WriteBash - Display appropriate commands in Linux with the apropos
command. This article will write about this apropos
command, what is it and how to use it?
In Linux, perhaps few users know of the apropos
command. Personally, when I researched Linux deeply, I knew it.
Display appropriate commands with apropos command
Now what will we say this apropos
command does?
For example, if you have a need to list a list of man pages of a particular search term, it may be a command that you don’t know for sure.
At this point, you can use apropos
. The apropos
command is used to display a list of appropriate man pages based on search keywords. This list is in short description.
Recommended Reading: The command types are in the Linux system
Look at the example below, I want to see if there are any man pages related to mkdir.
linuxmint ~ # apropos mkdir gvfs-mkdir (1) - Create directories mkdir (1) - make directories mkdir (2) - create a directory mkdirat (2) - create a directory
Or simply, I want to see if there are any man pages related to the dir. I’m not sure what command, but I want to know the commands related to the directory.
linuxmint ~ # apropos dir acyclic (1) - make directed graph acyclic addgnupghome (8) - Create .gnupg home directories alphasort (3) - scan a directory for matching entries anemotaxis (6x) - directional search on a plane. basename (1) - strip directory and suffix from filenames bdflush (2) - start, flush, or tune buffer-dirty-flush daemon bindtextdomain (3) - set directory containing message catalogs chacl (1) - change the access control list of a file or directory chdir (2) - change working directory chroot (2) - change root directory chroot (8) - run command or interactive shell with special root dir... closedir (3) - close a directory cp (1) - copy files and directories ...
The apropos command and the man command
There is an interesting point between these two commands.
Use the command apropos
equivalent to using the man command with the -k
option.
Look at the man page of the man
command itself, as shown below, notice the -k
options section.

So, you can use the man -k
command or the apropos
command, both of which give the same results. For example, below:

Conclusion
A command is rarely used, but in some cases it will help you. Remember that, learning as many commands on Linux as possible.
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