Debian bug report logs - #1736
`atrun' man page: -l is optional

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From: Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>
To: "Susan G. Kleinmann" <sgk@soos.tiac.net>,
        Debian bugs acknowledgements <debian-bugs-done@pixar.com>
Subject: Re: Bug#1736: `atrun' man page: -l is optional 
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	<199510232359.TAA04452@soos.tiac.net>

Susan G. Kleinmann writes ("Re: Bug#1736: `atrun' man page: -l is optional "):
> > Susan G. Kleinmann writes ("Bug#1736: `atrun' man page: -l is optional"):
> > > Pacakage: at
> > > Version: 2.8a-2
> > > 
> > > In atrun's manpage, the SYNOPSIS line reads:
> > >     atrun [-l load_avg] [-d]
> > > 
> > > I believe it should read:
> > >     atrun [[-l] load_avg] [-d]
> > 
> 
> > Ian Jackson writes:
> > Does this really strike you as a documentation rather than an
> > implementation bug ?  (I haven't checked yet whether I can see it in
> > the code.)
> > 
> > It seems to me that the correct thing to do here would be to change
> > the code so that the -l was required, like the manpage says.
> > 
> > I see that I'll have to modify the default crontab if I do this, as
> > I've taken advantage of this bug there.  Hmm.
> > 
> > Ian.
> > 
> 
> Well, I honestly don't know enough to know what kind of bug it is.
> I had just noticed an inconsistency between the default crontab and the man
> page; I was kvetching about my confusion to someone much more experienced
> (but 25 years younger) than I, and it was he who told me his opinion that 
> the problem was the lack of a set of brackets around the -l flag.  

I looked at the code in atrun and it turns out that it is interpreting
 at -d 0.5
as
 at -d
(ignoring the 0.5 completely).

This is a bug in the package, which I've now fixed.  The fact that the
crontab contained `at -d 0.5' was another bug, which I've also fixed.

There is nothing wrong with the manual :-).

Thanks for the report, which I'm closing now.

Ian.

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Date: Mon, 23 Oct 95 23:07 GMT
From: Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>
To: sgk@sgk.tiac.net, debian-bugs@Pixar.com
Subject: Re: Bug#1736: `atrun' man page: -l is optional

Susan G. Kleinmann writes ("Bug#1736: `atrun' man page: -l is optional"):
> Pacakage: at
> Version: 2.8a-2
> 
> In atrun's manpage, the SYNOPSIS line reads:
>     atrun [-l load_avg] [-d]
> 
> I believe it should read:
>     atrun [[-l] load_avg] [-d]

Does this really strike you as a documentation rather than an
implementation bug ?  (I haven't checked yet whether I can see it in
the code.)

It seems to me that the correct thing to do here would be to change
the code so that the -l was required, like the manpage says.

I see that I'll have to modify the default crontab if I do this, as
I've taken advantage of this bug there.  Hmm.

Ian.

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From soos.tiac.net!sgk Mon Oct 23 04:46:33 1995
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Reply-To: sgk@sgk.tiac.net
To: debian-bugs@pixar.com
Subject: `atrun' man page: -l is optional
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 07:48:22 -0400
From: "Susan G. Kleinmann" <sgk@soos.tiac.net>

Pacakage: at
Version:  2.8a-2

In atrun's manpage, the SYNOPSIS line reads:
    atrun [-l load_avg] [-d]

I believe it should read:
    atrun [[-l] load_avg] [-d]

I am using dpkg 1.0.3-0, kernel 1.2.13-4, and libc 4.6.27-6.

Susan Kleinmann
sgk@sgk.tiac.net

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