Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread: How are '-doc' packages supposed to work?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Beans
    2

    Question How are '-doc' packages supposed to work?

    I mostly got into GNU/Linux as a more development-focused system. To that end, I try to have local copies of the documentation for the libraries I want to work with. The problem is, there is almost no information about where the documents end up after the packages are installed. After quite a bit of digging, I learned about doc-base, which is a step in the right direction. After that I tried installing doccentral, but that was completely non-functional. Here Ubuntu comes installed with a help viewer, but it doesn't seem to be usable with anything but the basic 'How to Use Ubuntu' pages. Is there a recommended application, or is hunting through /usr/share/doc/ the typical solution?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    S.H.I.E.L.D. 6-1-6
    Beans
    Hidden!
    Distro
    Ubuntu Development Release

    Re: How are '-doc' packages supposed to work?

    There is no reader for /usr/share/doc that works like the man command. It is mainly because content varies accross all the doc folders. Some use gzip to compress their documents/changelog, some use html, etc etc.

    Most of the packages there use either gzip or html, so you the general method for reading seems to be simply opening whatever is in the doc folder for the app.

    Hope that helps!
    Don't waste your energy trying to change opinions ... Do your thing, and don't care if they like it.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Beans
    2

    Re: How are '-doc' packages supposed to work?

    Hm. dwww tries to do what doc-central was supposed to do, but fails to generate links properly. Oh, well. Thanks for your help.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    SoCal
    Beans
    Hidden!
    Distro
    Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr

    Re: How are '-doc' packages supposed to work?

    Quote Originally Posted by RadonPlasma View Post
    I mostly got into GNU/Linux as a more development-focused system. To that end, I try to have local copies of the documentation for the libraries I want to work with. The problem is, there is almost no information about where the documents end up after the packages are installed. After quite a bit of digging, I learned about doc-base, which is a step in the right direction. After that I tried installing doccentral, but that was completely non-functional. Here Ubuntu comes installed with a help viewer, but it doesn't seem to be usable with anything but the basic 'How to Use Ubuntu' pages. Is there a recommended application, or is hunting through /usr/share/doc/ the typical solution?
    Read the manual page for man
    Code:
    man man
    Man is a pager (reader) that extracts and formats the documentation in a specific manner. You should not read the information directly from /usr/share/doc. You can invoke the command man from anywhere in the file system at the command line (terminal). The basic syntax is: man <term>.

    If you prefer the Ubuntu man pages in HTML, you will find them here
    -BAB1

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Magic City of the Plains
    Beans
    Hidden!
    Distro
    Xubuntu Development Release

    Re: How are '-doc' packages supposed to work?

    Quote Originally Posted by RadonPlasma View Post
    I mostly got into GNU/Linux as a more development-focused system. To that end, I try to have local copies of the documentation for the libraries I want to work with. The problem is, there is almost no information about where the documents end up after the packages are installed.
    Code:
    dpkg -L <package name>
    will work.

    Quote Originally Posted by RadonPlasma View Post
    After quite a bit of digging, I learned about doc-base, which is a step in the right direction. After that I tried installing doccentral, but that was completely non-functional. Here Ubuntu comes installed with a help viewer, but it doesn't seem to be usable with anything but the basic 'How to Use Ubuntu' pages. Is there a recommended application, or is hunting through /usr/share/doc/ the typical solution?
    You can view gzipped files without unzipping them using less, e.g.
    Code:
    less README.gz
    But as bab1 points out man command is more convenient.

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •