How to search a pattern containing hyphens inside man pages?

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I'm trying to find a command to search for a pattern containing hyphens inside all man pages.

I've looked at man man, and found these 3 options:

-K, --global-apropos

Search for text in all manual pages. This is a brute-force search, and is likely to take some time;
if you can, you should specify a section to reduce the number of pages that need to be searched.
Search terms may be simple strings (the default), or regular expressions if the --regex option is
used.

-w, --where, --path, --location

Don't actually display the manual pages, but do print the location(s) of the source nroff files that
would be formatted.

-S list, -s list, t--sections=list

List is a colon- or comma-separated list of order specific manual sections to search. This option
overrides the $MANSECT environment variable. (The -s spelling is for compatibility with System V.)

I've tried to combine them to search for the pattern mark-modified-lines which is a readline option described in man bash:

$ man -s1 -Kw mark-modified-lines

But it doesn't find any page:

No manual entry for mark-modified-lines

And the command exits with the code 16.

I thought that maybe the syntax of the command was wrong, but it doesn't seem so, since this command correctly finds the 5 man pages on my system which contains the word guitar:

$ man -s1 -Kw guitar

 /usr/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-all.1.gz
 /usr/share/man/man1/ffserver-all.1.gz
 /usr/share/man/man1/ffplay-all.1.gz
 /usr/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-filters.1.gz
 /usr/share/man/man1/ffprobe-all.1.gz

I thought that maybe the hyphens in the word caused an issue.
In man bash, I found the --regex option which is described as follows:

--regex

Show all pages with any part of either their names or their descriptions matching each page argument
as a regular expression, as with apropos(1). Since there is usually no reasonable way to pick a
"best" page when searching for a regular expression, this option implies -a.

I tried to use this option and replace the word mark-modified-lines with the regex mark.modified.lines, where the hyphens are themselves replaced with the metacharacter . which should match any character:

$ man -s1 -Kw --regex 'mark.modified.lines'

It still doesn't print any page, while I know that the text is written in the bash man page.

The metacharacter . in the regex seems to be parsed as expected, since this command:

$ man -s1 -Kw --regex 'mark.mo'

Prints:

 /usr/share/man/man1/x11perfcomp.1.gz
 /usr/share/man/man1/xditview.1.gz

And these 2 manpages (x11perfcomp, xditview) are both matched by the regex mark.mo.
More specifically, man x11perfcomp contains this line:

Mark Moraes wrote the original scripts to compare servers.
^^^^^^^

And man xditview contains this line:

 Mark Moraes (University of Toronto)
 ^^^^^^^

However, man -s1 -Kw --regex 'mark.mo' doesn't print the bash man page:

/usr/share/man/man1/bash.1.gz

While I expected it would, since it contains this line:

mark-modified-lines (Off)
^^^^^^^

Is it possible to search for a pattern containing hyphens inside the man pages?

man

share|improve this question

edited 55 mins ago

asked 1 hour ago

user938271

14417

add a comment | 

up vote
2
down vote

favorite

2

I'm trying to find a command to search for a pattern containing hyphens inside all man pages.

I've looked at man man, and found these 3 options:

-K, --global-apropos

Search for text in all manual pages. This is a brute-force search, and is likely to take some time;
if you can, you should specify a section to reduce the number of pages that need to be searched.
Search terms may be simple strings (the default), or regular expressions if the --regex option is
used.

-w, --where, --path, --location

Don't actually display the manual pages, but do print the location(s) of the source nroff files that
would be formatted.

-S list, -s list, t--sections=list

List is a colon- or comma-separated list of order specific manual sections to search. This option
overrides the $MANSECT environment variable. (The -s spelling is for compatibility with System V.)

I've tried to combine them to search for the pattern mark-modified-lines which is a readline option described in man bash:

$ man -s1 -Kw mark-modified-lines

But it doesn't find any page:

No manual entry for mark-modified-lines

And the command exits with the code 16.

I thought that maybe the syntax of the command was wrong, but it doesn't seem so, since this command correctly finds the 5 man pages on my system which contains the word guitar:

$ man -s1 -Kw guitar

 /usr/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-all.1.gz
 /usr/share/man/man1/ffserver-all.1.gz
 /usr/share/man/man1/ffplay-all.1.gz
 /usr/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-filters.1.gz
 /usr/share/man/man1/ffprobe-all.1.gz

I thought that maybe the hyphens in the word caused an issue.
In man bash, I found the --regex option which is described as follows:

--regex

Show all pages with any part of either their names or their descriptions matching each page argument
as a regular expression, as with apropos(1). Since there is usually no reasonable way to pick a
"best" page when searching for a regular expression, this option implies -a.

I tried to use this option and replace the word mark-modified-lines with the regex mark.modified.lines, where the hyphens are themselves replaced with the metacharacter . which should match any character:

$ man -s1 -Kw --regex 'mark.modified.lines'

It still doesn't print any page, while I know that the text is written in the bash man page.

