apropos [was Re: compat_bsdos]

[Mouse <mouse%Rodents-Montreal.ORG@localhost>]

> For those of us who first used BSD Unix in the days when it arrived
> on tapes in a Jiffy bag, and still retain primitive habits, anything
> that makes clear what is available in man7 and man8 (and sometimes
> man1) would be welcome.  Apropos has become so verbose,

Yeah, that was one of the biggest shocks I got when I started using
8.0 at work.

Fortunately, it is possible to get sane apropos output: supply -l.  You
can even make it happen automatically and painlessly by putting
APROPOS=-l in your environment (or, at least, it works that way for me
on 8.0).  This is only semi-documented, in that man(1) does not
describe -l; you have to look at apropos(1), and then infer that man -k
accepts apropos's flags even if it's not documented as accepting them.
I do find, though, that "man -l -k" does not work, but "man -k -l"
does; ugly, like the default output format....  But APROPOS=-l works
without requiring -l on the man command-line.

I take some level of issue with apropos(1)'s notion that this is
"legacy", or more precisely with the ensuing implication that it is
somehow worse, but as long as it's there....

Also fortunately, I hope to soon be off the job that has me using 8.0.

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