{ "content": [ { "type": "text", "text": "# APROPOS(1) (man)\n\n**Summary:** apropos - search the manual page names and descriptions\n\n**Synopsis:** apropos [-dalv?V] [-e|-w|-r] [-s list] [-m system[,...]] [-M path] [-L locale] [-C file] key‐\nword ...\n\n## Flags\n\n| Flag | Long | Arg | Description |\n|------|------|-----|-------------|\n| -d | --debug | — | Print debugging information. |\n| -v | --verbose | — | Print verbose warning messages. |\n| -r | --regex | — | Interpret each keyword as a regular expression. This is the default behaviour. Each keyword will be matched against the |\n| -w | --wildcard | — | Interpret each keyword as a pattern containing shell style wildcards. Each keyword will be matched against the page name |\n| -e | --exact | — | Each keyword will be exactly matched against the page names and the descriptions. |\n| -a | --and | — | Only display items that match all the supplied keywords. The default is to display items that match any keyword. |\n| -l | --long | — | Do not trim output to the terminal width. Normally, output will be truncated to the terminal width to avoid ugly results |\n| -s | — | — | Search only the given manual sections. list is a colon- or comma-separated list of sections. If an entry in list is a si |\n| -m | — | — | If this system has access to other operating systems' manual page descriptions, they can be searched using this option. |\n| -M | — | — | Specify an alternate set of colon-delimited manual page hierarchies to search. By de‐ fault, apropos uses the $MANPATH e |\n| -L | — | — | apropos will normally determine your current locale by a call to the C function setlo‐‐ cale(3) which interrogates vario |\n| -C | — | — | Use this user configuration file rather than the default of ~/.manpath. -?, --help Print a help message and exit. |\n| — | --usage | — | Print a short usage message and exit. |\n| -V | --version | — | Display version information. |\n\n## See Also\n\n- man(1)\n- whatis(1)\n- mandb(8)\n\n## Section Outline\n\n- **NAME** (2 lines)\n- **SYNOPSIS** (3 lines)\n- **DESCRIPTION** (14 lines)\n- **OPTIONS** (1 lines) — 14 subsections\n - -d --debug (2 lines)\n - -v --verbose (2 lines)\n - -r --regex (4 lines)\n - -w --wildcard (6 lines)\n - -e --exact (2 lines)\n - -a --and (3 lines)\n - -l --long (3 lines)\n - -s --sections= --section= (6 lines)\n - -m --systems= (9 lines)\n - -M --manpath= (5 lines)\n - -L --locale= (7 lines)\n - -C --config-file= (5 lines)\n - --usage (2 lines)\n - -V --version (2 lines)\n- **EXIT STATUS** (8 lines)\n- **ENVIRONMENT** (19 lines)\n- **FILES** (9 lines)\n- **SEE ALSO** (2 lines)\n- **AUTHOR** (4 lines)\n- **BUGS** (6 lines)\n\n## Full Content\n\n### NAME\n\napropos - search the manual page names and descriptions\n\n### SYNOPSIS\n\napropos [-dalv?V] [-e|-w|-r] [-s list] [-m system[,...]] [-M path] [-L locale] [-C file] key‐\nword ...\n\n### DESCRIPTION\n\nEach manual page has a short description available within it. apropos searches the descrip‐\ntions for instances of keyword.\n\nkeyword is usually a regular expression, as if (-r) was used, or may contain wildcards (-w),\nor match the exact keyword (-e). Using these options, it may be necessary to quote the key‐\nword or escape (\\) the special characters to stop the shell from interpreting them.\n\nThe standard matching rules allow matches to be made against the page name and word bound‐\naries in the description.\n\nThe database searched by apropos is updated by the mandb program. Depending on your instal‐\nlation, this may be run by a periodic cron job, or may need to be run manually after new man‐\nual pages have been installed.\n\n### OPTIONS\n\n#### -d --debug\n\nPrint debugging information.\n\n#### -v --verbose\n\nPrint verbose warning messages.\n\n#### -r --regex\n\nInterpret each keyword as a regular expression. This is the default behaviour. Each\nkeyword will be matched against the page names and the descriptions independently. It\ncan match any part of either. The match is not limited to word boundaries.\n\n#### -w --wildcard\n\nInterpret each keyword as a pattern containing shell style wildcards. Each keyword\nwill be matched against the page names and the descriptions independently. If --exact\nis also used, a match will only be found if an expanded keyword matches an entire de‐\nscription or page name. Otherwise the keyword is also allowed to match on word bound‐\naries in the description.