Semantic newlines (was: [man-pages PATCH v3] statx.2, open.2: document STATX_DIOALIGN)

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Hi Darrick,

On 10/10/22 17:22, Darrick J. Wong wrote:

I'm not so familiar with semantic newlines-- is there an automated

The following commit contains interesting details about them and their origins:

<https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/docs/man-pages/man-pages.git/commit?id=6ff6f43d68164f99a8c3fb66f4525d145571310c>

reflow program that fixes these problems mechanically, or is this
expected to be performed manually by manpage authors?

I don't know of a reflow program that fixes this.
The biggest issue is that
parsing natural language is not exactly easy.

So, it is expected to be performed manually by authors.


If manually, do the items in a comma-separated list count as clauses?

It depends.
Pedantically, yes;
but we evaluate it case by case,
depending on the length of each sentence
and the existence of subordinate clauses.
So author taste is important there and respected.


Would the next two paragraphs of this email reformat into semantic
newlines like so?

	In the source of a manual page,
	new sentences should  be started on new lines,
	long sentences should be split into lines at clause breaks
	(commas, semicolons, colons, and so on),
	and long clauses should be split at phrase boundaries.
	This convention,
	sometimes known as "semantic newlines",
	makes it easier to see the effect of patches,
	which often operate at the level of individual sentences, clauses, or phrases.

>
> --D
>
>>> +If none of the above is available, then direct I/O support and alignment
>>
>> Please use semantic newlines.
>>
>> See man-pages(7):
>>     Use semantic newlines
>>         In the source of a manual page, new sentences  should  be
>>         started on new lines, long sentences should be split into
>>         lines  at  clause breaks (commas, semicolons, colons, and
>>         so on), and long clauses should be split at phrase bound‐
>>         aries.  This convention,  sometimes  known  as  "semantic
>>         newlines",  makes it easier to see the effect of patches,
>>         which often operate at the level of individual sentences,
>>         clauses, or phrases.
>>
>>
>>> +restrictions can only be assumed from known characteristics of the filesystem, >>> +the individual file, the underlying storage device(s), and the kernel version. >>> +In Linux 2.4, most block device based filesystems require that the file offset >>> +and the length and memory address of all I/O segments be multiples of the
>>> +filesystem block size (typically 4096 bytes).
>>> +In Linux 2.6.0, this was relaxed to the logical block size of the block device
>>> +(typically 512 bytes).
>>> +A block device's logical block size can be determined using the
>>>    .BR ioctl (2)
>>>    .B BLKSSZGET
>>>    operation or from the shell using the command:
>>> diff --git a/man2/statx.2 b/man2/statx.2
>>> index 0d1b4591f..50397057d 100644
>>> --- a/man2/statx.2
>>> +++ b/man2/statx.2
>>> @@ -61,7 +61,12 @@ struct statx {
>>>           containing the filesystem where the file resides */
>>>        __u32 stx_dev_major;   /* Major ID */
>>>        __u32 stx_dev_minor;   /* Minor ID */
>>> +
>>>        __u64 stx_mnt_id;      /* Mount ID */
>>> +
>>> +    /* Direct I/O alignment restrictions */
>>> +    __u32 stx_dio_mem_align;
>>> +    __u32 stx_dio_offset_align;
>>>    };
>>>    .EE
>>>    .in
>>> @@ -247,6 +252,8 @@ STATX_BTIME	Want stx_btime
>>>    STATX_ALL	The same as STATX_BASIC_STATS | STATX_BTIME.
>>>    	It is deprecated and should not be used.
>>>    STATX_MNT_ID	Want stx_mnt_id (since Linux 5.8)
>>> +STATX_DIOALIGN	Want stx_dio_mem_align and stx_dio_offset_align
>>> +	(since Linux 6.1; support varies by filesystem)
>>>    .TE
>>>    .in
>>>    .PP
>>> @@ -407,6 +414,28 @@ This is the same number reported by
>>>    .BR name_to_handle_at (2)
>>> and corresponds to the number in the first field in one of the records in
>>>    .IR /proc/self/mountinfo .
>>> +.TP
>>> +.I stx_dio_mem_align
>>> +The alignment (in bytes) required for user memory buffers for direct I/O
>>> +.BR "" ( O_DIRECT )
>>
>> .RB and remove the "".
>>
>>> +on this file, or 0 if direct I/O is not supported on this file.
>>> +.IP
>>> +.B STATX_DIOALIGN
>>> +.IR "" ( stx_dio_mem_align
>>
>> .RI
>>
>>> +and
>>> +.IR stx_dio_offset_align )
>>> +is supported on block devices since Linux 6.1.
>>> +The support on regular files varies by filesystem; it is supported by ext4,
>>> +f2fs, and xfs since Linux 6.1.
>>> +.TP
>>> +.I stx_dio_offset_align
>>> +The alignment (in bytes) required for file offsets and I/O segment lengths for
>>> +direct I/O
>>> +.BR "" ( O_DIRECT )
>>> +on this file, or 0 if direct I/O is not supported on this file.
>>> +This will only be nonzero if
>>> +.I stx_dio_mem_align
>>> +is nonzero, and vice versa.
>>>    .PP
>>>    For further information on the above fields, see
>>>    .BR inode (7).
>>>
>>> base-commit: bc28d289e5066fc626df260bafc249846a0f6ae6
>>
>> --
>> <http://www.alejandro-colomar.es/>
>
>
>
Yes, that would be correct;
in fact,
you almost matched the actual source code of the manual page.
There are two differences:
one comma at which we don't break (but we could),
and also we break the last line before the list.

See the source code here:
<https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/docs/man-pages/man-pages.git/tree/man7/man-pages.7#n612>

Do we still line-wrap at 72^W74^W78^W80 columns?

Yes, 80 is a strong limit.

Normally,
breaking at the level of clauses
will leave very few lines passing that limit.
When there's such a case,
you can break further at the level of phrases,
and I doubt any line will pass the 80-col boundary after that.


and would the proposed manpage text read:

	If none of the above is available,
	then direct I/O support and alignment restrictions can only be assumed
	from known characteristics of the filesystem,
	the individual file,
	the underlying storage device(s),
	and the kernel version.
	In Linux 2.4,
	most block device based filesystems require that the file offset and the

block device based would need some '-' as it's a compound adjective (I don't know the exact rules in English when there are more than two words forming such an adjective, please check).

I would break after 'require that'.

	length and memory address of all I/O segments be multiples of the

And right before 'be', I think.

	filesystem block size
	(typically 4096 bytes).
	In Linux 2.6.0,
	this was relaxed to the logical block size of the block device
	(typically 512 bytes).
	A block device's logical block size can be determined using the
	.BR ioctl (2)
	.B BLKSSZGET
	operation or from the shell using the command:

But mostly looks good.

Cheers,

Alex

--
<http://www.alejandro-colomar.es/>

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