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apropos(1) [freebsd man page]

APROPOS(1)						    BSD General Commands Manual 						APROPOS(1)

NAME
apropos, whatis -- keyword search whatis documentation databases SYNOPSIS
apropos [-d] keyword ... whatis [-d] keyword ... DESCRIPTION
The apropos utility searches a set of databases looking for documentation matching each keyword and displays the results. The whatis utility does the same search but only on complete words. -d Print extra debugging information. The keyword is simply passed to grep(1) allowing for extended regular expression matches. ENVIRONMENT
The following environment variables affect the execution of apropos: MANLOCALES, MANPATH, PATH Used to find the location of the whatis database files. See manpath(1) for additional information. PAGER Program used to display files. If unset, more -s is used. DIAGNOSTICS
The apropos utility exits 0 if a keyword matched and 1 if no keywords are matched or no whatis databases are found. SEE ALSO
grep(1), makewhatis(1), man(1), manpath(1), man.conf(5) BSD
September 1, 2010 BSD

Check Out this Related Man Page

apropos(1)							   User Commands							apropos(1)

NAME
apropos - locate commands by keyword lookup SYNOPSIS
apropos keyword... DESCRIPTION
The apropos utility displays the man page name, section number, and a short description for each man page whose NAME line contains keyword. This information is contained in the /usr/share/man/windex database created by catman(1M). If catman(1M) was not run, or was run with the -n option, apropos fails. Each word is considered separately and the case of letters is ignored. Words which are part of other words are considered; for example, when looking for `compile', apropos finds all instances of `compiler' also. apropos is actually just the -k option to the man(1) command. EXAMPLES
Example 1: To find a man page whose NAME line contains a keyword Try example% apropos password and example% apropos editor If the line starts `filename(section) ...' you can run man -s section filename to display the man page for filename. Example 2: To find the man page for the subroutine printf() Try example% apropos format and then example% man -s 3s printf to get the manual page on the subroutine printf(). FILES
/usr/share/man/windex table of contents and keyword database ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Availability |SUNWdoc | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |CSI |Enabled | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ SEE ALSO
man(1), whatis(1), catman(1M), attributes(5) DIAGNOSTICS
/usr/share/man/windex: No such file or directory This database does not exist. catman(1M) must be run to create it. SunOS 5.10 20 Dec 1996 apropos(1)
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