Richard Owlett <rowl...@cloud85.net> writes: > I the recent thread about returning a Debian installation to its > original state "popularity-contest" was mentioned. > > I wished to compare it to other tools mentioned in that thread. > Obvious stating point -- read the man page. > As I never installed its package I went to > https://manpages.debian.org/buster/popularity-contest/popularity-contest.8.en.html > . > > It did not explicitly answer my question. > However, under "SEE ALSO" it stated: >> Additional documentation is in /usr/share/doc/popularity-contest/. > > *PROBLEM* > As package is not installed, that directory does *NOT* exist. > > Where to find required documentation on the web? > > NOTE BENE > This post is about man pages as a class.
Asking for a man page to include all of the documentation about a package isn't reasonable -- there are man pages like that (bash comes to mind), and it isn't a page, it's a book. A man page tries to be a succinct summary, so someone can look up details about running a program, or about a file format, in a hurry. If you want the full documentation on something you haven't installed, the man page is the wrong place to look. Googling 'debian popularity-contest' (instead of looking specifically for the man page) points me to https://salsa.debian.org/popularity-contest-team/popularity-contest#:~:text=The%20popularity%2Dcontest%20package%20sets,go%20on%20the%20first%20CD. which has a wealth of information.
