Subject: bug#68583: 29.1; Can't find the cat manpage

From: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2024 14:41:19 +0200

severity 68583 wishlist
thanks

> Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2024 12:17:08 +0000
> Cc: [email-masked], [email-masked]
> From: Christopher Yeleighton <[email-masked]>
> 
> The error message is literally:
> 
>  > Can't find the cat manpage
> 
> This is the title of this bug report, BTW ;-)

Yes, but it was not clear from the report that it is also the text of
the error message you see.  Thus my question.

> The right error message would be:
> 
>  > Emacs cannot display the cat manpage, either because it cannot be 
> found or because it cannot be rendered.  Try using the command ... to 
> diagnose the problem!

But that's not what happened.  man.el actually tries to find the man
page by itself, and displays that message if it fails.

> Troubleshooting instructions could be included in the mode documentation 
> instead.

Patches to make the diagnostic smarter in this case, including
figuring out what to use instead of "..." above, are welcome.