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I wanted to find a bash command that would save a line of text to a file so I used apropos, which normally only throws up a handful of suggestions which are pretty useful. So just now I ran:
# apropos print string to file
And this is just a tiny fraction of the resulting output below. Can anyone tell me why on earth I am getting all these spurious, unrelated results, most of which aren't even bash commands?
Code:
pam_cracklib (8) - PAM module to check the password against dictionary words
pam_debug (8) - PAM module to debug the PAM stack
pam_env (8) - PAM module to set/unset environment variables
pam_issue (8) - PAM module to add issue file to user prompt
pam_lastlog (8) - PAM module to display date of last login
pam_limits (8) - PAM module to limit resources
pam_localuser (8) - require users to be listed in /etc/passwd
pam_loginuid (8) - Record user's login uid to the process attribute
pam_mkhomedir (8) - PAM module to create users home directory
pam_rootok (8) - Gain only root access
pam_securetty (8) - Limit root login to special devices
pam_shells (8) - PAM module to check for valid login shell
pam_umask (8) - PAM module to set the file mode creation mask
pam_userdb (8) - PAM module to authenticate against a db database
pam_wheel (8) - Only permit root access to members of group wheel
pam_xauth (8) - PAM module to forward xauth keys between users
passwd (1) - update a user's authentication tokens(s)
patch (1) - apply a diff file to an original
path_id (8) - udev callout to create a device path based unique name for a device to implement the Linux Persistent Device Naming scheme
pbm2ppa (1) - convert portable bitmap (PBM) to HP's Printing Performance Architecture (PPA) file format
pdf2ps (1) - Ghostscript PDF to PostScript translator
PDL::AutoLoader (3pm) - MatLab style AutoLoader for PDL
PDL::Dbg (3pm) - functions to support debugging of PDL scripts
pdldoc (1) - shell interface to PDL documentation
PDL::Graphics2D (3pm) - An object oriented interface to PDL graphics
PDL::Graphics::IIS (3pm) - Display PDL images on IIS devices (saoimage/ximtool)
PDL::Graphics::LUT (3pm) - provides access to a number of look-up tables
PDL::Graphics::OpenGL -- a PDL interface to the OpenGL graphics library. PDL::Graphics::OpenGLOO [PDL::Graphics::OpenGL] (3pm) - an Object Oriented interface to the interface
PDL::Graphics::OpenGLQ (3pm) - quick routines to plot lots of stuff from piddles
PDL::Graphics::PGPLOTOptions (3pm) - Setting PGPLOT options
PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT::Window (3pm) - A OO interface to PGPLOT windows
PDL::Graphics::TriD::ButtonControl (3pm) - default event handler subroutines
PDL::Graphics::TriD::Contours (3pm) - 3D Surface contours for TriD
PDL::Graphics::TriD::Tk (3pm) - A Tk widget interface to the PDL::Graphics::TriD
PDL::Indexing (1) - how to index piddles
PDL::IO::Storable (3pm) - helper functions to make PDL usable with Storable
PDL::NiceSlice (3pm) - toward a nicer slicing syntax for PDL
PDL::Ops (3pm) - Fundamental mathematical operators
PDL::Pod::Parser (3pm) - base class for creating pod filters and translators
PDL::PP::Signature (3pm) - Internal module to handle signatures
PDL::Transform::Cartography (3pm) - Useful cartographic projections
perlapi (1) - autogenerated documentation for the perl public API
perlboot (1) - Beginner's Object-Oriented Tutorial
perlbug (1) - how to submit bug reports on Perl
perlcompile (1) - Introduction to the Perl Compiler-Translator
perldebtut (1) - Perl debugging tutorial
perlembed (1) - how to embed perl in your C program
perlfaq3 (1) - Programming Tools ($Revision: 10127 $)
perlguts (1) - Introduction to the Perl API
perlhack (1) - How to hack at the Perl internals
perlhist (1) - the Perl history records
perlintern (1) - autogenerated documentation of purely internal Perl functions
perlop (1) - Perl operators and precedence
perlopentut (1) - tutorial on opening things in Perl
perlothrtut (1) - old tutorial on threads in Perl
perlpacktut (1) - tutorial on pack and unpack
perlpragma (1) - how to write a user pragma
perlreftut (1) - Mark's very short tutorial about references
perlretut (1) - Perl regular expressions tutorial
perlrun (1) - how to execute the Perl interpreter
perlthrtut (1) - Tutorial on threads in Perl
perltie (1) - how to hide an object class in a simple variable
perltoc (1) - perl documentation table of contents
perltodo (1) - Perl TO-DO List
perltooc (1) - Tom's OO Tutorial for Class Data in Perl
perltoot (1) - Tom's object-oriented tutorial for perl
