Template Version: @(#)sac_nextcase %I% %G% SMI
1. Introduction
    1.1. Project/Component Working Name:
	 Default shell environment: manual page subsystem
    1.2. Name of Document Author/Supplier:
	 Author:  Roland Mainz
    1.3  Date of This Document:
	25 April, 2007
4. Technical Description

Default shell environment enhancements: manual page subsystem

Description and Justification:

This case proposes to introduce a set of enhancements for the default
shell environment in Solaris to provide a more user-friendly environment
for new users which are not yet familar with all the details in Unix and
to provide some help for adminstrators via introducing better system-wide
defaults and more configuration options.

The proposed changes are:

- Modifications to "/etc/profile" (and csh's "/etc/.login") to provide
  beginner friendly defaults for the manual page-subsystem via the MANPATH
  (set to a value calculated from PATH if MANPATH was not set yet, for
  example if PATH is set to
  "/opt/SUNWspro/bin:/usr/dt/bin:/usr/bin" the value for MANPATH should be
  "/opt/SUNWspro/man:/usr/dt/man:/usr/man") and PAGER (set to "/usr/bin/less"
  if this binary is available and PAGER was not set yet, otherwise the PAGER
  variable will not be set) environment variables.

  The purpose of this change is to provide reasonable defaults for MANPATH and
  PAGER which are beginner-friendly and should allow an unexperienced user
  to easily navigate in the manual page subsystem without learning how to
  setup the system first (this is quite a catch22, currently you won't get help
  for anything outside "/usr/man" unless you learn how to modify your login
  shell environment). Most other operating systems like Linux or *BSD
  provide similar defaults.
  
  PAGER=/usr/bin/less was selected because:
  - Usuablity: "/usr/bin/less" is quite easy and intuitive to use, including
    working cursor keys for navigation, the abilty to search in documents
    and a built-in help system.
  - Improved interoperability/consistency of user environments:
    The majority of other Unix-like operating systems use "less" as default
    (for example SuSE Linux sets PAGER unconditionally to "less").
  - Support for non-ASII charatcer sets/languages: "/usr/bin/less" is
    CSI-enabled (e.g. can handle multibyte data/locales ; "/usr/bin/more"
    is _not_ CSI-enabled)
  - "/usr/bin/less" is actively maintained by the GNU community. 

Notes:
- The settings of MANPATH and PAGER are set in "/etc/profile" for
  the whole machine but users are always allowed to override these settings
  in their local environment files (e.g. ~/.profile, ~/.kshrc, ~/.bashrc)
  on demand.

Interfaces:

Interface	        Stability	Description
=========               =========	===========
env-var "MANPATH"       Committed       Environment variable to define
                                        the search path for man(1)
env-var "PAGER"         Committed       Environment variable to define the
                                        viewer used by man(1) to browse
                                        manual pages.


6. Resources and Schedule
    6.4. Steering Committee requested information
   	6.4.1. Consolidation C-team Name:
		ON
    6.5. ARC review type: FastTrack