#manpages — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #manpages, aggregated by home.social.
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FreeBSD manual pages online: I figured out what's wrong with two of the examples in the first of these three screenshots.
The wrongness is easier to see when the text from the page is copied to nano (shot 2) and Fresh (shot 3). What appears to be an ordinary space is in fact:
― non-printable U+0009 (CHARACTER TABULATION) (horizontal tabulation (HT))
A tab.
So, examples are broken when copying from official documentation.
This might be <https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=274208>:
274208 – man.freebsd.org with GNU groff 1.23.0: issues with text alignment (e.g. justification) and adjustment
– the src tree is not bugged at <https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/blob/7e06c33151e7664f6d664ee282d8da1985ce94aa/contrib/vis/vis.1#L174-L183>.
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FreeBSD manual pages online: I figured out what's wrong with two of the examples in the first of these three screenshots.
The wrongness is easier to see when the text from the page is copied to nano (shot 2) and Fresh (shot 3). What appears to be an ordinary space is in fact:
― non-printable U+0009 (CHARACTER TABULATION) (horizontal tabulation (HT))
A tab.
So, examples are broken when copying from official documentation.
This might be <https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=274208>:
274208 – man.freebsd.org with GNU groff 1.23.0: issues with text alignment (e.g. justification) and adjustment
– the src tree is not bugged at <https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/blob/7e06c33151e7664f6d664ee282d8da1985ce94aa/contrib/vis/vis.1#L174-L183>.
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FreeBSD manual pages online: I figured out what's wrong with two of the examples in the first of these three screenshots.
The wrongness is easier to see when the text from the page is copied to nano (shot 2) and Fresh (shot 3). What appears to be an ordinary space is in fact:
― non-printable U+0009 (CHARACTER TABULATION) (horizontal tabulation (HT))
A tab.
So, examples are broken when copying from official documentation.
This might be <https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=274208>:
274208 – man.freebsd.org with GNU groff 1.23.0: issues with text alignment (e.g. justification) and adjustment
– the src tree is not bugged at <https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/blob/7e06c33151e7664f6d664ee282d8da1985ce94aa/contrib/vis/vis.1#L174-L183>.
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FreeBSD manual pages online: I figured out what's wrong with two of the examples in the first of these three screenshots.
The wrongness is easier to see when the text from the page is copied to nano (shot 2) and Fresh (shot 3). What appears to be an ordinary space is in fact:
― non-printable U+0009 (CHARACTER TABULATION) (horizontal tabulation (HT))
A tab.
So, examples are broken when copying from official documentation.
This might be <https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=274208>:
274208 – man.freebsd.org with GNU groff 1.23.0: issues with text alignment (e.g. justification) and adjustment
– the src tree is not bugged at <https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/blob/7e06c33151e7664f6d664ee282d8da1985ce94aa/contrib/vis/vis.1#L174-L183>.
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FreeBSD manual pages online: I figured out what's wrong with two of the examples in the first of these three screenshots.
The wrongness is easier to see when the text from the page is copied to nano (shot 2) and Fresh (shot 3). What appears to be an ordinary space is in fact:
― non-printable U+0009 (CHARACTER TABULATION) (horizontal tabulation (HT))
A tab.
So, examples are broken when copying from official documentation.
This might be <https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=274208>:
274208 – man.freebsd.org with GNU groff 1.23.0: issues with text alignment (e.g. justification) and adjustment
– the src tree is not bugged at <https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/blob/7e06c33151e7664f6d664ee282d8da1985ce94aa/contrib/vis/vis.1#L174-L183>.
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My favorite hobby is my #homelab. It’s where I continuously improve my Unix administration and networking skills. It took me basically all weekend but I have my home lab completely isolated and virtualized on an 8th gen i7 Dell OptiPlex 7060 with 32GB of RAM. I also have a 14TB Iron Wolf HD
The hardest part was setting up the virtual network. I’d never done that kind of thing manually. I’d just used whatever default network that #libvirt created for me. This was hard and did require googling and reading #manpages. The problem with the wizard that creates networks is there’s no option for both DNAT and SNAT.
