Date: 15 Mar 2002 19:45:49 -0800 From: "Gary W. Swearingen" <swear@blarg.net> To: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@freebsd.org Subject: docs/35951: disklabel(8) manual confuses partitions and slices, etc. Message-ID: <z13cz1ch02.cz1@localhost.localdomain>
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>Number: 35951 >Category: docs >Synopsis: disklabel(8) manual confuses partitions and slices, etc. >Confidential: no >Severity: non-critical >Priority: low >Responsible: freebsd-doc >State: open >Quarter: >Keywords: >Date-Required: >Class: doc-bug >Submitter-Id: current-users >Arrival-Date: Fri Mar 15 19:50:00 PST 2002 >Closed-Date: >Last-Modified: >Originator: Gary W. Swearingen >Release: FreeBSD 4.5-STABLE i386 >Organization: none >Environment: n/a ================ >Description: The "Raw or in-core label" section of the disklabel(8) manual uses "partition" to refer to a slice (in the first sentence). Some other places use "partition" in the usual FreeBSD meaning. The manual also confusingly uses the term "DOS partition" and the idiosyncratic term "DOS slice". The term "Microsoft partition table" would be better as "MBR partition table". A related problem, which maybe should have it's own PR, is that several mentions of "disk" or "drive" should have "or slice" added. It would probably also be better to consistently use "disk" instead of often using "drive" or "disk drive" as it does. (It's not drivelabel(8).) ================ >How-To-Repeat: n/a ================ >Fix: Go through the manual and ensure that each use of "partition", "slice", and their variants (eg, "DOS partitioning") is unambiguous and correct. The terms used by the manual could be explained, but I think it is better to assume that readers have learned in the Handbook what these two terms mean in FreeBSD documentation and use them religiously. Don't use "DOS" as part of our terminology except in defining our terminology. (Actually, I'd prefer that "slice" be replaced with "primary partition" and "partition" with "secondary partition" throughout the documentation, but I don't expect that will be done.) >Release-Note: >Audit-Trail: >Unformatted: To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
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