1 The following notes are written for people who want to help with
2 maintaining manual pages in the Linux man-pages package.
4 Send suggestions and corrections to:
14 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO HELP
15 =========================
17 You can help in the following ways:
19 -- sending in bug reports about problems in existing pages;
20 (An alternative is to report the bug in one of the
21 distribution-specific Bugzilla facilities, if that facility
22 provides a mechanism to automatically forward bug reports
23 to me. Currently, I am registered to receive man-page bug
24 reports from the Debian bugzilla, but if other distributions
25 provide a similar facility I may get myself registered for
28 -- writing patches that improve existing pages (see below);
30 -- writing new pages (see below for a list of currently missing pages);
32 -- grepping for the string FIXME in existing pages and writing a
33 suitable patch (see below);
35 -- asking me to add you to my distribution list for notification of
36 new man-pages releases, and reviewing the changes that have
37 occurred during a release (do "diff -ruN" between the directory
38 trees for the current and previous releases); and
40 -- suggesting improvements to this document.
43 HOW TO CONTRIBUTE PATCHES
44 =========================
46 Patches should be sent to Michael Kerrisk, mtk-manpages@gmx.net.
47 When you submit a patch, please note the following:
49 -- Submit a patch against the current version of the page. The current
50 version of the man-pages package can be downloaded from
52 ftp://ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/linux-local/manpages
56 ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/docs/manpages
57 or mirrors: ftp://ftp.XX.kernel.org/pub/linux/docs/manpages
59 -- Let me know how you obtained the information: was it by reading (or
60 writing) the relevant kernel or (g)libc source code; by writing a
61 test program (send it to me, if you want, and if it is clear and
62 simple to use); from other documentation; from a mailing list or
63 Usenet thread (please provide a URL if possible).
65 -- Send patches in "diff -u" format, inline inside the mail message
66 is usually best; if it is a very long patch then send it both inline
69 -- Send logically separate patches (e.g., for unrelated pages) as
72 -- In the body of the mail message, identify the manual page
73 version against which the patch applies.
75 -- Make sure that the mail has a suitable SUBJECT line (i.e., one that
76 mentions the name(s) of the page(s) being patched). Don't put the
77 manual page version in the subject line (it should already be in the
78 body, and cluttering the subject line with a version number does
79 not help me when filing messages...). A suitable subject line might
82 [patch] shmop.2: add "(void *)" cast to RETURN VALUE
85 MANUAL PAGES IN OTHER PACKAGES
86 ==============================
88 Not all Linux manual pages are part of the man-pages set. In
89 particular, most Section 1 and 8 pages come as part of some other
90 package. The easiest way to determine which pages are part of the
91 man-pages package is to download the latest tarball, and see if the
94 If you want to submit a patch for a manual page that comes from another
95 source, then you need to work out where the manual page comes from
96 (i.e., which package) and who the maintainer of that manual page is.
98 On an RPM-based distribution, you can do the following to find out
99 which package owns a particular file. For example, suppose we want
100 to find out who maintains the fstab(5) manual page:
103 /usr/share/man/man5/fstab.5.gz
104 $ rpm -qf /usr/share/man/man5/fstab.5.gz
107 If we then look in the MAINTAINERS file in the util-linux
110 Maintainer: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
112 Maintainer of getopt: Frodo Looijaard <frodol@dds.nl>
113 Maintainer of simpleinit: Richard Gooch <rgooch@atnf.csiro.au>
115 On a Debian-based distribution (e.g. Debian, Knoppix, Ubuntu) you can
119 /usr/share/man/man5/fstab.5.gz
120 $ dpkg -S /usr/share/man/man5/fstab.5.gz
121 mount: /usr/share/man/man5/fstab.5.gz
122 $ dpkg -p mount | grep Maintainer
123 Maintainer: LaMont Jones <lamont@debian.org>
125 Note: this gives you the Debian maintainer of the package in question,
126 which is a good address to report to, since many packages and manual
127 pages are modified by Debian. The maintainer of the original package
128 can usually be found in a README in /usr/share/doc/<package-name>.
129 Use "dpkg -L mount" to find all files from the mount package.
131 (FIXME: add instructions for doing the equivalent of the above on
132 distributions that use other schemes.)
135 REPAIRING PAGES MARKED "FIXME"
136 ==============================
138 Grepping the source of the manual pages will show various places where
139 pages are marked with the string FIXME. This usually indicates that
140 someone has noticed that some information on the page is incorrect
141 or incomplete, but has not had the time/knowledge to fix problem.
142 (Sometimes a FIXME relates to a kernel or glibc bug report that is
143 awaiting resolution, and it may be sufficient to check if the bug
144 has been resolved and then provide a suitable write-up on the page.)
