.\" $Id: apropos.1,v 1.19 2012/06/09 14:11:15 kristaps Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 2011, 2012 Kristaps Dzonsons .\" .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above .\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies. .\" .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES .\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR .\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES .\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN .\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF .\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. .\" .Dd $Mdocdate: June 9 2012 $ .Dt APROPOS 1 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm apropos , .Nm whatis .Nd search manual page databases .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm .Op Fl C Ar file .Op Fl M Ar manpath .Op Fl m Ar manpath .Op Fl S Ar arch .Op Fl s Ar section .Ar expression ... .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm apropos and .Nm whatis utilities query manual page databases generated by .Xr mandocdb 8 , evaluating on .Ar expression for each file in each database. .Pp By default, .Nm searches for .Xr mandocdb 8 databases in the default paths stipulated by .Xr man 1 and maps terms to case-sensitive manual names and descriptions. Multiple terms are OR'd. .Nm whatis maps terms only to case-sensitive manual names. .Pp Its arguments are as follows: .Bl -tag -width Ds .It Fl C Ar file Specify an alternative configuration .Ar file in .Xr man.conf 5 format. .It Fl M Ar manpath Use the colon-separated path instead of the default list of paths searched for .Xr mandocdb 8 databases. Invalid paths, or paths without manual databases, are ignored. .It Fl m Ar manpath Prepend the colon-separated paths to the list of paths searched for .Xr mandocdb 8 databases. Invalid paths, or paths without manual databases, are ignored. .It Fl S Ar arch Search only for a particular architecture. .It Fl s Ar cat Search only for a manual section. See .Xr man 1 for a listing of manual sections. .El .Pp .Nm whatis considers an .Ar expression to consist of an opaque keyword. .Nm apropos parses a .Ar expression into type and keyword pairs. This pair syntax .Li [key[,key]*(=~)]?val , where operand .Cm key is an .Xr mdoc 7 macro to query and .Cm val is its value. See .Sx Macro Keys for a list of available keys. Operator .Li \&= evaluates a full string, while .Li \&~ evaluates a .Xr glob 7 pattern. .Pp Results are sorted by manual title, with output formatted as .Qq title(sec) \- description where .Qq title is the manual's title (note multiple manual names may exist for one title), .Qq sec is the manual section, and .Qq description is the manual's short description. If an architecture is specified for the manual, it is displayed as .Qq title(cat/arch) \- description . .Ss Macro Keys .Nm apropos queries evaluate over a subset of .Xr mdoc 7 macros indexed by .Xr mandocdb 8 . In addition to the macro keys listed below, the special key .Cm any may be used to match any available macro key. .Pp Names and description: .Bl -column "xLix" description -offset indent -compact .It Li \&Nm Ta manual name .It Li \&Nd Ta one-line manual description .El .Pp Sections and cross references: .Bl -column "xLix" description -offset indent -compact .It Li \&Sh Ta section header (excluding standard sections) .It Li \&Ss Ta subsection header .It Li \&Xr Ta cross reference to another manual page .It Li \&Rs Ta bibliographic reference .El .Pp Semantic markup for command line utilities: .Bl -column "xLix" description -offset indent -compact .It Li \&Fl Ta command line options (flags) .It Li \&Cm Ta command modifier .It Li \&Ar Ta command argument .It Li \&Ic Ta internal or interactive command .It Li \&Ev Ta environmental variable .It Li \&Pa Ta file system path .El .Pp Semantic markup for function libraries: .Bl -column "xLix" description -offset indent -compact .It Li \&Lb Ta function library name .It Li \&In Ta include file .It Li \&Ft Ta function return type .It Li \&Fn Ta function name .It Li \&Fa Ta function argument type and name .It Li \&Vt Ta variable type .It Li \&Va Ta variable name .It Li \&Dv Ta defined variable or preprocessor constant .It Li \&Er Ta error constant .It Li \&Ev Ta environmental variable .El .Pp Various semantic markup: .Bl -column "xLix" description -offset indent -compact .It Li \&An Ta author name .It Li \&Lk Ta hyperlink .It Li \&Mt Ta Do mailto Dc hyperlink .It Li \&Cd Ta kernel configuration declaration .It Li \&Ms Ta mathematical symbol .It Li \&Tn Ta tradename .El .Pp Physical markup: .Bl -column "xLix" description -offset indent -compact .It Li \&Em Ta italic font or underline .It Li \&Sy Ta boldface font .It Li \&Li Ta typewriter font .El .Pp Text production: .Bl -column "xLix" description -offset indent -compact .It Li \&St Ta reference to a standards document .It Li \&At Ta At No version reference .It Li \&Bx Ta Bx No version reference .It Li \&Bsx Ta Bsx No version reference .It Li \&Nx Ta Nx No version reference .It Li \&Fx Ta Fx No version reference .It Li \&Ox Ta Ox No version reference .It Li \&Dx Ta Dx No version reference .El .Sh ENVIRONMENT .Bl -tag -width Ds .It Ev MANPATH Colon-separated paths modifying the default list of paths searched for manual databases. Invalid paths, or paths without manual databases, are ignored. Overridden by .Fl M . If .Ev MANPATH begins with a .Sq \&: , it is appended to the default list; else if it ends with .Sq \&: , it is prepended to the default list; else if it contains .Sq \&:: , the default list is inserted between the colons. If none of these conditions are met, it overrides the default list. .El .Sh FILES .Bl -tag -width "/etc/man.conf" -compact .It Pa mandocdb.db name of the .Xr mandocdb 8 keyword database .It Pa /etc/man.conf default .Xr man 1 configuration file .El .Sh EXIT STATUS .Ex -std .Sh EXAMPLES Search for .Qq mdoc as a word or .Xr glob 7 expression: .Pp .Dl $ apropos mdoc .Dl $ apropos any~mdoc* .Pp Include matches for .Qq roff and .Qq man using .Xr glob 7 expressions: .Pp .Dl $ apropos ~*mdoc* ~*roff* .Pp Search for .Qq optarg as a variable name in the library category: .Pp .Dl $ apropos \-s 3 Va=optarg .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr glob 7 , .Xr mandocdb 8 .Sh AUTHORS The .Nm utility was written by .An Kristaps Dzonsons , .Mt kristaps@bsd.lv .