New: apropos2, an improved apropos command

[Chris Grau]

On Wed, Sep 14, 2005 at 09:38:57PM -0400, Tony Nelson wrote:
> I have written an improved apropos that only matches entries containing all
> search words.
> 
> I'm hoping to get some feedback from the list before trying to post to a
> wider audience.  I posted this on Saturday, but fewer people seem to read
> the list on the weekend.  One more time (only).
> 
> [OK, /two/ more times, as the last one seems to have gotten lost in the RH
> server rearrangement.]
> 
> --
> 
> Apropos is a command in the man package that shows entries in the whatis
> database that match a search word.  Often there are many matches, and one
> might like to winnow them down by typing more words.  Instead, apropos
> prints all the matches for each word, making the problem worse.  One can
> pipe the apropos output to grep, but I have something better.
> 
> <http://georgeanelson.com/apropos2.htm>
> 
> Apropos2 is an improved apropos that shows only entries that match all the
> words.  This makes apropos2 much better for finding a command you are
> looking for.  I present it here first in hopes that it will be useful, and
> that it will be used and tested by some of the people on this list.  If I
> get positive feedback, I will try to submit apropos2 (and the feedback) to
> the man maintainers.  This is my first RPM.  It is GPL'd, like the apropos
> command it is derived from.

This looks like a pretty useful program to me, even if for nothing else
than to avoid all the extra grep commands, as you mention in the man
page for apropos2.  I can see myself getting some use out of this.

The RPM and spec file look pretty good.  I'd like to see this make it
into Fedora Extras.  At quick glance, the only changes the spec file
would need are,

- release tag should be 1 or 1%{?dist}, but I can see why the release
  tag is what it is for the purposes of this post;

- build root should be
  %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-%{release}-root-%(%{__id_u} -n);

- Source should be Source0.

> Apropos2 is easy to install and use.  Download and install the apropos
> binary rpm:
> 
>     $ su -
>     <root password>
>     # rpm -i /path/to/apropos2-1.0.1-1_GAN.noarch.rpm
>     # exit
>     $ apropos front back
> 
> The rpm sets up an alias so you can use the apropos command name, but get
> the improved apropos2.  The alias is removed if the rpm is uninstalled.
> Nothing in the man package is changed, and updating man should not affect
> apropos2.