As a newbie, the apropos command has been one of the most valuable linux commands I've ever learned for being able to figure things out.

However after having installed and uninstalled various packages, its now flooded with results from old, no longer installed programs.

For example, I tried about 4 different vnc servers. Now if I want to try to use the apropos command to figure out which vnc server is installed, or its proper path, etc, I still seem to get results from all the old vnc servers as well, making it a big mess and difficult to pin down the current one.

Is there a way to clear all the old apropos stuff from uninstalled programs to make apropos efficient again?

If this is Ubuntu, run:
If Red Hat-based, run:

1 members found this post helpful.

Awesome, I was searching everywhere for that. On Debian wheezy though I had to just do "mandb" without the dash.