apropos not working

fisheromen1031 · 06-11-2004, 04:50 PM

i'm not sure why but my apropos doesn't seem to be working right. when i type apropos directories or apropos files or apropos anything it gives me this message: whatever: nothing appropriate , where whatever is files, directories, or anything. just a couple of days ago it was fine. before this happened i 'rm'ed some apparently emply files that started with tp (tp followed by some random letters and numbers) that i don't remember creating.
anybody had this happen before??

Tinkster · 06-11-2004, 05:11 PM

I don't know about the temp-files ... which directory where
they in?

Try running
makewhatis

Cheers,
Tink

fisheromen1031 · 06-11-2004, 05:20 PM

in my home directory. this is the first time i've had this problem.

fisheromen1031 · 06-11-2004, 05:27 PM

makewhatis gives me
-bash: makewhatis: command not found

Tinkster · 06-11-2004, 05:28 PM

Run as root or normal user?

Try as root...

Cheers,
Tink

fisheromen1031 · 06-11-2004, 05:50 PM

i don't have root privileges

Tinkster · 06-11-2004, 05:56 PM

Hmmm ...

What distro are you using? It's starting to look more
complicated all of a sudden ... :}

Usually apropos depends on the whatis-database,
which is a system thing, so you deleting stuff in
your home shouldn't affect the search ...

Cheers
Tink

fisheromen1031 · 06-11-2004, 06:12 PM

i just tryed typing 'whatis directories' and 'whatis files' and got a similar message. My professor (i'm working on a remote terminal from her RedHat machine) said they had to take it off the network yesturday and do somethings to it. something could have happened then i suppose.