perlunitut (1) - Perl Unicode Tutorial
perlXStut [perlxstut] (1) - Tutorial for writing XSUBs
pfbtopfa (1) - Convert Postscript .pfb fonts to .pfa format using ghostscript
pfbtops (1) - translate a PostScript font in .pfb format to ASCII
pgmtoy4m (1) - Convert mpeg2dec pgm and pgmpipe output to YUV4MPEG2
photo (n) - Full-color images
photorec (1) - Recover lost files from harddisk, digital camera and cdrom
pic2graph (1) - convert a PIC diagram into a cropped image
ping6 [ping] (8) - send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to network hosts
ping (8) - send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to network hosts
pkcs8 (1) - PKCS#8 format private key conversion tool
pl2pm (1) - Rough tool to translate Perl4 .pl files to Perl5 .pm modules
plink (1) - PuTTY link, command line network connection tool
pm-pmu (8) - suspend the computer on machines using a Macintosh-style PMU
pm-powersave (8) - Put your computer into low power mode
png2yuv (1) - Convert PNG images to the YUV4MPEG stream format
pnm2ppa (1) - convert portable anymap (PNM) images to HP's PPA printer format
pnmtoy4m (1) - Convert PNM/PAM images to YUV4MPEG2 stream
pod2html (1) - convert .pod files to .html files
pod2latex (1) - convert pod documentation to latex format
pod2man (1) - Convert POD data to formatted *roff input
pod2text (1) - Convert POD data to formatted ASCII text
Pod::Find (3pm) - find POD documents in directory trees
Pod::Html (3pm) - module to convert pod files to HTML
Pod::InputObjects (3pm) - objects representing POD input paragraphs, commands, etc
Pod::LaTeX (3pm) - Convert Pod data to formatted Latex
Pod::Man (3pm) - Convert POD data to formatted *roff input
Pod::Parser (3pm) - base class for creating POD filters and translators
Pod::Plainer (3pm) - Perl extension for converting Pod to old style Pod
Pod::PlainText (3pm) - Convert POD data to formatted ASCII text
podselect [PDL::Pod::Select] (3pm) - function to extract selected sections of pod documentation
Pod::Simple::HTML (3pm) - convert Pod to HTML
Pod::Simple::HTMLBatch (3pm) - convert several Pod files to several HTML files
Pod::Simple::Search (3pm) - find POD documents in directory trees
Pod::Text (3pm) - Convert POD data to formatted ASCII text
Pod::Text::Color (3pm) - Convert POD data to formatted color ASCII text
Pod::Text::Overstrike (3pm) - Convert POD data to formatted overstrike text
Pod::Text::Termcap (3pm) - Convert POD data to ASCII text with format escapes
policytool [policytool-java-1] (1) - PolicyTool Administration GUI Utility
polytopes (6) - Draws one of the six regular 4d polytopes rotating in 4d
pong (6) - Pong Home Video Game Emulator
portmap (8) - DARPA port to RPC program number mapper
portreserve (1) - reserve TCP ports to prevent portmap mapping them
POSIX (3pm) - Perl interface to IEEE Std 1003.1
poster (1) - Scale and tile a postscript image to print on multiple pages
powernowd (8) - Daemon to control the speed and voltage of CPUs
poweroff [halt] (8) - stop the system
ppmtolss16 (1) - Convert a PPM to an LSS16 image
ppmtomd (1) - convert PPM files to the Alps MicroDry printer format
ppmtoy4m (1) - Convert PPM images to YUV4MPEG2 stream
pppd (8) - Point-to-Point Protocol Daemon
pppdump (8) - convert PPP record file to readable format
pppoe.conf [pppoe] (5) - Configuration file used by pppoe - start(8), pppoe - stop(8), pppoe-status(8) and pppoe-connect(8)
pppoe-connect (8) - Shell script to manage a PPPoE link
pppoe-setup (8) - Shell script to configure Roaring Penguin PPPoE client
pppoe-start (8) - Shell script to bring up a PPPoE link
pppoe-status (8) - Shell script to report on status of PPPoE link
pppoe-stop (8) - Shell script to shut down a PPPoE link
ppp-watch (8) - daemon to make PPP interfaces act more like other interfaces
pptemplate (1) - script to generate Makefile.PL and PP file skeleton
pptemplate [PDL::pptemplate] (3pm) - script to generate Makefile.PL and PP file skeleton
procmail (1) - autonomous mail processor
profiles (1) - A utility to report and change SIDs in registry files
ps2ascii (1) - Ghostscript translator from PostScript or PDF to ASCII
ps2pdf (1) - Convert PostScript to PDF using ghostscript
ps2pdf12 [ps2pdf] (1) - Convert PostScript to PDF 1.2 (Acrobat 3-and-later compatible) using ghostscript
ps2pdf13 [ps2pdf] (1) - Convert PostScript to PDF 1.3 (Acrobat 4-and-later compatible) using ghostscript
ps2pdfwr (1) - Convert PostScript to PDF without specifying CompatibilityLevel, using ghostscript
psbook (1) - rearrange pages in PostScript file into signatures
