bug#61720: BUG: omission of crucial detail in 'chown --reference' man page (vs info)

["Pádraig Brady" <P@draigBrady.com>]

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On 22/02/2023 22:07, Michael Coleman wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> The (RHEL 7) man page for GNU 'chown' has (only) this for the '--reference' flag:
> 
>      use RFILE's owner and group rather than specifying OWNER:GROUP values
> 
> which omits the crucial second sentence, included in the info tree:
> 
>       Change the user and group of each FILE to be the same as those of
>       REF_FILE.  If REF_FILE is a symbolic link, do not use the user and
>       group of the symbolic link, but rather those of the file it refers
>       to.
> 
> (Note that '--no-deference' doesn't affect this behavior.)
> 
> I can't be sure, but I think the GNU build itself is generating this man page, as opposed to it having been created by RHEL.
> 
> I understand that the man pages are secondary and brief, but they shouldn't be actively misleading, IMO.

It is worth stating that in the man page,
especially since one might think --no-dereference might change behavior.

Fixing this with the attached.

Marking this as done.

thanks,
Pádraig

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From c97c40c3b4f5338b1c8689002f50d523b9cff2a0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: =?UTF-8?q?P=C3=A1draig=20Brady?= <P@draigBrady.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2023 15:22:14 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] doc: chgrp,chmod,chown: state --reference always dereferences

* src/chgrp.c (usage): State that --reference always
dereferences symbolic links.
* src/chmod.c (usage): Likewise.
* src/chown.c (usage): Likewise.
Fixes https://bugs.gnu.org/61720
---
 src/chgrp.c | 4 ++--
 src/chmod.c | 3 ++-
 src/chown.c | 4 ++--
 3 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/chgrp.c b/src/chgrp.c
index e695328e9..141413352 100644
--- a/src/chgrp.c
+++ b/src/chgrp.c
@@ -136,8 +136,8 @@ With --reference, change the group of each FILE to that of RFILE.\n\
       --preserve-root    fail to operate recursively on '/'\n\
 "), stdout);
       fputs (_("\
-      --reference=RFILE  use RFILE's group rather than specifying a\n\
-                         GROUP value\n\
+      --reference=RFILE  use RFILE's group rather than specifying a GROUP.\n\
+                         RFILE is always dereferenced if a symbolic link.\n\
 "), stdout);
       fputs (_("\
   -R, --recursive        operate on files and directories recursively\n\
diff --git a/src/chmod.c b/src/chmod.c
index a0b83a8f7..e48736e11 100644
--- a/src/chmod.c
+++ b/src/chmod.c
@@ -393,7 +393,8 @@ With --reference, change the mode of each FILE to that of RFILE.\n\
       --preserve-root    fail to operate recursively on '/'\n\
 "), stdout);
       fputs (_("\
-      --reference=RFILE  use RFILE's mode instead of MODE values\n\
+      --reference=RFILE  use RFILE's mode instead of specifying MODE values.\n\
+                         RFILE is always dereferenced if a symbolic link.\n\
 "), stdout);
       fputs (_("\
   -R, --recursive        change files and directories recursively\n\
diff --git a/src/chown.c b/src/chown.c
index f298b6081..d4ae24bec 100644
--- a/src/chown.c
+++ b/src/chown.c
@@ -113,8 +113,8 @@ With --reference, change the owner and group of each FILE to those of RFILE.\n\
       --preserve-root    fail to operate recursively on '/'\n\
 "), stdout);
       fputs (_("\
-      --reference=RFILE  use RFILE's owner and group rather than\n\
-                         specifying OWNER:GROUP values\n\
+      --reference=RFILE  use RFILE's owner and group rather than specifying\n\
+                         OWNER:GROUP values.  RFILE is always dereferenced.\n\
 "), stdout);
       fputs (_("\
   -R, --recursive        operate on files and directories recursively\n\
-- 
2.26.2