Description: Some remarks and editorial changes
Author: Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig@simnet.is>
Origin: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1088088
Bug-Debian: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1088088
Forwarded: no: due to constant network errors
Last-Update: 2026-03-10
---
This patch header follows DEP-3: http://dep.debian.net/deps/dep3/
Index: trunk/man/dmidecode.8
===================================================================
--- trunk.orig/man/dmidecode.8
+++ trunk/man/dmidecode.8
@@ -45,39 +45,52 @@ Base Board Information
 
 Each record has:
 .IP \(bu "\w'\(bu'u+1n"
-A handle. This is a unique identifier, which allows records to
-reference each other. For example, processor records usually reference
-cache memory records using their handles.
+A handle.
+This is a unique identifier,
+which allows records to reference each other.
+For example,
+processor records usually reference cache memory records
+using their handles.
 .IP \(bu
-A type. The \s-1SMBIOS\s0 specification defines different types of elements
-a computer can be made of. In this example, the type is 2, which
-means that the record contains "Base Board Information".
+A type.
+The \s-1SMBIOS\s0 specification defines different types of elements
+a computer can be made of.
+In this example,
+the type is 2,
+which means that the record contains "Base Board Information".
 .IP \(bu
-A size. Each record has a 4-byte header (2 for the handle, 1 for the type,
-1 for the size), the rest is used by the record data. This value doesn't
-take text strings into account (these are placed at the end of the record),
-so the actual length of the record may be (and is often) greater than the
-displayed value.
+A size.
+Each record has a 4-byte header
+(2 for the handle, 1 for the type, 1 for the size),
+the rest is used by the record data.
+This value doesn't take text strings into account
+(these are placed at the end of the record),
+so the actual length of the record may be
+(and is often)
+greater than the displayed value.
 .IP \(bu
-Decoded values. The information presented of course depends on the type
-of record. Here, we learn about the board's manufacturer, model, version
-and serial number.
+Decoded values.
+The information presented of course depends on the type of record.
+Here, we learn about the board's manufacturer,
+model, version and serial number.
 .\"
 .SH OPTIONS
 .TP
-.BR "-d" ", " "--dev-mem \fIFILE\fP"
+.BR "\-d" ", " "\-\-dev-mem \fIFILE\fP"
 Read memory from device \fIFILE\fP (default: \fI/dev/mem\fP)
 .TP
-.BR "-q" ", " "--quiet"
-Be less verbose. Unknown, inactive and \s-1OEM\s0-specific entries are not
-displayed. Meta-data and handle references are hidden.
-.TP
-.BR "  " "  " "--no-quirks"
-Decode everything exactly as it is in the table, without trying to fix up
-common mistakes or hide irrelevant fields.
+.BR "\-q" ", " "\-\-quiet"
+Be less verbose.
+Unknown, inactive and \s-1OEM\s0-specific entries are not displayed.
+Meta-data and handle references are hidden.
+.TP
+.BR "  " "  " "\-\-no-quirks"
+Decode everything exactly as it is in the table,
+without trying to fix up common mistakes
+or hide irrelevant fields.
 This mode is primarily aimed at firmware developers.
 .TP
-.BR "-s" ", " "--string \fIKEYWORD\fP"
+.BR "\-s" ", " "\-\-string \fIKEYWORD\fP"
 Only display the value of the \s-1DMI\s0 string identified by \fIKEYWORD\fP.
 It must be a keyword from the following list:
 .nh
@@ -113,33 +126,35 @@ firmware (regardless of it technically i
 while "firmware" designates the embedded controller firmware, if applicable.
 Each keyword corresponds to a given \s-1DMI\s0 type and a given offset
 within this entry type.
-Not all strings may be meaningful or even defined on all systems. Some
-keywords may return more than one result on some systems (e.g.
+Not all strings may be meaningful or even defined on all systems.
+Some keywords may return more than one result on some systems
+(e.g.,
 .nh
 .B processor\-version
 .hy
 on a multi-processor system).
-If \fIKEYWORD\fP is not provided or not valid, a list of all valid
-keywords is printed and
+If \fIKEYWORD\fP is not provided or not valid,
+a list of all valid keywords is printed and
 .B dmidecode
 exits with an error.
 This option cannot be used more than once.
 
