Most systems are configured these days to store processed copies of the man pages. However, it is a Unix tradition that the choice is left to the system administrator. A very popular approach is to leave all the man pages in markup format and only process and keep the ones people have referenced. The input markup allows printing nicely formatted hard copy using troff in addition to the screen format produced by nroff which was limited by dumb terminal constraints.
You should read more about the history of early Unix. Unix was developed by some *very* smart people. There is great value in understanding why they did what they did. I especially commend to your attention the two volume collection of Bell Labs papers on Unix. Have Fun! Reg -------------------------------------------- On Tue, 7/10/18, Mayuresh Kathe <[email protected]> wrote: Subject: [discuss] man pages : why not regular text files? To: "illumos-discuss" <[email protected]> Date: Tuesday, July 10, 2018, 11:35 AM hi, why aren't man pages just regular text files? google has been unable to give me an answer. with present day hardware, there ought to be enough disk space to store them bare! illumos / illumos-discuss / see discussions + participants + delivery options Permalink ------------------------------------------ illumos: illumos-discuss Permalink: https://illumos.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/Td9b9d258c346dfe5-M484a0bb9c82fd4f7fed353c3 Delivery options: https://illumos.topicbox.com/groups
