3 ms·

I consider myself quite proficient on the command line; intermediate would be fair to say. However, I just can’t really parse man pages. I’ve never sat down an

by dfee 3y ago

I consider myself quite proficient on the command line; intermediate would be fair to say. However, I just can’t really parse man pages. I’ve never sat down and just figured out the numbering scheme and how to efficiently read/parse them. Occasionally I’ll read a man page online, but a quick blog post seems to be an easier reach, or even GPT these days. For example, hier: https://linux.die.net/man/7/hier https://linux.die.net/man/7/hier — Also, a good opportunity to complain about -h/--help flags not being universally recognized by bins.

mid-kid 3y ago
The source of the manpages on die.net is always questionable to me. I've found they're often out of date or for questionable versions of software. https://manpages.debian.org/ https://manpages.debian.org/ has all the relevant man pages and is always up to date. (and it allows you to pick between different providers of the page)
suprjami 3y ago
Look at `man man`, the numbers are explained: https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/man.1.html https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/man.1.html
Delk 3y ago
Do you feel the same way about reading technical documentation or specifications vs. digested explanations and instructions in general? Most man pages are probably closer to the former in spirit.
- dfee 3y ago
  Nope. I enjoy reading the official docs for languages like Python (narrative or API). For Java I'm fine reading signatures; it's OK. I've not found a lot of good docs in that language, TBH. Even TypeScript can be alright, though I find myself navigating to definition a lot. That said, it's highly proj. dependent. E.g. fp-ts is hard to parse, though perhaps rewarding and succinct when you make progress. I've written my fair share of documentation, too. E.g.: http://python-forge.readthedocs.io http://python-forge.readthedocs.io It might be that manpages lack links, and it's hard to hop back and forth, as I can't set markers like in vim, so my controls are just up/down.
  - Delk 3y ago
    I've found the pager search function useful in some cases when navigating man pages. At least in less, '/' does forward search, and '?' does backward search. Navigating longer man pages does seem to be somewhat clumsy, though, and finding things in something massive such as the gcc man page takes work. I'm probably just used to it enough that I don't always even realize it.

by dfee 3y ago

mid-kid 3y ago

The source of the manpages on die.net is always questionable to me. I've found they're often out of date or for questionable versions of software. https://manpages.debian.org/ https://manpages.debian.org/ has all the relevant man pages and is always up to date. (and it allows you to pick between different providers of the page)

suprjami 3y ago

Look at `man man`, the numbers are explained: https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/man.1.html https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/man.1.html

Delk 3y ago

Do you feel the same way about reading technical documentation or specifications vs. digested explanations and instructions in general? Most man pages are probably closer to the former in spirit.

dfee 3y ago
Nope. I enjoy reading the official docs for languages like Python (narrative or API). For Java I'm fine reading signatures; it's OK. I've not found a lot of good docs in that language, TBH. Even TypeScript can be alright, though I find myself navigating to definition a lot. That said, it's highly proj. dependent. E.g. fp-ts is hard to parse, though perhaps rewarding and succinct when you make progress. I've written my fair share of documentation, too. E.g.: http://python-forge.readthedocs.io http://python-forge.readthedocs.io It might be that manpages lack links, and it's hard to hop back and forth, as I can't set markers like in vim, so my controls are just up/down.
- Delk 3y ago
  I've found the pager search function useful in some cases when navigating man pages. At least in less, '/' does forward search, and '?' does backward search. Navigating longer man pages does seem to be somewhat clumsy, though, and finding things in something massive such as the gcc man page takes work. I'm probably just used to it enough that I don't always even realize it.