Created attachment 205 [details]
Fix kio_man for distributions without man-db

afaik all distros use mandb to generate new manual pages and reload the cache... Am I missing something here?

Well, I'm not a "man" specialist, but it looks like RHEL is NOT using "man-db".
Instead, it is using "makewhatis".

I guess that man-db is a modern replacement for makewhatis.

Look at this page:
http://pkgs.org/download/man

It looks like there are several distros that are using "man 1.6" (like RHEL), and others using "man-db 2.x" . Slackware 13.x, Mandriva and Mageia will have the same kio_man problem as RHEL.

Created attachment 220 [details]
Updated patch to support TQt layer

Problem exists in Slackware 13.1.

Patch is  updated to support the TQt layer. :)

I am hesitant to remove functionality (this is what the patch currently does).  Ideally the affected code should detect the presence of man-db and if it is not present then fall back to the old method, which has problems with internationalized files.

I have been using this patch for 3 months. If this patch removes functionality, then should we investigate why man pages are broken on some distros and not others? What happened?

(In reply to comment #6)
> I have been using this patch for 3 months. If this patch removes functionality,
> then should we investigate why man pages are broken on some distros and not
> others? What happened?

You are not using internationalized man files, so you wouldn't see any difference.  From what I understand there are two variants of a man-db -type utility, one that is newer/better but not available on all distros, and the old makewhatis utility that seems to be present on at least RHEL and Slackware.  TDE should support makewhatis as a fallback, not dump support for man-db entirely.

I changed the summary description because this problem affects Slackware too, and probably other distros as well (Arch?).

Could we add an ifdef or ifndef to support both types of systems? That is, the patched code would compile only for those distros that need the patch?

Something along the line of

if [ `which makewhatis` ] && [ ! which man-db ]

Ignore the previous inadvertent post. :)

How about adding a cmake test and an ifdef to support both types of systems?

Something like:

tdebase/tdeioslave/man/CMakeLists.txt:

(need to look in all bin directories)
if [ -x /usr/sbin/makewhatis ]; then
  set MAKEWHATIS=true
fi

tdebase/tdeioslave/man/kio_man.cpp:

ifdef MAKEWHATIS
  use patched code
else
  use old code
endif

Hopefully you get the idea. I don't know how to do this. :)

Created attachment 1183 [details]
Patch idea for supporting both manpage systems

I tried to create a patch to support both manpage systems. Conceptually I understand what needs to be done, but I am not understanding cmake well enough to finish the patch.

I'm attaching what I have. Somebody please update and fix the patch. :-)

Francois, I just realized this report is assigned to you. Would you please look at attachment 1183 [details] and help me fix the patch? I'm sure I have the right idea, but the patch does not work.

Created attachment 1193 [details]
kdebase 3.5.13.2 : support both makewhatis and mandb at build time

OK here is a patch that works.

BTW I have another man-related problem: under Mageia 2, konqueror always says I have no man page for any of existing page (e.g: type "man:man", it should work).
It works in Centos6.

I have the feeling that XZ-compressed pages (as in MGA2) are not supported with this patch. Centos6 use GZIP pages.

I updated the patch for R14 but the patch does not work for me. When I open a man page in konqueror I get only a blank page.

I notice the variable WITH_MAKEWHATIS is not defined in CMakeCache.txt although I do see the variable defined in tdebase.build/config.h.

Created attachment 1198 [details]
kdebase 3.5.13.2 : support both makewhatis and mandb at build time (2)

OK I had forgotten to add the "include config.h".
Try this new patch.

Created attachment 1199 [details]
tdebase R14: support both makewhatis and mandb at build time

I'm attaching a patch updated for R14. I'll push to GIT as soon as somebody tests the patch on a system that does not use makewhatis and man pages still work in konqueror.

Thank you both for your good work.
Pushed to GIT in hash 2b6bc472.

Created attachment 1325 [details]
online-mandb-support-r14.patch

Here is a patch for online check which man implementation is used: traditional or mandb.

If this patch won't be accepted to release than please fix cmake QA issue: use an option() statement rather that set() to declare WITH_MAKEWHATIS.

Created attachment 1326 [details]
online-mandb-support-3.5.13.patch

here is 3.5.13 branch patch.

Proposed patch in comment 18 for R14 works for me on Slackware 14.0.

Somebody test on a different distro (Francois?) and I'll push to GIT.

Patch is working correctly in R14 using makewhatis on Mageia 3.

I was going to push to GIT and then decided that somebody should ensure systems _not_ using makewhatis still display man pages properly. Francois, do you have such a system to easily test?

(In reply to comment #22)
> I was going to push to GIT and then decided that somebody should ensure systems
> _not_ using makewhatis still display man pages properly. Francois, do you have
> such a system to easily test?

I've tested it on gentoo with both mandb and traditional man (aka makewhatis here) implementations.

But it would be better if someone else will confirm it...

Tested on Debian => works fine.

Pushed to GIT in commit 14ffd77b.

Tagging as resolved.