path: root/apropos.1

.\" $Id$
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2011, 2012 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv>
.\" Copyright (c) 2011,2012,2014,2017,2018 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>
.\"
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.Dd $Mdocdate$
.Dt APROPOS 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm apropos ,
.Nm whatis
.Nd search manual page databases
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl afk
.Op Fl C Ar file
.Op Fl M Ar path
.Op Fl m Ar path
.Op Fl O Ar outkey
.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 makewhatis 8 ,
evaluating
.Ar expression
for each file in each database.
By default, they display the names, section numbers, and description lines
of all matching manuals.
.Pp
By default,
.Nm
searches for
.Xr makewhatis 8
databases in the default paths stipulated by
.Xr man 1
and uses case-insensitive extended regular expression matching
over manual names and descriptions
.Pq the Li \&Nm No and Li \&Nd No macro keys .
Multiple terms imply pairwise
.Fl o .
.Pp
.Nm whatis
is a synonym for
.Nm
.Fl f .
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl a
Instead of showing only the title lines, show the complete manual pages,
just like
.Xr man 1
.Fl a
would.
If the standard output is a terminal device and
.Fl c
is not specified, use
.Xr less 1
to paginate them.
In
.Fl a
mode, the options
.Fl IKOTW
described in the
.Xr mandoc 1
manual are also available.
.It Fl C Ar file
Specify an alternative configuration
.Ar file
in
.Xr man.conf 5
format.
.It Fl f
Search for all words in
.Ar expression
in manual page names only.
The search is case-insensitive and matches whole words only.
In this mode, macro keys, comparison operators, and logical operators
are not available.
.It Fl k
Support the full
.Ar expression
syntax.
It is the default for
.Nm .
.It Fl M Ar path
Use the colon-separated path instead of the default list of paths
searched for
.Xr makewhatis 8
databases.
Invalid paths, or paths without manual databases, are ignored.
.It Fl m Ar path
Prepend the colon-separated paths to the list of paths searched
for
.Xr makewhatis 8
databases.
Invalid paths, or paths without manual databases, are ignored.
.It Fl O Ar outkey
Show the values associated with the key
.Ar outkey
instead of the manual descriptions.
.It Fl S Ar arch
Restrict the search to pages for the specified
.Xr machine 1
architecture.
.Ar arch
is case-insensitive.
By default, pages for all architectures are shown.
.It Fl s Ar section
Restrict the search to the specified section of the manual.
By default, pages from all sections are shown.
See
.Xr man 1
for a listing of sections.
.El
.Pp
The options
.Fl chlw
are also supported and are documented in
.Xr man 1 .
The options
.Fl fkl
are mutually exclusive and override each other.
.Pp
An
.Ar expression
consists of search terms joined by logical operators
.Fl a
.Pq and
and
.Fl o
.Pq or .
The
.Fl a
operator has precedence over
.Fl o
and both are evaluated left-to-right.
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It \&( Ar expr No \&)
True if the subexpression
.Ar expr
is true.
.It Ar expr1 Fl a Ar expr2
True if both
.Ar expr1
and
.Ar expr2
are true (logical
.Sq and ) .
.It Ar expr1 Oo Fl o Oc Ar expr2
True if
.Ar expr1
and/or
.Ar expr2
evaluate to true (logical
.Sq or ) .
.It Ar term
True if
.Ar term
is satisfied.
This has syntax
.Sm off
.Oo
.Op Ar key Op , Ar key ...
.Pq Cm = | \(ti
.Oc
.Ar val ,
.Sm on
where
.Ar key
is an
.Xr mdoc 7
macro to query and
.Ar val
is its value.
See
.Sx Macro Keys
for a list of available keys.
Operator
.Cm =
evaluates a substring, while
.Cm \(ti
evaluates a case-sensitive extended regular expression.
.It Fl i Ar term
If
.Ar term
is a regular expression, it
is evaluated case-insensitively.
Has no effect on substring terms.
.El
.Pp
Results are sorted first according to the section number in ascending
numerical order, then by the page name in ascending
.Xr ascii 7
alphabetical order, case-insensitive.
.Pp
Each output line is formatted as
.Pp
.D1 name[, name...](sec) \- description
.Pp
Where
.Dq name
is the manual's name,
.Dq sec
is the manual section, and
.Dq description
is the manual's short description.
