381 lines
8.2 KiB
HTML
381 lines
8.2 KiB
HTML
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
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<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Man page of APROPOS</TITLE>
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</HEAD><BODY>
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<H1>APROPOS</H1>
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Section: Manual pager utils (1)<BR>Updated: 2020-02-25<BR><A HREF="#index">Index</A>
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<A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html">Return to Main Contents</A><HR>
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<A NAME="lbAB"> </A>
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<H2>NAME</H2>
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apropos - search the manual page names and descriptions
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<A NAME="lbAC"> </A>
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<H2>SYNOPSIS</H2>
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<B>apropos</B>
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[<B>-dalv?V</B>]
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[<B>-e</B>|<B>-w</B>|<B>-r</B>]
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[<B>-s</B>
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<I>list</I>]
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[<B>-m</B>
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<I>system</I>[,...]]
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[<B>-M</B>
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<I>path</I>]
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[<B>-L</B>
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<I>locale</I>]
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[<B>-C</B>
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<I>file</I>]
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<I>keyword</I>
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...
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<A NAME="lbAD"> </A>
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<H2>DESCRIPTION</H2>
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Each manual page has a short description available within it.
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<B>apropos</B>
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searches the descriptions for instances of
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<I>keyword</I>.
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<P>
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<I>keyword</I>
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is usually a regular expression, as if
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(<B>-r</B>)
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was used, or
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may contain wildcards
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(<B>-w</B>),
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or match the exact keyword
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(<B>-e</B>).
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Using these options, it may be necessary to quote the
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<I>keyword</I>
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or escape (\) the special characters to stop the shell from interpreting
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them.
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<P>
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The standard matching rules allow matches to be made against the page name
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and word boundaries in the description.
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<P>
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The database searched by
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<B>apropos</B>
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is updated by the
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<B>mandb</B>
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program.
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Depending on your installation, this may be run by a periodic cron job, or
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may need to be run manually after new manual pages have been installed.
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<A NAME="lbAE"> </A>
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<H2>OPTIONS</H2>
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<DL COMPACT>
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<DT id="1"><B>-d</B>, <B>--debug</B>
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<DD>
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Print debugging information.
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<DT id="2"><B>-v</B>, <B>--verbose</B>
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<DD>
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Print verbose warning messages.
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<DT id="3"><B>-r</B>, <B>--regex</B>
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<DD>
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Interpret each keyword as a regular expression.
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This is the default behaviour.
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Each keyword will be matched against the page names and the descriptions
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independently.
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It can match any part of either.
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The match is not limited to word boundaries.
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<DT id="4"><B>-w</B>, <B>--wildcard</B>
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<DD>
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Interpret each keyword as a pattern containing shell style wildcards.
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Each keyword will be matched against the page names and the descriptions
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independently.
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If
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<B>--exact</B>
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is also used,
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a match will only be found if an expanded keyword matches an entire
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description or page name.
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Otherwise the keyword is also allowed to match on word boundaries in the
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description.
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<DT id="5"><B>-e</B>, <B>--exact</B>
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<DD>
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Each keyword will be exactly matched against the page names and the
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descriptions.
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<DT id="6"><B>-a</B>, <B>--and</B>
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<DD>
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Only display items that match all the supplied keywords.
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The default is to display items that match any keyword.
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<DT id="7"><B>-l</B>, <B>--long</B>
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<DD>
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Do not trim output to the terminal width.
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Normally, output will be truncated to the terminal width to avoid ugly
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results from poorly-written
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<B>NAME</B>
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sections.
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<DT id="8"><B>-s</B> <I>list/</I>, <B>--sections=</B><I>list/</I>, <B>--section=</B><I>list</I><DD>
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Search only the given manual sections.
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<I>list</I>
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is a colon- or comma-separated list of sections.
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If an entry in
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<I>list</I>
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is a simple section, for example "3", then the displayed list of
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descriptions will include pages in sections "3", "3perl", "3x", and so on;
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while if an entry in
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<I>list</I>
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has an extension, for example "3perl", then the list will only include
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pages in that exact part of the manual section.
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<DT id="9"><B>-m</B> <I>system</I>[,...], <B>--systems=</B><I>system</I>[,...]<DD>
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If this system has access to other operating system's manual page
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descriptions, they can be searched using this option.
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To search NewOS's manual page descriptions, use the option
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<B>-m</B>
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<B>NewOS</B>.
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<P>
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The
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<I>system</I>
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specified can be a combination of comma-delimited operating system names.
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To include a search of the native operating system's
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<B>whatis</B>
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descriptions, include the system name
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<B>man</B>
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in the argument string.
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This option will override the
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$<B>SYSTEM</B>
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environment variable.
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<DT id="10"><B>-M </B><I>path</I><B></B>, <B>--manpath=</B><I>path</I>
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<DD>
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Specify an alternate set of colon-delimited manual page hierarchies to
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search.
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By default,
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<B>apropos</B>
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uses the
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$<B>MANPATH</B>
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environment variable, unless it is empty or unset, in which case it will
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determine an appropriate manpath based on your
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$<B>PATH</B>
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environment variable.
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This option overrides the contents of
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$<B>MANPATH</B>.
