From 75b53a08b1fd8d611dbed709ff29b727f9f04505 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Benno Schulenberg Date: Wed, 3 Jul 2013 11:34:25 +0200 Subject: docs: fix wording and formatting of man page for dmesg Signed-off-by: Benno Schulenberg --- sys-utils/dmesg.1 | 92 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------------------------- 1 file changed, 47 insertions(+), 45 deletions(-) (limited to 'sys-utils/dmesg.1') diff --git a/sys-utils/dmesg.1 b/sys-utils/dmesg.1 index ce186d84e..4500af9c7 100644 --- a/sys-utils/dmesg.1 +++ b/sys-utils/dmesg.1 @@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ dmesg \-\-console-off .B dmesg is used to examine or control the kernel ring buffer. .PP -The default action is to read all messages from kernel ring buffer. +The default action is to read all messages from the kernel ring buffer. .SH OPTIONS The \-\-clear, \-\-read-clear, \-\-console-on, \-\-console-off and \-\-console-level options are mutually exclusive. @@ -28,25 +28,25 @@ The \-\-clear, \-\-read-clear, \-\-console-on, \-\-console-off and .IP "\fB\-C\fR, \fB\-\-clear\fR" Clear the ring buffer. .IP "\fB\-c\fR, \fB\-\-read-clear\fR" -Clear the ring buffer contents after printing. +Clear the ring buffer after first printing its contents. .IP "\fB\-D\fR, \fB\-\-console-off\fR" Disable printing messages to the console. .IP "\fB\-d\fR, \fB\-\-show-delta\fR" -Display the timestamp and time delta spent between messages. If used +Display the timestamp and the time delta spent between messages. If used together with .B \-\-notime then only the time delta without the timestamp is printed. .IP "\fB\-e\fR, \fB\-\-reltime\fR" -Display the local time and delta in human readable format. +Display the local time and the delta in human-readable format. .IP "\fB\-E\fR, \fB\-\-console-on\fR" Enable printing messages to the console. .IP "\fB\-F\fR, \fB\-\-file \fIfile\fR" -Read log from +Read the messages from the given .IR file . .IP "\fB\-f\fR, \fB\-\-facility \fIlist\fR" -Restrict output to defined (comma separated) +Restrict output to the given (comma-separated) .I list -of facilities. For example +of facilities. For example: .PP .RS 14 dmesg \-\-facility=daemon @@ -57,19 +57,20 @@ see .B dmesg \-\-help output. .IP "\fB\-H\fR, \fB\-\-human\fR" -Enable human readable output. See also \fB\-\-color\fR, \fB\-\-reltime\fR +Enable human-readable output. See also \fB\-\-color\fR, \fB\-\-reltime\fR and \fB\-\-nopager\fR. .IP "\fB\-h\fR, \fB\-\-help\fR" Print a help text and exit. .IP "\fB\-k\fR, \fB\-\-kernel\fR" Print kernel messages. -.IP "\fB\-L\fR, \fB\-\-color\fR [=\fIwhen\fP]" -Colorize important messages, the optional argumet \fIwhen\fP is 'auto', 'never' -or 'always'. If the \fIwhen\fP argument is omitted then the default is 'auto'. +.IP "\fB\-L\fR, \fB\-\-color\fR[=\fIwhen\fR]" +Colorize important messages. The optional argument \fIwhen\fP can be \fBauto\fR, +\fBnever\fR or \fBalways\fR. If the \fIwhen\fR argument is omitted, +then it defaults to \fBauto\fR. .IP "\fB\-l\fR, \fB\-\-level \fIlist\fR" -Restrict output to defined (comma separated) +Restrict output to the given (comma-separated) .I list -of levels. For example +of levels. For example: .PP .RS 14 dmesg \-\-level=err,warn @@ -81,7 +82,7 @@ output. .IP "\fB\-n\fR, \fB\-\-console-level \fIlevel\fR Set the .I level -at which logging of messages is done to the console. The +at which printing of messages is done to the console. The .I level is a level number or abbreviation of the level name. For all supported levels see @@ -105,24 +106,24 @@ will .I not print or clear the kernel ring buffer. .IP "\fB\-P\fR, \fB\-\-nopager\fR" -Do not pipe output into a pager, the pager