[14021] in Athena Bugs
sun4 7.7U: xversion [manpage]
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Albert Dvornik)
Sun Nov 26 04:28:42 1995
To: bugs@MIT.EDU
Date: Sun, 26 Nov 1995 04:28:33 EST
From: Albert Dvornik <bert@MIT.EDU>
System name: infocalypse
Type and version: SPARC/Classic 7.7U (1 update(s) to same version)
Display type: cgthree
What were you trying to do?
Use the information provided in the xversion(1) manpage.
What's wrong:
The manpage lies:
If the -r flag is specified, xversion will also print out
the minor protocol revision number associated with the X
server.
This is not true; according to the source code, xversion will
actually print the *vendor* release number for the X server.
The manpage also comes close to lying when it says:
If the -r flag is specified, the output string is XnRn. For
example, if the X server that is currently running on
display 0 is X11R3, the output string will be "X11R3".
This is probably literally true, since we used to build our
own servers back in the R3 days, but if the X server is a
vendor X11R5 server it prints either "X11R3300" (Sun) or
"X11R5000" (SGI) or whatever it pleases.
What should have happened:
The manpage shouldn't have been lying to honest users.
The output format could have been non-misleading, by using a
different syntax than "X11R*" or by using some other magical
way to determine the correct information; but the current
syntax would have been OK *if it was properly documented*.
Please describe any relevant documentation references:
In regard to VendorRelease(), O'Reilly books say:
The vendor controls the semantics of the release number.