psed (1) - a stream editor
psed [s2p] (1) - a stream editor
psfaddtable (1) - add a Unicode character table to a console font
psftp (1) - interactive SFTP (secure file transfer protocol) client
psi_create [psi] (3) - pointer set iterator functions
psi_destroy [psi] (3) - pointer set iterator functions
psi_next [psi] (3) - pointer set iterator functions
psi_remove [psi] (3) - pointer set iterator functions
psi_reset [psi] (3) - pointer set iterator functions
psi_start [psi] (3) - pointer set iterator functions
psmerge (1) - filter to merge several PostScript files into one
pstops (1) - shuffle pages in a PostScript file
pterm (1) - yet another X terminal emulator
putp [curs_terminfo] (3x) - curses interfaces to terminfo database
puttygen (1) - public-key generator for the PuTTY tools
pwconv (8) - convert to and from shadow passwords and groups
pwd (1) - print name of current/working directory
pwdx (1) - report current working directory of a process
pwunconv [pwconv] (8) - convert to and from shadow passwords and groups
qpdldecode (1) - Decode a QPDL stream into human readable form
Qt options [qtoptions] (7) - Common commandline options for all applications based on the Qt toolkit
radiobutton (n) - Create and manipulate radiobutton widgets
ranlib (1) - generate index to archive
rdesktop (1) - Remote Desktop Protocol client
re (3pm) - Perl pragma to alter regular expression behaviour
readprofile (1) - a tool to read kernel profiling information
reboot [halt] (8) - stop the system
rebuild-jar-repository (1) - rebuild a JAR repository based on the current JVM
recode-sr-latin (1) - convert Serbian text from Cyrillic to Latin script
reiserfsck (8) - The checking tool for the ReiserFS filesystem
reiserfstune (8) - The tunning tool for the ReiserFS filesystem
resize (1) - set TERMCAP and terminal settings to current xterm window size
resize_reiserfs (8) - resizer tool for the ReiserFS filesystem
restartterm [curs_terminfo] (3x) - curses interfaces to terminfo database
rm (1) - remove files or directories
rmdir (1) - remove empty directories
rmmod (8) - simple program to remove a module from the Linux Kernel
rmt (8) - remote magtape protocol module
rnano (1) - Restricted mode for Nano's ANOther editor, an enhanced free Pico clone
roff (7) - concepts and history of roff typesetting
rotor (6) - screen saver
rpcclient (1) - tool for executing client side MS-RPC functions
rsa (1) - RSA key processing tool
rsvg (1) - Turn SVG files into raster images
rsync (1) - a fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool
run-parts (8) - run scripts or programs in a directory
run-with-aspell (1) - script to help use GNU Aspell as an ispell replacement
sane-abaton (5) - SANE backend for Abaton flatbed scanners
sane-gphoto2 (5) - SANE backend for gphoto2 supported cameras
scr_dump [curs_scr_dump] (3x) - read (write) a curses screen from (to) a file
scr_init [curs_scr_dump] (3x) - read (write) a curses screen from (to) a file
scrollok [curs_outopts] (3x) - curses output options
scr_restore [curs_scr_dump] (3x) - read (write) a curses screen from (to) a file
scr_set [curs_scr_dump] (3x) - read (write) a curses screen from (to) a file
SDBM_File (3pm) - Tied access to sdbm files
sed (1) - stream editor for filtering and transforming text
SelectSaver (3pm) - save and restore selected file handle
servertool [servertool-java-1] (1) - The Java(TM) IDL Server Tool
set_curterm [curs_terminfo] (3x) - curses interfaces to terminfo database
setkeycodes (8) - load kernel scancode-to-keycode mapping table entries
setscrreg [curs_outopts] (3x) - curses output options
setterm [curs_terminfo] (3x) - curses interfaces to terminfo database
setupterm [curs_terminfo] (3x) - curses interfaces to terminfo database
sfdisk (8) - Partition table manipulator for Linux
sfq [tc-sfq] (8) - Stochastic Fairness Queueing
shred (1) - overwrite a file to hide its contents, and optionally delete it
sigtrap (3pm) - Perl pragma to enable simple signal handling
Tk_BindEvent [Tk_DeleteBinding] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_BindEvent [Tk_DeleteBindingTable] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_BindEvent [Tk_GetAllBindings] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_BindEvent [Tk_GetBinding] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk::bindtags (3pm) - Determine which bindings apply to a window, and order of evaluation
Tk::Button (3pm) - Create and manipulate Button widgets
Tk::callbacks (3pm) - Specifying code for Tk to call
