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2017-02-09doc: note the relationship between realpath and readlinkPádraig Brady
* doc/coreutils.texi (realpath invocation): Mention that realpath is the preferred command for canonicalization. (readlink invocation): Likewise. * man/readlink.x: Likewise.
2017-01-14maint: modernize URLsPaul Eggert
A lot of this is converting http: to https:. Also, gmane went away, so remove URLs that no longer work and are not easy to figure out what they were. Some of this stuff is so old that it no longer matters anyway.
2017-01-01maint: update all copyright year number rangesPádraig Brady
Run "make update-copyright" and then... * gnulib: Update to latest with copyright year adjusted. * tests/init.sh: Sync with gnulib to pick up copyright year. * bootstrap: Likewise. * tests/sample-test: Adjust to use the single most recent year.
2016-11-22b2sum: a new checksum utility with md5sum like interfacePádraig Brady
Note we don't support the --algorithm option of the b2sum command in the external BLAKE2 project, as that was deemed too confusing for users. "BLAKE2b" was chosen as the default algorithm to use, which is single threaded but performs well on 64 bit. * src/blake2: CC0 source copied from external project. * cfg.mk[VC_LIST_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE_REGEX]: Exclude blake2/ from syntax checks, make update-copyright, etc. * src/local.mk: Reference the sources for b2sum, and set the compilation flags. * doc/coreutils.texi (b2sum invocation): Reference the md5sum invocation node, and add descriptions of -l. * tests/misc/b2sum.sh: Add new test. * tests/local.mk: Reference new test. * AUTHORS: Add new binary. * README: Likewise. * build-aux/gen-lists-of-programs.sh: Likewise. * man/.gitignore: Likewise. * scripts/git-hooks/commit-msg: Likewise. * man/b2sum.x: New man page template. * man/local.mk: Reference new template. * src/.gitignore: Ignore new binaries. * src/blake2/.gitignore: Ignore new build atrifacts. * src/md5sum.c (usage): Describe the new -l option. * NEWS: Mention the new program.
2016-10-21doc: fix typo in stdbuf man pageBishop Bettini
* man/stdbuf.x: Correct spelling of immediately. Fixes http://bugs.gnu.org/24763
2016-07-27maint: fix dependency of man/arch.1Bernhard Voelker
The following is a reproducer for the wrong dependency: $ ./configure --enable-install-program=arch $ make $ rm -f src/arch man/arch.1 $ make man/arch.1 GEN man/arch.1 help2man: can't get `--help' info from man/arch.td/arch Try `--no-discard-stderr' if option outputs to stderr Makefile:14378: recipe for target 'man/arch.1' failed make: *** [man/arch.1] Error 127 * man/local.mk (man/arch.1): Change to depend on src/arch rather than src/uname: while the arch binary depends on uname.c and uname-arch.c, its man page depends on the arch binary. Reported downstream by Rodrigues Goldwyn <rgoldwyn@suse.com> in https://build.opensuse.org/request/show/415172
2016-01-01maint: update all copyright year number rangesPádraig Brady
Run "make update-copyright" and then... * gnulib: Update to latest with copyright year adjusted. * tests/init.sh: Sync with gnulib to pick up copyright year. * bootstrap: Likewise. * tests/sample-test: Adjust to use the single most recent year.
2015-11-28doc: reference each other in the man pages of head and tailBernhard Voelker
* man/head.x: Add "SEE ALSO" section referencing tail(1). * man/tail.x: Add "SEE ALSO" section referencing head(1). Suggested by Dan Jacobson in http://bugs.gnu.org/22041
2015-11-28build: support reproducible builds with consistent man pagesPádraig Brady
Use a consistent date in the generated man pages even if SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH is not set. * Makefile.am: Generate .timestamp in the tarball. * man/local.mk: Pass .timestamp if available to help2man. * man/dummy-man: Don't bother with the year in the stub. Reported in http://bugs.debian.org/806321
2015-11-27doc: update to latest help2manPádraig Brady
Sync with version 1.47.3 which provides these significant changes: - support for reproducible builds by using $SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH. - Adjust spacing of italic text at roman/italic boundaries.
