Subject: Re: man.conf entry for xorg package
To: Jeremy C. Reed <reed@reedmedia.net>
From: Blair Sadewitz <blair.sadewitz@gmail.com>
List: tech-pkg
Date: 09/15/2006 13:11:21
man.conf ships with an entry for pkg/man, I think.

I was thinking the same thing you were, basically:

If pkgsrc can change /etc/shells, why not man.conf?
The main issue is defining the demarcation point past which pkgsrc
won't touch anything.

One could approach this as either:
1) X is a special case, being a pkgsrc replacement for a major
subsystem that can be found on most (if not all) platforms it
supports, therefore add a man.conf entry.
2) X is one of the set of packages that are large and complex enough
to warrant installation under their own subdirectory in pkgsrc.

In the case of (2), should man.conf entries be added for all such
packages?  I realize that not everyone sticks with the default, but
given that putting Xorg in pkg/xorg IS the default, I think it's a
good idea to add this functionality.  There are people out there who
don't know enough about the system to add a man.conf entry and do
makewhatis.

At the very least, I think an addition to the MESSAGE of such packages
about how to add an entry  to man.conf is warranted.  Perhaps there
could be an mk.conf setting--which could be off by default--to add
entries to man.conf?  Then, individual packages could inform the user
about the relevance of that setting.


On 9/15/06, Jeremy C. Reed <reed@reedmedia.net> wrote:
> > Might it be a good idea to have the Xorg package add a man.conf entry
> > upon installation?
>
> That could be useful. (Although in my case, I have all my X apps direct in
> /usr/pkg/ not under /usr/pkg/Xorg because I am using modular Xorg
> pkgsrc and pkgsrc-wip.)
>
> I think there was some discussion about this man configuration previously.
>
> Normally, pkgsrc should not touch out side of LOCALBASE (/usr/pkg/) but it
> does create users, groups and adjusts /etc/shells.
>
> On a Red Hat type system, this is done in /etc/man.config (or
> /etc/man.conf) by adding the MANPATH setting, such as:
>
> MANPATH /usr/pkg/Xorg/man
>
> On my NetBSD system I adjusted my /etc/man.conf so pkg/share/man would
> work for me -- note the "share/mn" is my PKGMANDIR.
>
> Maybe for now, a note could be added to documentation on Xorg-libs
> MESSAGE about the man path setup.
>
>
>