\n\n#### -e --exact\n\nEach keyword will be exactly matched against the page names and the descriptions.\n\n#### -a --and\n\nOnly display items that match all the supplied keywords. The default is to display\nitems that match any keyword.\n\n#### -l --long\n\nDo not trim output to the terminal width. Normally, output will be truncated to the\nterminal width to avoid ugly results from poorly-written NAME sections.\n\n#### -s --sections= --section=\n\nSearch only the given manual sections. list is a colon- or comma-separated list of\nsections. If an entry in list is a simple section, for example \"3\", then the dis‐\nplayed list of descriptions will include pages in sections \"3\", \"3perl\", \"3x\", and so\non; while if an entry in list has an extension, for example \"3perl\", then the list\nwill only include pages in that exact part of the manual section.\n\n#### -m --systems=\n\nIf this system has access to other operating systems' manual page descriptions, they\ncan be searched using this option. To search NewOS's manual page descriptions, use\nthe option -m NewOS.\n\nThe system specified can be a combination of comma-delimited operating system names.\nTo include a search of the native operating system's whatis descriptions, include the\nsystem name man in the argument string. This option will override the $SYSTEM envi‐\nronment variable.\n\n#### -M --manpath=\n\nSpecify an alternate set of colon-delimited manual page hierarchies to search. By de‐\nfault, apropos uses the $MANPATH environment variable, unless it is empty or unset, in\nwhich case it will determine an appropriate manpath based on your $PATH environment\nvariable. This option overrides the contents of $MANPATH.\n\n#### -L --locale=\n\napropos will normally determine your current locale by a call to the C function setlo‐‐\ncale(3) which interrogates various environment variables, possibly including $LCMES‐‐\nSAGES and $LANG. To temporarily override the determined value, use this option to\nsupply a locale string directly to apropos. Note that it will not take effect until\nthe search for pages actually begins. Output such as the help message will always be\ndisplayed in the initially determined locale.\n\n#### -C --config-file=\n\nUse this user configuration file rather than the default of ~/.manpath.\n\n-?, --help\nPrint a help message and exit.\n\n#### --usage\n\nPrint a short usage message and exit.\n\n#### -V --version\n\nDisplay version information.\n\n### EXIT STATUS\n\n0 Successful program execution.\n\n1 Usage, syntax or configuration file error.\n\n2 Operational error.\n\n16 Nothing was found that matched the criteria specified.\n\n### ENVIRONMENT\n\nSYSTEM If $SYSTEM is set, it will have the same effect as if it had been specified as the ar‐\ngument to the -m option.\n\nMANPATH\nIf $MANPATH is set, its value is interpreted as the colon-delimited manual page hier‐\narchy search path to use.\n\nSee the SEARCH PATH section of manpath(5) for the default behaviour and details of how\nthis environment variable is handled.\n\nMANWIDTH\nIf $MANWIDTH is set, its value is used as the terminal width (see the --long option).\nIf it is not set, the terminal width will be calculated using the value of $COLUMNS,\nand ioctl(2) if available, or falling back to 80 characters if all else fails.\n\nPOSIXLYCORRECT\nIf $POSIXLYCORRECT is set, even to a null value, the default apropos search will be\nas an extended regex (-r). Nowadays, this is the default behaviour anyway.\n\n### FILES\n\n/usr/share/man/index.(bt|db|dir|pag)\nA traditional global index database cache.\n\n/var/cache/man/index.(bt|db|dir|pag)\nAn FHS compliant global index database cache.\n\n/usr/share/man/.../whatis\nA traditional whatis text database.\n\n### SEE ALSO\n\nman(1), whatis(1), mandb(8)\n\n### AUTHOR\n\nWilf. (G.Wilford@ee.surrey.ac.uk).\nFabrizio Polacco (fpolacco@debian.org).\nColin Watson (cjwatson@debian.org).