Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Is there a way to get man pages to display in the terminal like normal instead of opening a browser? I have tried alias. Nothing... I tried various .bashrc, /etc/profile and what not... nothing worked.

Some of the info files in Puppy are html or htm type, so they will open in a web browser.
Some programs, the help is a link to a web page, that has the information.
Some programs do not have man pages.

In a terminal to get the man page, if there is one.
The name of the program or command, followed by a space, and --help or -h
Some do not recognize -h, so best to always use --help

Example:
For command exec

# exec --help
exec: exec [-cl] [-a name] [command [arguments ...]] [redirection ...]
Replace the shell with the given command.

Execute COMMAND, replacing this shell with the specified program.
ARGUMENTS become the arguments to COMMAND. If COMMAND is not specified,
any redirections take effect in the current shell.

Options:
-a name pass NAME as the zeroth argument to COMMAND
-c execute COMMAND with an empty environment
-l place a dash in the zeroth argument to COMMAND

If the command cannot be executed, a non-interactive shell exits, unless
the shell option `execfail' is set.

Exit Status:
Returns success unless COMMAND is not found or a redirection error occurs.
#

.
Rox file manager

# rox -h
Usage: ROX-Filer/AppRun [OPTION]... [FILE]...
Open each directory or file listed, or the current working
directory if no arguments are given.

-b, --border=PANEL open PANEL as a border panel
-B, --bottom=PANEL open PAN as a bottom-edge panel
-c, --client-id=ID used for session management
-d, --dir=DIR open DIR as directory (not application)
-D, --close=DIR close DIR and its subdirectories
-h, --help display this help and exit
-l, --left=PANEL open PAN as a left-edge panel
-m, --mime-type=FILE print MIME type of FILE and exit
-n, --new start new copy; for debugging the filer
-p, --pinboard=PIN use pinboard PIN as the pinboard
-r, --right=PANEL open PAN as a right-edge panel
-R, --RPC invoke method call read from stdin
-s, --show=FILE open a directory showing FILE
-S, --rox-session use default panel and pinboard options, and -n
-t, --top=PANEL open PANEL as a top-edge panel
-u, --user show user name in each window
-U, --url=URL open file or directory in URI form
-v, --version display the version information and exit
-x, --examine=FILE FILE has changed - re-examine it

Report bugs to <rox-devel@lists.sourceforge.net>.
Home page (including updated versions): http://rox.sourceforge.net/
#

@Jon - Sorry, the answer is "no". Puppy does not include a proper "man" program, nor does it includes the textual "manpages". Reason is many manpages are too technical (aka, useless) for most people , so long ago it was decided that it was not worthwhile to carry the deadweight (in terms of size) in Puppy, and leave people who needs it to go to online resources, e.g. https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/ instead.

You may not agree with the decision but it has been like that for more than a decade now.

But it isn't even installable from the package manager? Is there a proper man-pages package to install? Because I did try that too and it didn't seem to work either. Also I would be pretty astounded if there is no way to get the man pages to work normally. Man pages are not useless and they are much more efficiently viewed from the terminal... I mean... Most things are more efficiently done through the terminal... Anyway... Any help is greatly appreciated. I am ultimately looking for a good base system for network administration and distro repair and even windows rescue that I suppose also has the versatility to basically work as a daily driver. If there is another distro that is already good for this, that would be great. Although I am kind of trying to put one together that is tailored to my needs, so ultimately I was looking at making my own... what is it called... A, umm... Puplet?
Thnks,
-Jonathan

Well, I misunderstood you a little.
I thought all you wanted was how to find the command options.

Puppy does not have anything in it other than what it needs to run the programs and commands it does have.
There is no manpage package, because there is no need for one.
For anyone to make one, you would need to individually download the manpage for each specific thing that has a manpage.
There are a lot of Linux commands not in Puppy Linux, because it does not use them or need them for the programs in Puppy Linux.

Puppy is kept small as possible in size, because it is designed for the complete OS to load into memory.
All the programs in it, everything is in memory.
Go to the menu and click on a item.
It is already in memory and all it needs to do is start running.

