I was curious about the difference in the amount of documentation available on my Fedora 9 system, and the difference between the info pages and the man pages. I wrote a script that found every executable in /bin, /usr/bin, /sbin and /usr/sbin that had both a man page and an info page, and compared number of lines for each executable's man and info pages. I ignored any executable that didn't have a man page or info page, and I ignored all blank lines in the pages, for comparison.
The following have larger info pages: 300577 more lines total 172 programs with longer info pages, average 1747.54 more lines/document GET (129 lines vs 99 lines) +30 lines a2p (5338 lines vs 116 lines) +5222 lines a2ps (5338 lines vs 197 lines) +5141 lines ac (465 lines vs 120 lines) +345 lines accept (55 lines vs 38 lines) +17 lines aclocal (465 lines vs 42 lines) +423 lines ar (312 lines vs 192 lines) +120 lines as (14394 lines vs 686 lines) +13708 lines aspell (5038 lines vs 240 lines) +4798 lines autoconf (122 lines vs 68 lines) +54 lines autoheader (70 lines vs 65 lines) +5 lines autom4te (197 lines vs 102 lines) +95 lines automake (134 lines vs 96 lines) +38 lines autopoint (39 lines vs 31 lines) +8 lines autoreconf (98 lines vs 83 lines) +15 lines autoscan (46 lines vs 43 lines) +3 lines bash (7390 lines vs 4359 lines) +3031 lines bc (737 lines vs 652 lines) +85 lines bison (6913 lines vs 127 lines) +6786 lines cal (26923 lines vs 37 lines) +26886 lines card (62 lines vs 39 lines) +23 lines cat (50 lines vs 48 lines) +2 lines chgrp (69 lines vs 60 lines) +9 lines chown (127 lines vs 86 lines) +41 lines chroot (44 lines vs 29 lines) +15 lines clear (82 lines vs 14 lines) +68 lines co (432 lines vs 317 lines) +115 lines cp (260 lines vs 106 lines) +154 lines cpio (394 lines vs 243 lines) +151 lines cpp (4089 lines vs 586 lines) +3503 lines csplit (81 lines vs 52 lines) +29 lines cut (64 lines vs 54 lines) +10 lines cvs (1989 lines vs 1885 lines) +104 lines date (743 lines vs 108 lines) +635 lines dc (292 lines vs 220 lines) +72 lines dd (184 lines vs 100 lines) +84 lines df (118 lines vs 71 lines) +47 lines diff (3810 lines vs 224 lines) +3586 lines dirmngr (924 lines vs 287 lines) +637 lines dirmngr-client (924 lines vs 79 lines) +845 lines dmp (65 lines vs 22 lines) +43 lines du (173 lines vs 96 lines) +77 lines dvips (665 lines vs 298 lines) +367 lines echo (56 lines vs 43 lines) +13 lines ed (1043 lines vs 412 lines) +631 lines emacs (36572 lines vs 384 lines) +36188 lines env (41 lines vs 31 lines) +10 lines expr (142 lines vs 77 lines) +65 lines file (357 lines vs 311 lines) +46 lines fixps (54 lines vs 50 lines) +4 lines flex (6233 lines vs 106 lines) +6127 lines flock (165 lines vs 64 lines) +101 lines fmt (57 lines vs 43 lines) +14 lines free (40 lines vs 29 lines) +11 lines g++ (33099 lines vs 10360 lines) +22739 lines gawk (19025 lines vs 1314 lines) +17711 lines gcc (33099 lines vs 10360 lines) +22739 lines gdb (20801 lines vs 151 lines) +20650 lines gettext (13418 lines vs 47 lines) +13371 lines gettextize (129 lines vs 39 lines) +90 lines gfortran (10527 lines vs 566 lines) +9961 lines gftype (92 lines vs 34 lines) +58 lines gpg (2901 lines vs 1949 lines) +952 lines gpg2 (6549 lines vs 1918 lines) +4631 lines gpgsm (6549 lines vs 608 lines) +5941 lines gpm (1432 lines vs 249 lines) +1183 lines gprof (1818 lines vs 355 lines) +1463 lines grep (1518 lines vs 329 lines) +1189 lines groff (10368 lines vs 442 lines) +9926 lines grub (3009 lines vs 46 lines) +2963 lines iconv (164 lines vs 29 lines) +135 lines idn (153 lines vs 49 lines) +104 lines indent (1460 lines vs 1125 lines) +335 lines info (1074 lines vs 67 lines) +1007 lines init (100 lines vs 35 lines) +65 lines install (91 lines vs 77 lines) +14 lines install-info (70 lines vs 68 lines) +2 lines join (89 lines vs 55 lines) +34 lines jwhois (345 lines vs 61 lines) +284 lines kill (112 lines vs 49 lines) +63 lines kpsewhich (160 lines vs 60 lines) +100 lines latex (2782 lines vs 40 lines) +2742 lines ld (5723 lines vs 1535 lines) +4188 lines ln (109 lines vs 72 lines) +37 lines locale (202 lines vs 40 lines) +162 lines locate (126 lines vs 119 lines) +7 lines ls (642 lines vs 162 lines) +480 lines m4 (6050 lines vs 88 lines) +5962 lines make (9112 lines vs 185 lines) +8927 lines makempx (74 lines vs 29 lines) +45 lines md5sum (79 lines vs 44 lines) +35 lines mft (69 lines vs 53 lines) +16 lines mkdir (43 lines vs 38 lines) +5 lines mktemp (152 lines vs 44 lines) +108 lines mktexlsr (120 lines vs 26 lines) +94 lines mktexmf (163 lines vs 22 lines) +141 lines mktexpk (163 lines vs 45 lines) +118 lines mktextfm (163 lines vs 27 lines) +136 lines msgattrib (123 lines vs 107 lines) +16 lines msgcat (120 lines vs 106 lines) +14 lines msgcomm (107 lines vs 96 lines) +11 lines msgconv (86 lines vs 78 lines) +8 lines msgen (85 lines vs 77 lines) +8 lines msgexec (54 lines vs 48 lines) +6 lines msgfilter (138 lines vs 85 lines) +53 lines msgfmt (168 lines vs 112 lines) +56 lines msggrep (156 lines vs 122 lines) +34 lines msginit (67 lines vs 61 lines) +6 lines msgmerge (142 lines vs 119 lines) +23 lines msgunfmt (113 lines vs 97 lines) +16 lines msguniq (102 lines vs 92 lines) +10 lines mtools (2116 lines vs 284 lines) +1832 lines mv (86 lines vs 63 lines) +23 lines nano (593 lines vs 162 lines) +431 lines nice (71 lines vs 34 lines) +37 lines nl (93 lines vs 63 lines) +30 lines nohup (37 lines vs 35 lines) +2 lines od (155 lines vs 89 lines) +66 lines ogonkify (269 lines vs 118 lines) +151 lines parted (1110 lines vs 118 lines) +992 lines paste (40 lines vs 34 lines) +6 lines pathchk (34 lines vs 30 lines) +4 lines pdiff (41 lines vs 37 lines) +4 lines pinfo (541 lines vs 429 lines) +112 lines pktype (57 lines vs 35 lines) +22 lines pooltype (25 lines vs 20 lines) +5 lines pr (232 lines vs 97 lines) +135 lines printf (80 lines vs 51 lines) +29 lines psmandup (67 lines vs 50 lines) +17 lines psset (78 lines vs 57 lines) +21 lines ptx (333 lines vs 64 lines) +269 lines rename (67 lines vs 25 lines) +42 lines rm (86 lines vs 70 lines) +16 lines screen (4422 lines vs 2568 lines) +1854 lines sed (1854 lines vs 178 lines) +1676 lines seq (74 