I learned a lot and got it working perfectly despite the garbage #verizon CR1000A router and its notorious bug. Yeah, you can’t add static routes. So I’m in a double NAT situation. Turns out this is okay because it effectively isolates the homelab. All I had to do was add static routing on my laptop and desktop.
Nobody else will be able to access my homelab unless they know its network and gateway addresses, much less how to configure a static route. It’s basic but works.
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My favorite hobby is my #homelab. It’s where I continuously improve my Unix administration and networking skills. It took me basically all weekend but I have my home lab completely isolated and virtualized on an 8th gen i7 Dell OptiPlex 7060 with 32GB of RAM. I also have a 14TB Iron Wolf HD
The hardest part was setting up the virtual network. I’d never done that kind of thing manually. I’d just used whatever default network that #libvirt created for me. This was hard and did require googling and reading #manpages. The problem with the wizard that creates networks is there’s no option for both DNAT and SNAT.
I learned a lot and got it working perfectly despite the garbage #verizon CR1000A router and its notorious bug. Yeah, you can’t add static routes. So I’m in a double NAT situation. Turns out this is okay because it effectively isolates the homelab. All I had to do was add static routing on my laptop and desktop.
Nobody else will be able to access my homelab unless they know its network and gateway addresses, much less how to configure a static route. It’s basic but works.
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On a recent system update, I was alerted to the fact that I had modified a config file(/etc/groff/man.local). Did I want to merge them? Discard them? Fuck if I knew. 😆
.\" man.local - Added 202203 kbowen
.\" Add a searchable string before each section header
.rn SH SH-orig
.de SH
.SH-orig \(sc \\$*Looking at the diff, I had no recollection of adding these lines. Fortunately for me, my past self was considerate enough to indicate their purpose. Unfortunately for me, my past self failed to credit the source for their inspiration. Bad dog!
I'd really like to read the article where I cribbed this from today.
Better a half-assed comment then no comment at all, I guess. But, still. Do better. -
On a recent system update, I was alerted to the fact that I had modified a config file(/etc/groff/man.local). Did I want to merge them? Discard them? Fuck if I knew. 😆
.\" man.local - Added 202203 kbowen
.\" Add a searchable string before each section header
.rn SH SH-orig
.de SH
.SH-orig \(sc \\$*Looking at the diff, I had no recollection of adding these lines. Fortunately for me, my past self was considerate enough to indicate their purpose. Unfortunately for me, my past self failed to credit the source for their inspiration. Bad dog!
I'd really like to read the article where I cribbed this from today.
Better a half-assed comment then no comment at all, I guess. But, still. Do better. -
Hello everyone, I made some updates to ManpageViewer, fixed some bugs, implemented interface improvements, now it's easier to read the manpages, and the search system has also been improved. As you can see, I also adopted another name. I also expanded the scope, with the creation of "Custom Manpages," I can add the manpages of a specific software.
#man #manpages #FreeBSD #MINIX #NetBSD #OpenBSD #UNIX #pkgsrc #DataBase
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Hello everyone, I made some updates to ManpageViewer, fixed some bugs, implemented interface improvements, now it's easier to read the manpages, and the search system has also been improved. As you can see, I also adopted another name. I also expanded the scope, with the creation of "Custom Manpages," I can add the manpages of a specific software.
#man #manpages #FreeBSD #MINIX #NetBSD #OpenBSD #UNIX #pkgsrc #DataBase
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lolcat tricks and fun
In case you have ever wondered what it would look like to have all of your favourite console output piped through lolcat(6) 🏳️🌈, here is a nice example
required (one of *sh is enough)
- Open Source OS
- sh
- csh
- ksh
- zsh
- bash
- fish
- syntax skills on piping I/O
- love of colours
- typing skills
- sense of humour
typing
man lolcat...will get you the standard sh output delimited by the man command itself. This means that I used a simple trick to get all of my output piped through lolcat
ssh -Xv -p65534 -l userid |lolcatThis command syntax gets all of my commands in that ssh session piped through lolcat, creating an awsome rainbow colour galore
notes
- ssh secure session piped through lolcat gets you a slower output, compliments of the inner workings of lolcat. Feel free to optimize the program and release the patches if the lowerspeed irks you.
