diff options
| author | Alejandro Colomar <alx@kernel.org> | 2023-03-17 17:08:01 +0100 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Alejandro Colomar <alx@kernel.org> | 2023-03-30 15:14:55 +0200 |
| commit | 4131356cdab8d37fc395ca5466a0401c8573380c (patch) | |
| tree | 8c4c6f1c3172358b735b481cbbfdd9cc04b00ed9 /man7/man-pages.7 | |
| parent | fd00f831b52d61a91d59cb3b46182869145d9700 (diff) | |
| download | man-pages-4131356cdab8d37fc395ca5466a0401c8573380c.tar.gz | |
man*/, man-pages.7: VERSIONS, STANDARDS, HISTORY: Reorganize sections
- Add a new HISTORY section that covers the history of an API, both
regarding implementations and regarding old standards. This was
previously covered in VERSIONS, and in some cases in STANDARDS.
- Repurpose VERSIONS to cover differing implementations in _current_
systems.
- STANDARDS is reduced to only cover current versions of standards.
That basically means only C11 (C99 has been superseeded by C11; C17
is just a bugfix of C11, so not really a new version), and
POSIX.1-2008 (*-2001 was superseeded by *-2008; *-2017 was just a
bugfix for *-2008). The section also mentions for example 'Linux',
'GNU' or 'BSD' when a non-standard API is Linux- or GNU-only or if
it's (de-facto) standard in the BSDs.
- In some cases content that should go into one of these sections was
in NOTES. Move it from there to where it corresponds.
- In the SYNOPSIS, I added [[deprecated]] in some functions that I
found are deprecated by the relevant standards.
- A few other related changes...
Cc: Oskari Pirhonen <xxc3ncoredxx@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Alejandro Colomar <alx@kernel.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'man7/man-pages.7')
| -rw-r--r-- | man7/man-pages.7 | 56 |
1 files changed, 30 insertions, 26 deletions
diff --git a/man7/man-pages.7 b/man7/man-pages.7 index 610171e4b8..d63f2d8f2b 100644 --- a/man7/man-pages.7 +++ b/man7/man-pages.7 @@ -151,6 +151,7 @@ FILES ATTRIBUTES [Normally only in Sections 2, 3] VERSIONS [Normally only in Sections 2, 3] STANDARDS +HISTORY NOTES CAVEATS BUGS @@ -341,12 +342,35 @@ See for further details. .TP .B VERSIONS +A summary of systems where the API performs differently, +or where there's a similar API. +.TP +.B STANDARDS +A description of any standards or conventions that relate to the function +or command described by the manual page. +.IP +The preferred terms to use for the various standards are listed as +headings in +.BR standards (7). +.IP +This section should note the current standards to which the API conforms to. +.IP +If the API is not governed by any standards but commonly +exists on other systems, note them. +If the call is Linux-specific or GNU-specific, note this. +If it's available in the BSDs, note that. +.IP +If this section consists of just a list of standards +(which it commonly does), +terminate the list with a period (\[aq].\[aq]). +.TP +.B HISTORY A brief summary of the Linux kernel or glibc versions where a system call or library function appeared, or changed significantly in its operation. .IP As a general rule, every new interface should -include a VERSIONS section in its manual page. +include a HISTORY section in its manual page. Unfortunately, many existing manual pages don't include this information (since there was no policy to do so when they were written). @@ -362,31 +386,11 @@ The .BR syscalls (2) manual page also provides information about kernel versions in which various system calls first appeared. -.TP -.B STANDARDS -A description of any standards or conventions that relate to the function -or command described by the manual page. -.IP -The preferred terms to use for the various standards are listed as -headings in -.BR standards (7). -.IP -For a page in Section 2 or 3, -this section should note the POSIX.1 -version(s) that the call conforms to, -and also whether the call is specified in C99. -(Don't worry too much about other standards like SUS, SUSv2, and XPG, -or the SVr4 and 4.xBSD implementation standards, -unless the call was specified in those standards, -but isn't in the current version of POSIX.1.) -.IP -If the call is not governed by any standards but commonly -exists on other systems, note them. -If the call is Linux-specific, note this. -.IP -If this section consists of just a list of standards -(which it commonly does), -terminate the list with a period (\[aq].\[aq]). +.PP +Old versions of standards should be mentioned here, +rather than in STANDARDS, +for example, +SUS, SUSv2, and XPG, or the SVr4 and 4.xBSD implementation standards. .TP .B NOTES Miscellaneous notes. |