Bug 47552 – Makewhatis ignores some man pages

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: VERIFIED TEST-REQUEST

[Description Marko Vallius 2004-04-11 14:19:31 UTC]

Some manual pages never get into the whatis database. The makewhatis script seems to effectively skip files that contain "unorthodox" formatting.

For example, all Postfix's man page headers are formatted like this:

.SH NAME
postfix
\-
Postfix control program

Reformatted thusly it's all right for makewhatis:

.SH NAME
postfix \- Postfix control program

I'm not sure if this sort of formatting is allowed in man pages, so this may just be a bug in Postfix man pages. 

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. run /usr/sbin/makewhatis
2. run apropos (man -k) 
Actual Results:  
$ man -k postfix 
postfix: nothing appropriate 
 

Expected Results:  
$ man -k postfix 
access               (5)  - format of Postfix access table 
aliases              (5)  - format of the Postfix alias database 
bounce               (8)  - Postfix message bounce or defer daemon 
canonical            (5)  - format of Postfix canonical table 
cleanup              (8)  - canonicalize and enqueue Postfix message 
error                (8)  - Postfix error mailer 
flush                (8)  - Postfix fast flush server 
lmtp                 (8)  - Postfix local delivery via LMTP 
local                (8)  - Postfix local mail delivery 
master               (8)  - Postfix master process 
 
etc.  

Version of makewhatis: sys-apps/man-1.5l-r6  
Version of postfix: net-mail/postfix-2.0.19 
 
Output of "emerge info": 
 
Portage 2.0.50-r3 (default-x86-1.4, gcc-3.3.2, glibc-2.3.2-r9, 2.4.22) 
================================================================= 
System uname: 2.4.22 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2600+ 
Gentoo Base System version 1.4.3.13 
distcc 2.12.1 i686-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) 
[disabled] 
Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.58-r1 
Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.3 
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" 
AUTOCLEAN="yes" 
CFLAGS="-march=i686 -O2 " 
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" 
COMPILER="gcc3" 
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.1/share/config /usr/kde/3.2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref /usr/share/config /usr/share/texmf/dvipdfm/config/ /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/platex/config/ /usr/share/texmf/xdvi/ /var/qmail/control" 
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" 
CXXFLAGS="-march=i686 -O2 " 
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" 
FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache sandbox" 
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://trumpetti.atm.tut.fi/gentoo/ 
http://ftp.cvut.cz/vmware/" 
MAKEOPTS="-j2" 
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" 
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" 
PORTDIR="/usr/portage" 
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="" 
SYNC="rsync://rsync.europe.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" 
USE="3dnow 3dnowext X aalib alsa apm arts avi berkdb cdr crypt cups dvd dvdr 
encode esd foomaticdb gdbm gif gnome gphoto2 gpm gtk imlib java jpeg kde 
libg++ libwww mad mikmod mmx mmx2 motif mozilla mpeg mysql ncurses nls 
oggvorbis opengl oss pam pdflib perl png ppds python qt quicktime readline 
scanner sdl slang spell sse sse2 ssl svga tcltk tcpd tetex tiff truetype usb 
video_cards_matrox x86 xml2 xmms xv zlib"

[Comment 1 Marko Vallius 2004-04-11 14:25:14 UTC]

Created attachment 29112 [details, diff]
Patch to fix makewhatis hyphenation

In case multiple-line headers are allowed in man pages, this patch might be
useful. Tested on my system with no side effects.

[Comment 2 Aron Griffis (RETIRED) 2004-04-12 07:24:15 UTC]

Bug-wranglers, I have all I can handle at the moment, please pass to somebody else

[Comment 3 SpanKY 2004-10-09 20:27:21 UTC]

could you check out 1.5m-r2 ?

the code there now reads:
            if ($0 ~ /[^ \\]-$/) {
              sub(/-$/, "");      # Handle Hyphenations
              nextjoin = 1;

[Comment 4 Marko Vallius 2004-10-10 11:35:28 UTC]

Tested with 1.5m-r2: "man -k postfix" works. Splendid!