3 ms·

The problem with man pages is that they are hard to discover if you don't know the name.

by nabla9 3y ago

fellerts 3y ago
The canonical answer to your problem is APROPOS(1). It searches man pages for keywords. Say you remember there was a man page describing the filesystem hierarchy, you'd run: $ apropos "filesystem hierarchy" hier (7) - description of the filesystem hierarchy $ man 7 hier # you're off! now you "just" need to remember that apropos is a thing...
- semanticc 3y ago
  The only problem with `apropos` is that it returns so many irrelevant results: $ apropos 'count lines' | wc -l 167 $ apropos 'count lines' | head AllPlanes(3), BlackPixel(3), WhitePixel(3), ConnectionNumber(3), DefaultColormap(3), DefaultDepth(3), XListDepths(3), DefaultGC(3), DefaultRootWindow(3), DefaultScreenOfDisplay(3), DefaultScreen(3), DefaultVisual(3), DisplayCells(3), DisplayPlanes(3), DisplayString(3), XMaxRequestSize(3), XExtendedMaxRequestSize(3), LastKnownRequestProcessed(3), NextRequest(3), ProtocolVersion(3), ProtocolRevision(3), QLength(3), RootWindow(3), ScreenCount(3), ScreenOfDisplay(3), ServerVendor(3), VendorRelease(3) - Display macros and functions EVP_PKEY_asn1_find(3ssl), EVP_PKEY_asn1_find_str(3ssl), EVP_PKEY_asn1_get_count(3ssl), EVP_PKEY_asn1_get0(3ssl), EVP_PKEY_asn1_get0_info(3ssl) - enumerate public key ASN.1 methods EVP_PKEY_meth_get_count(3ssl), EVP_PKEY_meth_get0(3ssl), EVP_PKEY_meth_get0_info(3ssl) - enumerate public key methods OCSP_REQUEST_new(3ssl), OCSP_REQUEST_free(3ssl), OCSP_request_add0_id(3ssl), OCSP_request_sign(3ssl), OCSP_request_add1_cert(3ssl), OCSP_request_onereq_count(3ssl), OCSP_request_onereq_get0(3ssl) - OCSP request functions OCSP_resp_find_status(3ssl), OCSP_resp_count(3ssl), OCSP_resp_get0(3ssl), OCSP_resp_find(3ssl), OCSP_single_get0_status(3ssl), OCSP_resp_get0_produced_at(3ssl), OCSP_resp_get0_signature(3ssl), OCSP_resp_get0_tbs_sigalg(3ssl), OCSP_resp_get0_respdata(3ssl), OCSP_resp_get0_certs(3ssl), OCSP_resp_get0_signer(3ssl), OCSP_resp_get0_id(3ssl), OCSP_resp_get1_id(3ssl), OCSP_check_validity(3ssl), OCSP_basic_verify(3ssl) - OCSP response utility functions OPENSSL_malloc_init(3ssl), OPENSSL_malloc(3ssl), OPENSSL_zalloc(3ssl), OPENSSL_realloc(3ssl), OPENSSL_free(3ssl), OPENSSL_clear_realloc(3ssl), OPENSSL_clear_free(3ssl), OPENSSL_cleanse(3ssl), CRYPTO_malloc(3ssl), CRYPTO_zalloc(3ssl), CRYPTO_realloc(3ssl), CRYPTO_free(3ssl), OPENSSL_strdup(3ssl), OPENSSL_strndup(3ssl), OPENSSL_memdup(3ssl), OPENSSL_strlcpy(3ssl), OPENSSL_strlcat(3ssl), CRYPTO_strdup(3ssl), CRYPTO_strndup(3ssl), OPENSSL_mem_debug_push(3ssl), OPENSSL_mem_debug_pop(3ssl), CRYPTO_mem_debug_push(3ssl), CRYPTO_mem_debug_pop(3ssl), CRYPTO_clear_realloc(3ssl), CRYPTO_clear_free(3ssl), CRYPTO_malloc_fn(3ssl), CRYPTO_realloc_fn(3ssl), CRYPTO_free_fn(3ssl), CRYPTO_get_mem_functions(3ssl), CRYPTO_set_mem_functions(3ssl), CRYPTO_get_alloc_counts(3ssl), CRYPTO_set_mem_debug(3ssl), CRYPTO_mem_ctrl(3ssl), CRYPTO_mem_leaks(3ssl), CRYPTO_mem_leaks_fp(3ssl), CRYPTO_mem_leaks_cb(3ssl), OPENSSL_MALLOC_FAILURES(3ssl), OPENSSL_MALLOC_FD(3ssl) - Memory allocation functions PKCS5_PBKDF2_HMAC(3ssl), PKCS5_PBKDF2_HMAC_SHA1(3ssl) - password based derivation routines with salt and iteration count RSA_set0_key(3ssl), RSA_set0_factors(3ssl), RSA_set0_crt_params(3ssl), RSA_get0_key(3ssl), RSA_get0_factors(3ssl), RSA_get0_crt_params(3ssl), RSA_get0_n(3ssl), RSA_get0_e(3ssl), RSA_get0_d(3ssl), RSA_get0_p(3ssl), RSA_get0_q(3ssl), RSA_get0_dmp1(3ssl), RSA_get0_dmq1(3ssl), RSA_get0_iqmp(3ssl), RSA_get0_pss_params(3ssl), RSA_clear_flags(3ssl), RSA_test_flags(3ssl), RSA_set_flags(3ssl), RSA_get0_engine(3ssl), RSA_get_multi_prime_extra_count(3ssl), RSA_get0_multi_prime_factors(3ssl), RSA_get0_multi_prime_crt_params(3ssl), RSA_set0_multi_prime_params(3ssl), RSA_get_version(3ssl) - Routines for getting and setting data in an RSA object TIFFFieldPassCount(3tiff) - get whether to pass a count to TIFFGetField/TIFFSetField TIFFFieldReadCount(3tiff) - get number of values to be read from field
  - fellerts 3y ago
    Well, staple utilities typically have short names, so sorting the results by name length might help: $ apropos count lines | awk '{print length($1), $0}' | sort -n | head 2 gc (1) - count graph components 2 nl (1) - number lines of files 2 rg (1) - recursively search the current directory for lines matching a pattern 2 sa (8) - summarizes accounting information 2 wc (1) - print newline, word, and byte counts for each file 3 box (3x) - create curses borders, horizontal and vertical lines 3 cvt (1) - calculate VESA CVT mode lines 3 gtf (1) - calculate VESA GTF mode lines 3 rev (1) - reverse lines characterwise 3 sum (1) - checksum and count the blocks in a file Side-note, there are a bunch of neat utilities here I didn't know about!
- jmholla 3y ago
  > The canonical answer to your problem is APROPOS(1). It searches man pages for keywords. `apropos` only searches short descriptions. But `man -K` let's you search all conent of man pages. > now you "just" need to remember that apropos is a thing... man has apropos built-in (`man -k`) and calls out `apropos` directly in its help message and its man page, so `man man` will reveal that as well as `man --help`.

