Subject: Re: Documentation
To: None <netbsd-advocacy@netbsd.org>
From: Andrew Brown <atatat@atatdot.net>
List: netbsd-advocacy
Date: 04/14/2000 11:58:43
>I used to think the Linux HOWTOs were a wonderful idea.  However, lately
>I've noticed a trend, which is that a given HOWTO will start off with
>something like "This assumes you are running a kernel version 1.1.131
>or later" (i.e. over five years old).  Considering the rate at which
>Linux internals morph into something complete different, the upshot is
>that the information in the HOWTO might be useful.  Or it might not.
>No way to tell, really.

indeed!

   spanky% uname -a
   Linux spanky 2.0.36 #1 Thu Jan 14 13:03:18 PST 1999 i686 unknown
   spanky% man proc | grep -1 conforms
   CONFORMS TO
	  This roughly conforms to a Linux 1.3.11 kernel.  Please
	  update this as necessary!

all i wanted was the number of currently open files in the system.
/proc had

   /proc/sys/kernel/file-max:1024
   /proc/sys/kernel/file-nr:1080

and i didn't feel like wading through the kernel source (gah!) to find
what i wanted.

the one thing i *REALLY* like about netbsd is the conscientious way in
which the developers *document* changes they make as they make them.
if the semantics of a system call change slightly, the man page
typically gets updated in the same cvs commit.

-- 
|-----< "CODE WARRIOR" >-----|
codewarrior@daemon.org             * "ah!  i see you have the internet
twofsonet@graffiti.com (Andrew Brown)                that goes *ping*!"
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