From 520caa5540b980c74010b5b22caba46594070164 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Michael Kerrisk Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2017 15:39:23 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] man-pages.7: Note preferred approach for 'duplicate' errors Signed-off-by: Michael Kerrisk --- man7/man-pages.7 | 8 ++++++++ 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+) diff --git a/man7/man-pages.7 b/man7/man-pages.7 index 5d43ed7cd..3c3c3c711 100644 --- a/man7/man-pages.7 +++ b/man7/man-pages.7 @@ -316,6 +316,14 @@ values that may be placed in in the event of an error, along with information about the cause of the errors. +Where several different conditions produce the same error, +the preferred approach is to create separate list entries +(with duplicate error names) for each of the conditions. +This makes the separate conditions clear, may make the list easier to read, +and allows metainformation +(e.g., kernel version number where the condition first became applicable) +to be more easily marked for each condition. + .IR "The error list should be in alphabetical order" . .TP .B ENVIRONMENT