2015-10-27doc: reference related commands from users(1) and groups(1)Pádraig Brady
* man/users.x: See also getent, who * man/groups.x: See also getent Addresses http://bugs.gnu.org/21735
2015-10-19doc: reference shuf(1) from the sort (-R) man pagePádraig Brady
* man/sort.x: Cross reference with shuf(1). * src/sort.c (usage): Mention shuf(1) with -R option. Suggested in http://bugs.debian.org/641166
2015-09-03base32: A new program similar to base64Pádraig Brady
Suggested in https://bugzilla.redhat.com/1250113 * AUTHORS: Add base32. * THANKS.in: Add suggester. * README: Reference the new program. * NEWS: Mention the new program. * src/.gitignore: Ignore the new binary. * bootstrap.conf: Reference the gnulib base32 module. * build-aux/gen-lists-of-programs.sh: Add base32. * man/base32.x: A new template. * man/.gitignore: Ignore the new man page. * man/local.mk: Reference the new man page. * doc/coreutils.texi (base32 invocation): Document the new command. * src/local.mk: Adjust to build base32 based on base64.c. * src/base64.c: Parameterize to use the correct headers, functions and buffer sizes, depending on which binary is being built. * tests/misc/base64.pl: Adjust to test both base32 and base64. * tests/misc/tty-eof.pl: Add base32 as a program that accepts input on stdin without any options specified. * scripts/git-hooks/commit-msg: Add base32 to the template.
2015-03-07build: fix make dependencies for test.1Pádraig Brady
In certain parallel build situations this would give the error: help2man: can't get `--help' info from man/test.td/[ Makefile:14189: recipe for target 'man/test.1' failed * man/local.mk (test.1): Depend on `[` rather than `test`, as `test --help` outputs nothing. Also move dir.1 and vdir.1 back to the main list, as they're no more exceptions than sha1sum etc.
2015-03-05doc: mention persistence caveats in sync man pageStéphane Aulery
* man/sync.x ([BUGS]): Mention the caveats and reference the system call man pages for more details. Fixes http://bugs.gnu.org/19995 Debian bug #507085 reported by jidanni@jidanni.org
2015-01-31doc,maint: fix use of "i.e." in documentation and commentsBernhard Voelker
To align with all other places (and correct grammar), change all upper-case "I.E." to "I.e.". Furthermore, ensure that "i.e." is followed by a comma. Finally, ensure to use a double-space before "I.e.," at the beginning of a sentence. The following was used to change all offending uses (apart from old ChangeLog files): $ git grep -liF 'i.e.' \ | xargs sed -i \ -e 's/I\.E\./I.e./g' \ -e 's/\. \(I\.e\.\)/. \1/g' \ -e 's/\([Ii]\.e\.\)\( \)/\1,\2/g' \ -e 's/\([Ii]\.e\.\)$/\1,/g' * cfg.mk (sc_prohibit_uppercase_id_est): Add new rule. (sc_ensure_double_space_after_dot_before_id_est): Likewise. (sc_ensure_comma_after_id_est): Likewise. (old_NEWS_hash): Refresh hash via "make update-NEWS-hash". * NEWS: Change use of "id est" abbreviation via the above command. * README: Likewise. * README-prereq: Likewise. * doc/coreutils.texi: Likewise. * gl/lib/rand-isaac.c: Likewise. * gl/lib/tempname.c.diff: Likewise. * man/stdbuf.x: Likewise. * src/cat.c: Likewise. * src/copy.c: Likewise. * src/copy.h: Likewise. * src/cp.c: Likewise. * src/cut.c: Likewise. * src/dd.c: Likewise. * src/df.c: Likewise. * src/fiemap.h: Likewise. * src/longlong.h: Likewise. * src/ls.c: Likewise. * src/numfmt.c: Likewise. * src/pr.c: Likewise. * src/shred.c: Likewise. * src/shuf.c: Likewise. * src/split.c: Likewise. * tests/Coreutils.pm: Likewise. * tests/df/df-symlink.sh: Likewise. * tests/df/skip-rootfs.sh: Likewise. * tests/init.sh: Likewise. * tests/ls/color-norm.sh: Likewise. * tests/misc/basename.pl: Likewise. * tests/misc/ls-misc.pl: Likewise. * tests/misc/md5sum-bsd.sh: Likewise. * tests/misc/shred-exact.sh: Likewise. * tests/misc/sort.pl: Likewise. * tests/misc/stdbuf.sh: Likewise. * tests/misc/tac-continue.sh: Likewise. * tests/rm/r-root.sh: Likewise. * tests/tail-2/symlink.sh: Likewise.
