Xref: utzoo comp.sources.d:3758 news.software.b:2316
Path: utzoo!attcan!telly!evan
From: evan@telly.on.ca (Evan Leibovitch)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d,news.software.b
Subject: man pages - what goes where?
Message-ID: <1989Jun19.021419.1512@telly.on.ca>
Date: 19 Jun 89 02:14:19 GMT
Organization: Telly Online, Brampton, Ontario
Lines: 22

I've always semi-understood the layout of Unix man pages. But going through
some of the sources I've installed, I've seen some ambiguous (to me)
arrangements that will cause confusion under the present scheme.

Specifically, I'm talking about the fact that some source distributions
describe their executables under section 1 (elm, compress, cnews, conf,
kermit, etc...). Yet others choose to put similar information in section 8
(Bnews, smail) and a straggler or two likes yet something else such as
cookie(6).

Frustrating my obvious workaround (just mixing sections 1 and 8) is the
odd file-format description in section 8 (aliases, paths, etc.).

Using 'man' online is no problem. But for printed pages I'm
tempted to just forget sections and sort them all alphabetically.

Is there a right or wrong to all this?
-- 

Evan Leibovitch, SA, Telly Online, located in beautiful Brampton, Ontario
   evan@telly.on.ca / {uunet!attcan,utzoo}!telly!evan / (416) 452-0504
    Computer salesman's credo:  There's an end-user born every minute