Subject: misc/19603: read.2 misleading
To: None <gnats-bugs@gnats.netbsd.org>
From: None <kpneal@pobox.com>
List: netbsd-bugs
Date: 12/29/2002 19:06:42
>Number:         19603
>Category:       misc
>Synopsis:       The read.2 man page is misleading WRT EINTR
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    misc-bug-people
>State:          open
>Class:          doc-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Sun Dec 29 16:13:00 PST 2002
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Kevin P. Neal
>Release:        NetBSD 1.6
>Organization:
-- 
Kevin P. Neal                                http://www.pobox.com/~kpn/

"You know, I think I can hear the machine screaming from here...  \
'help me! hellpp meeee!'"  - Heather Flanagan, 14:52:23 Wed Jun 10 1998
>Environment:
System: NetBSD rune.neutralgood.org 1.6 NetBSD 1.6 (RUNE-$Revision: 1.1 $) #7: Sun Sep 22 20:32:24 EDT 2002 kpn@neutralgood.org:/local/kernel/compile/RUNE alpha
Architecture: alpha
Machine: alpha
>Description:

The write man page doesn't mention EINTR (see my other PR). The read man 
page does mention EINTR but mentions "slow" devices. This mention of
"slow" seems wrong since ANY device is slower than (for example) the
CPU <--> memory bus. 

A read from a disk can be interrupted by EINTR.  Heck, a read from an mfs
can be interrupted by EINTR. This use of the word "slow" can therefore be
confusing and should be eliminated.

I've also rearranged the sentence to be more readable to my eye. 

>How-To-Repeat:

man 2 read

>Fix:

rune% diff -u read.2.orig read.2
--- read.2.orig Sun Dec 29 18:59:30 2002
+++ read.2      Sun Dec 29 19:00:01 2002
@@ -148,8 +148,8 @@
 .It Bq Er EIO
 An I/O error occurred while reading from the file system.
 .It Bq Er EINTR
-A read from a slow device was interrupted before
-any data arrived by the delivery of a signal.
+A read was interrupted by the delivery of a signal
+before any data arrived.
 .It Bq Er EINVAL
 The pointer associated with
 .Fa d

>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: