[Pkg-sysvinit-devel] Bug#848121: File conflict between manpages and initscripts

[Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)]

On 14 December 2016 at 16:45, Ian Jackson
<ijackson at chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
> Axel Beckert writes ("Bug#848121: [Pkg-sysvinit-devel] File conflict between manpages and initscripts"):
>> I must admit that I never was aware that filesystems are in the same
>> manual section as file formats (5). I would have expected them in
>> section 7 or so, but there's probably a not that small intersection
>> between things that fit into section 5 and things that fit in section
>> 7.
>
> I agree.

So, as I've commented elsewhere, various people have some to the same
idea: filesystem pages go into section 5. (I do see the argument for
7, but it's not what various projects have done.)

Also, Linux is not the only one to do this. On FreeBSD we have the
following in Section 5:

$ ls -1 *fs.5
autofs.5
devfs.5
ext2fs.5
fdescfs.5
fs.5
linprocfs.5
linsysfs.5
mqueuefs.5
msdosfs.5
nandfs.5
nullfs.5
procfs.5
tmpfs.5

Note the last!

>> But then again initscripts' tmpfs.5 is IMHO clearly section 5 (file
>> format) and not section 7. While I would put information about the
>> tmpfs file system into section 7 with good conscience, it clearly
>> doesn't make sense since all other file system man pages are in
>> section 5.

(Yes.)

>>
>> Difficult …
>
> I think the only sensible options are:
>
>  - rename all the filesystem manpages to put them in section 7

I doubt that will happen. They come from multiple upstream projects.
And there's no compelling reason for those upstreams to change.

>  - rename the manpage about /etc/default/tmpfs to tmnfs-config(5)
>    (or something, better name welcome).

FWIW, I think this may be the best option.

Cheers,

Michael