man pages [resolved]

[RoboKaren]

Is there a simple way to install man pages in FreeNAS (without the hack of creating a linux jail)?


Update March 20, 2015: man pages are now installed with the latest release of FreeNAS. If you can't run man, then update your system to the latest 9.3-stable release.

 

[dlavigne]

Nope. Now that boot devices aren't a fixed size it might be worth trying a feature request again. I tried a few years ago and was told there wasn't room on the old-style boot device. Of course, if we add them, some people will complain that the ISO is larger ;-) If you do make a feature request, post the issue number here.

 

[RoboKaren]

Done.

Feature Request #8250: https://bugs.freenas.org/issues/8250

 

[Bidule0hm]

We talked about this here https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ata-between-zpools-volumes.27507/#post-179022 but cyberjock's answer tell us that it's not very promising to do a feature request, but I'm still 100% for it ;)

 

[RoboKaren]

Silly. There should be an option -- or even a workaround posted by users?

 

[Bidule0hm]

I've searched rapidly and found this and this but it's pretty old, I don't know if it works now.

 

[RoboKaren]

I've searched rapidly and found this and this but it's pretty old, I don't know if it works now.

We don't have access to sysinstall or the main source tree so neither of those techniques work. I tried them before posting this query.

 

[Bidule0hm]

Oh ok, I have no further idea unfortunately.

Edit: and from an install CD?

 

[RoboKaren]

The latest status update to my feature request is promising:

Updated by Jordan Hubbard 4 days ago
Adding Cyberjock to watchers since last time he asked for this, I yelled "NO!!", but maybe that was a knee-jerk reaction (certainly not the first time he's heard that word, or indeed the last) and not entirely fair. Let's look into it, at least.

 

[cyberjock]

We don't have access to sysinstall or the main source tree so neither of those techniques work. I tried them before posting this query.

The entire source code for FreeNAS, build environment and all is available in githut. I don't know a thing about sysinstall, but I would bet that if you were to do a github pull request that was complete and functional the devs would probably accept it with open arms and implement it. But *I* don't think it's a good idea (I'm not a big decision maker either) and tickets that are set to "FUTURE" usually mean "we might do this.. someday.." which is where a crapload of feature requests have sat for more than 2 years. So yeah, expect to implement it yourself if you ever want to see it. ;)

 

[Ericloewe]

The entire source code for FreeNAS, build environment and all is available in githut. I don't know a thing about sysinstall, but I would bet that if you were to do a github pull request that was complete and functional the devs would probably accept it with open arms and implement it. But *I* don't think it's a good idea (I'm not a big decision maker either) and tickets that are set to "FUTURE" usually mean "we might do this.. someday.." which is where a crapload of feature requests have sat for more than 2 years. So yeah, expect to implement it yourself if you ever want to see it. ;)

GitHut? Is that like GitHub, but tasteless and greasy? And with a propensity for heart-destroying gimmicks with cheese and stuff?

Seriously though, I can see both sides of this argument. Honestly, the stuff with the more obscure man pages (ZFS stuff, basically) is precisely that which should generally not be messed with.
Making them a semi-hidden option for advanced users that's disabled (not installed?) by default would probably be the sane solution.

 

[Bidule0hm]

Making them a semi-hidden option for advanced users that's disabled (not installed?) by default would probably be the sane solution.

This would be perfect, like a command to be executed to install the man pages.

 

[cyberjock]

Yeah, but even if you make it some semi-hidden option then people will say 'give me all'. So it is an all or none situation.

Case and point... when the CTL iscsi service was put in 9.2.1.4 or whatever and you could enable it with an easter-egg at the CLI what happened? People denounced it and craploads of people started using it. They asked why it wasn't the default. They asked why we didn't trust it. I still get asked why CTL wasn't the standard in 9.2.1.x. /shrug

You can't do 1/2-assed. You gotta go all the way, feet first, or don't do it. The community is unforgiving for doing 1/2 the job. Those that can't figure it out just get all upset and cry. Then you have a dozen threads and a dozen tickets complaining about it.

Another example.. look at plugins. Everyone and their mother wants plugins because they don't know how to do it in a jail. So someone creates a plugin and sometimes within hours of an update coming out for a given software package someone has already asked in 2 or 3 threads and a bug ticket when it will be updated.