is enabled for \fB\-\-human\fR output. +Do not pipe output into a pager. A pager is enabled by default for \fB\-\-human\fR output. .IP "\fB\-r\fR, \fB\-\-raw\fR" -Print the raw message buffer, i.e., do not strip the log level prefixes. +Print the raw message buffer, i.e. do not strip the log-level prefixes. -Note that the real raw format depends on method how +Note that the real raw format depends on the method how .BR dmesg (1) -reads kernel messages. The /dev/kmsg uses different format than +reads kernel messages. The /dev/kmsg device uses a different format than .BR syslog (2) . -For backward compatibility +For backward compatibility, .BR dmesg (1) -returns data always in +returns data always in the .BR syslog (2) -format. The real raw data from /dev/kmsg is possible to read for example by -command 'dd if=/dev/kmsg iflag=nonblock'. +format. It is possible to read the real raw data from /dev/kmsg by, for example, +the command 'dd if=/dev/kmsg iflag=nonblock'. .IP "\fB\-S\fR, \fB\-\-syslog\fR" -Force to use +Force \fBdmesg\fR to use the .BR syslog (2) -kernel interface to read kernel messages. The default is to use /dev/kmsg rather +kernel interface to read kernel messages. The default is to use /dev/kmsg rather than .BR syslog (2) since kernel 3.5.0. @@ -131,11 +132,12 @@ Use a buffer of .I size to query the kernel ring buffer. This is 16392 by default. (The default kernel syslog buffer size was 4096 at first, 8192 since 1.3.54, 16384 since -2.1.113.) If you have set the kernel buffer to be larger than the default +2.1.113.) If you have set the kernel buffer to be larger than the default, then this option can be used to view the entire buffer. .IP "\fB\-T\fR, \fB\-\-ctime\fR" -Print human readable timestamps. The timestamp could be inaccurate! +Print human-readable timestamps. .IP +Be aware that the timestamp could be inaccurate! The .B time source used for the logs is @@ -149,32 +151,32 @@ Print userspace messages. .IP "\fB\-V\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR" Output version information and exit. .IP "\fB\-w\fR, \fB\-\-follow\fR" -Wait for new messages. This feature is supported on systems with readable -/dev/kmsg only (since kernel 3.5.0). +Wait for new messages. This feature is supported only on systems with +a readable /dev/kmsg (since kernel 3.5.0). .IP "\fB\-x\fR, \fB\-\-decode\fR" -Decode facility and level (priority) number to human readable prefixes. +Decode facility and level (priority) numbers to human-readable prefixes. .IP "\fB\-\-time\-format\fR \fIformat\fR" -Print time stam using format -.IR ctime , -.IR delta , -.I reltime +Print timestamps using the given \fIformat\fR, which can be +.BR ctime , +.BR reltime , +.BR delta or -.IR iso . -The three first time formats are aliases of time format specific options. +.BR iso . +The first three formats are aliases of the time-format-specific options. The -.I iso -is a +.B iso +format is a .B dmesg -implementation of ISO-8601 timestamp format. Purpose of this format is -to make comparing of timestamps in between two system, and other parsing, -easy. The defition of timestamp is YYYY-MM-DDHH:MM:SS,<-+>. +implementation of the ISO-8601 timestamp format. The purpose of this format is +to make the comparing of timestamps between two systems, and any other parsing, +easy. The definition of the \fBiso\fR timestamp is: +YYYY-MM-DDHH:MM:SS,<-+>. .IP The -.I iso -time format has the same issue as -.IR ctime , -the time may be inaccurate if a system is suspended and resumed. +.B iso +format has the same issue as +.BR ctime : +the time may be inaccurate when a system is suspended and resumed. .SH SEE ALSO .BR syslogd (8) .SH AUTHORS -- cgit v1.2.3-55-g7522