Subject: Re: library man pages
To: Perry E. Metzger <perry@piermont.com>
From: Erik Bertelsen <erik@sockdev.uni-c.dk>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 01/10/1998 20:18:05
On Sat, 10 Jan 1998, Perry E. Metzger wrote:

.. 
.. Jason Thorpe writes:
.. >  > I believe we should fix the man pages to indicate what library every
.. >  > documented function is in. (We might as well do libc functions, too,
.. >  > for completeness.)
.. > 
.. > ...why not put this in the SYNOPSIS section, along with the include file
.. > that exports the interface?
.. 
.. Well, why not, then? I need a format, though. What would a new man
.. page look like? The #include files are pretty natural -- this has to
.. look "natural" to the reader too.

I don't recall on which system, I saw it, but I seem to recall having seen
the library information placed in the SYNOPSIS section in a format like 
the following:

=========================================
SYNOPSIS

   cc ... -lm

   #include <math.h>

   double cosh(double x);
   float cosh(float x);
=============================================

I really don't see the need for an extra section on the man page, but
the example above could be enhanced somehow to distinguish between the
text that goes into the source file and the compilation directives.


regards
Erik Bertelsen