\n\n### BUGS\n\nhttps://gitlab.com/cjwatson/man-db/-/issues\nhttps://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?group=man-db\n\n\n\n2.10.2 2022-03-17 APROPOS(1)\n\n" } ], "structuredContent": { "command": "APROPOS", "section": "1", "mode": "man", "summary": "apropos - search the manual page names and descriptions", "synopsis": "apropos [-dalv?V] [-e|-w|-r] [-s list] [-m system[,...]] [-M path] [-L locale] [-C file] key‐\nword ...", "tldr_summary": null, "tldr_examples": [], "tldr_source": null, "flags": [ { "flag": "-d", "long": "--debug", "arg": null, "description": "Print debugging information." }, { "flag": "-v", "long": "--verbose", "arg": null, "description": "Print verbose warning messages." }, { "flag": "-r", "long": "--regex", "arg": null, "description": "Interpret each keyword as a regular expression. This is the default behaviour. Each keyword will be matched against the page names and the descriptions independently. It can match any part of either. The match is not limited to word boundaries." }, { "flag": "-w", "long": "--wildcard", "arg": null, "description": "Interpret each keyword as a pattern containing shell style wildcards. Each keyword will be matched against the page names and the descriptions independently. If --exact is also used, a match will only be found if an expanded keyword matches an entire de‐ scription or page name. Otherwise the keyword is also allowed to match on word bound‐ aries in the description." }, { "flag": "-e", "long": "--exact", "arg": null, "description": "Each keyword will be exactly matched against the page names and the descriptions." }, { "flag": "-a", "long": "--and", "arg": null, "description": "Only display items that match all the supplied keywords. The default is to display items that match any keyword." }, { "flag": "-l", "long": "--long", "arg": null, "description": "Do not trim output to the terminal width. Normally, output will be truncated to the terminal width to avoid ugly results from poorly-written NAME sections." }, { "flag": "-s", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "Search only the given manual sections. list is a colon- or comma-separated list of sections. If an entry in list is a simple section, for example \"3\", then the dis‐ played list of descriptions will include pages in sections \"3\", \"3perl\", \"3x\", and so on; while if an entry in list has an extension, for example \"3perl\", then the list will only include pages in that exact part of the manual section." }, { "flag": "-m", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "If this system has access to other operating systems' manual page descriptions, they can be searched using this option. To search NewOS's manual page descriptions, use the option -m NewOS. The system specified can be a combination of comma-delimited operating system names. To include a search of the native operating system's whatis descriptions, include the system name man in the argument string. This option will override the $SYSTEM envi‐ ronment variable." }, { "flag": "-M", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "Specify an alternate set of colon-delimited manual page hierarchies to search. By de‐ fault, apropos uses the $MANPATH environment variable, unless it is empty or unset, in which case it will determine an appropriate manpath based on your $PATH environment variable. This option overrides the contents of $MANPATH." }, { "flag": "-L", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "apropos will normally determine your current locale by a call to the C function setlo‐‐ cale(3) which interrogates various environment variables, possibly including $LCMES‐‐ SAGES and $LANG. To temporarily override the determined value, use this option to supply a locale string directly to apropos. Note that it will not take effect until the search for pages actually begins. Output such as the help message will always be displayed in the initially determined locale." }, { "flag": "-C", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "Use this user configuration file rather than the default of ~/.manpath. -?, --help Print a help message and exit." