Colored man pages stopped working in Ubuntu 24 #bash #manpage #less

https://askubuntu.com/q/1553539/612

(Possibly relevant to @b0rk 's interests)

So I hit a flag in diff, --unchanged-group-format. It does not show up in the manpage. It does not show up in --help. You can search both those channels for that string and you will not find it.

You know where it shows up first? If you Google it, you'll get an example in https://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/manual/html_node/Line-Group-Formats.html.

So why doesn't it show up in the manpage? Well, it does! If you read the entire manpage. With your eyes.

  -D, --ifdef=NAME                output merged file with '#ifdef NAME' diffs                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
      --GTYPE-group-format=GFMT   format GTYPE input groups with GFMT                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
      --line-format=LFMT          format all input lines with LFMT                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
      --LTYPE-line-format=LFMT    format LTYPE input lines with LFMT                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
    These format options provide fine-grained control over the output                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
      of diff, generalizing -D/--ifdef.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
    LTYPE is 'old', 'new', or 'unchanged'.  GTYPE is LTYPE or 'changed'.    

"What do you mean it isn't documented? Of course it's documented. You did read every line and do some template-substitution in your brain, didn't you?"

This isn't advocating for not reading the manpage. If you really want to understand how the tool works, you read the whole manpage. And probably the source code.

... but I don't want to understand how the tool works. I want to diff two files and not have the lines that are the same get emitted.

And I think a lot of application- and solution-generating computer people, most of the time, in most of their careers, are operating on that level of depth. Problems come in too fast and with too much variety. You absolutely go deep on some things. There is no time to go deep on everything.

So how do we address this (other than throw up our hands and say "Relying on Google's fuzzy search of the whole Internet and vibe-coding LLMs is the future actually")? I don't have magic bullets, but a "fuzzy search" mode in something like less that could take an input like --unchanged-group-format and twig that it if there's no exact match, it might be related to --GTYPE-group-format would be nice.

Maybe I should mock that up in emacs. Actually, I bet someone already put it in emacs. ;)

Another "Tech notes to myself" blog post: Adding color to man pages

I'm still trying to figure out a decent workflow of getting my MarkDown documents converted over to HTML and getting them to render decently. I feel like I may be struggling with publishing to Blogspot than I need to be. Or, I just need more practice.

https://suburbanalities.blogspot.com/2025/02/adding-color-to-man-pages.html

When I need docs I do

`man command'

When I pressed F1 in a gui program it did the following

* Request a helper running in my DE to parse a html page
* Ask the helper to open my default html parser
* __Without asking me__ the helper opened a __massive browser__ ravaging ram just to show me what I could find with
`man command`
* I wonder why instead the Ui program did not do the following

* request a helper open a (ba)sh
* parse >man command to the helper
* have the helper display the manpage in the sh

The results would be
* Much less resources used
* No assumption on my current internet connection would be made
* That method has worked for 60 years

<IRC>
/m shakes head and looks at the massive browser showing the equivalence of a manpage
</IRC>

@altbot

#bash #sh #zsh #ksh #csh #qBittorrent #torrent #manpage #man1 #F1 #F1Help #WomenWhoCode #640daysofcode #301daysofcode #730daysofcode #100DaysOfCode #1000DaysOfCode #Linux #POSIX #Programming #DEVCommunity

https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/wiki/Frequently-Asked-Questions

Please put examples in your #manpage.

It tells more then words.

I've learned something wonderfull again from my POSIX OS workstation.

I was looking for 7zip and did not bother to type 7z then tab. I was so delighted the name is **just** 7z. Of course Im reading the man page!

#bash #man #manpage #7z #sh #zsh #ksh #csh #sockets #freeBSD #netBSD #openBSD #Linux #POSIX

TIL about manpageblog which is
a small, lightweight blog engine, {Python} offering several advantages in a look of a man page

https://github.com/gyptazy/manpageblog

#Python #bash #sh #zsh #ksh #csh #manpage #Linux #POSIX #NIC

On this day in 1971 the first edition of the Unix Programmer's Manual was published, with the first man pages.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_page

Specifics Bob! Specifics!

https://linux.die.net/man/1/nice:
"Nicenesses range from -20 (most favorable scheduling) to 19 (least favorable)"

Hmm, is it favoring the system or the specified process?

`man nice`:
"Niceness values range from -20 (most favorable to the process) to 19 (least favorable to the process)."

Got it

How To Efficiently Search Linux Manual Pages with the man -k Command #Linux #Manualpages #Manpage #Linuxcommands #Linuxbasics #Linuxtips
https://ostechnix.com/search-linux-manual-pages/

#NetBSD #manpage #question

Is there a man page for NetBSD sysbuild?

I only have this page when I search within man.netbsd.org

Wrote a step-by-step blog post on how to add a man page to a Ruby project using kramdown-man.
https://postmodern.github.io/blog/2023/12/05/how-to-add-a-man-page-to-your-ruby-project.html
#ruby #markdown #manpage #kramdown #cli