The and utilities query manual page databases generated by evalu‐
ating  for  each file in each database.  By default, they display
the names, section numbers, and description lines of all matching
manuals.  By default, searches for databases in the default paths
stipulated by and uses case‐insensitive extended regular  expres‐
sion  matching  over manual names and descriptions Multiple terms
imply pairwise is a synonym for The options are as  follows:  In‐
stead  of  showing only the title lines, show the complete manual
pages, just like would.  If the standard output is a terminal de‐
vice and is not specified, use to paginate them.   In  mode,  the
options  described  in the manual are also available.  Specify an
alternative configuration in format.  Search for all words in  in
manual  page  names  only.   The  search  is case‐insensitive and
matches whole words only.  In this mode, macro  keys,  comparison
operators,  and logical operators are not available.  Support the
full syntax.  It is the default for Use the colon‐separated  path
instead of the default list of paths searched for databases.  In‐
valid  paths,  or  paths  without  manual databases, are ignored.
Prepend the colon‐separated paths to the list of  paths  searched
for databases.  Invalid paths, or paths without manual databases,
are  ignored.  Show the values associated with the key instead of
the manual descriptions.  Restrict the search to  pages  for  the
specified  architecture.  is case‐insensitive.  By default, pages
for all architectures are shown.   Restrict  the  search  to  the
specified section of the manual.  By default, pages from all sec‐
tions are shown.  See for a listing of sections.  The options are
also supported and are documented in The options are mutually ex‐
clusive  and  override  each  other.  An consists of search terms
joined by logical operators and The operator has precedence  over
and  both are evaluated left‐to‐right.  True if the subexpression
is true.  True if both and are true (logical True if and/or eval‐
uate to true (logical True if  is  satisfied.   This  has  syntax
where  is  an macro to query and is its value.  See for a list of
available keys.  Operator evaluates a substring, while  evaluates
a  case‐sensitive  extended  regular expression.  If is a regular
expression, it is evaluated case‐insensitively.  Has no effect on
substring terms.  Results are sorted first according to the  sec‐
tion  number  in ascending numerical order, then by the page name
in ascending alphabetical order, case‐insensitive.   Each  output
line  is  formatted  as Where is the manual’s name, is the manual
section, and is the manual’s short description.  If an  architec‐
ture  is  specified  for the manual, it is displayed as Resulting
manuals may be accessed as If an architecture is specified in the
output, use Queries evaluate over a subset of macros  indexed  by
In  addition  to the macro keys listed below, the special key may
be used to match any available macro key.  Names and description:
Sections and cross references: Semantic markup for  command  line
utilities: Semantic markup for function libraries: Various seman‐
tic  markup:  Physical markup: Text production: In general, macro
keys are supposed to yield complete results without expecting the
user to consider actual macro usage.  For  example,  results  in‐
clude:  function  arguments  appearing  on  lines  function names
marked up with macros include file names marked  up  with  macros
types  appearing  as function return types and types appearing in
function arguments in the SYNOPSIS Any non‐empty value of the en‐
vironment variable is used instead  of  the  standard  pagination
program,  see  for  details.   Only  used  if or is specified.  A
colon‐separated list of directories to search for  manual  pages;
see  for details.  Overridden by ignored if is specified.  Speci‐
fies the pagination program to use when is not defined.  If  nei‐
ther  PAGER nor MANPAGER is defined, is used.  Only used if or is
specified.  name of the keyword  database  default  configuration
file  Search for as a substring of manual names and descriptions:
Include matches for and as well: Search in names and descriptions
using a case‐sensitive regular expression: Search for all  manual
pages  in a given section: Search for manuals in the library sec‐
tion mentioning both the and the variables: Do exactly  the  same
as  calling  with  the argument The following two invocations are
equivalent: The utility is compliant with  the  specification  of
All  options,  the  command, support for logical operators, macro
keys, substring matching, sorting  of  results,  the  environment
variables and the database format, and the configuration file are
extensions  to  that specification.  Part of the functionality of
was already provided by the former utility in The  and  utilities
first appeared in They were rewritten from scratch for The option
and  the  variable  first appeared in in in and and in for and in
for The options appeared in wrote in 1977 and the original and in
February 1979.  The current version was written by and