How to search manual page name and description
1. Name
apropos – search the manual page names and descriptions
2. Synopsis
[-m system[,…]] [-M path] [-C file] keyword …
3. Frequently used options
the given manual section.
-e, –exact Each keyword will be exactly matched
against the page names and the descriptions.
Examples of searching in linux
This command searches a keyword in a command description text. Therefore it is easy to find out what commands are related to partitions when using partition as a keyword:
It is not possible to remember all commands available on the Linux system however it is much easier to remember their functions therefore its hard to remember nmap and easy to remember scanner :
$ apropos scanner
Searching using only a keyword may create a lot of output. With -s option you can limit the search for a particular manual section. Search for commands only related to a manual section 1 ( commands ):
$ apropos -s 1 partition
to narrow down your output even more you can match exact words only with -e option:
$ apropos -e scan
number of output lines with and without -e option:
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