The problem with man pages is that they are hard to discover if you don't know the name.

by nabla9 3y ago

The problem with man pages is that they are hard to discover if you don't know the name.

The canonical answer to your problem is APROPOS(1). It searches man pages for keywords. Say you remember there was a man page describing the filesystem hierarchy, you'd run: $ apropos "filesystem hierarchy" hier (7) - description of the filesystem hierarchy $ man 7 hier # you're off! now you "just" need to remember that apropos is a thing...

semanticc 3y ago
The only problem with `apropos` is that it returns so many irrelevant results: $ apropos 'count lines' | wc -l 167 $ apropos 'count lines' | head AllPlanes(3), BlackPixel(3), WhitePixel(3), ConnectionNumber(3), DefaultColormap(3), DefaultDepth(3), XListDepths(3), DefaultGC(3), DefaultRootWindow(3), DefaultScreenOfDisplay(3), DefaultScreen(3), DefaultVisual(3), DisplayCells(3), DisplayPlanes(3), DisplayString(3), XMaxRequestSize(3), XExtendedMaxRequestSize(3), LastKnownRequestProcessed(3), NextRequest(3), ProtocolVersion(3), ProtocolRevision(3), QLength(3), RootWindow(3), ScreenCount(3), ScreenOfDisplay(3), ServerVendor(3), VendorRelease(3) - Display macros and functions EVP_PKEY_asn1_find(3ssl), EVP_PKEY_asn1_find_str(3ssl), EVP_PKEY_asn1_get_count(3ssl), EVP_PKEY_asn1_get0(3ssl), EVP_PKEY_asn1_get0_info(3ssl) - enumerate public key ASN.1 methods EVP_PKEY_meth_get_count(3ssl), EVP_PKEY_meth_get0(3ssl), EVP_PKEY_meth_get0_info(3ssl) - enumerate public key methods OCSP_REQUEST_new(3ssl), OCSP_REQUEST_free(3ssl), OCSP_request_add0_id(3ssl), OCSP_request_sign(3ssl), OCSP_request_add1_cert(3ssl), OCSP_request_onereq_count(3ssl), OCSP_request_onereq_get0(3ssl) - OCSP request functions OCSP_resp_find_status(3ssl), OCSP_resp_count(3ssl), OCSP_resp_get0(3ssl), OCSP_resp_find(3ssl), OCSP_single_get0_status(3ssl), OCSP_resp_get0_produced_at(3ssl), OCSP_resp_get0_signature(3ssl), OCSP_resp_get0_tbs_sigalg(3ssl), OCSP_resp_get0_respdata(3ssl), OCSP_resp_get0_certs(3ssl), OCSP_resp_get0_signer(3ssl), OCSP_resp_get0_id(3ssl), OCSP_resp_get1_id(3ssl), OCSP_check_validity(3ssl), OCSP_basic_verify(3ssl) - OCSP response utility functions OPENSSL_malloc_init(3ssl), OPENSSL_malloc(3ssl), OPENSSL_zalloc(3ssl), OPENSSL_realloc(3ssl), OPENSSL_free(3ssl), OPENSSL_clear_realloc(3ssl), OPENSSL_clear_free(3ssl), OPENSSL_cleanse(3ssl), CRYPTO_malloc(3ssl), CRYPTO_zalloc(3ssl), CRYPTO_realloc(3ssl), CRYPTO_free(3ssl), OPENSSL_strdup(3ssl), OPENSSL_strndup(3ssl), OPENSSL_memdup(3ssl), OPENSSL_strlcpy(3ssl), OPENSSL_strlcat(3ssl), CRYPTO_strdup(3ssl), CRYPTO_strndup(3ssl), OPENSSL