Missing man pages of all packages which offer some

[Timur Nitt]

First of all, I installed Ubuntu 18.04 from the base package listed here: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-base/daily/current/ . It's now a full working station with Ubuntu-Mate desktop. The problem are the manual pages which aren't installed, many of them. Here are the dictionary entries of /usr/share/man/man1:

$ ls -la /usr/share/man/man1
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 30 22:36 ./
drwxr-xr-x 26 root root 4096 Jan 18 14:23 ../
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 27 Jan 20 16:27 java.1.gz -> /etc/alternatives/java.1.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 26 Jan 20 16:27 jjs.1.gz -> /etc/alternatives/jjs.1.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 30 Jan 20 16:27 keytool.1.gz -> /etc/alternatives/keytool.1.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 27 Jan 20 16:27 orbd.1.gz -> /etc/alternatives/orbd.1.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 30 Jan 20 16:27 pack200.1.gz -> /etc/alternatives/pack200.1.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 33 Jan 20 16:27 policytool.1.gz -> /etc/alternatives/policytool.1.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 27 Jan 20 16:27 rmid.1.gz -> /etc/alternatives/rmid.1.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 34 Jan 20 16:27 rmiregistry.1.gz -> /etc/alternatives/rmiregistry.1.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 33 Jan 20 16:27 servertool.1.gz -> /etc/alternatives/servertool.1.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Jan 30 22:36 sh.1.gz -> dash.1.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 32 Jan 20 16:27 tnameserv.1.gz -> /etc/alternatives/tnameserv.1.gz
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 32 Jan 20 16:27 unpack200.1.gz -> /etc/alternatives/unpack200.1.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 21 00:47 vmware.1.gz

When I install the manpages-dev package, the package management shows me all fine:
# apt install --reinstall manpages-dev
# dpkg -L manpages-dev
/.
/usr
/usr/share
/usr/share/doc
/usr/share/lintian
/usr/share/lintian/overrides
/usr/share/lintian/overrides/manpages-dev
/usr/share/man
/usr/share/man/man2
/usr/share/man/man2/_exit.2.gz
/usr/share/man/man2/_syscall.2.gz
/usr/share/man/man2/accept.2.gz
...
/usr/share/man/man3/scalbnf.3.gz
/usr/share/man/man3/scalbnl.3.gz
/usr/share/man/man3/scandirat.3.gz
...and so on...

But the /usr/share/man/man3 directory is still empty:
# ls -la /usr/share/man/man3
insgesamt 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 18 14:23 .
drwxr-xr-x 26 root root 4096 Jan 18 14:23 ..

And btw the /usr/share/man/man2 directory doesn't exist.
Are there any new configuration changes in 18.04 which supresses man page installation? I didn't know about a similar behavior in 17.10 and before.

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that your bug report is not filed about a specific source package though, rather it is just filed against Ubuntu in general. It is important that bug reports be filed about source packages so that people interested in the package can find the bugs about it. You can find some hints about determining what package your bug might be about at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. You might also ask for help in the #ubuntu-bugs irc channel on Freenode.

To change the source package that this bug is filed about visit https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1747303/+editstatus and add the package name in the text box next to the word Package.

[This is an automated message. I apologize if it reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Timur Nitt (tnitt)]

I can't say exactly what this behavior depends on. Maybe it's the apt package.

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

No, it's not apt.

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

This is a feature. Base images are not for building desktops or something. They are intended for chroots, containers, or embedded devices. For more information, see Dustin Kirkland's blog at http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2018/02/rfc-ubuntu-1804-lts-minimal-images.html

[Timur Nitt (tnitt)]

Yes I understand/know the advantages of the base images. But you can use the base image for a complete desktop system, if you install all related packages. And I did. It works until 17.10. The base images don't/should't have a special package management which differs in the usual DVD-ISO image installation.
My question is, why the man pages are missing. I need the man2/3 pages for software developing. The only resolution is to copy the pages from the 17.10 to the new 18.04 system by hand.