APROPOS(1)		      Manual pager utils		    APROPOS(1)



NAME
       apropos - search the manual page names and descriptions

SYNOPSIS
       apropos	[-dhV] [-e|-w|-r] [-s section] [-m system[,...]] [-M path] [-C
       file] keyword ...

DESCRIPTION
       Each manual page has a short description available within it.   apropos
       searches the descriptions for instances of keyword.

       keyword	is  usually  a regular expression, as if (-r) was used, or may
       contain wildcards (-w), or match the exact keyword (-e).   Using  these
       options,  it  may  be  necessary to quote the keyword or escape (\) the
       special characters to stop the shell from interpreting them.

       The standard matching rules allow matches to be made against  the  page
       name and word boundaries in the description.

OPTIONS
       -d, --debug
	      Print debugging information.

       -v, --verbose
	      Print verbose warning messages.

       -r, --regex
	      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.

       -w, --wildcard
	      Interpret each keyword as a pattern containing shell style wild
	      cards.   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 description or page name.	Otherwise the keyword is  also
	      allowed to match on word boundaries in the description.

       -e, --exact
	      Each  keyword will be exactly matched against the page names and
	      the descriptions.

       -s section, --section section
	      Search only the given manual section.  If section  is  a	simple
	      section,	for  example  "3", then the displayed list of descrip
	      tions will include pages in sections "3", "3perl", "3x", and  so
	      on; while if section has an extension, for example "3perl", then
	      the list will only include pages in that exact part of the  man
	      ual section.

       -m system[,...], --systems=system[,...]
	      If  this	system	has  access to other operating systems manual
	      page descriptions, they can be searched using this  option.   To
	      search  NewOSs  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 oper
	      ating systems whatis descriptions, include the system name  man
	      in  the  argument string.  This option will override the $SYSTEM
	      environment variable.

       -M path, --manpath=path
	      Specify an alternate set of colon-delimited manual page  hierar
	      chies to search.	By default, apropos uses the $MANPATH environ
	      ment variable, unless it is empty or unset,  in  which  case  it
	      will  determine an appropriate manpath based on your $PATH envi
	      ronment variable.  This option overrides the contents  of  $MAN
	      PATH.

       -C file, --config-file=file
	      Use  this  user  configuration  file  rather than the default of
	      ~/.manpath.

       -h, --help
	      Print a help message and exit.

       -V, --version
	      Display version information.

EXIT STATUS
       0      Successful program execution.

       1      Usage, syntax or configuration file error.

       2      Operational error.

       16     Nothing was found that matched the criteria specified.

ENVIRONMENT
       SYSTEM If $SYSTEM is set, it will have the same effect  as  if  it  had
	      been specified as the argument to the -m option.

       MANPATH
	      If $MANPATH is set, its value is interpreted as the colon-delim
	      ited manual page hierarchy search path to use.

       POSIXLY_CORRECT
	      If $POSIXLY_CORRECT is set, even to a null  value,  the  default
	      apropos  search  will  be as an extended regex (-r) .  Nowadays,
	      this is the default behaviour anyway.

FILES
       /usr/share/man/index.(bt|db|dir|pag)
	      A traditional global index database cache.

       /var/cache/man/index.(bt|db|dir|pag)
	      An alternate or FHS compliant global index database cache.

       /usr/share/man/.../whatis
	      A traditional whatis text database.

SEE ALSO
       whatis(1), man(1).

AUTHOR
       Wilf. (G.Wilford@ee.surrey.ac.uk).
       Fabrizio Polacco (fpolacco@debian.org).



2.4.3				  2005-07-03			    APROPOS(1)