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--usage", "arg": null, "description": "Print a short usage message and exit." }, { "flag": "-V", "long": "--version", "arg": null, "description": "Display version information." } ], "examples": [], "see_also": [ { "name": "man", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/man/1/json" }, { "name": "whatis", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/whatis/1/json" }, { "name": "mandb", "section": "8", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mandb/8/json" } ], "section_outline": [ { "name": "NAME", "lines": 2, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "SYNOPSIS", "lines": 3, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "DESCRIPTION", "lines": 14, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "OPTIONS", "lines": 1, "subsections": [ { "name": "-d --debug", "lines": 2, "flag": "-d", "long": "--debug" }, { "name": "-v --verbose", "lines": 2, "flag": "-v", "long": "--verbose" }, { "name": "-r --regex", "lines": 4, "flag": "-r", "long": "--regex" }, { "name": "-w --wildcard", "lines": 6, "flag": "-w", "long": "--wildcard" }, { "name": "-e --exact", "lines": 2, "flag": "-e", "long": "--exact" }, { "name": "-a --and", "lines": 3, "flag": "-a", "long": "--and" }, { "name": "-l --long", "lines": 3, "flag": "-l", "long": "--long" }, { "name": "-s --sections= --section=", "lines": 6, "flag": "-s" }, { "name": "-m --systems=", "lines": 9, "flag": "-m" }, { "name": "-M --manpath=", "lines": 5, "flag": "-M" }, { "name": "-L --locale=", "lines": 7, "flag": "-L" }, { "name": "-C --config-file=", "lines": 5, "flag": "-C" }, { "name": "--usage", "lines": 2, "long": "--usage" }, { "name": "-V --version", "lines": 2, "flag": "-V", "long": "--version" } ] }, { "name": "EXIT STATUS", "lines": 8, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "ENVIRONMENT", "lines": 19, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "FILES", "lines": 9, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "SEE ALSO", "lines": 2, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "AUTHOR", "lines": 4, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "BUGS", "lines": 6, "subsections": [] } ], "sections": { "NAME": { "content": "apropos - search the manual page names and descriptions\n", "subsections": [] }, "SYNOPSIS": { "content": "apropos [-dalv?V] [-e|-w|-r] [-s list] [-m system[,...]] [-M path] [-L locale] [-C file] key‐\nword ...\n", "subsections": [] }, "DESCRIPTION": { "content": "Each manual page has a short description available within it. apropos searches the descrip‐\ntions for instances of keyword.\n\nkeyword is usually a regular expression, as if (-r) was used, or may contain wildcards (-w),\nor match the exact keyword (-e). Using these options, it may be necessary to quote the key‐\nword or escape (\\) the special characters to stop the shell from interpreting them.\n\nThe standard matching rules allow matches to be made against the page name and word bound‐\naries in the description.\n\nThe database searched by apropos is updated by the mandb program. Depending on your instal‐\nlation, this may be run by a periodic cron job, or may need to be run manually after new man‐\nual pages have been installed.\n", "subsections": [] }, "OPTIONS": { "content": "", "subsections": [ { "name": "-d --debug", "content": "Print debugging information.\n", "flag": "-d", "long": "--debug" }, { "name": "-v --verbose", "content": "Print verbose warning messages.\n", "flag": "-v", "long": "--verbose" }, { "name": "-r --regex", "content": "Interpret each keyword as a regular expression. This is the default behaviour. Each\nkeyword will be matched against the page names and the descriptions independently. It\ncan match any part of either. The match is not limited to word boundaries.\n", "flag": "-r", "long": "--regex" }, { "name": "-w --wildcard", "content": "Interpret each keyword as a pattern containing shell style wildcards. Each keyword\nwill be matched against the page names and the descriptions independently. If --exact\nis also used, a match will only be found if an expanded keyword matches an entire de‐\nscription or page name. Otherwise the keyword is also allowed to match on word bound‐\naries in the description.\n", "flag": "-w", "long": "--wildcard" }, { "name": "-e --exact", "content": "Each keyword will be exactly matched against the page names and the descriptions.\n", "flag": "-e", "long": "--exact" }, { "name": "-a --and", "content": "Only display items that match all the supplied keywords. The default is to display\nitems that match any keyword.