2015-01-28sync: support syncing specified argumentsGiuseppe Scrivano
* m4/jm-macros.m4 (coreutils_MACROS): Check for syncfs(). * man/sync.x: Add references to syncfs, fsync and fdatasync. * doc/coreutils.texi (sync invocation): Document the new feature. * src/sync.c: Include "quote.h". (AUTHORS): Include myself. (MODE_FILE, MODE_DATA, MODE_FILE_SYSTEM, MODE_SYNC): New enum values. (long_options): Define. (sync_arg): New function. (usage): Describe that arguments are now accepted. (main): Add arguments parsing and add support for fsync(2), fdatasync(2) and syncfs(2). * tests/misc/sync.sh: New (and only) test for sync. * tests/local.mk: Reference the new test. * AUTHORS: Add myself to sync's authors. * NEWS: Mention the new feature.
2015-01-01maint: update all copyright year number rangesPádraig Brady
Run "make update-copyright" and then... * tests/sample-test: Adjust to use the single most recent year. * tests/du/bind-mount-dir-cycle-v2.sh: Fix case in copyright message, so that year is updated automatically in future.
2014-12-19build: add $(EXEEXT) suffix to man page make targetsKO Myung-Hun
* man/local.mk: Add $(EXEEXT) suffix to the executables, which is significant on OS/2 for example.
2014-10-09doc: clarify that timeout limits are not 2038 secondsWieland Hoffmann
* man/timeout.x: The 2038 that the sentence is referring to is the year 2038, not 2038 seconds (the default unit used for timeouts).
2014-09-23build: pass program name to help2man after other optionsBernhard Voelker
* man/local.mk (.x.1): Move the program name argument down after the last option argument when calling $(run_help2man). While the other way would be accepted for the GNU help2man program, it is not for the 'dummy-man' script (called as a fallback on systems lacking perl). The wrong order was introduced in commit v8.21-119-gb3578fc while adding the --info-page option.
2014-09-23build: fix argument count check in dummy-man againBernhard Voelker
* man/dummy-man: Fix argument count check, now only permitting exactly 1 argument, the program name. Reported by Andreas Schwab <schwab@linux-m68k.org>
2014-09-22build: fix an inverted test breaking dummy-manAlban Bedel
* man/dummy-man: Fix argument count check, allowing dummy-man to run (on systems without perl). Fixes http://bugs.gnu.org/18531
2014-09-19build: fix dependency issues with man page generationPádraig Brady
* .gitignore: Remove reference to no longer generated make file. * configure.ac: Don't bother generating placeholder make file. * man/local.mk: Hardcode the man page deps list for normal builds to be compatible with all make implementations and configure options. Note in SINGLE_BINARY mode, all man pages will be generated on any change to the coreutils binary, but development will generally not be done in this mode, so this shouldn't be an issue. Fixes http://bugs.gnu.org/18055
2014-09-11doc: reference online info pages directly from man pagesPádraig Brady
* src/system.h (emit_ancillary_info): Add a direct reference to the corresponding online info documentation. Corresponding redirects were put in place on www.gnu.org to allow for concise links. * help2man: Adjust to add the "online help" link (and subsequent translation bugs link) to a "REPORTING BUGS" section. Also add the concise links for further information in --help to the "SEE ALSO" section, and dispense with the more verbose default for that.
2014-09-10doc: adjust reference to info nodes in man pagesPádraig Brady
old form: coreutils '$cmd invocation' new form: '(coreutils) $cmd invocation' The old form erroneously referenced the node for the 'coreutils' multi-call program. Now that problematic node name was renamed in commit v8.23-18-g72e470b, but the newer less ambiguous form also has the advantage of working with the pinfo viewer for example. Full discussion at http://bugs.gnu.org/18428 * man/local.mk: Adjust man page references to texinfo nodes. * src/system.h: Adjust --help references to texinfo nodes.
