Feature #17548

terminal: `apropos` no results

Added by apropos 2020-03-24 16:35:00 . Updated 2020-03-25 10:09:35 .

Status:
Confirmed
Priority:
Low
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% Done:

0%

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Type of work:
Code
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Description

in terminal on a fresh tails session:
`apropos mandb`
doesn’t return any result because the corresponding index database is not yet initialized.
(see: `man apropos`, mandb cache located at `/usr/share/man/`)

I would expect:
a) tails being shipped with populated db (`mandb` already called at build step)
b) a user notification like “Database cache not initialiyed yet. Please run `sudo mandb`”

Maybe there’s already an elegant solution to this in other linux distributions… (where `apropos` is already working on its live media)

This is for advanced users only and not security critical, so low priority I think.

Subtasks

History

#1 Updated by apropos 2020-03-24 16:38:22

$ du -hs /var/cache/man/
1.4M /var/cache/man/

#2 Updated by intrigeri 2020-03-25 10:09:35

  • Category deleted (Accessibility)
  • Status changed from New to Confirmed
  • Type of work changed from Debian to Code

> a) tails being shipped with populated db (`mandb` already called at build step)

Given the target user base of such a feature, I don’t think it’s worth making the download and upgrades larger for everybody. (Also, there could be some build reproducibility issues here, I don’t know.)

> b) a user notification like “Database cache not initialiyed yet. Please run `sudo mandb`”

A small and good quality wrapper that implements this would be acceptable IMO.