improvements to some man pages [patch]

Benno Schulenberg <[email protected]> Sun, 19 Nov 2006 14:16:17 +0100
Newsgroups gmane.linux.pld.shadow.general
Message-ID <[email protected]>
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Attached patch fixes a few grammar mistakes, corrects a word or two, 
and tries to make some of the descriptions in some of the man pages 
a little clearer.  It also removes a duplicate line, an unnecessary 
line, and a confusing line.  And it adds a cross reference, but this 
can probably be done in a better, XML-ish way.

Benno

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diff -ur cvs-shadow/man/login.1.xml shadow-new/man/login.1.xml
--- cvs-shadow/man/login.1.xml	2006-11-01 11:54:55.000000000 +0100
+++ shadow-new/man/login.1.xml	2006-11-19 12:36:53.000000000 +0100
@@ -184,11 +184,11 @@
     </para>
 
     <para>
-      As any program, <command>login</command> appearance could be faked. 
-      If non-trusted users have a physical access to the machine, an
+      As with any program, <command>login</command>'s appearance can be faked. 
+      If non-trusted users have physical access to a machine, an
       attacker could use this to obtain the password of the next person
-      sitting in front of the machine. Under Linux, the SAK mecanism can be
-      used by users to initiate of a trusted path and prevent this kind of
+      coming to sit in front of the machine. Under Linux, the SAK mechanism can be
+      used by users to initiate a trusted path and prevent this kind of
       attack.
     </para>
 
diff -ur cvs-shadow/man/groupadd.8.xml shadow-new/man/groupadd.8.xml
--- cvs-shadow/man/groupadd.8.xml	2006-05-28 18:17:36.000000000 +0200
+++ shadow-new/man/groupadd.8.xml	2006-11-19 13:13:51.000000000 +0100
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
   <refsect1 id='description'>
     <title>DESCRIPTION</title>
     <para>The <command>groupadd</command> command creates a new group
-      account using the values specified on the command line and the default
+      account using the values specified on the command line plus the default
       values from the system. The new group will be entered into the system
       files as needed.
     </para>
@@ -47,9 +47,11 @@
 	  <option>-f</option>
 	</term>
 	<listitem>
-	  <para>This option causes to just exit with success status if the
-	    specified group already exists. With <option>-g</option>, if
-	    specified GID already exists, other (unique) GID is chosen (i.e.
+	  <para>This option causes the command to simply exit with success
+	    status if the
+	    specified group already exists. When used with
+	    <option>-g</option>, and the
+	    specified GID already exists, another (unique) GID is chosen (i.e.
 	    <option>-g</option> is turned off).
 	  </para>
 	</listitem>
@@ -101,7 +103,7 @@
 	</term>
 	<listitem>
 	  <para>
-	    This option permits to add group with non-unique GID.
+	    This option permits to add a group with a non-unique GID.
 	  </para>
 	</listitem>
       </varlistentry>
@@ -138,16 +140,12 @@
        only lower case letters, underscores, dashes, and dollar signs may 
        follow. In regular expression terms: [a-z_][a-z0-9_-]*[$]
      </para>
-     <para>Groupnames may only be up to 16 characters long.</para>
-
      <para>
        If the groupname already exists in an external group database
        such as NIS, <command>groupadd</command> will deny the group
        creation request.
      </para>
-
      <para>Groupnames may only be up to 16 characters long.</para>
-
    </refsect1>
 