If an architecture is specified for the manual, it is displayed as
.Pp
.D1 name(sec/arch) \- description
.Pp
Resulting manuals may be accessed as
.Pp
.Dl $ man \-s sec name
.Pp
If an architecture is specified in the output, use
.Pp
.Dl $ man \-s sec \-S arch name
.Ss Macro Keys
Queries evaluate over a subset of
.Xr mdoc 7
macros indexed by
.Xr makewhatis 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
.It Li arch Ta machine architecture (case-insensitive)
.It Li sec  Ta manual section number
.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
.Pp
In general, macro keys are supposed to yield complete results without
expecting the user to consider actual macro usage.
For example, results include:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width 3n -offset 3n -compact
.It Li \&Fa
function arguments appearing on
.Ic \&Fn
lines
.It Li \&Fn
function names marked up with
.Ic \&Fo
macros
.It Li \&In
include file names marked up with
.Ic \&Fd
macros
.It Li \&Vt
types appearing as function return types and
.It \&
types appearing in function arguments in the SYNOPSIS
.El
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
.Bl -tag -width MANPAGER
.It Ev MANPAGER
Any non-empty value of the environment variable
.Ev MANPAGER
is used instead of the standard pagination program,
.Xr less 1 ;
see
.Xr man 1
for details.
Only used if
.Fl a
or
.Fl l
is specified.
.It Ev MANPATH
A colon-separated list of directories to search for manual pages; see
.Xr man 1
for details.
Overridden by
.Fl M ,
ignored if
.Fl l
is specified.
.It Ev PAGER
Specifies the pagination program to use when
.Ev MANPAGER
is not defined.
If neither PAGER nor MANPAGER is defined,
.Xr less 1
is used.
Only used if
.Fl a
or
.Fl l
is specified.
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width "/etc/man.conf" -compact
.It Pa mandoc.db
name of the
.Xr makewhatis 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 .cf
as a substring of manual names and descriptions:
.Pp
.Dl $ apropos =.cf
.Pp
Include matches for
.Qq .cnf
and
.Qq .conf
as well:
.Pp
.Dl $ apropos =.cf =.cnf =.conf
.Pp
Search in names and descriptions using a case-sensitive regular expression:
.Pp
.Dl $ apropos \(aq\(tiset.?[ug]id\(aq
.Pp
Search for all manual pages in a given section:
.Pp
.Dl $ apropos \-s 9 \&.
.Pp
Search for manuals in the library section mentioning both the
.Qq optind
and the
.Qq optarg
variables:
.Pp
.Dl $ apropos \-s 3 Va=optind \-a Va=optarg
.Pp
Do exactly the same as calling
.Nm whatis
with the argument
.Qq ssh :
.Pp
.Dl $ apropos \-\- \-i \(aqNm\(ti[[:<:]]ssh[[:>:]]\(aq
.Pp
The following two invocations are equivalent:
.Pp
.D1 Li $ apropos -S Ar arch Li -s Ar section expression
.Bd -ragged -offset indent
.Li $ apropos \e( Ar expression Li \e)
.Li -a arch\(ti^( Ns Ar arch Ns Li |any)$
.Li -a sec\(ti^ Ns Ar section Ns Li $
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr man 1 ,
.Xr re_format 7 ,
.Xr makewhatis 8
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Nm
utility is compliant with the
.St -p1003.1-2008
specification of
.Xr man 1
.Fl k .
.Pp
All options, the
.Nm whatis
command, support for logical operators, macro keys,
substring matching, sorting of results, the environment variables
.Ev MANPAGER
and
.Ev MANPATH ,
the database format, and the configuration file
are extensions to that specification.
.Sh HISTORY
Part of the functionality of
.Nm whatis
was already provided by the former
.Nm manwhere
utility in
.Bx 1 .
The
.Nm
and
.Nm whatis
utilities first appeared in
.Bx 2 .
They were rewritten from scratch for
.Ox 5.6 .
.Pp
The
.Fl M
option and the
.Ev MANPATH
variable first appeared in
.Bx 4.3 ;
.Fl m
in
.Bx 4.3 Reno ;
.Fl C
in
.Bx 4.4 Lite1 ;
and
.Fl S
and
.Fl s
in
.Ox 4.5
for
.Nm
and in
.Ox 5.6
for
.Nm whatis .
The options
.Fl acfhIKklOTWw
appeared in
.Ox 5.7 .
.Sh AUTHORS
.An -nosplit
.An Bill Joy
wrote
.Nm manwhere
in 1977 and the original
.Bx
.Nm
and
.Nm whatis
in February 1979.
The current version was written by
.An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq Mt kristaps@bsd.lv
and
.An Ingo Schwarze Aq Mt schwarze@openbsd.org .