mkisofs has no manpage

[Jarl]

Summary says it all.

mkisofs does not have a manpage. It is supposed to have.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Nov 27 08:44:46 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027)
NonfreeKernelModules: wl fglrx
Package: genisoimage 9:1.1.9-1ubuntu2
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=da_DK.UTF-8
 SHELL=/usr/bin/tcsh
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-15.50-generic
SourcePackage: cdrkit
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-15-generic x86_64
XsessionErrors:
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2306): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (npviewer.bin:2492): Gtk-WARNING **: /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/engines/libqtcurve.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64

[Schily (schilling-fokus)]

Mkisofs of course has a man page, see:

ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/alpha/

http://cdrecord.berlios.de/

BTW: Ubuntu does not install mkisofs but an outdated dead fork
called "genisoimage"....

[Jarl (jarl-dk)]

Schily, I really expected that. But the bug report is a bug report against the Ubuntu distribution.

So taking that context into consideration, the summary means "The command line utility called mkisofs in ubuntu has no manpage", so fixing this bug is just a matter of including the manpage you refer to into the ubuntu distribution.

[Schily (schilling-fokus)]

It seems that you missunderstand the situation. What Ubuntu installs
under the name "mkisofs" is not mkisofs but a fork made from a completely
outdated version with many bugs added and with many features missing.

Ubuntu does not have the permission to install something that is not
the real mkisofs under the name "mkisofs". If you use the name "mkisofs",
you obviously talk about the original software......

[Jarl (jarl-dk)]

Ubuntu has a command utility called mkisofs, but due to your feedback I now realise it is a link to genisoimage
$mkisofs -v
I: -input-charset not specified, using utf-8 (detected in locale settings)
genisoimage 1.1.9 (Linux)
genisoimage: Missing pathspec.
Usage: genisoimage [options] -o file directory ...

Use genisoimage -help
to get a list of valid options.

Report problems to <email address hidden>.
$ls -l `which mkisofs`
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 11 2009-11-09 21:25 /usr/bin/mkisofs -> genisoimage

Anyway my bug report against ubuntu distribution is still relevant, because
$man mkisofs
No manual entry for mkisofs
See 'man 7 undocumented' for help when manual pages are not available.

and that is what I am reporting the bug about.

However if it is a general decision that command line utilities that are actually links are not supposed to have a man page, then (and only then) this bug is invalid.

[Schily (schilling-fokus)]

You mention an important issue with genisoimage. Genisoimage does
not implement correct UTF-8 support. What's in genisoimage is just
a bad hack as only 50% of the places that need UTF-8 support have
been addressed and even these parts have bugs. The original
mkisofs includes complete and correct UTF-8 support.

Given the fact, that genisoimage does not support files >= 4 GB,
only implements limited UDF support, does not support hard links
and creates buggy filesystems, I see not reason why somebody would
like to use genisoimage instead of the original software.

Regarding your original issue: Ubuntu does not have the permission
to install something else under the name "mkisofs" and for this reason,
my original hint still applies: the mkisofs man page and the mkisofs program
can be retrieved here:

ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/alpha/

http://cdrecord.berlios.de/

BTW: the real mkisofs is easy to detect:

mkisofs -version
mkisofs 2.01.01a68 (i386-pc-solaris2.11) Copyright (C) 1993-1997 Eric Youngdale (C) 1997-2009 Jörg Schilling

mkisofs -v
Setting input-charset to 'ISO8859-1' from locale.
2.01.01a68 (i386-pc-solaris2.11)
mkisofs: Missing pathspec.
Usage: mkisofs [options] [-find] file... [find expression]

Use mkisofs -help
to get a list all of valid options.

Use mkisofs -find -help
to get a list of all valid -find options.

Most important Options:
        -posix-H Follow sylinks encountered on command line
        -posix-L Follow all symlinks
        -posix-P Do not follow symlinks (default)
        -o FILE, -output FILE Set output file name
        -R, -rock Generate Rock Ridge directory information
        -r, -rational-rock Generate rationalized Rock Ridge directory info
        -J, -joliet Generate Joliet directory information
        -print-size Print estimated filesystem size and exit
        -UDF Generate UDF file system
        -dvd-video Generate DVD-Video compliant UDF file system
        -iso-level LEVEL Set ISO9660 level (1..3) or 4 for ISO9660 v 2
        -V ID, -volid ID Set Volume ID
        -graft-points Allow to use graft points for filenames
        -M FILE, -prev-session FILE Set path to previous session to merge

[Jarl (jarl-dk)]

Schily <email address hidden> writes:

> You mention an important issue with genisoimage.

No I don't.

> Regarding your original issue: Ubuntu does not have the permission
> to install something else under the name "mkisofs"

That is a political/strategical issue, that is unrelated to this bug.

To me it looks like you are using this bug to advertise the real
mkisofs, please stop. I find that activity out-of-place and
inappropriate.

If you are unsatisfied with the fact that ubuntu team has chosen
genisoimage in preference to the real mkisofs, please address that
somewhere else.

If you believe that ubuntu team is doing something illegal by making a
symbolic link as mentioned in my earlier comment, then please address
that issue somewhere else.

Again, this bug report is against ubuntu!

Jarl

[Schily (schilling-fokus)]

It could be interpreted as advertisement if you had the choice...
It is however not an issue of choice as Ubuntu does not give users
the chance to chose between the buggy illegal fork and the
maintained legal original software.

Ubuntu has chosen the illegal way and it is my right as the
Copyright holder to inform people that Ubuntu is currently
distributing undistributable and buggy code.

It is really strange that you as a user pretend to be not interested
in a legal maintained solution

[Chris Bainbridge (chris-bainbridge)]

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1532565&page=1

The missing man page causes problems. Could someone fix the man page (eg point to genisoimage man page) or just remove the mkisofs symbolic link?

(Schily's comments are irrelevant to the bug report but just to respond...

'Ubuntu does not have the permission to install something else under the name "mkisofs"... Ubuntu has chosen the illegal way'

Is mkisofs a trademark? If so, then you have a case. If not, then you don't. Unlicensed use of a name is a trademark issue. It is not a copyright issue.)

[Schily (schilling-fokus)]

Chris Bainbridge comment is irrelevant, he does not seem to know the legal facts.

The creation if the fork "cdrkit" ("wodim", "genisoimage", et. al.) is a result of a social
attack from a Debian packetizer against the cdrtools project. The person who started this
attack never has been interested in a legal solution. The fork he created is in conflict with
the GPL and the Copyright. If Ubuntu was interested in being legal, Ubuntu could upgrade
to the original software and close aprox. 100 tecnical bugs at the same time, as these bugs
are caused by the fork.

genisoimage is a program that creates filesystem images that are full of known deviations from the
standard and that could cause problems in the future. Is Ubuntu still intererested in the Ubuntu
users?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.