[Info-vax] Long uptime cut short by Hurricane Sandy

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <00ACE3CF.59FF1380 at sendspamhere.org>,
	VAXman-  @SendSpamHere.ORG writes:
> In article <6a28aa9f-b23c-4aec-a419-18932d0455ef at n2g2000yqg.googlegroups.com>, AEF <spamsink2001 at yahoo.com> writes:
>>{...snip...}
>>Well, if it's not cryptic, why do you have to read the manual? If you
>>read the manual about DCL symbol manipulations, VAXMAN's command is
>>not cryptic, either -- well, if you add clarifying spaces, anyway.
> 
> I tried to keep in within 80 columns.
> 
> 
> 
>>Reading Unix documentation is no fun. The man pages are formatted with
>>proportional spacing of fixed-width characters so as to make the right
>>margin straight. That makes it ugly and hard to read. The business
>>world ruled it out long ago. Ragged edge is the way to go with fixed-
>>width font.
>>
>>Some man pages are loaded with incomprehensible stuff. And it's
>>sometimes hard just to find the one thing you need. It's fine as a
>>reference if you already know the command and just need a quick
>>reminder. And things vary from brand to brand.
>>
>>Many commands don't even have man pages!
>>
>>Here's what 'man cd' produces on the Mac:
>>
>>BUILTIN(1)                BSD General Commands Manual
>>BUILTIN(1)
>>
>>NAME
>>     builtin, !, %, ., :, @, {, }, alias, alloc, bg, bind, bindkey,
>>break,
>>     breaksw, builtins, case, cd, chdir, command, complete, continue,
>>default,
>>     dirs, do, done, echo, echotc, elif, else, end, endif, endsw,
>>esac, eval,
>>     exec, exit, export, false, fc, fg, filetest, fi, for, foreach,
>>getopts,
>>     glob, goto, hash, hashstat, history, hup, if, jobid, jobs, kill,
>>limit,
>>     local, log, login, logout, ls-F, nice, nohup, notify, onintr,
>>popd,
>>     printenv, pushd, pwd, read, readonly, rehash, repeat, return,
>>sched, set,
>>     setenv, settc, setty, setvar, shift, source, stop, suspend,
>>switch,
>>     telltc, test, then, time, times, trap, true, type, ulimit, umask,
>>     unalias, uncomplete, unhash, unlimit, unset, unsetenv, until,
>>wait,
>>     where, which, while -- shell built-in commands
>>
>>SYNOPSIS
>>     builtin [-options] [args ...]
>>
>>DESCRIPTION
>>     Shell builtin commands are commands that can be executed within
>>the run-
>>     ning shell's process.  Note that, in the case of csh(1) builtin
>>commands,
>>     the command is executed in a subshell if it occurs as any
>>component of a
>>     pipeline except the last.
>>
>>followed by more useless stuff, at least for the cd command.
>>
>>It's amazing I ever stumbled upon the 'cd -' command, which useful for
>>going to your previous working directory. I certainly wouldn't have
>>found it here!
> 
> On linux:
> 
> vaxman at Satellite:~$ man cd
> No manual entry for cd
> 
> I suppose I'll never know what 'cd' does now.

As was pointed out, cd is not a command and thus has no man page.
I will admit that it is a shortcoming of linux that it doesn't 
tell you that it is a builtin so you would know to look at the man
page for your shell.   But then, we all know what I think of Linux. :-)

bill
 

-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>