
> 
> "can be augmented with a B<--sort> option, but any use of B<--sort>=I<\\,none"
> "\\/> (B<-U>) disables grouping"
> --
> Man page: ls.1
> Issue:   seems to be an unnecessary split of paragraphs; join with next one
> 
> msgid "that points to a directory"
> --

Yes good point.
The issue here is those newlines are generated due to inconsistent indentation.
Attached is a patch to ls to make the indentation consistent.

> Man page: ls.1
> Issue 1:  LS_COLORS → B<LS_COLORS>

There are other env vars mentioned.
I'm not sure why this one, or any should be highlighted.

> Issue 2:  dircolors → B<dircolors>(1)

Good point re the (1). Added in second patch.

> Man page: rmdir.1
> Issue:    join this string with the next one "is non-empty"
> 
> "ignore each failure that is solely because a directory"

Added in third patch.
I also noticed an erroneous blank line added in the man page
after the first option. I adjusted the column of the description
to 21 to avoid that, and in a further (4th) patch I adjusted
the description column of --help and --version is all commands
to use column 21 also.

> Man page: test.1
> Issue:    [ →  test
> 
> "Full documentation E<lt>https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/[E<gt>"

This is subtle. The link above (with [) does actually work.
Though I notice it's not highlighted appropriately by gnome-terminal
at least, so would be better to use "test" instead.
This is done in patch 5.

> Man page: unexpand.1
> Issue:    Missing full stop
> 
> "use comma separated list of tab positions  The last specified position can"

Already fixed upstream.

Marking this as done.

cheers,
Pádraig
[0005-doc-avoid-using-is-URLS-in-help-output.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]
[0004-doc-adust-help-version-alignment.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]
[0003-doc-rmdir-improve-help-formatting.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]
[0002-doc-ls-reference-dircolors-1-from-help.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]
[0001-doc-ls-improve-help-formatting.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]

This bug report was last modified 3 years and 154 days ago.

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