lines vs 42 lines) +32 lines setreg (100 lines vs 28 lines) +72 lines setsid (90 lines vs 15 lines) +75 lines shred (141 lines vs 76 lines) +65 lines shuf (70 lines vs 43 lines) +27 lines sort (357 lines vs 88 lines) +269 lines split (46 lines vs 45 lines) +1 lines stty (348 lines vs 241 lines) +107 lines su (70 lines vs 41 lines) +29 lines sys (64 lines vs 45 lines) +19 lines sysctl (96 lines vs 50 lines) +46 lines tail (143 lines vs 70 lines) +73 lines tar (1249 lines vs 334 lines) +915 lines tee (90 lines vs 31 lines) +59 lines test (151 lines vs 113 lines) +38 lines texindex (73 lines vs 31 lines) +42 lines tftopl (102 lines vs 44 lines) +58 lines time (316 lines vs 138 lines) +178 lines touch (87 lines vs 48 lines) +39 lines tr (230 lines vs 87 lines) +143 lines tsort (86 lines vs 27 lines) +59 lines ul (179 lines vs 41 lines) +138 lines umount (185 lines vs 73 lines) +112 lines uname (60 lines vs 46 lines) +14 lines uniq (94 lines vs 53 lines) +41 lines units (804 lines vs 666 lines) +138 lines vcd-info (985 lines vs 88 lines) +897 lines vcdimager (2855 lines vs 65 lines) +2790 lines vcdxrip (370 lines vs 70 lines) +300 lines vi (1978 lines vs 318 lines) +1660 lines w (58 lines vs 44 lines) +14 lines wc (58 lines vs 42 lines) +16 lines wget (3243 lines vs 1181 lines) +2062 lines which (140 lines vs 83 lines) +57 lines who (81 lines vs 59 lines) +22 lines write (250 lines vs 39 lines) +211 lines xgettext (311 lines vs 139 lines) +172 lines |
The following have larger man pages: 13261 more lines total 116 programs with longer man pages, average 114.32 more lines/document HEAD (99 lines vs 41 lines) +58 lines ab (105 lines vs 15 lines) +90 lines addr2line (96 lines vs 69 lines) +27 lines arch (16 lines vs 8 lines) +8 lines at (132 lines vs 67 lines) +65 lines autoupdate (44 lines vs 37 lines) +7 lines base64 (38 lines vs 28 lines) +10 lines basename (34 lines vs 26 lines) +8 lines bibtex (67 lines vs 43 lines) +24 lines c++filt (132 lines vs 111 lines) +21 lines chmod (108 lines vs 56 lines) +52 lines ci (364 lines vs 80 lines) +284 lines cksum (27 lines vs 19 lines) +8 lines clock (37 lines vs 35 lines) +2 lines col (53 lines vs 37 lines) +16 lines comm (32 lines vs 21 lines) +11 lines dir (162 lines vs 6 lines) +156 lines dircolors (37 lines vs 32 lines) +5 lines dirname (34 lines vs 23 lines) +11 lines dvitomp (15 lines vs 10 lines) +5 lines enscript (844 lines vs 266 lines) +578 lines envsubst (40 lines vs 31 lines) +9 lines ex (318 lines vs 28 lines) +290 lines expand (36 lines vs 28 lines) +8 lines factor (30 lines vs 27 lines) +3 lines false (30 lines vs 15 lines) +15 lines fastjar (50 lines vs 45 lines) +5 lines ferror (50 lines vs 49 lines) +1 lines find (885 lines vs 81 lines) +804 lines fold (37 lines vs 29 lines) +8 lines fs (94 lines vs 44 lines) +50 lines getopt (236 lines vs 67 lines) +169 lines gftodvi (69 lines vs 37 lines) +32 lines gftopk (38 lines vs 20 lines) +18 lines grepjar (32 lines vs 23 lines) +9 lines groups (26 lines vs 12 lines) +14 lines grub-install (36 lines vs 32 lines) +4 lines grub-md5-crypt (22 lines vs 