Access to man pages

[pvervoo]

I ( had to ) use an appimage and as I didn't know about it, I googled a bit. I found out it is a competitor for snap and flatpak. What I like about appimage is its size and speed ! But the app I use has a man page ( under /tmp/.mount_xxxxx/usr/share/man/... ) that is not readily available from the OS. How can I conveniently consult the man page, embedded in an appimage ?

[Drsheppard01]

<your_appimage> --appimage-extract

[pvervoo]

Yes, of course, but this means that every time you want to read the man page, you have to extract the appimage ( unless you keep it somewhere in your filesystem => overhead ! ).
I want to be able to use the 'regular' man interface i.e. man <appimage_name>. Is a kind of link from the man directories to the appimage man pages possible ?

[TheAssassin]

competitor

No, it's an alternative solution that is more portable, doesn't require root permissions runs almost everywhere, too.

Regarding your question, since this is a rootless technology, I'm not sure how we could implement this. I could imagine adding a --appimage-man command to the runtime, but then again, what would you do if there is more than one? (Of course, we could require a man page name, too).

Is there a man page location in one's home directory which we could extract the man pages to?

[probonopd]

Please keep in mind that AppImage is mainly intended for graphical applications. It works with command line tools, too, but that is really just a coincidence.

[KurtPfeifle]

Am Mo., 5. Aug. 2024 um 09:11 Uhr schrieb probonopd < ***@***.***>:

Please keep in mind that AppImage is mainly intended for graphical applications. It works with command line tools, too, but that is really just a coincidence.

It is stoopid to not make use of such a coincidence if one gets blessed by it.

[pvervoo]

Sorry I missed some advantages 🙂.

I find it a very good idea adding a man option to the command. If there is no man page, you can show a message. If there is a man page, you can show it. If there are several man pages, you can show a list of man pages. In the latter case, the user can add the desired man page name to the man option of the appimage command.

As for the reason for a man page for a graphical application: If the application would have been installed the 'normal' way, it would have had a man page in the regular OS locations. I know the average user won't look at the man pages of a graphical application, but the seasoned Linux user does 🙂.

A.f.a.i.k. the OS man command doesn't include searching in one's $HOME.