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Annotated edit history of MakeWhatIs version 7, including all changes. View license author blame.
Rev Author # Line
1 GlynWebster 1 !!!/usr/sbin/makewhatis
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3 apropos(1) just seaches a large text file called __whatis__. Each line in __whatis__ contains the name, section number and short descrition of one man page in your installation. __whatis__ is created by a script called __/usr/sbin/makewhatis__[1].
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5 If you find that apropos(1) never finds anything there may be be no __whatis__ file yet. Run __/usr/sbin/makewhatis__ as [root] (see su(1)) and it will be created. (Note: __/usr/sbin/makewhatis__ can sometimes take several minutes to finish.)
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7 Section (3) man pages contain descriptions of [C] and [TCL] library functions for programmers. There are so many of these that they overwhelm everything else. You can remove them from __whatis__. As [root], edit the script __/usr/sbin/makewhatis__. Around line 75 you will see a line like this,
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9 sections="1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 n l"
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11 Remove the __"3"__. Run __/usr/sbin/makewhatis__ again, and the section (3) entries will be gone.
3 GlynWebster 12
13 --GlynWebster
2 zcat(1) 14
15 ----
6 AristotlePagaltzis 16
17 __alias apropos='apropos | grep -v "(3)"'__ does the same job, and is a little easier to undo when you happen to be programming and want those entries back.. --[zcat(1)]
1 GlynWebster 18
3 GlynWebster 19 True, but does ''anyone'' use man(1) to look up programming documention? --GlynWebster
1 GlynWebster 20
4 JohnMcPherson 21 All the time! Whenever I'm programming in [C] or [C++] (or occasionally [Python] and [Perl], if calling libc functions from there). What better way to refresh your memory of the correct order of arguments for memset(3), or to find out which header files you need to #include if you want to call the inet_addr(3) function? Sure beats getting out of the chair and finding a reference book :) --JohnMcPherson
5 PerryLorier 22
23 Er, I'd be lost without man 2,3,4, 7 and 8! Hence why I'm constantly touching up their wiki pages (as I'm starting to try and use the wiki instead of man for these) -- Isomer
6 AristotlePagaltzis 24
1 GlynWebster 25 ----
6 AristotlePagaltzis 26
7 PeterHewett 27 [1] This where [Mandriva] and RedHat keep __makewhatis__. [YMMV].