Errors in man pages, here: tzfile(5): Typo?

Errors in man pages, here: tzfile(5): Typo?

[Helge Kreutzmann]

Dear manpages maintainers.
the manpage-l10n project maintains a large number of translations of
man pages both from a large variety of sources (including manpages) as
well for a large variety of target languages.

During their work translators notice different possible issues in the
original (english) man pages. Sometiems this is a straightforward
typo, sometimes a hard to read sentence, sometimes this is a convention
not held up and sometimes we simply do not understand the original.

We use several distributions as sources and update regularly (at
least every 2 month). This means we are fairly recent (some
distributions like archlinux also update frequently) but might miss
the latest upstream version once a while, so the error might be
already fixed. We apologize and ask you to close the issue immediately
if this should be the case, but given the huge volume of projects and
the very limited number of volunteers we are not able to double check
each and every issue.

Secondly we translators see the manpages in the neutral po format,
i.e. converted and harmonized, but not the original source (be it man,
groff, xml or other). So we cannot provide a true patch (where
possible), but only an approximation which you need to translate into
your source format.

Finally the issues I'm reporting have accumulated over time and are
not always discovered by me, so sometimes my description of the
problem my be a bit limited - do not hesitate to ask so we can clarify
them.

I'm now reporting the errors for your project. As requested, each
issue is sent in an unique mail for easier tracking on your side. If
future reports should use another channel, please let me know.

**

UT → UTC?

msgid "The number of UT/local indicators stored in the file."

-- 
      Dr. Helge Kreutzmann                     debian@helgefjell.de
           Dipl.-Phys.                   http://www.helgefjell.de/debian.php
        64bit GNU powered                     gpg signed mail preferred
           Help keep free software libre: http://www.ffii.de/

Re: Errors in man pages, here: tzfile(5): Typo?

[Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)]

On 4/19/20 8:48 AM, Helge Kreutzmann wrote:
> Dear manpages maintainers.
> the manpage-l10n project maintains a large number of translations of
> man pages both from a large variety of sources (including manpages) as
> well for a large variety of target languages.
> 
> During their work translators notice different possible issues in the
> original (english) man pages. Sometiems this is a straightforward
> typo, sometimes a hard to read sentence, sometimes this is a convention
> not held up and sometimes we simply do not understand the original.
> 
> We use several distributions as sources and update regularly (at
> least every 2 month). This means we are fairly recent (some
> distributions like archlinux also update frequently) but might miss
> the latest upstream version once a while, so the error might be
> already fixed. We apologize and ask you to close the issue immediately
> if this should be the case, but given the huge volume of projects and
> the very limited number of volunteers we are not able to double check
> each and every issue.
> 
> Secondly we translators see the manpages in the neutral po format,
> i.e. converted and harmonized, but not the original source (be it man,
> groff, xml or other). So we cannot provide a true patch (where
> possible), but only an approximation which you need to translate into
> your source format.
> 
> Finally the issues I'm reporting have accumulated over time and are
> not always discovered by me, so sometimes my description of the
> problem my be a bit limited - do not hesitate to ask so we can clarify
> them.
> 
> I'm now reporting the errors for your project. As requested, each
> issue is sent in an unique mail for easier tracking on your side. If
> future reports should use another channel, please let me know.
> 
> **
> 
> UT → UTC?
> 
> msgid "The number of UT/local indicators stored in the file."

I think "UT" here is intended to mean "Universal Time", and as such
should not be "UTC". Perhaps Paul can comment.

Thanks,

Michael



-- 
Michael Kerrisk
Linux man-pages maintainer; http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/
Linux/UNIX System Programming Training: http://man7.org/training/

Re: Errors in man pages, here: tzfile(5): Typo?

[Paul Eggert]

On 4/20/20 12:27 AM, Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) wrote:
> I think "UT" here is intended to mean "Universal Time", and as such
> should not be "UTC". Perhaps Paul can comment.

Yes, that's right. The tzfile format covers timestamps that predate the 
introduction of UTC in 1960, so the documentation uses the sloppier and 
more-general term "UT" instead of the more-precise term "UTC".

Re: Errors in man pages, here: tzfile(5): Typo?

[Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)]

Hi Paul,

On Tue, 21 Apr 2020 at 04:34, Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> wrote:
>
> On 4/20/20 12:27 AM, Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) wrote:
> > I think "UT" here is intended to mean "Universal Time", and as such
> > should not be "UTC". Perhaps Paul can comment.
>
> Yes, that's right. The tzfile format covers timestamps that predate the
> introduction of UTC in 1960, so the documentation uses the sloppier and
> more-general term "UT" instead of the more-precise term "UTC".

Thanks. Downstream, I applied the patch below, to help clarify for readers.

Thanks,

Michael

diff --git a/man5/tzfile.5 b/man5/tzfile.5
index 514f40798..7419a3dce 100644
--- a/man5/tzfile.5
+++ b/man5/tzfile.5
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ in order:
 .TP
 .I tzh_ttisgmtcnt
 The number of UT/local indicators stored in the file.
+(UT is Universal Time.)
 .TP
 .I tzh_ttisstdcnt
 The number of standard/wall indicators stored in the file.

-- 
Michael Kerrisk
Linux man-pages maintainer; http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/
Linux/UNIX System Programming Training: http://man7.org/training/

Re: Errors in man pages, here: tzfile(5): Typo?

[Paul Eggert]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 419 bytes --]

On 4/20/20 10:52 PM, Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) wrote:
> --- a/man5/tzfile.5
> +++ b/man5/tzfile.5
> @@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ in order:
>   .TP
>   .I tzh_ttisgmtcnt
>   The number of UT/local indicators stored in the file.
> +(UT is Universal Time.)

Thanks. I looked for similar problems elsewhere and found one in zic.8, so I 
installed the attached patch. This should appear in the next tzdb release, which 
is due soon.

[-- Attachment #2: 0001-Define-UT-in-man-pages.patch --]
[-- Type: text/x-patch, Size: 1393 bytes --]

From 2455b0ac4cefa28de7b66455984ff9df5ba74019 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu>
Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2020 13:33:30 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] =?UTF-8?q?Define=20=E2=80=9CUT=E2=80=9D=20in=20man=20page?=
 =?UTF-8?q?s?=
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

* tzfile.5, zic.8: Define the abbreviation “UT” on its first use.
(Problem reported by Helge Kreutzmann via Michael Kerrisk.)
---
 tzfile.5 | 1 +
 zic.8    | 2 +-
 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/tzfile.5 b/tzfile.5
index cd4c483..3f13563 100644
--- a/tzfile.5
+++ b/tzfile.5
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ Six four-byte integer values, in the following order:
 .TP
 .I tzh_ttisutcnt
 The number of UT/local indicators stored in the file.
+(UT is Universal Time.)
 .TP
 .I tzh_ttisstdcnt
 The number of standard/wall indicators stored in the file.
diff --git a/zic.8 b/zic.8
index 0a64fbe..b57cd2b 100644
--- a/zic.8
+++ b/zic.8
@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ and it should not be combined with
 .B "\*-b slim"
 if
 .IR timezone 's
-transitions are at standard time or UT instead of local time.
+transitions are at standard time or Universal Time (UT) instead of local time.
 .TP
 .BR "\*-r " "[\fB@\fP\fIlo\fP][\fB/@\fP\fIhi\fP]"
 Reduce the size of output files by limiting their applicability
-- 
2.17.1