146 If you know how to fix the problem, then please send a patch.
147 However, note that many of the FIXME markings are associated with
148 problems that are quite difficult: you need to ensure that you are
149 knowledgeable on the relevant point(s), or you need to be willing to
150 invest the time to become knowledgeable (by reading kernel or
151 [g]libc source files and/or writing suitable test programs).
154 CONVENTIONS FOR MANUAL PAGE LAYOUT
155 ==================================
157 Please keep source code line length <= 72 characters wherever possible.
158 This helps avoid line-wrapping in some mail clients when patches are
161 New sentences are generally best started on new lines. This makes
162 it easier to see the effect of patches, which often operate at the
163 level of individual sentences.
169 New manual pages, or patches to existing manual pages, can include
170 example programs demonstrating how to use a system call or library
171 function. However, note the following:
173 -- Example programs should be written in C.
175 -- An example program is only necessary and useful if it demonstrates
176 something beyond what can easily be provided in a textual
177 description of the interface. An example program that does nothing
178 other than call an interface usually serves little purpose.
180 -- Example programs should be fairly short (preferably < 100 lines;
183 -- Example programs should do error checking after system calls and
184 library function calls.
186 -- Example programs should be complete, and compile without
187 warnings when compiled with "cc -Wall",
189 -- Where possible and appropriate, example programs should allow
190 experimentation, by varying their behaviour based on inputs
191 (ideally from command-line arguments, or alternatively, via
192 input read by the program).
194 Example programs should be laid out according to Kernighan and
195 Ritchie, with a few concessions:
197 -- 4-space indents are preferred, in unusual cases, 2-space indents
198 may be okay. (Avoid the use of TAB characters in source code!)
200 -- In the interests of keeping a program short, compressing
201 error-handling code such as the following is acceptable:
204 { perror("func"); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); }
206 For some examples of what example programs should look like, see
207 the wait.2 and pipe.2 manual pages.
213 Below is a list of pages that I would like to see in the man-pages set.
214 If you are thinking of writing one or more of these pages, then:
216 -- It might be wise to let me know in advance, just in case someone
217 else has started working on the page, or a related page. I may
218 also be able point you at useful sources of information for
221 -- You need to have a reasonably high degree of understanding of the
222 topic, or be prepared to invest the time (e.g., reading source code,
223 writing test programs) to gain that understanding.
225 -- Follow the existing formatting conventions for manual pages.
226 Some information about formatting is provided in the "man(7)"
227 manual page. As an example of how these conventions are employed,
228 have a look at the "fcntl(2)" manual page and read its source file
231 -- The page must be submitted under some sort of license that permits
232 the page to be freely redistributed and modified. Include that
233 license or a reference to it, in the source code of the manual page.
234 Possible licenses include the GPL, the BSD license, or a range of
235 other licenses, some of which can be seen in existing manual pages.
237 -- You may find it useful to check the information in your page
238 against the specifications in SUSv3/POSIX.1-2001
239 (http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/toc.htm) or against
240 manual pages on other implementations, but do not not violate the
241 copyright on those publications by copying text from them.
243 -- The GNU C library documents many of the functions that it provides
244 using info(1). If you are thinking of writing a manual page for
245 a function that is already documented in info(1) format, then
246 ideally this page needs to present new or different information from
247 that provided by the info(1) page (for example, historical
248 information about how the function has changed across various glibc
249 versions, or variations in operation across C libraries; such
250 information is often not present in info pages). (An alternative to
251 consider is submitting a patch to the maintainers of the glibc
252 documentation, if that is more appropriate.)
258 add_key(2) (new in kernel 2.6.10)
259 keyctl(2) (new in kernel 2.6.10)
260 request_key(2) (new in kernel 2.6.10)
262 Documentation/keys.txt
263 Documentation/keys-request-key.txt
266 ioprio_get(2) (new in kernel 2.6.13)
267 ioprio_set(2) (new in kernel 2.6.13)
268 See Documentation/block/ioprio.txt
271 restart_syscall(2) (new in kernel 2.6)
272 kexec_load(2) (new in kernel 2.6.13)
274 migrate_pages(2) (new in kernel 2.6.16)
275 See Documentation/vm/page_migration
277 preadv(2), pwritev(2) (new in ?? -- see
278 http://www.lwn.net/Articles/164887/ )
281 epoll_pwait(2) (probably will arrive in 2.6.17)
284 The new *at(2) system calls in 2.6.16:
286 openat(2) S [Already documented]
288 fstatat(2) S f (AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW)
290 fchownat(2) S f (AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW)
291 futimesat(2) S [See also glibc wrapper]
295 unlinkat(2) S f (AT_REMOVEDIR)
300 In the above list: functions marked '2' take two dirfd arguments;
301 functions marked 'f' take a flags argument that is not present
302 in their traditional counterparts (and possible flag values
303 are listed in parentheses); and functions marked 'S' have
304 counterparts (not exactly the same) on Solaris.
