From: [email protected]

Package: smartmontools
Version: 5.30-6
Severity: wishlist
File: /usr/share/man/man8/smartctl.8.gz

Here are some first impression documentation ideas for smartmontools:

My general impression is that simple users who just want to get a
email message to root when their disk is in danger are going to get
lost in the documentation.

You might consider a separate doc file just for them.

= = =

The file /usr/share/doc/smartmontools/README ends in
"BUILDING/INSTALLING". I would add a bit about "RUNNING", probably
"see ... manpage"

The smartctl man page should say at the beginning if new users should
use smartd first instead of smartctl.

The examples files can be #! /bin/sh, no need for bash.
BTW, there are some trailing blanks in them.

The beginning user, after wading thru smartd(5), understands that his
disk is being checked every 30 minutes, OK. Checks are checks. The
docs left little impression of what will then be made of those checks.

He hopes mail will be sent to root if something goes wrong.

He guesses
/dev/hdb -a -o on -S on -m root
is what he wants. Is this right ?!?



You might consider a separate examples man page, like procmailex(5).

SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
Just PASSED? No GOOD? How about some kind of 4/5, 3/5 etc. so the
user can tell if he is in top shape, tip top shape, or what.

The man page says
smartctl -t long /dev/hdc
Begin an extended self-test of drive /dev/hdc.
only to find
Please wait 31 minutes for test to complete.
very funny. I thought it would only take a minute.
I did not know I was signing up for so much wear and tare.
You should warn on the man page!

The results can be seen in the self-test log visible with the '-l self-
test' option after it has completed.

The man page contains no FILES section saying where all these logs
are, BTW.

I did an lsof during the check 31 minute period but could find
nothing.

I wanted to monitor the progress of the check but didn't know how.

During the check, -l selftest doesn't mention a check is in progress,
and perhaps could even give output for an older check.



Conf file:
# HERE IS A LIST OF DIRECTIVES FOR THIS CONFIGURATION FILE
# -d TYPE Set the device type: ata, scsi, removable, 3ware,N

no space before the N?

# -o VAL Enable/disable automatic offline tests (on/off)
# -S VAL Enable/disable attribute autosave (on/off)

say what the defaults are. Also one still wonders what directory this
saving is going to.

On each man page mention the difference between offline and online testing.

Syslog:
smartd[5408]: Device: /dev/hdb, enabled SMART Automatic Offline Testing.

OK, but mention how often.


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