- test the speed by doing
ls -lR ~and compare that in a standard ssh sessios without full lolcat pipe- I used the -X switch because I also start X programs from this shell (which I run in Xorg {it also works in wayland})
- I use the -v switch because I love log messages of ssh
- you can also animate your piped lolcat output with
lolcat -a- I watch the output on a large TV also, because lolcat(6) 🏳️🌈 is that awsome
sources:
lolcat --helpman lolcat(6) 🏳️🌈
https://github.com/busyloop/lolcat
man man(1)
#programming #rainbow #sh #csh #ksh #zsh #bash #fish #lolcat #man #manpages #OpenSource #Linux #BSD #POSIX #TV
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lolcat tricks and fun
In case you have ever wondered what it would look like to have all of your favourite console output piped through lolcat(6) 🏳️🌈, here is a nice example
required (one of *sh is enough)
- Open Source OS
- sh
- csh
- ksh
- zsh
- bash
- fish
- syntax skills on piping I/O
- love of colours
- typing skills
- sense of humour
typing
man lolcat...will get you the standard sh output delimited by the man command itself. This means that I used a simple trick to get all of my output piped through lolcat
ssh -Xv -p65534 -l userid |lolcatThis command syntax gets all of my commands in that ssh session piped through lolcat, creating an awsome rainbow colour galore
notes
- ssh secure session piped through lolcat gets you a slower output, compliments of the inner workings of lolcat. Feel free to optimize the program and release the patches if the lowerspeed irks you.
- test the speed by doing
ls -lR ~and compare that in a standard ssh sessios without full lolcat pipe- I used the -X switch because I also start X programs from this shell (which I run in Xorg {it also works in wayland})
- I use the -v switch because I love log messages of ssh
- you can also animate your piped lolcat output with
lolcat -a- I watch the output on a large TV also, because lolcat(6) 🏳️🌈 is that awsome
sources:
lolcat --helpman lolcat(6) 🏳️🌈
https://github.com/busyloop/lolcat
man man(1)
#programming #rainbow #sh #csh #ksh #zsh #bash #fish #lolcat #man #manpages #OpenSource #Linux #BSD #POSIX #TV
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🤣 Oh, joy! Yet another groundbreaking revelation: people like *examples* in man pages. Who could have guessed? 🚀 Thank goodness someone finally added the most *basic* #examples to #tcpdump and #dig... because, you know, reading is hard. 📚🔍
https://jvns.ca/blog/2026/03/10/examples-for-the-tcpdump-and-dig-man-pages/ #manpages #programming #humor #HackerNews #ngated -
🤣 Oh, joy! Yet another groundbreaking revelation: people like *examples* in man pages. Who could have guessed? 🚀 Thank goodness someone finally added the most *basic* #examples to #tcpdump and #dig... because, you know, reading is hard. 📚🔍
https://jvns.ca/blog/2026/03/10/examples-for-the-tcpdump-and-dig-man-pages/ #manpages #programming #humor #HackerNews #ngated -
Examples for the tcpdump and dig man pages
https://jvns.ca/blog/2026/03/10/examples-for-the-tcpdump-and-dig-man-pages/
#HackerNews #tcpdump #dig #manpages #networking #examples #techblog
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Examples for the tcpdump and dig man pages
https://jvns.ca/blog/2026/03/10/examples-for-the-tcpdump-and-dig-man-pages/
#HackerNews #tcpdump #dig #manpages #networking #examples #techblog
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Seems command-line interface tools #cli with good #manpages / help info are very powerful because automatic coding tools can easily interface with them & use them correctly, even without additional context. Interestingly, many machine-based coding assistants are extremely good at generating command-line oriented programs in the first place. Until now, I struggled to build solid GUIs, for example with #ratatui. Keeping software using the CLI - as well - seems to provide big automation advantages.
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Seems command-line interface tools #cli with good #manpages / help info are very powerful because automatic coding tools can easily interface with them & use them correctly, even without additional context. Interestingly, many machine-based coding assistants are extremely good at generating command-line oriented programs in the first place. Until now, I struggled to build solid GUIs, for example with #ratatui. Keeping software using the CLI - as well - seems to provide big automation advantages.
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💯!
“Notes On Clarifying Man Pages”, Julia Evans (https://jvns.ca/blog/2026/02/18/man-pages/).
On HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47065972
On Lobsters: https://lobste.rs/s/zpifkh/notes_on_clarifying_man_pages
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💯!
“Notes On Clarifying Man Pages”, Julia Evans (https://jvns.ca/blog/2026/02/18/man-pages/).
On HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47065972
On Lobsters: https://lobste.rs/s/zpifkh/notes_on_clarifying_man_pages
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<https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#style> mentions the one-sentence-per-line rule for manual pages, however:
a) there's no such rule in mdoc(7) <https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=mdoc&sektion=7&manpath=freebsd-current> or style.mdoc(5) <https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=style.mdoc&sektion=5&manpath=freebsd-current>; and
b) I frequently see multiple lines for a single sentence – is this simply because authors and reviewers happily ignore a rule?
A random pick, from a very recently changed page:
– the longest line is 78 characters.
FreeBSD style aside, Debian man-pages(7) suggests a source code line length of no more than about 75 characters wherever possible: <https://manpages.debian.org/trixie/manpages/man-pages.7.en.html#Conventions_for_source_file_layout>.
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<https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#style> mentions the one-sentence-per-line rule for manual pages, however:
a) there's no such rule in mdoc(7) <https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=mdoc&sektion=7&manpath=freebsd-current> or style.mdoc(5) <https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=style.mdoc&sektion=5&manpath=freebsd-current>; and
b) I frequently see multiple lines for a single sentence – is this simply because authors and reviewers happily ignore a rule?
A random pick, from a very recently changed page:
– the longest line is 78 characters.
FreeBSD style aside, Debian man-pages(7) suggests a source code line length of no more than about 75 characters wherever possible: <https://manpages.debian.org/trixie/manpages/man-pages.7.en.html#Conventions_for_source_file_layout>.
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Käyttääköhän kekään enää #Texinfo'a? Siis ainakaan alkuperäiseen tarkoitukseensa #man-sivuja laajempana järjestelmän ohjeistuksena? Enää #Debian'kaan ei tunnu asentavan infoa oletuksena, vaikka nimenomaan #GNU'n ohjelmissa joskus man-sivu on tynkä ja varsinainen tieto info-sivulla. #floss #linux #unix #manpages #infopages
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Käyttääköhän kekään enää #Texinfo'a? Siis ainakaan alkuperäiseen tarkoitukseensa #man-sivuja laajempana järjestelmän ohjeistuksena? Enää #Debian'kaan ei tunnu asentavan infoa oletuksena, vaikka nimenomaan #GNU'n ohjelmissa joskus man-sivu on tynkä ja varsinainen tieto info-sivulla. #floss #linux #unix #manpages #infopages
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@zer0unplanned This post looks very useful. I made a similar tool (still in beta with errors) to grab screenshots and raw data of manual pages #manpages for #linux commands, in this case #ssh info, and to present the different layers that are the OS, app and nixos settings. The program ssh-key-manager is in my flake https://repoducible.org ( features/security/packages #flake #part can be pulled out into another flake) & bit of a monster. Yours looks ultra compact #nixos
#flakepart #flakeparts -
@zer0unplanned This post looks very useful. I made a similar tool (still in beta with errors) to grab screenshots and raw data of manual pages #manpages for #linux commands, in this case #ssh info, and to present the different layers that are the OS, app and nixos settings. The program ssh-key-manager is in my flake https://repoducible.org ( features/security/packages #flake #part can be pulled out into another flake) & bit of a monster. Yours looks ultra compact #nixos
#flakepart #flakeparts -
What are people using these days to write #ManPages? I've been using #pod2man for years, because pod is easy to write, and pod2man has come with every version of #perl since the stone age and so is installed everywhere that matters. I can't help feeling a bit dirty though, writing pod to document code written in #C or #Rust.