-Note: on Linux, most of these strings can alternatively be read directly
-from
+Note: on Linux,
+most of these strings can alternatively be read directly from
 .BR sysfs ,
 typically from files under
 .IR /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id .
 Most of these files are even readable by regular users.
 .TP
-.BR "  " "  " "--list-strings"
-List available string keywords, which can then be passed to the \fB--string\fP
-option.
-.TP
-.BR "-t" ", " "--type \fITYPE\fP"
-Only display the entries of type \fITYPE\fP. It can be either a
-\s-1DMI\s0 type number, or a comma-separated list of type numbers, or a
-keyword from the following list:
+.BR "  " "  " "\-\-list-strings"
+List available string keywords,
+which can then be passed to the \fB\-\-string\fP option.
+.TP
+.BR "\-t" ", " "\-\-type \fITYPE\fP"
+Only display the entries of type \fITYPE\fP.
+It can be either a \s-1DMI\s0 type number,
+or a comma-separated list of type numbers,
+or a keyword from the following list:
 .nh
 .BR bios ,
 .BR system ,
@@ -169,49 +184,54 @@ option.
 Only display the entry whose handle matches \fIHANDLE\fP.
 \fIHANDLE\fP is a 16-bit integer.
 .TP
-.BR "-u" ", " "--dump"
-Do not decode the entries, dump their contents as hexadecimal instead.
-Note that this is still a text output, no binary data will be thrown upon
-you. The strings attached to each entry are displayed as both
-hexadecimal and \s-1ASCII\s0. This option is mainly useful for debugging.
-.TP
-.BR "  " "  " "--dump-bin \fIFILE\fP"
-Do not decode the entries, instead dump the DMI data to a file in binary
-form. The generated file is suitable to pass to \fB--from-dump\fP
-later.
+.BR "\-u" ", " "\-\-dump"
+Do not decode the entries,
+dump their contents as hexadecimal instead.
+Note that this is still a text output,
+no binary data will be thrown upon you.
+The strings attached to each entry
+are displayed as both hexadecimal and \s-1ASCII\s0.
+This option is mainly useful for debugging.
+.TP
+.BR "  " "  " "\-\-dump-bin \fIFILE\fP"
+Do not decode the entries,
+instead dump the DMI data to a file in binary form.
+The generated file is suitable to pass to \fB\-\-from-dump\fP later.
 \fIFILE\fP must not exist.
 .TP
-.BR "  " "  " "--from-dump \fIFILE\fP"
+.BR "  " "  " "\-\-from-dump \fIFILE\fP"
 Read the DMI data from a binary file previously generated using
-\fB--dump-bin\fP.
+\fB\-\-dump-bin\fP.
 .TP
-.BR "  " "  " "--no-sysfs"
-Do not attempt to read DMI data from sysfs files. This is mainly useful for
-debugging.
-.TP
-.BR "  " "  " "--oem-string \fIN\fP"
-Only display the value of the \s-1OEM\s0 string number \fIN\fP. The first
-\s-1OEM\s0 string has number \fB1\fP. With special value \fBcount\fP, return the
-number of OEM strings instead.
+.BR "  " "  " "\-\-no-sysfs"
+Do not attempt to read DMI data from sysfs files.
+This is mainly useful for debugging.
+.TP
+.BR "  " "  " "\-\-oem-string \fIN\fP"
+Only display the value of the \s-1OEM\s0 string number \fIN\fP.
+The first \s-1OEM\s0 string has number \fB1\fP.
+With special value \fBcount\fP,
+return the number of OEM strings instead.
 .TP
-.BR "-h" ", " "--help"
+.BR "\-h" ", " "\-\-help"
 Display usage information and exit
 .TP
-.BR "-V" ", " "--version"
+.BR "\-V" ", " "\-\-version"
 Display the version and exit
 .P
 Options
-.BR --string ,
-.BR --type,
-.BR --dump-bin " and " --oem-string
+.BR \-\-string ,
+.BR \-\-type,
+.BR \-\-dump-bin " and " \-\-oem-string
 determine the output format and are mutually exclusive.
 .P
 Please note in case of
 .B dmidecode
-is run on a system with firmware that boasts new SMBIOS specification, which
-is not supported by the tool yet, it will print out relevant message in
-addition to requested data on the very top of the output. Thus informs the
-output data is not reliable.
+is run on a system with BIOS that boasts new SMBIOS specification,
+which is not supported by the tool yet,
+it will print out relevant message
+in addition to requested data on the very top of the output.
+Thus informs the output data is not reliable.
 .\"
 .SH "DMI TYPES"
 The \s-1SMBIOS\s0 specification defines the following \s-1DMI\s0 types:
@@ -265,13 +285,15 @@ Type	Information
 42	Management Controller Host Interface
 .TE
 
