APROPOS(1) User Commands APROPOS(1)

NAME

apropos, whatis - locate commands by keyword lookup

SYNOPSIS

apropos [-M path] [-s section] keyword ...
whatis [-M path] [-s section] 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 whatis database created by the -w
option used with man(1). If this database is not present, apropos and
whatis fail.

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.

The whatis command performs the same search, but only matches whole
words. In the above example, whatis would not match the instances of
`compiler' when keyword is `compile'.

The apropos command is actually just the -k option to the man(1)
command.

OPTIONS

-M path Force a specific colon separated manual path instead of the
default search path. Overrides the MANPATH environment
variable.

-s section Restrict search to specified section.

ENVIRONMENT

MANPATH, PATH Used to find the location of the whatis database.

FILES

/usr/share/man/whatis table of contents and keyword database

EXAMPLES

Example 1 To find a man page whose NAME line contains a keyword
Try

example% apropos password

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 3C printf

to get the manual page on the subroutine printf(3C).

DIAGNOSTICS

/usr/share/man/whatis: No such file or directory
The whatis database does not exist. The command man -w must be
run to create it.

CODE SET INDEPENDENCE

Enabled.

INTERFACE STABILITY

Committed.

SEE ALSO

man(1), catman(8)

illumos July 20, 2014 illumos