xref: /netbsd-src/usr.bin/apropos/apropos.1 (revision 0407c1b8850d3033e32f0dba437f85c7f114dc84)
1.\"	$NetBSD: apropos.1,v 1.11 2009/05/08 12:48:43 wiz Exp $
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30.\"	@(#)apropos.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/29/93
31.\"
32.Dd May 7, 2009
33.Dt APROPOS 1
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm apropos
37.Nd locate commands by keyword lookup
38.Sh SYNOPSIS
39.Nm apropos
40.Op Fl C Ar path
41.Op Fl M Ar path
42.Op Fl m Ar path
43.Op Fl S Ar subsection
44.Op Fl s Ar section
45.Ar keyword ...
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47.Nm
48shows which manual pages contain instances of any of the given
49.Ar keyword(s)
50in their title line.
51Each word is considered separately and case of letters is ignored.
52Words which are part of other words are considered; when looking for
53.Dq compile ,
54.Nm
55will also list all instances of
56.Dq compiler .
57.Pp
58If the line output by
59.Nm
60starts
61.Dq Li name(section) ...
62you can enter
63.Dq Li man section name
64to get
65its documentation.
66.Pp
67The options are as follows:
68.Bl -tag -width flag
69.It Fl C
70Use different
71.Xr man 1
72configuration file than the default,
73.Pa /etc/man.conf .
74.It Fl M
75Override the list of standard directories
76.Nm
77searches for a database named
78.Pa whatis.db .
79The supplied
80.Ar path
81must be a colon
82.Dq \&:
83separated list of directories.
84This search path may also be set using the environment variable
85.Ev MANPATH .
86.It Fl m
87Augment the list of standard directories
88.Nm
89searches for its database.
90The supplied
91.Ar path
92must be a colon
93.Dq \&:
94separated list of directories.
95These directories will be searched before the standard directories,
96or the directories supplied with the
97.Fl M
98option or the
99.Ev MANPATH
100environment variable.
101.It Fl S Ar subsection
102Restrict the search to pages for the specified machine architecture.
103By default, pages for all architectures are shown.
104.It Fl s Ar section
105Restrict the search to the specified section of the manual.
106By default, pages from all sections are shown.
107.El
108.Sh ENVIRONMENT
109.Bl -tag -width MANPATH
110.It Ev MANPATH
111The standard search path used by
112.Xr man 1
113may be overridden by specifying a path in the
114.Ev MANPATH
115environment variable.
116The format of the path is a colon
117.Dq \&:
118separated list of directories.
119.El
120.Sh FILES
121.Bl -tag -width /etc/man.conf1 -compact
122.It Pa whatis.db
123name of the apropos database
124.It Pa /etc/man.conf
125.Xr man 1
126configuration file, used to get location of whatis database if
127.Ev MANPATH
128is not set.
129.El
130.Sh SEE ALSO
131.Xr man 1 ,
132.Xr whatis 1 ,
133.Xr whereis 1 ,
134.Xr man.conf 5 ,
135.Xr makewhatis 8
136.Sh HISTORY
137The
138.Nm
139command appeared in
140.Bx 3.0 .
141