Tk_Changes [Tk_InternalBorderBottom] (3) - retrieve information from Tk's local data structure
Tk_Changes [Tk_InternalBorderTop] (3) - retrieve information from Tk's local data structure
Tk_Changes [Tk_IsTopLevel] (3) - retrieve information from Tk's local data structure
Tk_CharBbox (3) - routines to measure and display single-font, multi-line, justified text
Tk_CharBbox [Tk_ComputeTextLayout] (3) - routines to measure and display single-font, multi-line, justified text
Tk_CharBbox [Tk_DistanceToTextLayout] (3) - routines to measure and display single-font, multi-line, justified text
Tk_CharBbox [Tk_DrawTextLayout] (3) - routines to measure and display single-font, multi-line, justified text
Tk_CharBbox [Tk_FreeTextLayout] (3) - routines to measure and display single-font, multi-line, justified text
Tk_CharBbox [Tk_IntersectTextLayout] (3) - routines to measure and display single-font, multi-line, justified text
Tk_CharBbox [Tk_PointToChar] (3) - routines to measure and display single-font, multi-line, justified text
Tk_CharBbox [Tk_TextLayoutToPostscript] (3) - routines to measure and display single-font, multi-line, justified text
Tk_CharBbox [Tk_UnderlineTextLayout] (3) - routines to measure and display single-font, multi-line, justified text
Tk::Checkbutton (3pm) - Create and manipulate Checkbutton widgets
tk_chooseColor (n) - pops up a dialog box for the user to select a color
tk_chooseDirectory (n) - pops up a dialog box for the user to select a directory
Tk_CollapseMotionEvents (3) - Add a window event to the Tcl event queue
Tk_CollapseMotionEvents [Tk_QueueWindowEvent] (3) - Add a window event to the Tcl event queue
Tk::ColorEditor (3pm) - a general purpose Tk widget Color Editor
Tk_Colormap [Tk_InternalBorderBottom] (3) - retrieve information from Tk's local data structure
Tk_Colormap [Tk_InternalBorderTop] (3) - retrieve information from Tk's local data structure
Tk_Colormap [Tk_IsTopLevel] (3) - retrieve information from Tk's local data structure
Tk_ComputeTextLayout (3) - routines to measure and display single-font, multi-line, justified text
Tk_ComputeTextLayout [Tk_CharBbox] (3) - routines to measure and display single-font, multi-line, justified text
Tk_ComputeTextLayout [Tk_DistanceToTextLayout] (3) - routines to measure and display single-font, multi-line, justified text
Tk_ComputeTextLayout [Tk_DrawTextLayout] (3) - routines to measure and display single-font, multi-line, justified text
Tk_ComputeTextLayout [Tk_FreeTextLayout] (3) - routines to measure and display single-font, multi-line, justified text
Tk_ComputeTextLayout [Tk_IntersectTextLayout] (3) - routines to measure and display single-font, multi-line, justified text
Tk_ComputeTextLayout [Tk_PointToChar] (3) - routines to measure and display single-font, multi-line, justified text
Tk_ComputeTextLayout [Tk_TextLayoutToPostscript] (3) - routines to measure and display single-font, multi-line, justified text
Tk_ComputeTextLayout [Tk_UnderlineTextLayout] (3) - routines to measure and display single-font, multi-line, justified text
Tk_CoordsToWindow (3) - Find window containing a point
Tk_CreateBinding (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_CreateBindingTable (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_CreateBindingTable [Tk_BindEvent] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_CreateBindingTable [Tk_CreateBinding] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_CreateBindingTable [Tk_DeleteAllBindings] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_CreateBindingTable [Tk_DeleteBinding] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_CreateBindingTable [Tk_DeleteBindingTable] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_CreateBindingTable [Tk_GetAllBindings] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_CreateBindingTable [Tk_GetBinding] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_CreateBinding [Tk_BindEvent] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_CreateBinding [Tk_CreateBindingTable] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_CreateBinding [Tk_DeleteAllBindings] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_CreateBinding [Tk_DeleteBinding] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_CreateBinding [Tk_DeleteBindingTable] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_CreateBinding [Tk_GetAllBindings] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_CreateBinding [Tk_GetBinding] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_CreateErrorHandler (3) - handle X protocol errors
