Debian bug report logs - #1713
procps: manpage doesn't tell the truth

Package: procps ; Reported by: joey@finlandia.Infodrom.North.DE (Martin
Schulze); 11 days old.
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Date: Fri, 20 Oct 95 12:35 MET
From: joey@finlandia.Infodrom.North.DE (Martin Schulze)
To: debian-bugs@pixar.com
Subject: procps: manpage doesn't tell the truth


Package: procps
Version: 0.97
Package_Revision: 4

The manpage ps(1) tells us:

------------------------------- happs 8<------------------------------
COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS
       Command line arguments may optionally be  preceeded  by  a
       '-',  but  there  is  no need for it.  There are also some
       "long options" in GNU style; see below for those.

       (..)

       w    wide  output:  don't truncate command lines to fit on
            one line.
------------------------------- happs 8<------------------------------

But ps does something else. You may specify up to three 'w's in the
command line and you'll only understand the behaviour if you look at
the code:

------------------------------- happs 8<------------------------------
int set_maxcmd(int w_opts)
{
    struct winsize win;

    maxcols = 80;
    if (ioctl(1, TIOCGWINSZ, &win) != -1 && win.ws_col > 0)
        maxcols = win.ws_col;

    switch (w_opts) {
        case 0: break;
        case 1: maxcols += 52; break;
        case 2: maxcols *= 2; break;
        default: maxcols = MAXCMD;
    }
    return maxcols - strlen(hdrs[CL_fmt]) + 7;
}
------------------------------- happs 8<------------------------------

I would recommend a) change the manpage entry or b) change the whole
handling of 'w'-processing. If the maintainer is interested, I can
send him a patch for the latter

Regards,

        Joey

--
   / Martin Schulze  *  joey@infodrom.north.de  *  26129 Oldenburg /
  / +49-441-777884  *  Login&Passwd: nuucp  *  Index: ~/ls-lR.gz  /
 /                                     http://home.pages.de/~joey/
/ Linux - the choice of a GNU generation                        /
----------------------------------------------------------------
30.10.95: Oldenburger Linux-Stammtisch, ab 20h im DaCapo
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Acknowledgement sent to joey@finlandia.Infodrom.North.DE (Martin
Schulze) :
New bug report received and forwarded. Full text available.
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Report forwarded to debian-devel@pixar.com :
Bug#1713 ; Package procps . Full text available.
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Ian Jackson / iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk , with the debian-bugs tracking
mechanism
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