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apropos


The apropos command is a sort of companion to the man command. It is used to search the systems database of commands to find anything ``appropriate'' to the words or phrases you search for.


Apropos returns a list of commands along with a brief description of those commands. The search is primarly focused on the command descriptions, so this is a useful tool to find something when you arent entirely sure what the name of the command is. However, the searched database is large and contains programming information as well as system commands, so not all results will be relevant. You may want to enclose your phrase in quotes (``'') or the command will search for each word separately.

Examples:

[jdpoisso@axiom ~]$ apropos "disk space" 
df                   (1)  - report file system disk space usage 
df                   (1p)  - report free disk space 
[jdpoisso@axiom ~]$

[jdpoisso@axiom ~]$ apropos magnify 
xmag                 (1x)  - magnify parts of the screen 
[jdpoisso@axiom ~]$



2010-08-27