2014-07-17build: port to non-GNU makePaul Eggert
This fixes a problem with native Solaris 'make', which does not grok '-include' lines (a GNU extension to POSIX 'make'). * configure.ac (man/dynamic-deps.mk): Create it, with an old time stamp, if doing dynamic dependency tracking. * man/local.mk (DISTCLEANFILES): Put man/dynamic-deps.mk here, rather than in CLEANFILES. (man/dynamic-deps.mk): Don't create it read-only, so that we can easily touch it later. Include it with '@AMDEP_TRUE@@am__include@', not with '-include', as '-include' does not work with native Solaris 'make'.
2014-07-13build: adjust new rule not to depend on bash-4.xJim Meyering
* man/local.mk (man/dynamic-deps.mk): Use the same code to derive FOO from man/FOO.1 as in the .x.1 rule below. Using the more concise "name=$${man:4: -2}" is not portable enough.
2014-07-13build: support building all tools in a single binaryAlex Deymo
Add the --enable-single-binary option to the configure file. When enabled, this option builds a single binary file containing the selected tools. Which tool gets executed depends on the value of argv[0] which can be set implicitly through symlinks to the single program. This setup reduces significantly the size of a complete coreutils install, since code from lib/libcoreutils.a is not duplicated in every one of the more than 100 binaries. Runtime overhead is increased due to more dynamic libraries being loaded, and extra initialization being performed for all utils. Also initially a larger binary is loaded from storage, though this is usually alleviated due to caching and lazy mmaping of unused blocks, and in fact the single binary should have better caching characteristics. Comparing the size of the individual versus single binary on x86_64: $ cd src $ size coreutils $ size -t $(../build-aux/gen-lists-of-programs.sh --list-progs | grep -Ev '(coreutils|libstdbuf)') | tail -n1 text data bss dec hex filename 1097416 5388 88432 1191236 122d44 src/coreutils 4901010 124964 163768 5189742 4f306e (TOTALS) Storage requirements are reduced similarly: $ cd src $ du -h coreutils $ du -ch $(../build-aux/gen-lists-of-programs.sh --list-progs | grep -Ev '(coreutils|libstdbuf)') | tail -n1 1.2M coreutils 5.3M total When installing, the makefile will create either symlinks or shebangs based on the --enable-single-binary setting, for each configured tool. In this way, all the tools are still callable individually, but they are all implemented by the same "coreutils" binary installed on the same directory. * .gitignore: Add new generated files. * Makefile.am: New rules to generate build-aux/gen-single-binary.sh and install symlinks. * NEWS: Mention the new feature. * README: Add "coreutils" to the list of utils. * bootstrap.conf: Regenerate src/single-binary.mk * build-aux/gen-lists-of-programs.sh: New --list-progs option. * build-aux/gen-single-binary.sh: Regenerate * configure.ac: New --enable-single-binary option and other variables. Disallow --enable-single-binary=symlinks with --program-prefix et. al. * man/coreutils.x: Manpage hook. * man/local.mk: Add manpage hook and fix dependencies. * src/coreutils.c: Multicall implementation. * src/local.mk: New rules for the single binary option. * tests/local.mk: Add $single_binary_progs to support require_built_() from init.cfg * tests/misc/env.sh: Avoid the use of symlink to echo. * tests/misc/help-version.sh: Add exception for coreutils. * tests/install/basic-1.sh: Really avoid using ginstall strip functionality if there is an issue with the independent strip command. * src/kill.c: Changes to call exit() in main. * src/readlink.c: Likewise. * src/shuf.c: Likewise. * src/timeout.c: Likewise. * src/truncate.c: Likewise.
