Apropos

One-word search

• The apropos command searches the manual page names and descriptions. If you don’t know the command for what you’d like to do in the terminal window, type this command in a terminal window, replacing foo with whatever it is you’re looking for:

apropos foo

• For example, if you want to know how to get rid of a file, type:

apropos delete

or:

apropos remove

If you don’t find anything, try other words that are similar to the one you already used. Sometimes software authors use different words to describe their commands/programs than you would.

• Another way to do the same search is with the man -k command:

man -k foo

Two-word search

• To do a more refined two-word search using apropos, type this command in terminal window, replacing foo and bar with the search terms:

apropos foo | grep bar

• For example, if you’re looking for text editors, type:

apropos text | grep editor

• Another way to do the same search is with the man -k command:

man -k foo | grep bar

Obligatory Happy Ending

And they all lived happily ever after. The end.