apropos(1) General Commands Manual apropos(1)NAME
apropos - search the whatis database for strings
SYNOPSIS
apropos keyword ...
DESCRIPTION
apropos searches a set of database files containing short descriptions of system commands for keywords and displays the result on the stan-
dard output.
AUTHOR
John W. Eaton was the original author of man. Zeyd M. Ben-Halim released man 1.2, and Andries Brouwer followed up with versions 1.3 thru
1.5p. Federico Lucifredi <flucifredi@acm.org> is the current maintainer.
SEE ALSO whatis(1), man(1).
September 19, 2005 apropos(1)
Check Out this Related Man Page
Commands Reference, Volume 1, a - capropos_Command
Purpose
Locates commands by keyword lookup.
Syntax
apropos [ -M PathName ] Keyword ...
Description
The apropos command shows the manual sections that contain any
of the
keywords specified by the Keyword parameter in their title.
The apropos
command considers each word separately and does not take into
account if a
letter is in uppercase or lowercase. Words that are part of
other words
are also displayed. For example, when looking for the word
compile, the
apropos command also finds all instances of the word compiler.
The
database containing the keywords is /usr/share/man/whatis,
which must
first be generated with the catman -w command.
If the output of the apropos command begins with a name and
section
number, you can enter man Section Title. For example, if the
output of the
apropos command is printf(3), you can enter man 3 printf to
obtain the
manual page on the printf subroutine.
The apropos command is equivalent to using the man command
with the -k
option.
Note: When the /usr/share/man/whatis database is built from
the HTML
library using the catman -w command, section 3 is equivalent
to section
2 or 3. See the man command for further explanation of sec-
tions.
Flag
Specifies an alternative search path. The search
path is-M PathName specified by the PathName parameter, and is a
colon-separated
list of directories.
Examples
1. To find the manual sections that contain the word password
in their
titles, enter:
apropos password
2. To find the manual sections that contain the word editor
in their
titles, enter:
apropos editor
File
/usr/share/man/whatis Contains the whatis data-
base.
Related Information
The catman command, man command, whatis command.
________________________________________________________________________________
Commands Reference, Volume 1, a - c
apropos_Command
Purpose
Locates commands by keyword lookup.
Syntax
apropos [ -M PathName ] Keyword ...
Description
The apropos command shows the manual sections that contain any
of the
keywords specified by the Keyword parameter in their title.
The apropos
command considers each word separately and does not take into
account if a
letter is in uppercase or lowercase. Words that are part of
other words
are also displayed. For example, when looking for the word
compile, the
apropos command also finds all instances of the word compiler.
The
database containing the keywords is /usr/share/man/whatis,
which must
first be generated with the catman -w command.
If the output of the apropos command begins with a name and
section
number, you can enter man Section Title. For example, if the
output of the
apropos command is printf(3), you can enter man 3 printf to
obtain the
manual page on the printf subroutine.
The apropos command is equivalent to using the man command
with the -k
option.
Note: When the /usr/share/man/whatis database is built from
the HTML
library using the catman -w command, section 3 is equivalent
to section
2 or 3. See the man command for further explanation of sec-
tions.
Flag
Specifies an alternative search path. The search
path is-M PathName specified by the PathName parameter, and is a
colon-separated
list of directories.
Examples
1. To find the manual sections that contain the word password
in their
titles, enter:
apropos password
2. To find the manual sections that contain the word editor
in their
titles, enter:
apropos editor
File
/usr/share/man/whatis Contains the whatis data-
base.
Related Information
The catman command, man command, whatis command.