Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Mon, 20 Sep 1999 20:21:59 -0700 (PDT)
From:      brett@lariat.org
To:        freebsd-gnats-submit@freebsd.org
Subject:   bin/13869: man program saves multiple cached copies of the same file
Message-ID:  <19990921032159.6862C14CC9@hub.freebsd.org>

next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help

>Number:         13869
>Category:       bin
>Synopsis:       man program saves multiple cached copies of the same file
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    freebsd-bugs
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Tue Sep 21 03:30:01 PDT 1999
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Brett Glass
>Release:        Several
>Organization:
>Environment:
>Description:
The "man" program doesn't recognize when multiple links exist to a file
containing a man page, and therefore creates multiple cached copies
of the formatted file. For example: /usr/share/man/man1/csh.1.gz and 
/usr/share/man/man1/fg.1.gz point to the same file. But when one 
types "man csh" and then "man fg", the file is formatted twice and
separate copies of the formatted output are created in 
/usr/share/man/cat1. This reduces the available cache space
and uses a great deal of extra cycles (groff is anything but
a lightweight utility).
>How-To-Repeat:
Type "man csh" and "man fg". Note that the same page comes up in
either case, but that the system takes time to format it twice even
though the caching mechanism should prevent this. Next, look at
/usr/share/man/cat1 and note that there are two identical files
called csh.1.gz and fg.1.gz. 
>Fix:
There are several possible fixes. The easiest may be to change the
hard links in the various man directories into symlinks, and recode
man to follow the symlinks to the one "original" file name before
formatting and displaying it.

>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:


To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-bugs" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?19990921032159.6862C14CC9>