NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #19/NN_1992_19.iso/spool/comp/unix/aix/9087

Internet Message Format | 1992-08-25 | 2.0 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!cis.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ibmchs!auschs!awdprime.austin.ibm.com!testsys.austin.ibm.com!mbrown
From: [e-mail] (Mark Brown)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix
Subject: Re: Where are the #*&^$( MAN pages?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 25 Aug 92 22:28:18 GMT
References: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail] (USENET News)
Organization: IBM Corp., Austin TX.
Lines: 29

| [e-mail] writes:
|OK. I'll bite. Where are the man pages? I did not load the entire InfoExploder
|lib onto my 400MB 220W, and don't usually have the CD mounted. When I request
|a man page, I get the message "man pages not found" or something similar.
|If the Info CD is mounted, I get about a TWO MINUTE delay while it performs
|some horrid inverted markov linear search, and then the plain old man page.
|I'm willing to sacrifice the 15MB or so that text-only man pages would occupy,
|but I can't find the suckers!  Local IBM support says they believe that
|man pages don't exist at all because of the graphical IE, but clearly this
|is false, as regular unix-style text-only man pages DO eventually appear
|if the IE CD is mounted.  Thanks for shedding light...

Mel, there really *aren't* any man pages. The AIX 'man' command
searches the Info database, gets the hits, *formats* them to look like a
"manpage", and puts it on the screen.

This was done to try to please those who (like me) prefer the old-style
man command to get a quick-and-dirty manpage rather than a
tell-me-everything-whether-I-want-it-or-not Info window.

It's a compromise, I'll admit.

cheers,
mark
--
Mark Brown       IBM PSP Austin, TX.| Practice random acts
[phone]   VNET: MBROWN@AUSVMQ|          of kindness and
MAIL: [e-mail] |                  senseless beauty.
DISCLAIMER: My views may be, and often are, independent of IBM official policy.