GNU bug report logs - #61720
BUG: omission of crucial detail in 'chown --reference' man page (vs info)

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Michael Coleman <mcolema5 <at> uoregon.edu>
To: "bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org" <bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org>
Subject: BUG: omission of crucial detail in 'chown --reference' man page (vs
 info)
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2023 22:07:27 +0000

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hi,

The (RHEL 7) man page for GNU 'chown' has (only) this for the '--reference' flag:

    use RFILE's owner and group rather than specifying OWNER:GROUP values

which omits the crucial second sentence, included in the info tree:

     Change the user and group of each FILE to be the same as those of
     REF_FILE.  If REF_FILE is a symbolic link, do not use the user and
     group of the symbolic link, but rather those of the file it refers
     to.

(Note that '--no-deference' doesn't affect this behavior.)

I can't be sure, but I think the GNU build itself is generating this man page, as opposed to it having been created by RHEL.

I understand that the man pages are secondary and brief, but they shouldn't be actively misleading, IMO.

Thanks,
Mike


Michael Coleman
Computational Scientist
Research Advanced Computing Services (HPC)
University of Oregon

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #10 received at 61720-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: Michael Coleman <mcolema5 <at> uoregon.edu>, 61720-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#61720: BUG: omission of crucial detail in 'chown --reference'
 man page (vs info)
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2023 15:28:18 +0000

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On 22/02/2023 22:07, Michael Coleman wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> The (RHEL 7) man page for GNU 'chown' has (only) this for the '--reference' flag:
> 
>      use RFILE's owner and group rather than specifying OWNER:GROUP values
> 
> which omits the crucial second sentence, included in the info tree:
> 
>       Change the user and group of each FILE to be the same as those of
>       REF_FILE.  If REF_FILE is a symbolic link, do not use the user and
>       group of the symbolic link, but rather those of the file it refers
>       to.
> 
> (Note that '--no-deference' doesn't affect this behavior.)
> 
> I can't be sure, but I think the GNU build itself is generating this man page, as opposed to it having been created by RHEL.
> 
> I understand that the man pages are secondary and brief, but they shouldn't be actively misleading, IMO.

It is worth stating that in the man page,
especially since one might think --no-dereference might change behavior.

Fixing this with the attached.

Marking this as done.

thanks,
Pádraig

[chown-doc-ref-symlinks.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]

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