OSU Computational Physics - Unix: Keyword Searching with man -k

11: Clustered Workstations 10: Getting Help 10.A: Using man Contents

§ 10.B: Keyword Searching with man -k

We admit it. Sometimes Unix command are a bit succint. Or with ones like grep and cat, not totally descriptive. Unix compenstes for this by letting you search through the keywords contained in the man pages describing the comands; you need only provide a one word description of the command's action.

For example, sometimes you might want to compare two files to see if they are different, without going through them line by line. So you ask about compare:

>man -k compare

You should get a response like:

cmp(1)	- Compares two files
diff(1)	- Compares text files
diff3(1)	- Compares three files
dircmp(1)	- Compares two directories
sccsdiff(1)	- Compares two versions of SCCS file
sdiff(1)	- Compares two files, display side-by-side differences
zcmp, zdiff (1)	- Compares compressed files

Now that you realize it's the cmp command you want, use man to get all the dope on it:

> man cmp

The man -k command is also useful to search through the list of command names. For example, if you are not sure of the spelling or can't recall all of the name:

>man -k rmd

You get the response:

rmdel(1)	- Removes a delta from a SCCS file.
rmdev(1)	- Removes a device from the system.
rmdir(1)	- Removes a directory.
rmdsmitd(1)	- Removes domains in Distributed System

If you are curious about the commands in Unix, you can consult one of the following references: