Re: Errors in man pages of util-linux - Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)

From: "Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)" <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
To: Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com>
Cc: "Helge Kreutzmann" <debian@helgefjell.de>,
	util-linux@vger.kernel.org,
	"Mario Blättermann" <mario.blaettermann@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Errors in man pages of util-linux
Date: Mon, 11 May 2020 12:32:08 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAKgNAkgqKs=Q4qvPHirHa6KjW3qOqyyNG7sCxHX2RfWiOBqRbg@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20200511092734.6izjgahtz37iya6v@ws.net.home>

Hello Karel

On Mon, 11 May 2020 at 11:27, Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com> wrote:
>
> On Sat, May 09, 2020 at 09:05:50PM +0200, Michael Kerrisk wrote:
> > On Sat, May 9, 2020 at 9:00 PM Helge Kreutzmann <debian@helgefjell.de> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hello Michael,
> > > On Sat, May 09, 2020 at 08:53:31PM +0200, Michael Kerrisk wrote:
> > > > Hello Helge ;-),
>
> Thanks for your report Helge.
>
> > > > I think no maintainer wants to deal with a 1000-line mail listing 100+
> > > > minor bugs. May I suggest making the maintainer's life a little easier
> > > > by breaking things up into pieces. For example, one mail per manual
> > > > page (which would be 43 mails by my count).  But maybe Karel has
> > > > another suggestion on how you could make his life easier.
>
> Well, that's simple, send patches ;-)))

So, I've recently been through this process with Helge for 100+
man-pages bug reports.Here's my experience/summary for what its worth:
* Because of info I have on the project website, Helge sent bug reports
  one per mail, so one day without warning, I got 138 mails :-).
  (My preference really is separate mails for each issue. But I told
  Helge I would have liked a little warning first :-).)

* A large number of the reports just required simple one-line edits that
  could often be done in a minute.
* It was clear that the effort required for Helge to make patches would
  be rather greater than me just doing the one-line edits
* Making patches requires an added layer of work for Helge, since
  he/the translators are working with a mutated version of the source.
  (The flip side of this is that it is occasionally a little tricky to convert
  the text that Helge is sending you back to the corresponding page
  source.)

> > Maybe hold off for a day or three before investing effort on this.
> > Karel may have a better idea than mine re his preferred method of
> > reporting.
>
> I have no another idea (maybe github issue(s), but it will be invisible
> for many contributors).

Have mercy! Please no... :-).

Cheers,

Michael

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