dmsetup man page is obsolete

[Sachin Garg]

Binary package hint: dmsetup

The dmsetup man page shipped with dmsetup 2:10.02.27-4ubuntu5 in

Description: Ubuntu 9.04
Release: 9.04

has a man page dated Apr 06 2006.

This page does *not* document the "export" option added in August 2007.

see: https://www.cs.drexel.edu/cgi-bin/manServer.pl/dmsetup.8

Related pages:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=438604
http://markmail.org/message/7izwzcyvpnajtnp3

[Alasdair G. Kergon (agk2)]

On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 06:05:50PM -0000, Sachin Garg wrote:
> This page does *not* document the "export" option added in August 2007.

BTW The export option has not been accepted upstream: an alternative
approach is being developed.

Alasdair
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[Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott)]

The export option is Ubuntu-specific and only used as a private interface between dmsetup and udev - there's no reason for it to be publicly documented

[Sachin Garg (sgarg-bugreporter)]

Beg to differ with: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/devmapper/+bug/363037/comments/2

The export option is also there in RedHat: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=438604
There is a man page at Drexel which documents this option: https://www.cs.drexel.edu/cgi-bin/manServer.pl/dmsetup.8

"The export option is Ubuntu-specific and only used as a private interface between dmsetup and udev - there's no reason for it to be publicly documented" is not a valid excuse to *not* document features - this feature is used in the "udev/rules.d/65-dmsetup.rules" - without documentation as to what the command does, one cannot attempt to debug the system.

In an open-source environment it makes sense to document all features, especially those used.

[Alasdair G. Kergon (agk2)]

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 07:45:52AM -0000, Sachin Garg wrote:
> The export option is also there in RedHat: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=438604

No it isn't. But there is a different related option missing from
the upstream man page that we'll fix upstream.

Alasdair
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