Errors in man pages, here: iconv(1): Formatting/Markup

Errors in man pages, here: iconv(1): Formatting/Markup

[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.

**

Missing markup/formatting of "gconv"

"If B<GCONV_PATH> is not set, B<iconv_open>(3)  loads the system gconv module "
"configuration cache file created by B<iconvconfig>(8)  and then, based on "
"the configuration, loads the gconv modules needed to perform the "
"conversion.  If the system gconv module configuration cache file is not "
"available then the system gconv module configuration file is used."
--
"If B<GCONV_PATH> is defined (as a colon-separated list of pathnames), the "
"system gconv module configuration cache is not used.  Instead, "
"B<iconv_open>(3)  first tries to load the configuration files by searching "
"the directories in B<GCONV_PATH> in order, followed by the system default "
"gconv module configuration file.  If a directory does not contain a gconv "
"module configuration file, any gconv modules that it may contain are "
"ignored.  If a directory contains a gconv module configuration file and it "
"is determined that a module needed for this conversion is available in the "
"directory, then the needed module is loaded from that directory, the order "
"being such that the first suitable module found in B<GCONV_PATH> is used.  "
"This allows users to use custom modules and even replace system-provided "
"modules by providing such modules in B<GCONV_PATH> directories."
--
msgid "Usual system default gconv module configuration file."
--
msgid "Usual system gconv module configuration cache."

-- 
      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: iconv(1): Formatting/Markup

[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.
> 
> **
> 
> Missing markup/formatting of "gconv"

I agree that there's a little inconsistency here, but I'm not
sure that changing the formatting on all instances of 'gconv'
is an improvement. I'm ignoring this, pending further explanation.

Thanks,

Michael

> 
> "If B<GCONV_PATH> is not set, B<iconv_open>(3)  loads the system gconv module "
> "configuration cache file created by B<iconvconfig>(8)  and then, based on "
> "the configuration, loads the gconv modules needed to perform the "
> "conversion.  If the system gconv module configuration cache file is not "
> "available then the system gconv module configuration file is used."
> --
> "If B<GCONV_PATH> is defined (as a colon-separated list of pathnames), the "
> "system gconv module configuration cache is not used.  Instead, "
> "B<iconv_open>(3)  first tries to load the configuration files by searching "
> "the directories in B<GCONV_PATH> in order, followed by the system default "
> "gconv module configuration file.  If a directory does not contain a gconv "
> "module configuration file, any gconv modules that it may contain are "
> "ignored.  If a directory contains a gconv module configuration file and it "
> "is determined that a module needed for this conversion is available in the "
> "directory, then the needed module is loaded from that directory, the order "
> "being such that the first suitable module found in B<GCONV_PATH> is used.  "
> "This allows users to use custom modules and even replace system-provided "
> "modules by providing such modules in B<GCONV_PATH> directories."
> --
> msgid "Usual system default gconv module configuration file."
> --
> msgid "Usual system gconv module configuration cache."
> 


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