New PARAMETERS section in manual pages (was: [PATCH v2] src/bin/mansectf, man/man1/mansectf.1: Add program and manual page)

[Alejandro Colomar <alx@kernel.org>]

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Hi Seth,

On 2026-01-29T05:50:26+0000, Seth McDonald wrote:
> Hi Alex,
> 
> On Wed, 28 Jan 2026 at 19:55:43 +0100, Alejandro Colomar wrote:
> [...]
> > +.SH PARAMETERS
> > +See
> > +.BR mansect (1).
> 
> (If this isn't a problem then feel free to skip this)
> 
> AFAICT, 'PARAMETERS' isn't a heading used anywhere else.  Running
> 
> 	~/Code/Linux/man-pages$ grep -Fnr 'PARAMETERS' man/
> 
> comes up empty for me (besides mansectf(1) of course).  Perhaps instead
> the DESCRIPTION can explicitly state this.  Something akin to "This
> command uses the same interface as mansect(1)."

That heading is used in FreeBSD.  There's also an ARGUMENTS section in
other pages, but parameters is technically more correct.

	alx@devuan:~/src/bsd/freebsd/main$ find -type f | grep '\.[123]$' | xargs grep '^\.S[Hh] PARAMETERS' | wc -l
	49
	alx@devuan:~/src/bsd/freebsd/main$ find -type f | grep '\.[123]$' | xargs grep '^\.S[Hh] ARGUMENTS' | wc -l
	49

<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=rdma_get_local_addr&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+15.0-RELEASE+and+Ports&arch=default&format=html>
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=rpc_gss_set_svc_name&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+15.0-RELEASE+and+Ports&arch=default&format=html>

I've been wanting to add this section for some time.  It would make the
pages more schematic, which I think improves readability.

What I wonder is wether it should go before or after the description.


Have a lovely day!
Alex

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

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