Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!watdragon!jmsellens From: jmsellens@watdragon.waterloo.edu (John M. Sellens) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: How does man know? Keywords: more, io redirection Message-ID: <16824@watdragon.waterloo.edu> Date: 30 Sep 89 23:15:00 GMT References: <319@massey.ac.nz> <11170@smoke.BRL.MIL> <592@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> <2674@crdgw1.crd.ge.com> <2258@munnari.oz.au> Reply-To: jmsellens@watdragon.waterloo.edu (John M. Sellens) Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 14 >No, $PAGER should never have been in man(1). Simple paging should have >been in the terminal driver (it's a form of flow control, after all) >and any other paging should have been done with explicit pipelines. It's all very well and good to say that paging should be in the terminal or the terminal driver, but the simple fact of the matter is that in most cases it isn't. And since it is pretty much a given that terminals and terminal drivers don't do paging, it's silly to argue what man should do under those circumstances. Better we should discuss what man should do under the conditions we live under. (Me? I think paging by default is a good thing and that if someone doesn't want paging then MANPAGER=/bin/cat would seem to me to suffice.)