Question

6

Why does "man x-terminal-emulator" return the output of "man gnome-terminal"?

rated 0 times [ 6] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 5378 / 3 Years ago, mon, november 1, 2021, 2:10:18

I know what x-terminal-emulator is and does, but I don't understand why there isn't exist a special manual page for it instead to be redirected to the manual page of gnome-terminal. I would like to see a manual page explaining what x-terminal-emulator exactly does and in that page a reference to man gnome-terminal.

Is this correct (if yes, then why, for example, the output of man dir doesn't return the output of man ls)? It is there a good motivation behind this fact?

Answers

Only authorized users can answer the question. Please sign in first, or register a free account.

pilun

Add To Favorites

Follow

Total Points: 270

Total Questions: 100

Total Answers: 94

Location: England

Member since Sat, Feb 13, 2021

3 Years ago

pilun questions

1 How do I mute videos by default in MPV

Thu, Sep 16, 21, 18:43, 3 Years ago

1 Ubuntu 22.04: docker: containers not accessible from outside

Mon, Aug 23, 21, 04:32, 3 Years ago

1 How can I update Wine, without uninstalling it?

Wed, Sep 14, 22, 11:04, 2 Years ago

1 The difference between "echo" and "export" an environment variable?

Fri, Oct 15, 21, 21:18, 3 Years ago

1 Intellij Idea not showing up in apps and cannot add it to Favorites

Tue, Dec 13, 22, 11:39, 1 Year ago

View All

answered 3 Years ago scusaper · Accepted Answer

x-terminal-emulator is a virtual package. The terminal emulator is configured by Debian's alternative system.

On Ubuntu you can easily follow this symlink construction, e.g. for gnome-terminal:

$ which x-terminal-emulator

/usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator

$ ls -lF /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator

/usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator -> /etc/alternatives/x-terminal-emulator*

$ ls -al /etc/alternatives/x-terminal-emulator

/etc/alternatives/x-terminal-emulator -> /usr/bin/gnome-terminal.wrapper*

Now regarding the man pages, update-alternatives also links the man page of gnome-terminal to x-terminal-emulator as explained in the update-alternatives manual:

   It is often useful for a number of alternatives to be synchronized,  so

   that they are changed as a group; for example, when several versions of

   the  vi(1)  editor  are  installed,  the   man   page   referenced   by

   /usr/share/man/man1/vi.1 should correspond to the executable referenced

   by /usr/bin/vi.  update-alternatives handles this by  means  of  master

   and  slave links; when the master is changed, any associated slaves are

   changed too.  A master link and its associated slaves make  up  a  link

   group.

Source