306 Note that openat(2) is already documented and includes some NOTES
307 on the rationale for the *at() interfaces; this page could serve
308 as a template for the documentation of the remaining system calls.
314 There is no man page for the /sys file system: there probably should
315 be a sys.5 page similar to proc.5. The kernel source file
316 Documentation/filesystems/sysfs.txt provides a starting point for
323 (See a further list of missing pages in the "undocumented(3)" manual page.
325 Searches like the following are likely to sugest other functions
326 that need to be documented:
329 MPDIR=~/man-pages # Directory containing uncompressed man-pages
330 GLIBCDIR=/SOME_DIR # Directory containing glibc tree
332 for f in $(cat $(echo $GLIBCDIR/abilist/*.abilist) | grep -v 'GLIBC' | \
333 awk '{print $1}' | grep -v '^_' | sort -u); do
334 if ! test -f $MPDIR/man3/$f.3 > /dev/null 2>&1 && \
335 ! test -f $MPDIR/man2/$f.2 > /dev/null 2>&1 ; then
344 crypt_r(3) (To be added to crypt.3)
345 dlinfo(3) (Solaris and FreeBSD have a similar function.)
347 dlmopen(3) (Since glibc 2.3.4; probably to be documented in dlopen.3)
348 euidaccess(3) / eaccess(3)
349 fdopendir(3) (since glibc 2.4)
354 gnu_get_libc_release(3)
355 gnu_get_libc_version(3)
359 memmem(3) (GNU extension)
360 mkfifoat(3) -- see notes on the *at(2) syscalls above (since glibc 2.4)
361 readdir_r(3) (probably as additional text in readdir.3)
362 open_wmemstream(3) (since glibc 2.4)
364 program_invocation_name(3)
365 program_invocation_short_name(3)
369 strftime_l(3) (since glibc 2.3)
370 strptime_l(3) (since glibc 2.3.2)
374 sigandset(3), sigosset(3), sigisemptyset(3)
375 (perhaps on same page as sigemptyset(3))
377 fwscanf(3), swscanf(3), vfwscanf(3), vswscanf(3), wscanf(3)
384 argp_program_bug_address(3)
385 argp_program_version(3)
386 argp_program_version_hook(3)
392 posix_spawnattr_destroy(3)
393 posix_spawnattr_getflags(3)
394 posix_spawnattr_getpgroup(3)
395 posix_spawnattr_getschedparam(3)
396 posix_spawnattr_getschedpolicy(3)
397 posix_spawnattr_getsigdefault(3)
398 posix_spawnattr_getsigmask(3)
399 posix_spawnattr_init(3)
400 posix_spawnattr_setflags(3)
401 posix_spawnattr_setpgroup(3)
402 posix_spawnattr_setschedparam(3)
403 posix_spawnattr_setschedpolicy(3)
404 posix_spawnattr_setsigdefault(3)
405 posix_spawnattr_setsigmask(3)
406 posix_spawn_file_actions_addclose(3)
407 posix_spawn_file_actions_adddup2(3)
408 posix_spawn_file_actions_addopen(3)
409 posix_spawn_file_actions_destroy(3)
410 posix_spawn_file_actions_init(3)
420 getaddrinfo_a(3), gai_cancel(3), gai_error(3), gai_suspend(3)
421 (libanl; since glibc 2.2.3; See
422 http://people.redhat.com/~drepper/asynchnl.pdf)
425 Various wide character functions (with their traditional equivalents
426 mentioned in parentheses):
428 wcscoll(3) (strcoll(3))
429 wcsxfrm(3) (strxfrm(3))
430 wcschrnul(3) (strchrnul(3))
431 wcswcs(3) (strstr(3))
432 wcstod(3) (strtod(3))
433 wcstof(3) (strtof(3))
434 wcstold(3) (strtold(3))
436 wcstol(3) (strtol(3))
437 wcstoul(3) (strtoul(3))
438 wcstoll(3) (strtoll(3))
439 wcstoull(3) (strtoull(3))
441 wcstoq(3) (strtoq(3))
442 wcstouq(3) (strtouq(3))
444 wcsftime(3) (strftime(3))
446 After these manual pages are written, add SEE ALSO entries
447 from the pages for the traditional functions to the pages
448 describing their wide-character equivalents.
