<command> vs <application>

Brad Smith brads at redhat.com
Thu Sep 8 17:55:57 UTC 2005


> So, make sure that you are being appropriately generic when it's
> required, to avoid unnecessary maintenance later.  Using the application
> (menu) name instead of the command (CLI) name is helpful.  Does this
> make things clear as mud, then?

Well, to clarify, here's what's giving me trouble at the moment. How
would the following be marked up?

Restart the smb service: service smb restart

I'd like to standardize on referring to services by the names of their
init scripts in contexts like this in order to avoid having to refer to
httpd as "The Apache HTTP Server", which is technically the correct name
for it. 

Obviously "service smb restart" is a <command>, but what about that
initial "smb"? Technically it's neither a <command> nor and
<application> because by its self it is neither a GUI nor a CLI app.
Then again, neither is "Text Editor", though the convention if not the
docbook spec seems to accept using it within <application>... but "smb"
is, if anything, CLI so... you see how this gets complicated.

A similar problem arises when dealing with "system-config-network". This
is both a CLI <command> and the proper name of the app that gets run
when <application>Internet Configuration Wizard</application> (or
whatever it is from the menus) is selected. 

I'm becoming convinced that <application> and <command> as currently
defined are just inadequate for a number of scenarios, all of which
could be dealt with by treating <application> as the proper name of an
application/service/command and <command> as something one might run
from the CLI. 

I don't expect the docbook standard to be revamped on my account, but
can anyone offer a better way of addressing these problems without
breaking convention?

--Brad
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