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<DT id="11"><B>-L </B><I>locale</I><B></B>, <B>--locale=</B><I>locale</I>
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<DD>
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<B>apropos</B>
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will normally determine your current locale by a call to the C function
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<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?3+setlocale">setlocale</A></B>(3)
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which interrogates various environment variables, possibly including
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$<B>LC_MESSAGES</B>
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and
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$<B>LANG</B>.
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To temporarily override the determined value, use this option to supply a
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<I>locale</I>
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string directly to
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<B>apropos</B>.
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Note that it will not take effect until the search for pages actually
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begins.
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Output such as the help message will always be displayed in the initially
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determined locale.
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<DT id="12"><B>-C </B><I>file</I><B></B>, <B>--config-file=</B><I>file</I>
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<DD>
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Use this user configuration file rather than the default of
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<I>~/.manpath</I>.
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<DT id="13"><B>-?</B>, <B>--help</B>
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<DD>
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Print a help message and exit.
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<DT id="14"><B>--usage</B>
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<DD>
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Print a short usage message and exit.
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<DT id="15"><B>-V</B>, <B>--version</B>
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<DD>
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Display version information.
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</DL>
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<A NAME="lbAF"> </A>
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<H2>EXIT STATUS</H2>
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<DL COMPACT>
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<DT id="16"><B>0</B>
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<DD>
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Successful program execution.
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<DT id="17"><B>1</B>
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<DD>
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Usage, syntax or configuration file error.
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<DT id="18"><B>2</B>
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<DD>
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Operational error.
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<DT id="19"><B>16</B>
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<DD>
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Nothing was found that matched the criteria specified.
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</DL>
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<A NAME="lbAG"> </A>
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<H2>ENVIRONMENT</H2>
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<DL COMPACT>
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<DT id="20"><B>SYSTEM</B>
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<DD>
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If
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$<B>SYSTEM</B>
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is set, it will have the same effect as if it had been specified as the
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argument to the
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<B>-m</B>
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option.
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<DT id="21"><B>MANPATH</B>
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<DD>
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If
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$<B>MANPATH</B>
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is set, its value is interpreted as the colon-delimited manual page
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hierarchy search path to use.
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<DT id="22"><B>MANWIDTH</B>
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<DD>
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If
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$<B>MANWIDTH</B>
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is set, its value is used as the terminal width (see the
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<B>--long</B>
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option).
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If it is not set, the terminal width will be calculated using the value of
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$<B>COLUMNS</B>,
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and
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<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?2+ioctl">ioctl</A></B>(2)
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if available, or falling back to 80 characters if all else fails.
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<DT id="23"><B>POSIXLY_CORRECT</B>
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<DD>
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If
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$<B>POSIXLY_CORRECT</B>
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is set, even to a null value, the default
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<B>apropos</B>
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search will be as an extended regex
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(<B>-r</B>).
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Nowadays, this is the default behaviour anyway.
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</DL>
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<A NAME="lbAH"> </A>
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<H2>FILES</H2>
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<DL COMPACT>
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<DT id="24"><I>/usr/share/man/index.(bt|db|dir|pag)</I>
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<DD>
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A traditional global
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<I>index</I>
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database cache.
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<DT id="25"><I>/var/cache/man/index.(bt|db|dir|pag)</I>
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<DD>
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An FHS
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compliant global
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<I>index</I>
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database cache.
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<DT id="26"><I>/usr/share/man/.../whatis</I>
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<DD>
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A traditional
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<B>whatis</B>
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text database.
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</DL>
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<A NAME="lbAI"> </A>
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<H2>SEE ALSO</H2>
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<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?1+man">man</A></B>(1),
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<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?1+whatis">whatis</A></B>(1),
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<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?8+mandb">mandb</A></B>(8)
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<A NAME="lbAJ"> </A>
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<H2>AUTHOR</H2>
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<PRE>
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Wilf. (<A HREF="mailto:G.Wilford@ee.surrey.ac.uk">G.Wilford@ee.surrey.ac.uk</A>).
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Fabrizio Polacco (<A HREF="mailto:fpolacco@debian.org">fpolacco@debian.org</A>).
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Colin Watson (<A HREF="mailto:cjwatson@debian.org">cjwatson@debian.org</A>).
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</PRE>
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<P>
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<HR>
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<A NAME="index"> </A><H2>Index</H2>
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<DL>
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<DT id="27"><A HREF="#lbAB">NAME</A><DD>
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<DT id="28"><A HREF="#lbAC">SYNOPSIS</A><DD>
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<DT id="29"><A HREF="#lbAD">DESCRIPTION</A><DD>
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<DT id="30"><A HREF="#lbAE">OPTIONS</A><DD>
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<DT id="31"><A HREF="#lbAF">EXIT STATUS</A><DD>
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<DT id="32"><A HREF="#lbAG">ENVIRONMENT</A><DD>
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<DT id="33"><A HREF="#lbAH">FILES</A><DD>
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<DT id="34"><A HREF="#lbAI">SEE ALSO</A><DD>
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<DT id="35"><A HREF="#lbAJ">AUTHOR</A><DD>
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</DL>
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<HR>
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This document was created by
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<A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html">man2html</A>,
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using the manual pages.<BR>
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Time: 00:05:07 GMT, March 31, 2021
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</BODY>
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</HTML>
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