Should provide simple shortcut links to manpages

[Oliver Gerlich]

It would be nice to have shortcut links to manpages that really point directly to the correct page (not to a search result page). For example, http://manpages.ubuntu.com/passwd leads to a search page giving lots of results and a long page. Instead, this URL should give me the passwd manpage for the latest stable Ubuntu release; ie. it should give the same manpage that I would get by typing "man passwd" on (at the moment) Ubuntu Hardy. Bonus points for being able to specify the section number (to get functionality similar to "man 5 passwd").

This feature would be useful to have short URLs for a manpage, like http://manpages.ubuntu.com/xdg-desktop-menu instead of http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/hardy/en/man1/xdg-desktop-menu.html .

To summarize, what's IMO "wrong" with the current URL:
- it gives me all matching search results, instead of redirecting to the correct manpage if I entered the correct name
- I have to choose the Ubuntu release first, while I'd much rather get the manpage just for the latest release, eliminating the additional release selection page.

Maybe this could also be implemented under a different URL (like http://manpages.ubuntu.com/go/passwd) to distinguish it from the search URL? Or is that already implemented, and I just didn't find the correct URL?

[Dustin Kirkland  (kirkland)]

Fix committed to revision 135.

Will be rolled out to production eventually. Ping me on IRC if you want to beta test/verify the functionality on the dev site.

:-Dustin

[Fabián Rodríguez (magicfab)]

Presenting all manpages accross releases is valuables in other contexts. Please do not remove such view.

I'd be interested in testing whatever fix is proposed for this.

[Fabián Rodríguez (magicfab)]

I see this is in production now (isn't it ?). As an example, I can now link directly to gpg's intrepid manpage:
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/intrepid/en/man1/gpg.1.html

This seems fixed - unless it requires more testing, which I'd be happy to help with.

Thank you!