man pages & SCO Xenix

[tif at cpe.UUCP]

Written  7:22 pm  Jun 24, 1988 by telcomm.UUCP!wrm in cpe:comp.unix.xenix
>SCO Xenix 2.2.X with the updated Text processing system has man pages
>for the usual commands. I am trying to add smail, pathalias etc to
>the pages on file. The manual says that "man" formatted document is
>to go in /usr/man/man.LOCAL and the "catable" document is to go in
>/usr/man/cat.LOCAL. The problem is that either these directories are
>not getting searched (LOCAL is included in /etc/default/man) or that
>the extension for the files is not correct. If I add the files to
>/usr/man/cat.C with the extension ".C" the pages are then available.

I have also noticed this.  Here is the scoop:

A man entry in man.NAME must have the filename cmd.NAME (i.e.
/usr/man/man.LOCAL/readnews.LOCAL)  This is a stupid convention,
why would you need the extension at all?  For compatability, it
really ought to accept ANY filename extension.

Now to top it off, how about "compressdir?"  The filename is
/usr/man/man.LOCAL/compressdir.LOCAL.  Unfortunately this gets
saved as compressdir.LO (14 chars) and can't be found by man!

The best idea I have is to make /usr/man/man.L and /usr/man/cat.L.
Then the names of the man pages can be up to 12 characters.  So you
have /usr/man/man.L/compressdir.L.

Also if you change MANPATH to include another directory like /usr/local/man,
man will give an error message when you ask for a topic which is listed
under two or more names.

Upon rereading that, it looks barely understandable, but you get
what you pay for.

<standard disclaimer>

			Paul Chamberlain
			Computer Product Engineering, Tandy Corp.
			ihnp4!sys1!cpe!tif