451 And last, but far from least, the POSIX threads API. Note that there is
452 an existing, outdated set of pages supplied with glibc that document the
453 old LinuxThreads implementation. (These pages are written under a
454 license that allows re-use, so some material that they contain could
455 be used in new pages.) What is required is a set of pages that document
456 the complete API, describing details where LinuxThreads and NPTL diverge
457 from the standard. The existing pthreads(7) manual page, which gives an
458 overview of Pthreads implementations on Linux, is designed as a base
459 document for these manual pages. The list of required manual pages is
460 long (related functions can be grouped on a single page); those marked
461 with more asterisks are probably the most desirable to get done first:
464 pthread_attr_destroy()
465 pthread_attr_getaffinity_np()
466 pthread_attr_getdetachstate()
467 pthread_attr_getguardsize()
468 pthread_attr_getinheritsched()
469 pthread_attr_getschedparam()
470 pthread_attr_getschedpolicy()
471 pthread_attr_getscope()
472 pthread_attr_getstack()
473 pthread_attr_getstackaddr()
474 pthread_attr_getstacksize()
476 pthread_attr_setaffinity_np()
477 pthread_attr_setdetachstate()
478 pthread_attr_setguardsize()
479 pthread_attr_setinheritsched()
480 pthread_attr_setschedparam()
481 pthread_attr_setschedpolicy()
482 pthread_attr_setscope()
483 pthread_attr_setstack()
484 pthread_attr_setstackaddr()
485 pthread_attr_setstacksize()
486 pthread_barrierattr_destroy()
487 pthread_barrierattr_getpshared()
488 pthread_barrierattr_init()
489 pthread_barrierattr_setpshared()
490 pthread_barrier_destroy()
491 pthread_barrier_init()
492 pthread_barrier_wait()
494 pthread_cleanup_pop() **
495 pthread_cleanup_pop_restore_np()
496 pthread_cleanup_push() **
497 pthread_cleanup_push_defer_np()
498 pthread_condattr_destroy()
499 pthread_condattr_getclock()
500 pthread_condattr_getpshared()
501 pthread_condattr_init()
502 pthread_condattr_setclock()
503 pthread_condattr_setpshared()
504 pthread_cond_broadcast() **
505 pthread_cond_destroy() **
506 pthread_cond_init() **
507 pthread_cond_signal() **
508 pthread_cond_timedwait() **
509 pthread_cond_wait() **
514 pthread_getaffinity_np()
516 pthread_getconcurrency()
517 pthread_getcpuclockid()
518 pthread_getschedparam()
519 pthread_getspecific() **
521 pthread_key_create() **
522 pthread_key_delete() **
524 pthread_kill_other_threads_np()
525 pthread_mutexattr_destroy()
526 pthread_mutexattr_getpshared()
527 pthread_mutexattr_gettype()
528 pthread_mutexattr_init()
529 pthread_mutexattr_setpshared()
530 pthread_mutexattr_settype()
531 pthread_mutex_destroy() **
532 pthread_mutex_init() **
533 pthread_mutex_lock() **
534 pthread_mutex_timedlock() **
535 pthread_mutex_trylock() **
536 pthread_mutex_unlock() **
538 pthread_rwlockattr_destroy()
539 pthread_rwlockattr_getkind_np()
540 pthread_rwlockattr_getpshared()
541 pthread_rwlockattr_init()
542 pthread_rwlockattr_setkind_np()
543 pthread_rwlockattr_setpshared()
544 pthread_rwlock_destroy()
545 pthread_rwlock_init()
546 pthread_rwlock_rdlock()
547 pthread_rwlock_timedrdlock()
548 pthread_rwlock_timedwrlock()
549 pthread_rwlock_tryrdlock()
550 pthread_rwlock_trywrlock()
551 pthread_rwlock_unlock()
552 pthread_rwlock_wrlock()
554 pthread_setaffinity_np()
555 pthread_setcancelstate()
556 pthread_setcanceltype()
557 pthread_setconcurrency()
558 pthread_setschedparam()
559 pthread_setspecific() **
561 pthread_spin_destroy()
564 pthread_spin_trylock()
565 pthread_spin_unlock()
566 pthread_testcancel() **
567 pthread_timedjoin_np()
572 And new in glibc 2.4:
574 pthread_mutex_consistent_np()
575 pthread_mutexattr_getrobust_np()
576 pthread_mutexattr_setrobust_np()
577 pthread_mutexattr_getprotocol()
578 pthread_mutexattr_setprotocol()
579 pthread_mutexattr_getprioceiling()
580 pthread_mutexattr_setprioceiling()
581 pthread_mutex_getprioceiling()
582 pthread_mutex_setprioceiling()