Re: Errors in man pages, here: st(4): Content

["Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)" <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>]

Hello Kai,

On Mon, 20 Apr 2020 at 17:42, "Kai Mäkisara (Kolumbus)"
<kai.makisara@kolumbus.fi> wrote:
>
>
>
> > On 20. Apr 2020, at 11.11, Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) <mtk.manpages@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > [CC += Kai]
> >
> > On 4/19/20 8:48 AM, Helge Kreutzmann wrote:
> >> Dear manpages maintainers.
> >> the manpage-l10n project maintains a large number of translations of
> ...
> >
> > I do not know. Perhaps Kai can help.
> >
> > Kai, the text in question is
> >
> >              MT_ST_AUTO_LOCK (Default: false)
> >                     When this option is true, the drive door  is  locked
> >                     when  the  device  is opened and unlocked when it is
> >                     closed.
> >
> > I believe Helge asks whether the text should read:
> >
> >              MT_ST_AUTO_LOCK (Default: false)
> >                     When this option is true, the drive door  is  locked
> >                     when  the  device  is CLOSED and unlocked when it is
> >                     OPEN.
> >
> The orginal text is correct. This is section 4 man page meaning that it
> describes the programming interface, Opening the device means
> opening the device file, i.e., starting to use the device from the
> computer and the drive should be closed when the drive is operating.
> It can be opened when the device file is closed and the device is
> not in use.
>
> This might be clearer if the text would say “when the device file is
> opened”? I admit that the original text, while correct, may not be
> obvious to non-programmers.

Thanks. And I made your suggested wording change, which I think is
helpful to prevent misunderstandings.

Cheers,

Michael

-- 
Michael Kerrisk
Linux man-pages maintainer; http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/
Linux/UNIX System Programming Training: http://man7.org/training/