Re: [PATCH 2/2] lsmem: (man) correct the markup of column names, and improve some grammar

Hi Benno,

On Sat, Mar 07, 2026 at 12:43:08PM +0100, Benno Schulenberg wrote:
> The column names should be marked in bold and not in italics, as they
> are literal values, not placeholders.
> 
> Also, indent the list of column names, to make it clearer where the
> list ends.  And add the missing markup for "RANGE" and the missing
> name "REMOVABLE".

Some of the changes introduced here are independent of commit
6f1e4ff054. But, looks fine to me.

> Furthermore, drop the small table, as it held nearly no information
> and was confusing: the explicit numbers in the BLOCK column gave the
> impression that block 0 can only be online, block 1 only offline but
> configured, and block 2 only offline and deconfigured.  The content
> of the MEMMAP-ON-MEMORY column being always "yes/no" was useless.
> Leaving out those columns left only STATE and CONFIGURED, where the
> values implied that memory can only be online when it is configured.
> This information can be conveyed in a single sentence.
> (The table was added in commit 6f1e4ff054 from five months ago.)

The table is useful because configuration and deconfiguration support on
s390 is still relatively new, and it documents the possible state
combinations. This helps users interpret what they see in lsmem output.

* The intention is to show possible memory block states. If the term
  “BLOCK” is confusing, it can be removed.
* The table illustrates whether a memory block is configured with
  memmap‑on‑memory is enabled (yes/no). This can be explained separately
  if needed.
* Users may configure a memory block with memmap‑on‑memory
  enabled/disabled and bring it online in a separate step.
* Users may bring memory online in a single step, in which case the tool
  performs both configuration (if supported by the architecture) and the
  online action.
* Users may only configure memory and later deconfigure it again.

This is the main reason for providing the table to make these
transitions clearer to the end user.

How about the following?
Example STATE, CONFIGURED, MEMMAP-ON-MEMORY states:
STATE   | CONFIGURED | MEMMAP-ON-MEMORY | Description
online  | yes        | yes              | Memory block is configured with memmap-on-memory enabled and online.
online  | yes        | no               | Memory block is configured with memmap-on-memory disabled and online.
offline | yes        | yes              | Memory block is configured but currently offline.
offline | no         | yes              | Memory block is deconfigured and was previously configured with memmap-on-memory.
offline | no         | no               | Memory block is deconfigured and was not previously configured with memmap-on-memory.

Thanks
Sumanth