[pacman-dev] [PATCH] Document group and providers selection

[Allan McRae]

The format required for selection of packages within the group selection
dialog is not entirely obvious, so provide some documentation.

Fixes FS#24134.

Signed-off-by: Allan McRae <allan at archlinux.org>
---

I am crap at writing documentation so suggestions on how to make this
clearer are more than welcome.


 doc/pacman.8.txt |   12 +++++++++---
 1 files changed, 9 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/doc/pacman.8.txt b/doc/pacman.8.txt
index 531c992..c11439c 100644
--- a/doc/pacman.8.txt
+++ b/doc/pacman.8.txt
@@ -69,13 +69,19 @@ Operations
 	interprets ">" as redirection to file.)
 +
 In addition to packages, groups can be specified as well. For example, if
-gnome is a defined package group, then `pacman -S gnome` will install every
-package in the gnome group, as well as the dependencies of those packages.
+gnome is a defined package group, then `pacman -S gnome` will provide a
+dialog allowing you to select which packages from that group you wish to
+install. The package selection is specified using a space separated list of
+package identifiers. Sequential packages may be selected by specifying the
+first and last package identifiers separated by a hyphen (`-`). Excluding
+packages is achieved by by prefixing a idetifier or range of identifers
+with a carrot (`^`).
 +
 Packages that provide other packages are also handled. For example, `pacman -S
 foo` will first look for a foo package. If foo is not found, packages that
 provide the same functionality as foo will be searched for. If any package is
-found, it will be installed.
+found, it will be installed. A selection dialog is provided if multiple
+packages providing foo are found.
 +
 You can also use `pacman -Su` to upgrade all packages that are out of date. See
 <<SO,Sync Options>> below. When upgrading, pacman performs version comparison
-- 
1.7.5.4