Are there any man pages for any of the system error messages?
in [General Linux]
|
Prev: Live CD to scan windows pc for a virus
Next: where is CentOS storing my hostname that it resets it on each reboot?
From: Mark Hobley on 7 Apr 2010 04:43 Robert Riches <spamtrap42(a)verizon.net> wrote: > On Mandriva 2010.0, this command > > ls fred > > produces this output > > ls: cannot access fred: No such file or directory > > A user should know that the name of the file in the middle of the > message is a dynamic part of the message--that's just common > sense. A use may not know that fred is the name of a file. And they are even less likely to know that fred is the name of a file that does not exist. On a system utilizing Universal Error Messaging Infrastructure, the message will probably appear as something like: Error: C2: No such file or directory: fred To get an explanation of what went wrong, the user will now simply type: man e c2 This will pull up the man page for the c2 error message. Mark. -- Mark Hobley Linux User: #370818 http://markhobley.yi.org/
From: unruh on 7 Apr 2010 11:10 On 2010-04-07, Mark Hobley <markhobley(a)hotpop.donottypethisbit.com> wrote: > Robert Riches <spamtrap42(a)verizon.net> wrote: >> On Mandriva 2010.0, this command >> >> ls fred >> >> produces this output >> >> ls: cannot access fred: No such file or directory >> >> A user should know that the name of the file in the middle of the >> message is a dynamic part of the message--that's just common >> sense. > > A use may not know that fred is the name of a file. And they are even less > likely to know that fred is the name of a file that does not exist. > > On a system utilizing Universal Error Messaging Infrastructure, > the message will probably appear as something like: > > Error: C2: No such file or directory: fred > > To get an explanation of what went wrong, the user will now simply type: > > man e c2 > > This will pull up the man page for the c2 error message. Which will say something like No such file or directory-- This means that no file or directory exists with the following name. Really useful Someone who knows so little that they do not know that in the command "ls fred" the word fred is supposed to be that of some file or directory is not going to know enough to know that "man" even exists. > > Mark. >
From: Darren Salt on 7 Apr 2010 13:31 I demand that Mark Hobley may or may not have written... [snip] > To get an explanation of what went wrong, the user will now simply type: > man e c2 > This will pull up the man page for the c2 error message. No; one or both of e and c2 or, if neither is found, e-c2. -- | Darren Salt | linux at youmustbejoking | nr. Ashington, | Doon | using Debian GNU/Linux | or ds ,demon,co,uk | Northumberland | Army | + They're after you... Tact is the ability to stay in the middle without getting caught there.
From: Curt on 7 Apr 2010 14:56 On 2010-04-07, Robert Riches <spamtrap42(a)verizon.net> wrote: > > On Mandriva 2010.0, this command > > ls fred > > produces this output > > ls: cannot access fred: No such file or directory > > So, I put this in Google's search term box: > > "ls: cannot access" "No such file or directory" > > It got 82,700 hits. > I googled the entire quote, fred included, and got 53,800 hits.
From: Jerry Peters on 7 Apr 2010 16:06
In comp.os.linux.misc Marten Kemp <marten.kemp(a)thisplanet-link.net> wrote: > Mark Hobley wrote: >> In comp.os.linux.misc despen(a)verizon.net wrote: >>> home> ls -l nonsuchfile >>> /bin/ls: cannot access nonsuchfile: No such file or directory >>> >>> Do you really think a message number would help? >> >> It might help a user who has that error pop up on the screen during operation, >> because they can reference the message number against the documentation. >> >> If on the other hand, they google for the message as output above, the only >> documentation that they get, is a single hit to your post. >> >> Lets, look at another example. A user opens up their internet browser, starts >> browsing the web, and the following error message appears: >> >> (gecko:nnnn): Pango-WARNING **: Error loading GPOS table 5503 >> >> Who the hell knows what means? An end user may have a real hard time trying >> to resolve that error, if they cannot relate the message to appropriate >> reference documentation. Numbering the messages so that this can be related >> to reference documentation is just a good idea IMHO. > > On googling for mesage output - I've run into a 'display limit' > when running Debian's aptitude and the only hits I've ever gotten > are posts that I've made asking for clarification. > > I come from an IBM mainframe environment where messages have numbers > (see my earlier post). They make life immeasurably simpler, even in > environments without as steep a learning curve as Linux does. > > This is one of the differences between a professionally-designed > and -written OS and something else. > > IMHO, of course. > Except that even IBM can take *years* to add a new/modified message to the messages manual. IIRC they took aver 2 years to update the messages manual for a message for program load failure. I kept moving the printout from IBMLink to each new messages manual. If IBM couldn't manage this in a timely fashion, how the heck are FOSS developers expected to? Jerry |