Finding stuff with man keywords

[viking60]

The manual pages are a good way to learn about different Linux commands. But it is also good to find stuff on your system. So if you want to find everything that starts with naut on your system you can do it like this

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man -k naut

The output will be something like this:

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nautilus (1)         - the GNOME File Manager
nautilus-connect-server (1) - To Access a remote server
nautilus-sendto (1)  - convenience application to send a file via email or instant messenger


They -k (keyword) switch will search the description of all man pages for that word.

[rolf]

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[rolf@localhost ~]$ man -k sex
sex: nothing appropriate

Great tip! Further to that, while viewing a man page, you can search forward by typing a slash followed by the search string, then press RETURN
If a match is found, the next match can be found by pressing n and the previous match can be found by pressing SHIFT-n

[viking60]

Great stuff! I love tips like that It helps in avoiding And it does work nicely
Regarding that keyword search, however inappropriate:

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:) man -k sex
ExtUtils::ParseXS    (3pm)  - converts Perl XS code into C code
Tcl_Close [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_DetachChannel [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_Eof [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_Flush [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannel [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNames [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_Close] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_DetachChannel] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_Eof] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_Flush] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_GetChannelNames] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_GetChannelOption] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_GetChannel] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_GetsObj] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_Gets] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_InputBlocked] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_InputBuffered] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_IsStandardChannel] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_MakeFileChannel] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_OpenCommandChannel] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_OpenFileChannel] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_OutputBuffered] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_ReadChars] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_ReadRaw] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_Read] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_RegisterChannel] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_Seek] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_SetChannelOption] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_Tell] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_TruncateChannel] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_Ungets] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_UnregisterChannel] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_WriteChars] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_WriteObj] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_WriteRaw] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx [Tcl_Write] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetChannelOption [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_Gets [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_GetsObj [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_InputBlocked [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_InputBuffered [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_IsStandardChannel [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_MakeFileChannel [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_OpenCommandChannel [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_OpenFileChannel [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_OutputBuffered [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_Read [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_ReadChars [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_ReadRaw [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_RegisterChannel [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_Seek [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_SetChannelOption [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_Tell [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_TruncateChannel [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_Ungets [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_UnregisterChannel [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_Write [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_WriteChars [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_WriteObj [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
Tcl_WriteRaw [Tcl_GetChannelNamesEx] (3)  - buffered I/O facilities using channels
XGraphicsExposeEvent (3)  - GraphicsExpose and NoExpose event structures
XNoExposeEvent [XGraphicsExposeEvent] (3)  - GraphicsExpose and NoExpose event structures
XSetGraphicsExposure [XSetArcMode] (3)  - GC convenience routines
XtGetClassExtension  (3)  - locate a class extension record
kpsetool             (1)  - script to make teTeX-style kpsetool, kpsexpand, and kpsepath available
msexpand             (1)  - decompress data compressed using mscompress(1) or COMPRESS.EXE


And While I am on a role:
You can move page down by pressing SPACE and go back again by pressing <b> (the letter b for back I presume )

I often find man -k easier to use than urpmq or pacman -Qi or other package managers because you do not have to know the full name....

[rolf]

Yes, I can see how man -k is very quick for finding possibly installed apps. Also, urpmq -y will help find anything in the urpmi repositories that contains a given search string, just like man -k but including apps not installed.

[viking60]

Yes but fuzzy often gives to much information. man -k cannot replace them but it is a good addition.