Tk_CreateErrorHandler [Tk_DeleteErrorHandler] (3) - handle X protocol errors
Tk_CreateOptionTable [Tk_GetOptionInfo] (3) - process configuration options
Tk_CreateOptionTable [Tk_GetOptionValue] (3) - process configuration options
Tk_CreateOptionTable [Tk_InitOptions] (3) - process configuration options
Tk_CreateOptionTable [Tk_RestoreSavedOptions] (3) - process configuration options
Tk_CreateOptionTable [Tk_SetOptions] (3) - process configuration options
Tk_CreatePhotoImageFormat (3) - define new file format for photo images
Tk_CreateSelHandler (3) - arrange to handle requests for a selection
Tk_CreateSelHandler [Tk_DeleteSelHandler] (3) - arrange to handle requests for a selection
Tk_DeleteAllBindings (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteAllBindings [Tk_BindEvent] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteAllBindings [Tk_CreateBinding] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteAllBindings [Tk_CreateBindingTable] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteAllBindings [Tk_DeleteBinding] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteAllBindings [Tk_DeleteBindingTable] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteAllBindings [Tk_GetAllBindings] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteAllBindings [Tk_GetBinding] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteBinding (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteBindingTable (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteBindingTable [Tk_BindEvent] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteBindingTable [Tk_CreateBinding] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteBindingTable [Tk_CreateBindingTable] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteBindingTable [Tk_DeleteAllBindings] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteBindingTable [Tk_DeleteBinding] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteBindingTable [Tk_GetAllBindings] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteBindingTable [Tk_GetBinding] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteBinding [Tk_BindEvent] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteBinding [Tk_CreateBinding] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteBinding [Tk_CreateBindingTable] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteBinding [Tk_DeleteAllBindings] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteBinding [Tk_DeleteBindingTable] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteBinding [Tk_GetAllBindings] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteBinding [Tk_GetBinding] (3) - invoke scripts in response to X events
Tk_DeleteErrorHandler (3) - handle X protocol errors
Tk_DeleteErrorHandler [Tk_CreateErrorHandler] (3) - handle X protocol rse::Yapp module
yuv2lav (1) - encodes lavtool's raw YUV frame streams into MJPEG files
yuvfps (1) - Converts to a different frame rate
yuvinactive (1) - Set a part of the video to a defined state
yuvmedianfilter (1) - A filter for yuv images produced by the mjpeg tools
yuvscaler (1) - UPscales or DOWNscales a YUV4MPEG2 stream to a specified format
zjsdecode (1) - Decode a ZjStream into human readable form
znew (1) - recompress .Z files to .gz files
zoom (6) - wander around magnified desktop
addgnupghome (8) - Create .gnupg home directories
arm2hpdl (1) - Add HP download header/trailer to an ARM ELF binary
ciptool (1) - Bluetooth Common ISDN Access Profile (CIP)
crda (8) - send to the kernel a wireless regulatory domain for a given ISO / IEC 3166 alpha2
des_modes (7) - the variants of DES and other crypto algorithms of OpenSSL
dfutool (1) - Device Firmware Upgrade utility
dund (1) - BlueZ Bluetooth dial-up networking daemon
/etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf [hcid] (5) - Configuration file for the hcid Bluetooth HCI daemon
foo2hiperc (1) - Convert Ghostscript pbmraw or bitcmyk format into a HIPERC printer stream
foo2hiperc-wrapper (1) - Convert Postscript into a HIPERC printer stream
foo2zjs-pstops (1) - Add PS code for foo2*-wrapper
gpg2 (1) - OpenPGP encryption and signing tool
gpgconf (1) - Modify .gnupg home directories
gpgparsemail (1) - Parse a mail message into an annotated format
gpg-preset-passphrase (1) - Put a passphrase into gpg-agent's cache
gpgsm (1) - CMS encryption and signing tool
gpg-zip (1) - Encrypt or sign files into an archive
hciattach (8) - attach serial devices via UART HCI to BlueZ stack
hciconfig (8) - configure Bluetooth devices
hcid (8) - Bluetooth Host Controller Interface Daemon
hcitool (1) - configure Bluetooth connections
