Re: (ITS#4902) ManPage in 2.3.19 RPM is completely screwed up

[ando@sys-net.it]

quanah@stanford.edu wrote:

>> I don't know if the people who are in charge to build a RPM are paying
>> attention to what they are doing or not.
>>
>> You can do a man ldap_init, and then look at /usr/include/ldap.h for the
>> function definition.
>>
>> I am not a LDAP expert or anything close to that. But it seems to me that
>> function called ldap_init has already been replaced by the function called
>> ldap_initialize, and they take even different set of parameters.
>>
>> And yet the manpage not only didn't reflect that change, but enforce the
>> wrong idea of using ldap_init function by having ldap_init in manpages.
>>
>> An extremely poor job done by the package maintainer.
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I suggest you complain to RedHat if you don't like the way they've packaged 
> something.  The OpenLDAP foundation is not responsible for the way in which 
> RedHat packages its releases.  In any case, if you are taking the time to 
> read the header file, then pay close attention to the following:
> 
> #if LDAP_DEPRECATED
> LDAP_F( LDAP * )
> ldap_init LDAP_P(( /* deprecated, use ldap_create or ldap_initialize */
>         LDAP_CONST char *host,
>         int port ));
> 
> 
> I.e., ldap_init is a deprecated function, and ldap_initialize should be 
> used instead.  However, there are many programs out there that still use 
> the old API, so the old functions are maintained for backwards 
> compatibility purposes.  Hence the man page.

I'd add that OpenLDAP is a voluntary based project, and volunteers
devote their efforts to what they consider mostly important - typically
writing good useful code that runs (fast).  Man pages typically lag
behind, but eventually they get updated/fixed (as they are in currently
released code).  If you cared so much about up-to-date code and man
pages, you would be using the latest release, not a 15 months old one.

And if you were able to infer the really useful API from ldap.h, you
could have more proficiently spent your time by writing and submitting a
useful man page, instead of just complaining quite unpolitely.

p.



Ing. Pierangelo Masarati
OpenLDAP Core Team

SysNet s.n.c.
Via Dossi, 8 - 27100 Pavia - ITALIA
http://www.sys-net.it
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