2014-06-19doc: clarify chgrp restrictionsPádraig Brady
* doc/coreutils.texi (chown invocation): Mention the system dependent restrictions on setting groups. (chgrp invocation): Likewise. Reference the 'chown' superset. * man/chgrp.x: Cross reference chown(1) which is the superset interface, and also chown(2) which gives details of the platform restrictions. Fixes http://bugs.gnu.org/17495
2014-04-17doc: disambiguate chmod man page reference to (a) usersPádraig Brady
* man/chmod.x: Don't rely on the bold markup for 'a' to distinguish it as that's not done in all cases.
2014-03-19doc: avoid regex ambiguity in chmod mode descriptionEdward Welbourne
* man/chmod.x: s/[+-=]/[-+=]/ * doc/perm.texi (Symbolic Modes): Likewise. * THANKS.in: Remove patch owner. Fixes http://bugs.gnu.org/17041
2014-01-02maint: update all copyright year number rangesBernhard Voelker
Run "make update-copyright", but then also run this, perl -pi -e 's/2\d\d\d-//' tests/sample-test to make that one script use the single most recent year number.
2013-11-01build: fix dependencies of man/sha*sum.1Bernhard Voelker
Although the above man pages depend on src/md5sum.c as a shared source, the build of the man pages directly requires their own executables to exist. * man/local.mk (man/sha1sum.1): Change the dependency from 'src/md5sum' to 'src/sha1sum'. (man/sha224sum.1): s/md5sum/sha224sum/ (man/sha256sum.1): s/md5sum/sha256sum/ (man/sha384sum.1): s/md5sum/sha384sum/ (man/sha512sum.1): s/md5sum/sha512sum/ Reported by Pádraig Brady in http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/coreutils/2013-11/msg00006.html
2013-09-12maint: avoid patching help2manBernhard Voelker
Commit cde1ea0e separated the coreutils-specific patches from help2man. Most changes had been made to accommodate to the coreutils style guide, i.e., to avoid syntax-check failures like sc_long_lines. Yet 2 changes had to be put into the patch help2man.diff. But this added the dependency to patch(1) in distribution builds. Incidentally, the 2 remaining parts of the patch can easily be done outside of help2man. Therefore, this commit partly reverts the recent separation of help2man into 'help2man.in' and 'help2man.diff', and instead uses the original help2man script. * man/help2man.in: Rename to ... * man/help2man: ... this file. * man/help2man.diff: Remove. * man/local.mk (mandeps): Remove man/help2man. (man/help2man): Remove recipe. (.x.1): Add the --info-page option when calling help2man in order to change the name of the texinfo manual from the default, "info PRG", to "info coreutils 'PRG invocation'". Furthermore, use an sed pattern to remove the sentence starting with "For complete documentation". * .gitignore (/man/help2man): Remove entry. * .x-update-copyright: Replace the entries for the files 'man/help2man.diff' and 'man/help2man.in' by 'man/help2man'. * cfg.mk (sc_long_lines): Instead of 'man/help2man.in', exempt 'man/help2man' from this test. (sc_po_check): Likewise. (sc_space_tab): Instead of 'man/help2man.diff', exempt 'man/help2man' from this test. (sc_trailing_blank): Likewise. (sc_prohibit_tab_based_indentation): Instead of 'man/help2man.in' and 'man/help2man.diff', exempt 'man/help2man'. * man/dummy-man: Recognize the option --info-page=... as no-op.
2013-09-12maint: use help2man configured with --disable-nlsBernhard Voelker
Prompted by the continuous integration build failure at: http://hydra.nixos.org/build/6038769 The previously committed 'help2man' requires a Perl module which does not seem to be installed everywhere - and which is not needed for our purposes: Can't locate Locale/gettext.pm in @INC BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at ./man/help2man line 28. This module was pulled in automatically by the default configure call. Use the NLS-disabled version instead. * man/help2man.in: Use help2man configured with the --disable-nls option to avoid the dependency to the above Perl module. * man/help2man.diff: Adapt the line numbers of the hunks in the coreutils-specific patch for help2man to apply without fuzz. Reported by Pádraig Brady.
