Re: man-pages-2.54 is released

From: Michael Kerrisk
Date: Fri Jun 08 2007 - 12:03:32 EST


Gerhard Mack wrote:
> On Fri, 8 Jun 2007, Michael Kerrisk wrote:
>
>> I just released man-pages-2.54
>>
>
> This may sound like a dumb question but since you just released
> man-pages-2.52 and man-pages-2.53 recently as one batch and now this one.

Let's just say that I've been very busy lately... (Getting some paid time
to work on man-pages helps a lot!) One reason that releases get split up
is that for major edits (especially for formatting as opposed to content),
I am trying to separate the edits into separate releases to ease the life
of some downstream maintainers and translators. From the MAINTAINING file
in the tarball:

One day, it won't be me any more, so to make life easier for the
next maintainer: some tips on how to maintain the Linux manual
pages

...

Release Philosophy
==================

If you make sweeping *formatting* changes on a large number of
pages, separate them out into their own release that contains
minimal *content* changes. This makes it easier for the people
that want to verify content changes independently of the change
log. Yes, some people actually diff each release to see what
changed; for example, downstream maintainers, and translators of
the man pages (such as the dedicated Alain Portal, in recent
times) sometimes like to do this.

> What is the difference between the versions and how do I know wich to
> install?

The latest is, well, the latest. (Take a look at Changes and Changes.old
in each release.) Today, you want 2.54. In a few days, you're likely to
want 2.55 ;-).

Best regards,

Michael

--
Michael Kerrisk
maintainer of Linux man pages Sections 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7

Want to help with man page maintenance? Grab the latest tarball at
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/docs/manpages/
read the HOWTOHELP file and grep the source files for 'FIXME'.
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