Talk:Man page

From ArchWiki

Consider removing changing Man page#Page width

As of today, it seems to be that the bash function mentioned in this article doesn't serve any purpose, since this functionality is already provided by both man-db and mandoc.

Eisti (talk) 07:50, 24 July 2021 (UTC)Reply[reply]

mandoc's man is not controlled by $MANWIDTH. If I remember correctly, man-db's man uses the full terminal width by default, which can be reduced by setting $MANWIDTH. But then it is not dynamic, so the trick in the section selects the minimum of $MANWIDTH and the current terminal width. — Lahwaacz (talk) 10:11, 24 July 2021 (UTC)Reply[reply]
I can agree that it is useful, but it solves a different problem than what is described in the second paragraph. It then solves the problem of having to read too long lines and it should be rephrased to reflect that IMHO. -- Eisti (talk) 06:12, 27 July 2021 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Perhaps the instructions under "Installation" could be clearer?

The instructions state, "man-pages provides the Linux man pages". But this package isn't needed if we only want to read the man pages of apps we've installed, right (I'm assuming apps on Arch come with a man page)?

Pound Hash (talk) 02:17, 21 December 2021 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Well, the text is clear in the information that the package provides Linux man pages, not exactly the executable to read man pages.
Not sure how it was as of the writing of the question, but right now it says:
man-db implements man on Arch Linux, and less is the default pager used with man. mandoc can also be used.
man-pages provides both the Linux and the POSIX.1 man pages [1].
So I guess it is very clear now the difference between the reader application and the man pages themselves.
RafaelFF (talk) 01:28, 20 February 2024 (UTC)Reply[reply]