2013-09-09maint: update help2man to 1.43.3Bernhard Voelker
Instead of diverging further from the upstream GNU help2man project (http://www.gnu.org/software/help2man/), hold a copy of the original script and keep track of our changes in a separate patch file. The man pages created with the new version show the following, non-invasive differences: a) command options in the EXAMPLE sections are no longer in bold format, b) file names are underlined now consistently. * man/help2man: Rename to ... * man/help2man.in: ... this file, and update content from the upstream GNU help2man project. * man/help2man.diff: Add patch file for help2man to remove the sentence "For complete documentation ..." (see commit 5d4f09d8), and to emit "info coreutils 'PROG invocation'" into the man pages (77abf69a). * man/local.mk (mandeps): Add help2man to the dependencies of the man pages. (man/help2man): Add rule to generate this script from the upstream help2man.in file and the help2man.diff patch. * .gitignore: Add man/help2man as it is no longer version controlled. * cfg.mk (sc_long_lines): Exempt help2man.in from this check. (sc_po_check): Likewise. (sc_space_tab): Likewise. (sc_trailing_blank): Exempt man/help2man.diff from this check. (sc_prohibit_tab_based_indentation): Instead of help2man, now exempt both help2man.in and help2man.diff from this test. * .x-update-copyright: Add new file and add the above new help2man files as well as the COPYING file.
2013-06-27doc: fix details on the interaction of df with device nodesD. Hugh Redelmeier
* man/df.x: Don't say that a dev node is always on the root file system. * doc/coreutils.texi (df invocation): Likewise. Also state that the device node to mounted file system interpretation is only done when passed absolute paths to device nodes.
2013-04-07build: fix man page build failure with some permissions setupsEnrico Scholz
Use the more portable 'chmod a-w', instead of the 'chmod -w' form. The latter is not always supported. Also its operation is dependent on umask controlling the permissions bits for new files, which is not the case in the presence of POSIX default ACLs for e.g. In that case, chmod may print a warning like the following, and exit with failure status: chmod: man/hostid.1-t: new permissions are r--rw-r--, not r--r--r-- * man/local.mk: s/-w/a-w/
2013-02-04numfmt: a new command to format numbersAssaf Gordon
* AUTHORS: Add my name. * NEWS: Mention the new program. * README: Reference the new program. * src/numfmt.c: New file. * src/.gitignore: Ignore the new binary. * build-aux/gen-lists-of-programs.sh: Update. * scripts/git-hooks/commit-msg: Allow numfmt: commit prefix. * po/POTFILES.in: Add new c file. * tests/misc/numfmt.pl: A new test file giving >93% coverage. * tests/local.mk: Reference the new test. * man/.gitignore: Ignore the new man page. * man/local.mk: Reference the new man page. * man/numfmt.x: A new template. * doc/coreutils.texi: Document the new command.
2013-01-24doc: fix an example in the od man pagePádraig Brady
* man/od.x: s/-w 16/-w16/ as -w takes an optional parameter and so the space is significant.
2013-01-01maint: update all copyright year number rangesJim Meyering
Run "make update-copyright", but then also run this, perl -pi -e 's/2\d\d\d-//' tests/sample-test to make that one script use the single most recent year number.
2012-12-27doc: improve od --help and man pagePádraig Brady
* src/od.c: Redorder the information output by --help to ease interpretation and so that appropriate sections are generated by help2man. * doc/coreutils.texi (od invocation): Fix an incorrect reference to @var{n}, which should be @var{bytes}. * man/od.x: Add an "Examples" section, and move the default od format to there, and add a commonly required format to generate hexdumps. Reported by Akim Demaille in http://bugs.gnu.org/13280.
2012-12-17readlink: support multiple command line argumentsPádraig Brady
This allows efficient processing of multiple files, while also increasing compatibility with BSD's readlink(1). We also add the -z, --zero option to delimit output items with the NUL character which disambiguates output in the presence of '\n' characters. * src/readlink.c (usage): Add the --zero description, and also adjust the description of --no-newline accordingly. (main): Handle the -z option and iterate over multiple arguments. Also as in commit v8.15-24-g9d46b25 we use fputs() and putchar() rather than printf() for performance reasons. * doc/coreutils.texi (readlink invocation): Document the new --zero option, adjust the --no-newline description, and tweak the general info to indicate multiple files are supported. * tests/readlink/multi.sh: A new test for the new functionality. * tests/local.mk: Reference the new test. * man/readlink.x: Adjust the summary and also reference realpath. * NEWS: Mention the improvement. * THANKS.in: Suggested by Aaron Davies.