   <refsect1 id='exit_values'>
diff -ur cvs-shadow/man/groupmod.8.xml shadow-new/man/groupmod.8.xml
--- cvs-shadow/man/groupmod.8.xml	2006-11-01 11:54:55.000000000 +0100
+++ shadow-new/man/groupmod.8.xml	2006-11-19 12:47:37.000000000 +0100
@@ -43,12 +43,14 @@
 	</term>
 	<listitem>
 	  <para>
-	    Specify the new group ID for the <replaceable>GROUP</replaceable>.
-	    The numerical value of the <replaceable>GID</replaceable> must be
+	    The group ID of the given <replaceable>GROUP</replaceable> will be
+	    changed to <replaceable>GID</replaceable>.
+	    The value of <replaceable>GID</replaceable> must be
 	    a non-negative decimal integer. This value must be unique, unless
 	    the <option>-o</option> option is used. Values between 0 and 999
-	    are typically reserved for system groups. Any files which the old
-	    group ID is the file group ID must have the file group ID changed
+	    are typically reserved for system groups. Any files that have
+	    the old group ID and must continue to belong to
+	    <replaceable>GROUP</replaceable>, must have their group ID changed
 	    manually.
 	  </para>
 	</listitem>
@@ -77,8 +79,8 @@
 	</term>
 	<listitem>
 	  <para>
-	    When used with the <option>-g</option> option allow to change the
-	    group <replaceable>GID</replaceable> to non-unique value.
+	    When used with the <option>-g</option> option, allow to change the
+	    group <replaceable>GID</replaceable> to a non-unique value.
 	  </para>
 	</listitem>
       </varlistentry>
diff -ur cvs-shadow/man/useradd.8.xml shadow-new/man/useradd.8.xml
--- cvs-shadow/man/useradd.8.xml	2006-07-17 17:04:14.000000000 +0200
+++ shadow-new/man/useradd.8.xml	2006-11-19 12:43:46.000000000 +0100
@@ -36,8 +36,9 @@
       <para>
 	When invoked without the <option>-D</option> option, the
 	<command>useradd</command> command creates a new user account using
-	the values specified on the command line and the default values from
-	the system. Depending on command line options, the useradd command
+	the values specified on the command line plus the default values from
+	the system. Depending on command line options, the
+	<command>useradd</command> command
 	will update system files and may also create the new user's home
 	directory and copy initial files.
       </para>
@@ -78,6 +79,16 @@
       </varlistentry>
       <varlistentry>
 	<term>
+	  <option>-D</option>
+	</term>
+	<listitem>
+	  <para>
+	    See below, the subsection "Changing the default values".
+	  </para>
+	</listitem>
+      </varlistentry>
+      <varlistentry>
+	<term>
 	  <option>-d</option>, <option>--home</option>
 	  <replaceable>HOME_DIR</replaceable>
 	</term>
@@ -256,10 +267,11 @@
     <refsect2 id='changing_the_default_values'>
       <title>Changing the default values</title>
       <para>
-	When invoked with the <option>-D</option> option,
-	<command>useradd</command> will either display the current default
-	values, or update the default values from the command line. The
-	valid options are
+	When invoked with only the <option>-D</option> option,
+	<command>useradd</command> will display the current default values.
+	When invoked with <option>-D</option> plus other options,
+	<command>useradd</command> will update the default values for the
+	specified options. Valid default-changing options are:
       </para>
       <variablelist remap='IP'>
 	<varlistentry>
@@ -269,10 +281,10 @@
 	  </term>
 	  <listitem>
 	    <para>
-	      The initial path prefix for a new user's home directory. The
+	      The path prefix for a new user's home directory. The
 	      user's name will be affixed to the end of
-	      <replaceable>HOME_DIR</replaceable> to create the new
-	      directory name if the <option>-d</option> option is not used
+	      <replaceable>BASE_DIR</replaceable> to form the new user's
+	      home directory name, if the <option>-d</option> option is not used
 	      when creating a new account.
 	    </para>
 	  </listitem>
@@ -318,17 +330,12 @@
 	  </term>
 	  <listitem>
 	    <para>
-	      The name of the new user's login shell. The named program will
-	      be used for all future new user accounts.
+	      The name of a new user's login shell.
 	    </para>
 	  </listitem>
 	</varlistentry>
       </variablelist>
 
-      <para>
-	If no options are specified, <command>useradd</command> displays the
-	current default values.
-      </para>
     </refsect2>
   </refsect1>
 
diff -ur cvs-shadow/man/userdel.8.xml shadow-new/man/userdel.8.xml
--- cvs-shadow/man/userdel.8.xml	2006-05-20 14:11:38.000000000 +0200
+++ shadow-new/man/userdel.8.xml	2006-11-19 13:04:55.000000000 +0100
@@ -24,8 +24,8 @@
     <title>DESCRIPTION</title>
     <para>
       The <command>userdel</command> command modifies the system account
-      files, deleting all entries that refer to <emphasis
-      remap='I'>login_name</emphasis>. The named user must exist.
+      files, deleting all entries that refer to the user name <emphasis
+      remap='I'>LOGIN</emphasis>. The named user must exist.
     </para>
   </refsect1>
 
@@ -41,9 +41,10 @@
 	</term>
 	<listitem>
 	  <para>
-	    This option forces the removal of the user, even if she is still
+	    This option forces the removal of the user account, even if the
+	    user is still
 	    logged in. It also forces <command>userdel</command> to remove
-	    the user's home directory or her mail spool, even if another
+	    the user's home directory and mail spool, even if another
 	    user uses the same home directory or if the mail spool is not
 	    owned by the specified user.  If
 	    <emphasis>USERGROUPS_ENAB</emphasis> is defined to <emphasis
diff -ur cvs-shadow/man/usermod.8.xml shadow-new/man/usermod.8.xml
--- cvs-shadow/man/usermod.8.xml	2006-07-12 16:23:14.000000000 +0200
+++ shadow-new/man/usermod.8.xml	2006-11-19 12:56:11.000000000 +0100
@@ -127,8 +127,8 @@
 	    restrictions as the group given with the <option>-g</option>
 	    option. If the user is currently a member of a group which is
 	    not listed, the user will be removed from the group. This
-	    behaviour can be changed via <option>-a</option> option, which
-	    appends user to the current supplementary group list.
+	    behaviour can be changed via the <option>-a</option> option, which
+	    appends the user to the current supplementary group list.
 	  </para>
 	</listitem>
       </varlistentry>
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@
 	    remap='I'>LOGIN</emphasis> to <emphasis
 	    remap='I'>NEW_LOGIN</emphasis>. Nothing else is changed. In
 	    particular, the user's home directory name should probably be
-	    changed to reflect the new login name.
+	    changed manually to reflect the new login name.
 	  </para>
 	</listitem>
       </varlistentry>

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