No info pages?

segmental · 2004-11-26 16:31:10

I was just reading a man page, it does not matter which, and
at the end, as they often do, it said something to the effect --
"for complete information see the info page".

Except there are none. And installing texinfo gives you the
info page reader, but not the *.info files.

Are they omitted by design in Arch to save disk space?

sarah31 · 2004-11-26 16:55:05

yes

z4ziggy · 2004-11-26 17:39:04

that issue was brought up some time ago. here is a web link for the gnu tools - it should be sufficient :
http://www.lns.cornell.edu/public/COMP/info/

segmental · 2004-11-27 01:27:32

Thank you, but it is not a very complete list.

Plus, all of the pages I looked at were dated from
1995 to 1997. Maybe something has changed since then?

I guess we are so advanced here we do not even need
what used to be standard documentation.

sarah31 · 2004-11-27 01:43:06

now this is just my limited experience but when i used distros that had info files installed i rarely used them or found them useful when i did. I found many info file woefully out of date or not even very informative for that matter.

when it comes down to comparing manpages and info files i find manpages the most useful ..... that is if i cannot find the details i need in a google.con/linux search.

Now many people do find the info files useful so ymmv.

z4ziggy · 2004-11-27 01:48:16

its not really finding info pages more useful than man, its simply sometimes man pages refer you to the info pages (i remeber grub as one example)... but true, as u said, all info can be found on google

punkrockguy318 · 2004-11-27 03:53:40

sarah31 wrote:

now this is just my limited experience but when i used distros that had info files installed i rarely used them or found them useful when i did. I found many info file woefully out of date or not even very informative for that matter.
when it comes down to comparing manpages and info files i find manpages the most useful ..... that is if i cannot find the details i need in a google.con/linux search.
Now many people do find the info files useful so ymmv.

My thoughts exactly... Man pages are great! They give you a description of all the command-line options and a bunch of other crap you don't even need to know. And if you want more, then do this:

$links google.com/linux

and you have everything you will EVER need to know.

Dusty · 2004-11-27 04:18:05

I never could figure out how to use the info tool. It came as a relief that Arch got rid of that cruft... in spite of the fact that searching google is not quite as easy for me as it is for those of you on broadband.

dp · 2004-11-27 10:06:56

if you feel like needing info, you can look here:

http://www.fifi.org/cgi-bin/info2www?(dir)

it contains an online info2www with most of the standard infos

skeeterbug · 2004-11-27 12:07:03

There's also this:
http://www.gnu.org/manual/manual.html

segmental · 2004-11-28 03:28:47

Thanks to all, I now have plenty of reading material.

dp · 2004-11-28 04:26:44

segmental wrote:

Thanks to all, I now have plenty of reading material.

if you need more:

http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/

http://en.wikipedia.org --- wow: todays featured article: Firefox http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Firefox :shock:

dp · 2004-11-28 04:27:42

ohh ... and of course, there is the kb of linuxmafia:

http://linuxmafia.com/kb/

Dusty · 2004-11-28 04:33:46

dp, if you make a forum post for every URL in your bookmarks, the forum will be overburdened....

jak · 2004-12-27 15:50:23

matthias_k wrote:

Just cutting out everything besides the man pages and NOT providing any alternatives is not a good idea IMO

I never liked navigating info docs with the raw info program; pinfo is a wrapper for info that makes navigation much easier. Big man pages like bash or gcc are just too long to wade through -- I really appreciate pinfo then.

JoyFM · 2008-01-24 14:35:24

I know that I fish this thread out after a long time ... but this is a thing which can be realy annoying if you want to take a look at the info pages.

The Linux (GNU(!!!)/Linux) core software (like all the gnu stuff) is mostly just in the info pages realy good documentated. Becouse the gnu guys like info more than man ... (it seems its technically better)

Disk space in our time is realy cheap so I don't see the why not including the documentation? I know you posted the links but I think its more easy to type "info *myapplication*" than opening a browser ... surf on that page search and waste time xD

So I know that Judd didn't use info pages but I find them quiet usefull

And I don't want to recompile every single package (than I could use gentoo or something) ... arch IS a BINARY distro ... maybe we could a pacman option wheather it shall install the documentation or not!

I hope you understand my point

P.S. Sorry for my bad english ^^

Last edited by JoyFM (2008-01-24 14:37:22)

phrakture · 2008-01-24 17:49:01

Or, as everyone has said for ages. Someone can make another repo that just contains the docs, so you can install them if you want.

I bring this up every time someone mentions this: Go ahead, provide info pages. I'm sure people will use them, but I won't

dolby · 2008-01-24 18:16:09

JoyFM wrote:

maybe we could a pacman option wheather it shall install the documentation or not!

i am having thoughts about finding a way of omiiting translations. i wonder if adding the appropriate dir paths in makepkg.conf will do the job

Last edited by dolby (2008-01-24 18:16:22)

Arch Linux

#1 2004-11-26 16:31:10

No info pages?

#2 2004-11-26 16:55:05

Re: No info pages?

#3 2004-11-26 17:39:04

Re: No info pages?

#4 2004-11-27 01:27:32

Re: No info pages?

#5 2004-11-27 01:43:06

Re: No info pages?

#6 2004-11-27 01:48:16

Re: No info pages?

#7 2004-11-27 03:53:40

Re: No info pages?

#8 2004-11-27 04:18:05

Re: No info pages?

#9 2004-11-27 10:06:56

Re: No info pages?

#10 2004-11-27 12:07:03

Re: No info pages?

#11 2004-11-28 03:28:47

Re: No info pages?

#12 2004-11-28 04:26:44

Re: No info pages?

#13 2004-11-28 04:27:42

Re: No info pages?

#14 2004-11-28 04:33:46

Re: No info pages?

#15 2004-12-27 15:50:23

Re: No info pages?

#16 2008-01-24 14:35:24

Re: No info pages?

#17 2008-01-24 17:49:01

Re: No info pages?

#18 2008-01-24 18:16:09

Re: No info pages?

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