2012-11-24doc: clarify that renice is needed to adjust nicenessPádraig Brady
* doc/coreutils.texi (nice invocation): Ensure there is no ambiguity in the summary in relation to nice being able to adjust the niceness of an existing process. Reference the renice command. * man/nice.x: Reference renice (1)
2012-10-26build: man page generation: degrade gracefully when perl is lackingStefano Lattarini
Since commit v8.19-118-g57da212, our 'dist-hook' rule tweaked the distributed Makefile.in to make each man page 'man/foo.1' depend on the corresponding source 'src/foo.c' rather than the corresponding program 'src/foo'. That was done to accommodate systems without perl, which cannot run help2man to regenerate the manpage after its corresponding program has been built. This seems a right and proper graceful degradation, in that the man pages dependencies are still 100% correct in a git checkout, while being more lax but "more portable" in a distribution tarball. Alas, that is not the case in practice, as it turns out the tweaked Makefile makes the building of man pages unreliable and potentially incorrect! In fact, assume that instead of the correct a dependency: man/ls.1: src/ls we have the laxer one: man/ls.1: src/ls.c and think of what happens if a user modifies, say, 'src/ls.c', and then runs "make -j4" to rebuild everything. The make process will see that it has to rebuild the man page 'man/ls.1' (because its prerequisite 'src/ls.c' has changed), but won't see that it has to rebuild 'src/ls' *before* re-running 'help2man' to generate that man page; so, if 'man/ls.1' is rebuilt before 'src/ls' (which can happen with concurrent make), our user will get either a build error (if 'src/ls' did non exist) or, worse, a man page with an up-to-date timestamp but an out-of-date content. And what's even worse in all of this is that this problem will be present also for users who have perl installed: this is not a "graceful degradation" at all! In our situation, the best and simplest way to implement a graceful degradation it to keep the correct dependencies for man pages (that is, "man/ls.1: src/ls"), and if perl is not present, just generate dummy man pages reporting that built-time issue and redirecting the user back to either the info documentation or the '--help' output. As a consequence of this change, we also stop distributing man pages, since they will now be generated unconditionally. * Makefile.am (do-not-require-help2man): Remove. (dist-hook): Don't depend on it. * man/local.mk: Remove an obsolete comment. (EXTRA_DIST): Stop distributing generated man pages. ($(EXTRA_MANS)): This no longer needs to depend on $(all_programs). (MAINTAINERCLEANFILES): $(ALL_MANS) Do not list it here, and ... (CLEANFILES): ... list it here, instead. (.x.1): Instead of warning if perl is missing, but then trying to run 'help2man' unconditionally, simply run ... (run_help2man): ... the command referenced by this new variable, that expands to a proper invocation of 'help2man' if perl is present, and to an invocation of a shell script generating a dummy manpage if it is not. (EXTRA_DIST): Distribute that shell script. * man/dummy-man: New shell script. * NEWS (Build-related): Mention this. Fixes coreutils http://bugs.gnu.org/12715.
2012-09-10build: fix a minor man-page generation dependency errorJim Meyering
* man/local.mk (man/dir.1): Depend on src/dir, not src/ls.
2012-09-01build: restore handling of space-tainted build directory nameJim Meyering
* man/local.mk: With commit v8.19-84-g08cf455, man page creation would fail when using a build directory name containing e.g., spaces.
2012-09-01build: make each man/prog.1 depend on src/prog, not src/prog.cJim Meyering
* man/local.mk: Creating a prog.1 man page requires running src/prog --help. List the exceptions, e.g., install.1 depends on src/ginstall and arch.1 depends on src/uname.
2012-09-01maint: avoid distcheck failure by properly cleaning $(ALL_MANS)Jim Meyering
* man/local.mk (distclean-local): Remove $(ALL_MANS) when doing a VPATH build. If it's not done, generated manpages can be left around in the build directory after a "make distclean", causing failures in "make distcheck".