https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=216603 Bug ID: 216603 Summary: Environment variable MANLESS is described wrong in man(1) Product: Documentation Version: unspecified Hardware: All OS: Linux Status: NEW Severity: normal Priority: P1 Component: man-pages Assignee: documentation_man-pages@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Reporter: karttu+bugzilla@xxxxxxxxx Regression: No In an example for setting MANLESS environment variable, man(1) claims: For example, if you want to set the prompt string unconditionally to "my prompt string", set $MANLESS to '-Psmy prompt string'. However, this is not not correct as man uses the entire MANLESS variable as a prompt for less. I'll demonstrate: $ MANLESS='-Ps(prompt)' man man <ctrl-z> $ cat /proc/$(pgrep -P $(pgrep -f "man man"))/environ | tr '\0' '\n' | grep "^LESS=" LESS=-ix8RmPm-Ps(prompt)$PM-Ps(prompt)$ As seen, man(1) defines -Pm and -PM prompts using the MANLESS variable as is. The same applies to the command line option -r: $ man -r'-Ps(prompt)' man <ctrl-z> $ cat /proc/$(pgrep -P $(pgrep -f "man .* man"))/environ | tr '\0' '\n' | grep "^LESS=" LESS=-ix8RmPm-Ps(prompt)$PM-Ps(prompt)$ Option -r does not make the same claim, but it says: By default man sets the -ix8 options. Which also is a bit outdated as we can see it sets -ix8R. So in summary, at least the '-Ps' part should be removed from the MANLESS description example. Furthermore, option -r description could elaborate on how LESS variable is formed (-ix8RmPm<MANLESS or -r>$PM<MANLESS or -r>$). Note: Dollar sign in less prompt definition is an end-of-string marker. -- You may reply to this email to add a comment. You are receiving this mail because: You are watching the assignee of the bug.
