On Thu, 15 Sep 2005 at 2:20pm, Clive Galway wrote > Is there any documentation other than the official manual ? > The one I have (dated june 26 2005, so I presume it is recent) is > woefully poor and has in some cases made the install harder, not > easier.
Err, how many OSS projects do *you* know that have 350+ page manuals? Now, what are the sizes of the development teams for those projects? For a project the size of amanda, that manual is nothing short of a wonder, and I applaud those who took the time to put it together. > Some examples: > Chapter 2.2.1 - last line of page 33, start of page 34: > it talks about the $prefix dir and the various command-line parameters > that use the $prefix variable. If users have to change some things, > then, like me, they will be lulled into thinking they should use > something like --llibdir=/etc/amanda/lib > This would cause a problem though because then some things would be > installed under the prefix dir and some would not. Isn't that the point of mucking about with configure parameters -- putting some things in one place and some things in others? > For god's sake, just list the --prefix= command. > If users are advanced enough to want dirs scattered all over the place, > let them dig for the information in the ./configure --help pages. So, here you're complaining that the documentation is *too* comprehensive? > Chapter 2.3.1 - top of page 36: > "If you are running NIS (aka YP) ..." > Yeah. Right. Cause we all know what that is and whether we are running > it. NIS isn't one of those services that automagically run in the background without your knowledge. It won't be running unless you set it up. And 2 min with google would let you know what it is. > Why is it that all linux documentation seems to be like this ? I know > catering to the lowest common denominator sucks, but at least catering > for the user with medium experience would be nice. To my eye, the manual looks to cater to folks of all experience levels. > 100+ man-hours and counting to set up AMANDA for just backing up one > server... And I have a bloody LPI cert in linux so I am not a drooling > newbie... This is ridiculous. Then offer some *concrete suggestions* as to what could make it better. Just coming in and ranting at a group of volunteers rarely is helpful. Myself, given your, err, complaints, I think that perhaps a quick-start chapter may be in order. Now where did I put those circular tuits? -- Joshua Baker-LePain Department of Biomedical Engineering Duke University