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Idea #25975: "man" should tell people how to (q)uit it

bug This idea was marked as implemented the 24 March 11. Available starting Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot.
Written by Blutkoete the 30 Sep 10 at 11:36. Category: Documentation. Related project: Nothing/Others. Status: Implemented
Rationale
Neither "man --help" nor "man man" state clearly that you have to press "q" to quit it. Quite ironic.

That should be on top of each man page!
Tags: man manual


Developer comments
Thanks for the idea! By sheer coincidence, a similar thought had occurred to me just a day or two ago when showing my stepson how to read manual pages.

I've made a change upstream for man-db 2.6.0 which will address this, by adding "(press h for help or q to quit)" to the default prompt string which is displayed on the bottom line of the screen when reading manual pages. I think this is a reasonable balance between providing guidance and taking up too much screen space, and people who get fed up of seeing it can always follow the documentation in man(1) for customising the prompt.

This will probably not be in Ubuntu 11.04, because I still have to go through a round of translations before releasing man-db 2.6.0, and it will be getting rather late by that point. However, it will definitely be in Ubuntu 11.10.

-- Colin Watson (Ubuntu developer and upstream maintainer of man-db)

-57
votes
implemented
Selected solution (#1): Info on the top of each page
Written by Blutkoete the 30 Sep 10 at 11:36.
Each time "man" loads a manual page, it writes a "Press q to quit" message in the first line.
252
votes
implemented
Selected solution (#2): Info on the bottom of each page
Written by alwuzomondo the 30 Sep 10 at 13:23.
I think this is problem that many many newbees run into. But you need to learn the 'q' command only once, after that most wont even remember that there was a time where they didn't know how to quit. Also by only showing a "Press q to quit" message user wont discover all the other possibilities easily. Therefore my proposal is to put a "press 'h' for help". I think the best place for the is at the bottom since this a kind of man status line.

Example:

lines 1-24 (press 'h' for help)
11
votes
implemented
Selected solution (#3): One sentence that's always visible: "Press "q" to quit"
Written by turbolad the 17 Oct 10 at 19:22.
Programs like man, top and any others that requires pressing the <q> key once to quit, needs to be visible to users.

This will help the increasing number of newbies learning Linux. Have the message visible at all times: "Press <q> to quit".

Other important messages can be visible too.

That easy. :)
-15
votes
implemented
Selected solution (#4): Do nothing
Written by NYKevin the 18 Oct 10 at 02:00.
The man page for less does describe how to press q to quit, and less is the pager used by man. Furthermore, pressing ? when viewing a page pops up the help page.
7
votes
implemented
Selected solution (#5): Alternate keys
Written by modred11 the 26 Oct 10 at 02:22.
I currently don't remember that Q is the key to quit, I naturally assume that Esc is the key to "Escape" a program, and I always try that first. I suggest having Esc and possibly Ctrl+W since that's quit in some applications as well. It doesn't seem as if escape is doing anything right now.
3
votes
implemented
Selected solution (#6): #2 + #3 = "Press h for help", always visible.
Written by lvxferre the 27 Oct 10 at 20:14.
Exactly like solution #3, but with "press h for help" as in solution #2.

So, the help is always visible, and it's more informative than "press q to quit".

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Duplicates


Comments
Akerbos wrote on the 30 Sep 10 at 20:58
Show also how to scroll and search.

alwuzomondo wrote on the 1 Oct 10 at 07:53
@Akerbos, howto scroll and search is included on the help page that is shown when you press 'h'.

Darwin Survivor (Brainstorm moderator) wrote on the 1 Oct 10 at 11:51
One thing to remember, I believe you can customize which editor is used to display man files. Changing it to something else would make the help resource incorrect. Of course only power users are likely to change it, so I don't see it being an issue, but it would still be strange to have incorrect keybindings displayed.

I could be wrong about the editor, but I'm pretty sure I read that it can be customized.

turbolad wrote on the 17 Oct 10 at 19:17
Please show the user that "q" will quit. Don't forget that programs like top and other programs need to inform users that "q" is how you 'get out'.

Newbies are turning to Linux for the desktop at a fast rate now, especially as economic conditions are not so great at the moment.

Vahan Harutyunyan (Brainstorm moderator) wrote on the 27 Oct 10 at 16:08
Solutions #1 and #3....what's the difference?

lvxferre wrote on the 27 Oct 10 at 20:09
@ Vahan Harutyunyan:

At solution #1, the "press q to quit" info is shown only at the top of the document. When you scroll down the document, the info isn't show anymore.

At solution #3, it is always shown, even when you scroll down the text.

Vahan Harutyunyan (Brainstorm moderator) wrote on the 28 Oct 10 at 04:17
@lvxferre:

I don't think that it is necessity (#3). It is enough to see once. If the user doesn't notice this info at the top of the document s(he) won't notice this info also after scrolling the text.

The same concerns to solution #6.

P.S. Don't forget that a person sits behind a computer and not a doll.


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