"Meller, Thomas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hello Jim,
[please use the mailing list (Cc'd) in the future] > I think this whish ist best sent to you. > IMHO this could help a lot of system admins do their jobs better. > > Meanwhile, I found that the OS release I got does not support this > functionality. Mentioning the change-list or the implementation date > somewhere would be helpful, too. Run this command to see many examples: info coreutils 'date invocation' examples Both "man date" and "date --help" already suggest that you run this (same as above, but without "examples"): info coreutils 'date invocation' And when you do that, you see an 8-item menu where the last one is "* Examples of date::". Type "m" (for menu) and then "E", (the first letter in the item you want), and TAB, and ENTER. So maybe all you really need is a more up to date man page? There is so much high-quality documentation that is available most conveniently in Texinfo/info format, that it really is worth spending a few minutes to become familiar with the basics of using "info" (Run "info info"). > Regards, > Thomas > > -----Original Message----- > From: Jeanne Rasata via RT [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Dienstag, 12. August 2008 12:47 > To: Meller, Thomas > Subject: [gnu.org #371319] missing in documentation? > > Hello, Thomas, > >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Mo. 11. Aug. 2008, 10:31:53]: >> >> Hello colleagues! >> >> first of all I think it is best to thank you for your great work. >> I am now working with LinuX since '94 and earning my life with it for > 8 >> years. >> Up to now I did not find a better system. >> But.... >> >> ...there are times when I think things could be better. >> >> I am systems administrator doing maintenance on Swiss Railways systems >> since >> 10/2000. Often I need to generate logfiles due to commercial > software's >> incapabilities or simply because nothing fulfils my needs. >> >> Since half a year I try to generate a platform to monitor the >> responsiveness of an LDAP server. (peu a peu - 24 is too less an hour >> for a day) >> To do this, I was in need of a timestamp converter. >> >> I found it, it's name: convdate (part of INN package) >> I then found, that awk could do (part of) the job better. >> Then I needed to create future timestamps, calculated by shell script. >> OK, then I needed to convert it to generate a html meta-tag. >> (back and forth, forth and back :-( >> >> Well, I found a way. But I did not find that 'date' could do the job > as >> well. >> >> The reason: time representations are not mentioned in the man page. >> The '-d' switch is described extremely brief. >> Since 8 years I did not learn how to use it. >> >> OK, you could say I should have read the info pages. >> But it is simply said not obvious, that I could find more infos there. >> Calculation of future timestamps or the representations of a numeric >> timestamp to do calculations with is not mentioned in the man page. It >> is hidden behind the (awkward) techinfo system. >> >> I could have had a profit to learn this fact some years ago, but there >> was no hint in sight. >> So it took 15 years and the help of a newbie to make me learn > something >> really valuable. >> >> (just to mention: there are 11 colleagues doing Unix since >20 years, >> no-one could help me) >> >> I think it is a good idea to at least add a hint on the format >> descriptions in the manpage, if not to add 2-3 non-trivial examples. >> Even if you search the internet, you will never find something >> substantial on such an advanced topic. >> >> I'd really appreciate a change in the man docs. >> Not a big one. A link, a hint, or an example. >> >> Thanks! >> Thomas >> >> --- keep it up! --- >> > > Thank you very much for the positive feedback and for having taken the > time to write us with this suggestion. > Unfortunately, this is only the general e-mail contact for the FSF and > the GNU project and I am unable to answer technical questions. My best > suggestion would be to contact the project mailing lists and recommend > that they update the man pages. You can find their contact information > in their entry in our Free Software Directory at > http://directory.fsf.org. Also, you might find it helpful to go to > http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/ where you will find a complete > list of all the public mailing lists. > Thanks again for your time and support of free software. > Sincerely, _______________________________________________ Bug-coreutils mailing list Bug-coreutils@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-coreutils