hid2hci (8) - Bluetooth HID to HCI mode switching utility
hidd (1) - Bluetooth HID daemon
hipercdecode (1) - Decode a HIPERC stream into human readable form
ip6tables-restore (8) - Restore IPv6 Tables
ip6tables-save (8) - dump iptables rules to stdout
iptables-save (8) - dump iptables rules to stdout
iptables-xml (8) - Convert iptables-save format to XML
modem-modeswitch (8) - udev callout to switch mobile broadband devices to their intended modem mode
nat [shorewall-nat] (5) - Shorewall one-to-one NAT file
nstat [rtacct] (8) - network statistics tools
ntp_auto (5) - Automatic NTP Configuration Options
ntpd (8) - Network Time Protocol (NTP) daemon
ntp_mon (5) - Monitoring Options
ntptrace (8) - trace a chain of NTP servers back to the primary source
pand (1) - BlueZ Bluetooth PAN daemon
pdfimages (1) - Portable Document Format (PDF) image extractor (version 3.00)
pdfinfo (1) - Portable Document Format (PDF) document information extractor (version 3.00)
pdftohtml (1) - program to convert pdf files into html, xml and png images
pdftoppm (1) - Portable Document Format (PDF) to Portable Pixmap (PPM) converter (version 3.00)
pdftops (1) - Portable Document Format (PDF) to PostScript converter (version 3.00)
pdftotext (1) - Portable Document Format (PDF) to text converter (version 3.00)
rastertoescpx (1) - enhanced esc/p raster driver for cups
rastertoescpx [commandtoescpx] (1) - enhanced esc/p raster driver for cups
rastertopclx (1) - enhanced pcl raster driver for cups
rastertopclx [commandtopclx] (1) - enhanced pcl raster driver for cups
regdbdump (8) - parse and print out regulatory rules file
regulatory.bin [regulatory] (5) - The Linux wireless regulatory database
routestopped [shorewall-routestopped] (5) - The Shorewall file that governs what traffic flows through the firewall while it is in 'stopped' state
rtacct (8) - network statistics tools
rtmon (8) - listens to and monitors RTnetlink
sdptool (1) - control and interrogate SDP servers
^C
apropos searches the given keywords in the manual pages description. The "file" and "to" keywords are very common, hence the huge amount of results. You can try to limit them using some of the available option, e.g. -a to search all the keywords together or -s1 to limit the search to section 1 of the man database (executable programs or shell commands).
The version of apropos I have on this 2009 edition of PCLinuxOS will accept no options at all, according to its man page. Certainly the modifiers you suggested do not parse this end.
I tried dropping the "to" and now have now just # apropos "print string file" The result still generates thousands of spurious results. Anyone else care to try and see if they get the same - or less?
apropos "print file" , I get six returns. Any other combination of "print string to file" returns nothing. Remove the quotes, I get a very long list of returns.
It seems that giving the command without quotes, apropos takes each word as a separate parameter and returns a list according.
Indeed apropos looks for each keyword separately. Quoting the entire string means to pass only a keyword (with spaces) as argument. I don't know which version is provided by PClinuxOS but it should have options. What is the output of apropos --help?
Indeed apropos looks for each keyword separately. Quoting the entire string means to pass only a keyword (with spaces) as argument. I don't know which version is provided by PClinuxOS but it should have options. What is the output of apropos --help?
Code:
usage: apropos keyword ...
And that's it. I think apropos could use some further tweaking....
Last edited by Completely Clueless; 08-22-2010 at 03:37 AM.
I checked and on PCLinuxOS uses a quite old man package and apropos is a simple shell script to grep the whatis database. Indeed it does not allow any other option than --help and --version. Other systems use a more complex method to maintain and search a mandb (binary) database.
Anyway the answer to your original question is that you can limit the results by choosing appropriate keywords and you can restrict the output, for example by displaying only section 1 man pages:
Code:
apropos print string file | grep '(1)'
but the output is still huge, since the keywords are too generic.
Finally, if you want to know how you can add a line of text to a file, I would check the command line sed editor, but it strictly depend on your exact requirement. Appending a line of text at the end of a file could be as simple as
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