13 lines) +9 lines grub-terminfo (20 lines vs 14 lines) +6 lines gs (266 lines vs 47 lines) +219 lines gzip (291 lines vs 121 lines) +170 lines head (43 lines vs 41 lines) +2 lines host (97 lines vs 12 lines) +85 lines hostid (27 lines vs 12 lines) +15 lines hostname (102 lines vs 11 lines) +91 lines id (40 lines vs 31 lines) +9 lines ifnames (34 lines vs 21 lines) +13 lines infokey (31 lines vs 13 lines) +18 lines ip (953 lines vs 752 lines) +201 lines link (29 lines vs 16 lines) +13 lines login (206 lines vs 36 lines) +170 lines logname (26 lines vs 10 lines) +16 lines makeinfo (147 lines vs 9 lines) +138 lines mbchk (19 lines vs 11 lines) +8 lines mf (215 lines vs 74 lines) +141 lines mkfifo (34 lines vs 19 lines) +15 lines mknod (40 lines vs 34 lines) +6 lines mount (1171 lines vs 185 lines) +986 lines mpost (218 lines vs 101 lines) +117 lines mpto (23 lines vs 18 lines) +5 lines msgcmp (55 lines vs 50 lines) +5 lines mtr (105 lines vs 28 lines) +77 lines nc (175 lines vs 38 lines) +137 lines newer (19 lines vs 17 lines) +2 lines ngettext (48 lines vs 35 lines) +13 lines nm (205 lines vs 200 lines) +5 lines objcopy (519 lines vs 497 lines) +22 lines objdump (399 lines vs 389 lines) +10 lines open (320 lines vs 143 lines) +177 lines patgen (96 lines vs 11 lines) +85 lines pdftex (200 lines vs 27 lines) +173 lines pktogf (35 lines vs 19 lines) +16 lines pltotf (29 lines vs 16 lines) +13 lines printenv (30 lines vs 13 lines) +17 lines ps (776 lines vs 67 lines) +709 lines pts (118 lines vs 102 lines) +16 lines pwd (30 lines vs 12 lines) +18 lines ranlib (45 lines vs 18 lines) +27 lines readelf (166 lines vs 139 lines) +27 lines readlink (45 lines vs 44 lines) +1 lines rec (505 lines vs 33 lines) +472 lines rmdir (35 lines vs 27 lines) +8 lines rpm (577 lines vs 49 lines) +528 lines sa (142 lines vs 39 lines) +103 lines sh (4359 lines vs 11 lines) +4348 lines sha1sum (42 lines vs 11 lines) +31 lines shutdown (47 lines vs 30 lines) +17 lines size (98 lines vs 72 lines) +26 lines sleep (32 lines vs 23 lines) +9 lines sn (136 lines vs 105 lines) +31 lines ss (95 lines vs 64 lines) +31 lines stat (87 lines vs 85 lines) +2 lines stream (66 lines vs 64 lines) +2 lines strings (84 lines vs 57 lines) +27 lines strip (163 lines vs 136 lines) +27 lines sum (30 lines vs 27 lines) +3 lines sync (27 lines vs 14 lines) +13 lines tac (35 lines vs 26 lines) +9 lines tangle (77 lines vs 39 lines) +38 lines tc (206 lines vs 92 lines) +114 lines tex (229 lines vs 148 lines) +81 lines texi2dvi (128 lines vs 57 lines) +71 lines true (30 lines vs 20 lines) +10 lines tty (28 lines vs 17 lines) +11 lines unexpand (38 lines vs 31 lines) +7 lines unlink (28 lines vs 16 lines) +12 lines up (82 lines vs 70 lines) +12 lines updatedb (88 lines vs 70 lines) +18 lines users (28 lines vs 16 lines) +12 lines vdir (165 lines vs 5 lines) +160 lines vftovp (41 lines vs 36 lines) +5 lines vptovf (27 lines vs 16 lines) +11 lines weave (31 lines vs 23 lines) +8 lines whoami (27 lines vs 8 lines) +19 lines xargs (192 lines vs 113 lines) +79 lines yes (27 lines vs 9 lines) +18 lines |