_mem_debug_push(3ssl), OPENSSL_mem_debug_pop(3ssl), CRYPTO_mem_debug_push(3ssl), CRYPTO_mem_debug_pop(3ssl), CRYPTO_clear_realloc(3ssl), CRYPTO_clear_free(3ssl), CRYPTO_malloc_fn(3ssl), CRYPTO_realloc_fn(3ssl), CRYPTO_free_fn(3ssl), CRYPTO_get_mem_functions(3ssl), CRYPTO_set_mem_functions(3ssl), CRYPTO_get_alloc_counts(3ssl), CRYPTO_set_mem_debug(3ssl), CRYPTO_mem_ctrl(3ssl), CRYPTO_mem_leaks(3ssl), CRYPTO_mem_leaks_fp(3ssl), CRYPTO_mem_leaks_cb(3ssl), OPENSSL_MALLOC_FAILURES(3ssl), OPENSSL_MALLOC_FD(3ssl) - Memory allocation functions PKCS5_PBKDF2_HMAC(3ssl), PKCS5_PBKDF2_HMAC_SHA1(3ssl) - password based derivation routines with salt and iteration count RSA_set0_key(3ssl), RSA_set0_factors(3ssl), RSA_set0_crt_params(3ssl), RSA_get0_key(3ssl), RSA_get0_factors(3ssl), RSA_get0_crt_params(3ssl), RSA_get0_n(3ssl), RSA_get0_e(3ssl), RSA_get0_d(3ssl), RSA_get0_p(3ssl), RSA_get0_q(3ssl), RSA_get0_dmp1(3ssl), RSA_get0_dmq1(3ssl), RSA_get0_iqmp(3ssl), RSA_get0_pss_params(3ssl), RSA_clear_flags(3ssl), RSA_test_flags(3ssl), RSA_set_flags(3ssl), RSA_get0_engine(3ssl), RSA_get_multi_prime_extra_count(3ssl), RSA_get0_multi_prime_factors(3ssl), RSA_get0_multi_prime_crt_params(3ssl), RSA_set0_multi_prime_params(3ssl), RSA_get_version(3ssl) - Routines for getting and setting data in an RSA object TIFFFieldPassCount(3tiff) - get whether to pass a count to TIFFGetField/TIFFSetField TIFFFieldReadCount(3tiff) - get number of values to be read from field
- fellerts 3y ago
  Well, staple utilities typically have short names, so sorting the results by name length might help: $ apropos count lines | awk '{print length($1), $0}' | sort -n | head 2 gc (1) - count graph components 2 nl (1) - number lines of files 2 rg (1) - recursively search the current directory for lines matching a pattern 2 sa (8) - summarizes accounting information 2 wc (1) - print newline, word, and byte counts for each file 3 box (3x) - create curses borders, horizontal and vertical lines 3 cvt (1) - calculate VESA CVT mode lines 3 gtf (1) - calculate VESA GTF mode lines 3 rev (1) - reverse lines characterwise 3 sum (1) - checksum and count the blocks in a file Side-note, there are a bunch of neat utilities here I didn't know about!
jmholla 3y ago
> The canonical answer to your problem is APROPOS(1). It searches man pages for keywords. `apropos` only searches short descriptions. But `man -K` let's you search all conent of man pages. > now you "just" need to remember that apropos is a thing... man has apropos built-in (`man -k`) and calls out `apropos` directly in its help message and its man page, so `man man` will reveal that as well as `man --help`.