-Additionally, type 126 is used for disabled entries and type 127 is an
-end-of-table marker. Types 128 to 255 are for \s-1OEM\s0-specific data.
+Additionally, type 126 is used for disabled entries
+and type 127 is an end-of-table marker.
+Types 128 to 255 are for \s-1OEM\s0-specific data.
 .B dmidecode
-will display these entries by default, but it can only decode them
+will display these entries by default,
+but it can only decode them
 when the vendors have contributed documentation or code for them.
 
-Keywords can be used instead of type numbers with \fB--type\fP.
+Keywords can be used instead of type numbers with \fB\-\-type\fP.
 Each keyword is equivalent to a list of type numbers:
 
 .TS
@@ -290,18 +312,20 @@ connector	8
 slot	9
 .TE
 
-Keywords are matched case-insensitively. The following command lines are equivalent:
+Keywords are matched case-insensitively.
+The following command lines are equivalent:
 .IP \(bu "\w'\(bu'u+1n"
-dmidecode --type 0 --type 13
+dmidecode \-\-type 0 \-\-type 13
 .IP \(bu
-dmidecode --type 0,13
+dmidecode \-\-type 0,13
 .IP \(bu
-dmidecode --type bios
+dmidecode \-\-type bios
 .IP \(bu
-dmidecode --type BIOS
+dmidecode \-\-type BIOS
 .\"
 .SH BINARY DUMP FILE FORMAT
-The binary dump files generated by \fB--dump-bin\fP and read using \fB--from-dump\fP
+The binary dump files generated by \fB\-\-dump-bin\fP
+and read using \fB\-\-from-dump\fP
 are formatted as follows:
 .IP \(bu "\w'\(bu'u+1n"
 The SMBIOS or DMI entry point is located at offset 0x00.
@@ -310,18 +334,27 @@ It is crafted to hard-code the table add
 The DMI table is located at offset 0x20.
 .\"
 .SH UUID FORMAT
-There is some ambiguity about how to interpret the UUID fields prior to SMBIOS
-specification version 2.6. There was no mention of byte swapping, and RFC 4122
-says that no byte swapping should be applied by default. However, SMBIOS
-specification version 2.6 (and later) explicitly states that the first 3 fields
-of the UUID should be read as little-endian numbers (byte-swapped).
-Furthermore, it implies that the same was already true for older versions of
-the specification, even though it was not mentioned. In practice, many hardware
-vendors were not byte-swapping the UUID. So, in order to preserve
-compatibility, it was decided to interpret the UUID fields according to RFC
-4122 (no byte swapping) when the SMBIOS version is older than 2.6, and to
-interpret the first 3 fields as little-endian (byte-swapped) when the SMBIOS
-version is 2.6 or later. The Linux kernel follows the same logic.
+There is some ambiguity about how to interpret the UUID fields prior to
+SMBIOS specification version 2.6.
+There was no mention of byte swapping,
+and RFC 4122 says that no byte swapping should be applied by default.
+However, SMBIOS specification version 2.6 (and later)
+explicitly states
+that the first 3 fields of the UUID should be read as little-endian numbers
+(byte-swapped).
+Furthermore,
+it implies that the same was already true for older versions of the
+specification,
+even though it was not mentioned.
+In practice, many hardware vendors were not byte-swapping the UUID.
+So, in order to preserve compatibility,
+it was decided to interpret the UUID fields according to RFC 4122
+(no byte swapping)
+when the SMBIOS version is older than 2.6,
+and to interpret the first 3 fields as little-endian
+(byte-swapped)
+when the SMBIOS version is 2.6 or later.
+The Linux kernel follows the same logic.
 .\"
 .SH FILES
 .I /dev/mem
@@ -333,7 +366,8 @@ version is 2.6 or later. The Linux kerne
 (Linux only)
 .\"
 .SH BUGS
-More often than not, information contained in the \s-1DMI\s0 tables is inaccurate,
+More often than not,
+information contained in the \s-1DMI\s0 tables is inaccurate,
 incomplete or simply wrong.
 .\"
 .SH AUTHORS