Here is some more info about manpages
viewtopic.php?t=2279

Hi Jon,

to first answer your question, the package you should search on is manpages.

What jamesbond and bigpup has said, I agree with. To expand on that, please note a couple of things. The "man" program included with Puppy Linux (which links to /usr/local/share/man) will 1st search locally for manpages and load up that manpage in the browser. If it is not found locally, it will 2nd search for the searched on manpage via the internet. Why would Puppy Linux need to search the internet at all for manpages you might ask. Well one reason is so small is because it was distributed without manpages installed. So that means even if you did install the manpages package, you might not have the manpages installed that you want "man" to run on.

For me, I prefer using the Puppy Linux method, since I might want to look at a manpage for applications not installed. Also manpages in a browser has bold, font size, etc. that makes it more easily readable for me.

It comes down to personal preference, so no one way is right.

I made a script for seeing manpages on the terminal:

viewtopic.php?t=5687

Jon wrote: ↑Mon Dec 06, 2021 4:25 pm

But it isn't even installable from the package manager? Is there a proper man-pages package to install? Because I did try that too and it didn't seem to work either. Also I would be pretty astounded if there is no way to get the man pages to work normally. Man pages are not useless and they are much more efficiently viewed from the terminal... I mean... Most things are more efficiently done through the terminal... Anyway... Any help is greatly appreciated. I am ultimately looking for a good base system for network administration and distro repair and even windows rescue that I suppose also has the versatility to basically work as a daily driver. If there is another distro that is already good for this, that would be great. Although I am kind of trying to put one together that is tailored to my needs, so ultimately I was looking at making my own... what is it called... A, umm... Puplet?
Thnks,
-Jonathan

OpenBSD consider errors in man pages to be bugs, same as software bugs i.e. incorrect documentation could result in incorrect configuration that led to problems. So their man pages are updated to match the release they're associated-to/included-in.

Puppy strips out/excludes man and even localisations - to minimise on space/size.

Might be considered as two extreme opposites.

If there is another distro that is already good for this, that would be great.

Why settle for one. I boot Fatdog as a hypervisor and system/data manager, within that I boot a container that uses the same image as the main system Fatdog - as my daily desktop, but that's resilient to hacks. Uses the same Fatdog image that's already loaded into ram so is quick to start and needs hardly any additional resources. I kvm/qemu boot openbsd as a guest system, I tend to just stick with the base system for that, very secure, used for html/ssh/etc. (httpd/sshd/etc) servers and cli based, where kvm is almost like having another CPU (can even be set to emulate having more cores/memory than you actually have, but that does slow its response times down, so I just set '-cpu host' as that's the most responsive choice). I'm now also using scrcpy, and have installed termux on my android phone, so also have that available (I find it a lot easier to type sms's using the laptop keyboard/mouse). I tend to ssh into hashbang for mail, irc, etc. .. again cli/tmux/curses based, handy to have another system that is always on that you can connect-to/disconnect-from and it continues running in the background, that you can even re-connect to from a different device/location. I set up another X on Ctrl-Alt-F5 (normal X is on Ctrl-Alt-F4), setting the resolution for that to 640x480, within which I run syncterm for connecting/browsing old style BBS's. All on the same relatively old 2 core, 4GB ram laptop and the temperature/CPU when idle is very low and uses around 1.5GB/ram

Image is of Fatdog with scrcpy running to see my phone - which is running tmux within termux, within which I've ssh into my OpenBSD session.

Jump to hashbang to read mail/irc ... ctrl-alt-F2
Want to DuckDuck something, or send a sms, flip to main Fatdog select the Xephyr container ... where chrome, libre office ...etc. are available, as is scrcpy (phone).
Chat/play on a BBS, ctrl-alt-F5
Man pages, flip over to OpenBSD and man ... whatever. Or next port of call, chrome/internet (or Fatdog's own help pages).

At home, wifi connected. Out and about, phones data allowance with the laptop tethered. A good dog of a 'system' that works well for me.