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The current MAN command uses a z/OS unique man page format and man database. As others port tools (see the z/OS Open Tools project on Github at https://zosopentools.github.io/meta/#/) to run under OMVS this presents challenges and a great barrier in the area of man pages as:
1. The man page format is different on OMVS when compared to the standard *nix man pages
2. The man database for OMVS is proprietary with no tools to update or add to it preventing ported/new tools from adding their man page to the database
There are two solutions, with one better than the other.
Preferred solution: Convert all existing OMVS man pages to the standard *nix format and provide a mandb tool to update the man page database.
Alternate solution: Release the tool that builds the existing OMVS man page database.
Idea priority | High |
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As the man pages look just like the pages on the web, it should be possible to use that format to generate the pages in man format (I've used Python to do something similar to download control blocks from html)
it looks like the hard bit will be getting the man command to interpret the data and display it. This might be easier than porting man to z/OS
Saw this on IBM-Main
It's a tough climb: It's hard enough to get IBM to conform to standards, let alone widespread prevailing conventions.
And Single UNIX says <https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/man.html#tag_20_77_18>:
RATIONALE
It is recognized that the man utility is only of minimal usefulness as specified. The opinion of the standard developers was strongly divided as to how much or how little information man should be required to provide. They considered, however, that the provision of some portable way of accessing documentation would aid user portability. The arguments against a fuller specification were:
When installing FOSS, I have directed the man pages to an NFS-exported directory, then run a script on Solaris to access every man page, ">/dev/null", rendering the nroff format into the "cat" hierarchy for viewing on MVS. Far from ideal.
Saw this on ibm-main:
It's a tough climb: It's hard enough to get IBM to conform to standards, let alone widespread prevailing conventions.
And Single UNIX says <https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/man.html#tag_20_77_18>:
RATIONALE
It is recognized that the man utility is only of minimal usefulness as specified. The opinion of the standard developers was strongly divided as to how much or how little information man should be required to provide. They considered, however, that the provision of some portable way of accessing documentation would aid user portability. The arguments against a fuller specification were:
When installing FOSS, I have directed the man pages to an NFS-exported directory, then run a script on Solaris to access every man page, ">/dev/null", rendering the nroff format into the "cat" hierarchy for viewing on MVS. Far from ideal.