Examples for the tcpdump and dig man pages

· Julia Evans · March 10, 2026, 9:01 p.m.
Summary
This blog post discusses the author's efforts to improve the examples found in the man pages for TCPDump and Dig. It emphasizes the importance of having basic usage examples for infrequent users, highlights personal insights gained during the documentation process, and explores the challenges of working with the roff language for man page formatting. The author also reflects on the quality of documentation and expresses an optimistic view regarding its potential improvement. Moreover, it touches on the historical context of roff and its cultural implications across different systems.
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