Public bug reported:
Binary package hint: erlang
Packages erlang/erlang-base contain many executables (erl erlc etc.) but
no man pages for them.
This is likely to confuse users, and is against Debian Policy (I don't
know to what extend Ubuntu considers it binding, but unless it conflicts
with other Ubuntu policies, I think it should be considered at least a
serious recommendation).
All man pages are in erlang-manpages, which is only suggested by erlang,
not recommended or required. This means that it won't normally be
installed together with erlang/erlang-base, and must be explicitly
requested. Users are unlikely to guess they need such package, as
virtually all packages contain basic documentation, and
/usr/share/doc/erlang{,base}/* does not mention it. These programs also
do not respond to standard help switches like --help, -help, -? or -h,
and do not print any help when started. This leaves user completely
without documentation.
<a href="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-
docs.html#s12.1">Debian Policy</a> states:
<blockquote>Each program, utility, and function should have an
associated manual page included in the same package [...]</blockquote>
<blockquote>If no manual page is available, this is considered as a bug
and should be reported to the Debian Bug Tracking System ([...]). Do not
close the bug report until a proper man page is available.</blockquote>
The fix is very simple - moving man pages for all executable programs
from erlang-manpages to erlang/erlang-base, while leaving manpages for
functions in erlang-manpages. Many programs use such scheme, for example
basic manpages for Perl are in perl, while extra documentation is in
perl-doc.
It would also be nice if erlang programs supported --help etc., or at
least complained about unrecognized option --help giving usage summary,
but this is less urgent.
** Affects: erlang (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: Unconfirmed
--
Basic man pages are not included in the main package.
https://launchpad.net/bugs/67637
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