g.manual -m gives ERROR: No manual page entry

[jidanni]

man xyz works. g.manual xyz works. g.manual -m xyz says ERROR: No manual page entry for xyz. At least here on Debian sid.

GRASS 7.8.1 (newLocation):~ > g.manual -m g.manual
ERROR: No manual page entry for 'g.manual'
GRASS 7.8.1 (newLocation):~ > g.manual -m d.vect
ERROR: No manual page entry for 'd.vect'
GRASS 7.8.1 (newLocation):~ > g.manual -i
GRASS 7.8.1 (newLocation):~ > g.manual -i -m
ERROR: No manual page entry for 'index'
GRASS 7.8.1 (newLocation):~ > g.manual -t -m
ERROR: No manual page entry for 'topics'
GRASS 7.8.1 (newLocation):~ > g.manual g.manual
GRASS 7.8.1 (newLocation):~ > 

[neteler]

Works nicely on Fedora:

g.manual -m g.manual

g.manual(1)                                               Grass User's Manual                                               g.manual(1)

NAME
       g.manual  - Displays the manual pages of GRASS modules.

KEYWORDS
       general, manual, help
...

The manual pages are expected to be under

/usr/lib64/grass78/docs/man/man1/x.yyy.1

see path in ​https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/blob/master/scripts/g.manual/g.manual.py#L101

Perhaps stores the MAN pages elsewhere?

[Bas Couwenberg]

Manpages have the 'grass' suffix appended to the section to prevent conflicts, see:

​https://salsa.debian.org/debian-gis-team/grass/blob/debian/7.8.1-1/debian/rules#L150

[neteler]

Replying to Bas Couwenberg:

Manpages have the 'grass' suffix appended to the section to prevent conflicts, see:

​https://salsa.debian.org/debian-gis-team/grass/blob/debian/7.8.1-1/debian/rules#L150

I see a "grass7.1" in the line ​https://salsa.debian.org/debian-gis-team/grass/blob/debian/7.8.1-1/debian/rules#L151

maybe that's the problem?

[Bas Couwenberg]

maybe that's the problem?

No, that just renames grass7.1 to grass78.1.

The manual pages are expected to be under /usr/lib64/grass78/docs/man/man1/x.yyy.1

Which is not the case on Debian:

$ apt-file search man1/g.manual.1
grass-doc: /usr/share/man/man1/g.manual.1grass.gz

So g.manual.py needs to be patched to test the .1grass section suffix instead of just .1, this is more in line with what man(1) does, as it has no issue to find manpages with .1foo suffixes:

$ man -w g.manual
/usr/share/man/man1/g.manual.1grass.gz

[Bas Couwenberg]

Something like this may be a good solution:

--- a/g.manual   2019-11-18 20:06:17.402073322 +0100
+++ b/g.manual   2019-11-18 20:16:03.794093319 +0100
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@
 #% required : yes
 #%end
 
+import subprocess
 import sys
 import os
 
@@ -98,6 +99,19 @@
 
 
 def start_man(entry):
+    try:
+        cmd = ['man', '-w', '1', entry]
+
+        process = subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
+        (stdout, stderr) = process.communicate()
+
+        paths = stdout.decode().split('\n')
+
+        if os.path.exists(paths[0]):
+            os.execlp('man', 'man', paths[0])
+    except Exception:
+        pass
+
     path = os.path.join(gisbase, 'docs', 'man', 'man1', entry + '.1')
     if not os.path.exists(path) and os.getenv('GRASS_ADDON_BASE'):
         path = os.path.join(os.getenv('GRASS_ADDON_BASE'), 'docs', 'man', 'man1', entry + '.1')

[neteler]

Ticket retargeted after milestone closed