#858131 git: man git html documents not in specified path

Package:
git
Source:
git
Description:
fast, scalable, distributed revision control system
Submitter:
Thomas Folbrecht
Date:
2026-10-08 09:03:05 UTC
Severity:
normal
Tags:
#858131#5
Date:
2017-03-18 17:56:49 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

There is an inconsistency between the file paths specified by the man $
(man git, section NOTES, links 1 - 5)

For example, in man git, under NOTES
1. Everyday Git
file:///usr/share/doc/git/html/everyday.html

There is no html directory in /usr/share/doc/git/

I hope this is helpful,
Thomas
#858131#10
Date:
2026-10-08 07:45:24 UTC
From:
To:
Hello,

After encountering the same issue while consulting a git man page that
referred to this local folder, I installed the `git-doc` package and
I could access the local HTML documentation.

Indeed, the git-doc package installs documentation in
/usr/share/doc/git-doc/ but also creates a symlink for
/usr/share/doc/git/:

$ debc git-doc | tail
-rw-r--r-- root/root     37720 2026-08-02 16:39 ./usr/share/doc/git-doc/technical/unit-tests.html
-rw-r--r-- root/root       529 2026-08-02 16:39 ./usr/share/doc/git-doc/trace2-target-values.adoc
-rw-r--r-- root/root      1712 2026-08-02 16:39 ./usr/share/doc/git-doc/transfer-data-leaks.adoc
-rw-r--r-- root/root      4439 2026-08-02 16:39 ./usr/share/doc/git-doc/urls-remotes.adoc
-rw-r--r-- root/root      3465 2026-08-02 16:39 ./usr/share/doc/git-doc/urls.adoc
-rw-r--r-- root/root    174683 2026-08-02 16:39 ./usr/share/doc/git-doc/user-manual.adoc
-rw-r--r-- root/root    284594 2026-08-02 16:39 ./usr/share/doc/git-doc/user-manual.html
lrwxrwxrwx root/root         0 2026-08-02 16:39 ./usr/share/doc/git/html -> ../git-doc
lrwxrwxrwx root/root         0 2026-08-02 16:39 ./usr/share/doc/git-doc/index.html -> git.html

So the solution is basically to install the git-doc package on the
system to access the local HTML documentation.

I think since the man pages are linking to the local HTML pages, the fix
to have this less surprising would be to have the `git-man` package
suggest or recommend the `git-doc` package.

Since `git` depends on `git-man` we probably should use suggest instead
of recommend so not every `apt install git` results in installing the
HTML docs, at the cost of users still encountering this issue trying to
open the local documentation if they did not follow the suggest hint.

Agathe.
#858131#15
Date:
2026-10-08 09:00:32 UTC
From:
To:
Dear maintainer,

Please find attached a debdiff patch that makes git-man suggest git-doc
to make this issue less of a problem.

Thanks,

Agathe.