[[!comment format=mdwn
 username="Dan"
 avatar="http://cdn.libravatar.org/avatar/986de9e060699ae70ff7c31342393adc"
 subject="Man pages not included when installing via homebrew"
 date="2022-07-11T17:30:42Z"
 content="""
It seems that for me at least, OSX installations performed with `brew install git-annex` do not include man pages, e.g., if I subsequently run `man git-annex` I get the error `No manual entry for git-annex`. This isn't an enormous bother as I can instead browse documentation as needed on the website, but it's a headache when I'm working offline and even when not it can be irksome to have to leave the terminal.

Below I've pasted the [relevant lines](https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/0362892918d8e1c8d0b38c962e26a872e8612e71/Formula/git-annex.rb#L22-L27) that govern how homebrew performs the installation (or in practice, how the \"bottle\" is built as part of a CI process, and which bottle is typically \"poured\" by end users rather than compiling locally). 

```
  def install
    system \"cabal\", \"v2-update\"
    system \"cabal\", \"v2-install\", *std_cabal_v2_args,
                    \"--flags=+S3\"
    bin.install_symlink \"git-annex\" => \"git-annex-shell\"
  end
```

Notably, it uses `cabal` to do the installation, but it doesn't quite follow any of the cabal-related patterns currently outlined on the [\"installing from source\" documentation](https://git-annex.branchable.com/install/fromsource/). I inspected the bottle that homebrew downloads, and indeed it contains just a handful of files that do not include the man pages, i.e.:

```
.
├── CHANGELOG
├── COPYRIGHT
├── NEWS
├── README
├── bin
│   ├── git-annex
│   └── git-annex-shell -> git-annex
├── homebrew.git-annex.service
└── homebrew.mxcl.git-annex.plist

1 directory, 8 files
```

Is there an easy tweak to the cabal-based installation that homebrew currently uses to do its bottling that would include man pages, or would it be a potentially significant undertaking that would require an appreciably different build approach?
"""]]