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What are people using these days to write #ManPages? I've been using #pod2man for years, because pod is easy to write, and pod2man has come with every version of #perl since the stone age and so is installed everywhere that matters. I can't help feeling a bit dirty though, writing pod to document code written in #C or #Rust.
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Warum die Kommandozeile dein wichtigstes Linux‑Werkzeug ist
Warum du die Werkzeugkasten‑Philosophie kennen solltest Wenn du als Administrator ernsthaft mit Linux arbeiten willst, kommst du an der Kommandozeile nicht vorbei. Anders als grafische Oberflächen, die dir meistens große, monolithische Programmpakete an die Hand geben, setzt die Kommandozeile auf viele kleine Werkzeuge, die du frei kombinieren kannst, um maßgeschneiderte Lösungen für deine Aufgaben zu bauen. Gerade im Server‑Umfeld, bei Automatisierung, Skripting und Fehlersuche […]https://andreas-moor.de/warum-die-kommandozeile-dein-wichtigstes-linux-werkzeug-ist/
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Warum die Kommandozeile dein wichtigstes Linux‑Werkzeug ist
Warum du die Werkzeugkasten‑Philosophie kennen solltest Wenn du als Administrator ernsthaft mit Linux arbeiten willst, kommst du an der Kommandozeile nicht vorbei. Anders als grafische Oberflächen, die dir meistens große, monolithische Programmpakete an die Hand geben, setzt die Kommandozeile auf viele kleine Werkzeuge, die du frei kombinieren kannst, um maßgeschneiderte Lösungen für deine Aufgaben zu bauen. Gerade im Server‑Umfeld, bei Automatisierung, Skripting und Fehlersuche […]https://andreas-moor.de/warum-die-kommandozeile-dein-wichtigstes-linux-werkzeug-ist/
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<https://forums.freebsd.org/posts/718447> that's unexpectedly useful, the -R,
--repo-conf-dir
I never imagined that as an effective override, to enable something, partly because (if I'm not mistaken) --repository is still broken in <https://github.com/freebsd/pkg/issues/2197>.
Also partly because online views of manual pages are made difficult to read by justified monospace. <https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pkg&sektion=8&manpath=freebsd-ports#SYNOPSIS>, for example.
Ragged right would be much more reader-friendly.
(Maybe dyslexia makes me oversensitive to things such as poorly presented texts …)
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<https://forums.freebsd.org/posts/718447> that's unexpectedly useful, the -R,
--repo-conf-dir
I never imagined that as an effective override, to enable something, partly because (if I'm not mistaken) --repository is still broken in <https://github.com/freebsd/pkg/issues/2197>.
Also partly because online views of manual pages are made difficult to read by justified monospace. <https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pkg&sektion=8&manpath=freebsd-ports#SYNOPSIS>, for example.
Ragged right would be much more reader-friendly.
(Maybe dyslexia makes me oversensitive to things such as poorly presented texts …)
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Hello everyone, I installed the pkgsrc on my Fedora. I very liked pkgsrc, so I decided to publish the man pages, that users of systems where pkgsrc is not installed, such as Linux, can have access to his man pages. Enjoy! 🤗
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Hello everyone, I installed the pkgsrc on my Fedora. I very liked pkgsrc, so I decided to publish the man pages, that users of systems where pkgsrc is not installed, such as Linux, can have access to his man pages. Enjoy! 🤗
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Hello everyone, announcing some changes to ManpageViewer. In this version, some bug fixed and added the Digital UNIX 4.0e man pages.
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Hello everyone, announcing some changes to ManpageViewer. In this version, some bug fixed and added the Digital UNIX 4.0e man pages.
