apropos(1)

Name | Synopsis | Description | Examples | Files | Attributes | See Also | Diagnostics

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

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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.

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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().

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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 5.11  Last Revised 20 Dec 1996

Name | Synopsis | Description | Examples | Files | Attributes | See Also | Diagnostics