While trying to look-up a shortcut for man-pages in What shortcuts can I use for linking to other information?, I noticed that there is no such thing as a [man://] tag. Although, I know that there are various flavours of Unix, it would be convenient to point to a site such as http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi for further reading. E.g. [man://env] ⇒ env could be linked to http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=env, which will present a default man-page for FreeBSD. There, the reader can select the same man-page for another Unix flavour if desired.
Potential variations could include (with env as an example):
- [man://env] ⇒ env
- look-up 'env' for any Unix (FreeBSD by default)
(→ http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=env) - [man://env(1)] ⇒ env(1)
- look-up 'env' in section (1) / note the
CGI
NVP:
sektion=1 (not(!) section)
(→ http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=env&sektion=1) - [man1://env] ⇒ env(1)
- same: look-up 'env' in section (1) / analogue: man2, man3, etc.
- [man1://env|env (1) manpage] ⇒ env (1) manpage
- same but user defined text
- [man://env(SunOS 5.10)] ⇒ env (SunOS 5.10)
- specification of a distinct OS - could be challenging to implement reliably / note the
CGI
NVP:
manpath=SunOS+5.10
(→ http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=env&manpath=SunOS+5.10) - [apropos://env] ⇒ (apropos) env
- don't know if that makes sense, but if [man://] is possible, [apropos://] is easy / note the
CGI
NVP:
apropos=1
(→ http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=env&apropos=1)
The freebsd service seems to exist for several years, so there is a little bit of confidence that it will be available in the future.
For Windows related references to the KB
MS Knowledge Base,
the
[mskb://] tag could
be useful. E.g. [mskb://245225] ⇒
MSKB 245225 being a link to
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/245225.
Analogue: [mskb://245225|HOW TO: Configure and Test a PERL Script with IIS 4.0, 5.0, 5.1, and 6.0]
⇒
HOW TO: Configure and Test a PERL Script with IIS 4.0, 5.0, 5.1, and 6.0.
I am not sure if linking to those sites might have some legal implications...
Update: NVP = Name/Value Pair, nowadays Attribute/Value Pair
Update2: samples highlighting the differences added; links for
CGI,
NVP,
and
KB
added.
Update3: Summary and update here.
Update4: Today, 16-mar-2009, the [man://] shortcut has become reality!
Thanks to pmdev - especially jdporter - for implementing this suggestion.