I'm glad I'm not @Joshua Parker Ruehlig because I'd have given up on that long ago. No way I'm gonna get (and let myself be) nagged hours after an update to Plex comes out.

 

[RoboKaren]

Fortunately updates to man pages are very infrequent and installing man pages hardly ever causes things to break.

 

[Bidule0hm]

It's not 1/2 job it's just taking the best of the two things: keep the size of the ISO small by not installing the mans by default* and let the possibility to install it for those who want it :)

And it's not like the plugins, it's pretty much just static text files.

*what's the economy on the size anyway? it's not that big, no?

 

[Ericloewe]

It's not 1/2 job it's just taking the best of the two things: keep the size of the ISO small by not installing the mans by default* and let the possibility to install it for those who want it :)

And it's not like the plugins, it's pretty much just static text files.

*what's the economy on the size anyway? it's not that big, no?

I imagine it's a few MB. Yeah, the old boot images were really that cramped.

 

[cyberjock]

There were times when the old boot images had something like 1.5MB free! yikes!

 

[N00b]

my Freenas is in storage , halfway across the globe, so I am not able to test this - but I had managed to install man pages by doing this.

"1) a jail automatically installs all the manpages. You can just copy the directory from an existing jail or a freshly created jail to somewhere convenient on your main pool. I copied it to a directory called mp92 (man pages 9.2)

2) Then you symlink this and a bunch of other files and directory on the main system ( you have to make the usb write enable first t0 survive reboots).

3) i currently have the following symlinks (mp92 is where I have saved the man pages on the main pool 'jazz'). i think you need these at a minimum. give these a try first. I just went and added all that the system complained about as missing :)

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 25B Jan 18 2014 groff_font@ -> /mnt/jazz/mp92/groff_font
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 18B Jan 18 2014 man@ -> /mnt/jazz/mp92/man
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 19B Jan 18 2014 tmac@ -> /mnt/jazz/mp92/tmac

4) I addition you need the following directory and files from the jail copied here in addition to this directory from the directory /usr/share in the jail.
groff_font
tmac

the sub-directory bin has only these two executable files from the jail.
-r-xr-xr-x 1 <your user> wheel 20k Jan 18 2014 man*
-r-xr-xr-x 1 <your user> wheel 20k Jan 18 2014 manpath* "

You should then be able to look up the man pages from the cli.

edit : updated the steps from a pm to another user that specific details of my config.

 

[Bidule0hm]

We are on 9.3 but fortunately the jails still come with the man pages in the 9.3 :D

There is a better solution that just add one line in a conf file but many thanks to you to have found that the man pages are present in the jails ;)

So, the solution is to add an alias to the conf file of your favorite shell:

1) Already have a jail or create a jail

2) Type jls in a terminal and memorize the hostname of the jail

3.bash) If you use bash edit your .bashrc with your favorite editor
3.csh) If you use csh edit your .cshrc with your favorite editor

4.bash) Add this line after the others alias: alias man='jexec the_name_that_you_have_memorized_on_step_2 man'
4.csh) Add this line after the others alias: alias man jexec the_name_that_you_have_memorized_on_step_2 man

5) Save the changes and quit the editor

6.bash) Type source .bashrc
6.csh) Type source .cshrc

7) Congratulations! you can now use the man pages on FreeNAS \0/

NB: don't blame me if you mess your server, you are the only one responsible of what you do in the CLI :)

NB²: bash is the default shell of the shell (which should really be called terminal or CLI instead...) in the web GUI and csh is the default shell when you SSH with root (and probably for the other users too but I didn't tested)

NB³: the last update I've applied (today) has replaced the shell conf files but it's the first time since I've installed 9.3. So in theory it should survive the big majority of the updates, but if it doesn't work anymore after an update you know what to do ;)

 

[Alvin]

Ever used PartedMagic? Man pages were not on the CD, but were downloaded on request when you tried to access them. I wouldn't be opposed to downloading a few bytes to the .system filesystem.
(A jail is far larger than only the man pages and jails are FreeBSD 9.2 based, so the man pages will be out-of-date.)