What use are these (rpm) entries in 'man'?

Robert Locke lists at ralii.com
Fri Nov 2 13:00:41 UTC 2007


On Fri, 2007-11-02 at 11:02 +0000, Chris G wrote:
<snip>
> Adding the (rpm) entries means that the whatis database is no longer a
> "set of database files containing short descriptions of system
> commands" because the things it puts in there are *not* system
> commands.

Never has been.  Only the things in "chapter 1" are really "system
commands".  The whatis database was initially a summary of the
description lines of each of the man pages, but that has included
commands, files, library functions, etc.  Looking at the chapter told
you what it was.  But now there are things on the system that have no
traditional man page, but might be what you are looking for.  So some
folks hacked in the (rpm) chapter so that we at least no about the
existence of those facilities when we "search our system" even though
they do not have a traditional man page....

I think it's a neat idea....

--Rob




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