apropos -- Command

Find manual pages on a given topic
apropos topic [ topic ... ]

This  command  implements  a simplified  version  of  the Berkeley  command
apropos. It prints every line in  the file man.index that contains a topic.
In this way, you can find what manual pages are available on a given topic.
For example, the command

    apropos daemon

prints something like the following:

     daemon    Definition
     hpd       Spooler daemon for laser printer
     lpd       Spooler daemon for line printer
     lpshut    Turn off the printer daemon despooler

You can  also use apropos to  nudge your memory when  you cannot recall the
name of a given command or library function.

apropos  normally  reads  its information  from  the  index  files kept  in
directory /usr/man. apropos assumes  that every file in that directory that
ends in the string .index is an index file.  For details on index files and
their format, see the Lexicon entry for man.

If the  environmental variable MANPATH  is set, apropos  searches the index
files  in each  directory that  it names.   MANPATH must  name one  or more
directories, with directories separated by a colon `:'.

Files

/usr/man/*.index

See Also

commands,
help,
man,
Using COHERENT

© 2012 by Stephen A. Ness