Add my voice to those saying to never delete those references: even if the corresponding packages aren't installed, given the reference in the manual page I can finding them using different means. If they're not in the manual page, I don't have that opportunity.
On Sat, Oct 30, 2021 at 12:08 PM James K. Lowden <[email protected]> wrote: > A longstanding complaint of mine regarding Linux man pages is that they > frequently have broken SEE ALSO references. I wonder if there's not > something the groff project could do to encourage packaging systems to > avoid such errors. > > Today's page in question is edltline(3), the BSD complement to > readline. On my Ubuntu page, SEE ALSO says: > > > .Sh SEE ALSO > > .Xr mg 1 , > > .Xr vi 1 , > > .Xr editline 3edit , > > .Xr el_wgets 3 , > > .Xr el_wpush 3 , > > .Xr el_wset 3 , > > .Xr editrc 5edit > > What, I wonder, is "mg"? > > $ man mg > No manual entry for mg > > Feh. > > What Linux lacks here is a cross-reference cross-reference: a way for > the package installer (the program) to delete cross-references for > packages not installed, and to re-insert latent cross-reference after > the referenced package is installed. > > For example, the above section could read > > .ig mg.1 > .Xr mg 1 , > mg.1 > > Upon installation of /usr/share/man/man1/mg.1 , the installer could > remove the .ig and restore the cross-reference. > > I guess my goal is to have groff include/offer a tool that an installer > could use to apply changes like that. The tool wouldn't require the > packager (person or software) to know anthing about mdoc or man or > groff. It would just list the pages being added/deleted, and the tool > would rummage around updating SEE ALSO accordingly, perhaps aided by an > index. > > Surely I'm not the first to think of this. Does anyone here have a war > story of any similar attempt? > > --jkl > > -- T. Kurt Bond, [email protected], https://tkurtbond.github.io