\n", "flag": "-a", "long": "--and" }, { "name": "-l --long", "content": "Do not trim output to the terminal width. Normally, output will be truncated to the\nterminal width to avoid ugly results from poorly-written NAME sections.\n", "flag": "-l", "long": "--long" }, { "name": "-s --sections= --section=", "content": "Search only the given manual sections. list is a colon- or comma-separated list of\nsections. If an entry in list is a simple section, for example \"3\", then the dis‐\nplayed list of descriptions will include pages in sections \"3\", \"3perl\", \"3x\", and so\non; while if an entry in list has an extension, for example \"3perl\", then the list\nwill only include pages in that exact part of the manual section.\n", "flag": "-s" }, { "name": "-m --systems=", "content": "If this system has access to other operating systems' manual page descriptions, they\ncan be searched using this option. To search NewOS's manual page descriptions, use\nthe option -m NewOS.\n\nThe system specified can be a combination of comma-delimited operating system names.\nTo include a search of the native operating system's whatis descriptions, include the\nsystem name man in the argument string. This option will override the $SYSTEM envi‐\nronment variable.\n", "flag": "-m" }, { "name": "-M --manpath=", "content": "Specify an alternate set of colon-delimited manual page hierarchies to search. By de‐\nfault, apropos uses the $MANPATH environment variable, unless it is empty or unset, in\nwhich case it will determine an appropriate manpath based on your $PATH environment\nvariable. This option overrides the contents of $MANPATH.\n", "flag": "-M" }, { "name": "-L --locale=", "content": "apropos will normally determine your current locale by a call to the C function setlo‐‐\ncale(3) which interrogates various environment variables, possibly including $LCMES‐‐\nSAGES and $LANG. To temporarily override the determined value, use this option to\nsupply a locale string directly to apropos. Note that it will not take effect until\nthe search for pages actually begins. Output such as the help message will always be\ndisplayed in the initially determined locale.\n", "flag": "-L" }, { "name": "-C --config-file=", "content": "Use this user configuration file rather than the default of ~/.manpath.\n\n-?, --help\nPrint a help message and exit.\n", "flag": "-C" }, { "name": "--usage", "content": "Print a short usage message and exit.\n", "long": "--usage" }, { "name": "-V --version", "content": "Display version information.\n", "flag": "-V", "long": "--version" } ] }, "EXIT STATUS": { "content": "0 Successful program execution.\n\n1 Usage, syntax or configuration file error.\n\n2 Operational error.\n\n16 Nothing was found that matched the criteria specified.\n", "subsections": [] }, "ENVIRONMENT": { "content": "SYSTEM If $SYSTEM is set, it will have the same effect as if it had been specified as the ar‐\ngument to the -m option.\n\nMANPATH\nIf $MANPATH is set, its value is interpreted as the colon-delimited manual page hier‐\narchy search path to use.\n\nSee the SEARCH PATH section of manpath(5) for the default behaviour and details of how\nthis environment variable is handled.\n\nMANWIDTH\nIf $MANWIDTH is set, its value is used as the terminal width (see the --long option).\nIf it is not set, the terminal width will be calculated using the value of $COLUMNS,\nand ioctl(2) if available, or falling back to 80 characters if all else fails.\n\nPOSIXLYCORRECT\nIf $POSIXLYCORRECT is set, even to a null value, the default apropos search will be\nas an extended regex (-r). Nowadays, this is the default behaviour anyway.\n", "subsections": [] }, "FILES": { "content": "/usr/share/man/index.(bt|db|dir|pag)\nA traditional global index database cache.\n\n/var/cache/man/index.(bt|db|dir|pag)\nAn FHS compliant global index database cache.\n\n/usr/share/man/.../whatis\nA traditional whatis text database.\n", "subsections": [] }, "SEE ALSO": { "content": "man(1), whatis(1), mandb(8)\n", "subsections": [] }, "AUTHOR": { "content": "Wilf. (G.Wilford@ee.surrey.ac.uk).\nFabrizio Polacco (fpolacco@debian.org).\nColin Watson (cjwatson@debian.org).\n", "subsections": [] }, "BUGS": { "content": "https://gitlab.com/cjwatson/man-db/-/issues\nhttps://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?group=man-db\n\n\n\n2.10.2 2022-03-17 APROPOS(1)", "subsections": [] } } } }