The metacharacter . in the regex seems to be parsed as expected, since this command:

$ man -s1 -Kw --regex 'mark.mo'

Prints:

 /usr/share/man/man1/x11perfcomp.1.gz
 /usr/share/man/man1/xditview.1.gz

And these 2 manpages (x11perfcomp, xditview) are both matched by the regex mark.mo.
More specifically, man x11perfcomp contains this line:

Mark Moraes wrote the original scripts to compare servers.
^^^^^^^

And man xditview contains this line:

 Mark Moraes (University of Toronto)
 ^^^^^^^

However, man -s1 -Kw --regex 'mark.mo' doesn't print the bash man page:

/usr/share/man/man1/bash.1.gz

While I expected it would, since it contains this line:

mark-modified-lines (Off)
^^^^^^^

Is it possible to search for a pattern containing hyphens inside the man pages?

man

share|improve this question

edited 55 mins ago

asked 1 hour ago

user938271

14417

add a comment | 

up vote
2
down vote

favorite

2

up vote
2
down vote

favorite

2

2

I'm trying to find a command to search for a pattern containing hyphens inside all man pages.

I've looked at man man, and found these 3 options:

-K, --global-apropos

Search for text in all manual pages. This is a brute-force search, and is likely to take some time;
if you can, you should specify a section to reduce the number of pages that need to be searched.
Search terms may be simple strings (the default), or regular expressions if the --regex option is
used.

-w, --where, --path, --location

Don't actually display the manual pages, but do print the location(s) of the source nroff files that
would be formatted.

-S list, -s list, t--sections=list

List is a colon- or comma-separated list of order specific manual sections to search. This option
overrides the $MANSECT environment variable. (The -s spelling is for compatibility with System V.)

I've tried to combine them to search for the pattern mark-modified-lines which is a readline option described in man bash:

$ man -s1 -Kw mark-modified-lines

But it doesn't find any page:

No manual entry for mark-modified-lines

And the command exits with the code 16.

I thought that maybe the syntax of the command was wrong, but it doesn't seem so, since this command correctly finds the 5 man pages on my system which contains the word guitar:

$ man -s1 -Kw guitar

 /usr/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-all.1.gz
 /usr/share/man/man1/ffserver-all.1.gz
 /usr/share/man/man1/ffplay-all.1.gz
 /usr/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-filters.1.gz
 /usr/share/man/man1/ffprobe-all.1.gz

I thought that maybe the hyphens in the word caused an issue.
In man bash, I found the --regex option which is described as follows:

--regex

Show all pages with any part of either their names or their descriptions matching each page argument
as a regular expression, as with apropos(1). Since there is usually no reasonable way to pick a
"best" page when searching for a regular expression, this option implies -a.

I tried to use this option and replace the word mark-modified-lines with the regex mark.modified.lines, where the hyphens are themselves replaced with the metacharacter . which should match any character:

$ man -s1 -Kw --regex 'mark.modified.lines'

It still doesn't print any page, while I know that the text is written in the bash man page.

The metacharacter . in the regex seems to be parsed as expected, since this command:

$ man -s1 -Kw --regex 'mark.mo'

Prints:

 /usr/share/man/man1/x11perfcomp.1.gz
 /usr/share/man/man1/xditview.1.gz

And these 2 manpages (x11perfcomp, xditview) are both matched by the regex mark.mo.
More specifically, man x11perfcomp contains this line:

Mark Moraes wrote the original scripts to compare servers.
^^^^^^^

And man xditview contains this line:

 Mark Moraes (University of Toronto)
 ^^^^^^^

However, man -s1 -Kw --regex 'mark.mo' doesn't print the bash man page:

/usr/share/man/man1/bash.1.gz

While I expected it would, since it contains this line:

mark-modified-lines (Off)
^^^^^^^

Is it possible to search for a pattern containing hyphens inside the man pages?

man

share|improve this question

edited 55 mins ago

asked 1 hour ago

user938271

14417

I'm trying to find a command to search for a pattern containing hyphens inside all man pages.

I've looked at man man, and found these 3 options:

-K, --global-apropos

Search for text in all manual pages. This is a brute-force search, and is likely to take some time;
if you can, you should specify a section to reduce the number of pages that need to be searched.
Search terms may be simple strings (the default), or regular expressions if the --regex option is
used.

-w, --where, --path, --location

Don't actually display the manual pages, but do print the location(s) of the source nroff files that
would be formatted.

-S list, -s list, t--sections=list

List is a colon- or comma-separated list of order specific manual sections to search. This option
overrides the $MANSECT environment variable. (The -s spelling is for compatibility with System V.)

I've tried to combine them to search for the pattern mark-modified-lines which is a readline option described in man bash:

$ man -s1 -Kw mark-modified-lines

But it doesn't find any page:

No manual entry for mark-modified-lines

And the command exits with the code 16.

I thought that maybe the syntax of the command was wrong, but it doesn't seem so, since this command correctly finds the 5 man pages on my system which contains the word guitar:

$ man -s1 -Kw guitar

 /usr/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-all.1.gz
 /usr/share/man/man1/ffserver-all.1.gz
 /usr/share/man/man1/ffplay-all.1.gz
 /usr/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-filters.1.gz
 /usr/share/man/man1/ffprobe-all.1.gz

I thought that maybe the hyphens in the word caused an issue.
In man bash, I found the --regex option which is described as follows:

--regex

Show all pages with any part of either their names or their descriptions matching each page argument
as a regular expression, as with apropos(1). Since there is usually no reasonable way to pick a
"best" page when searching for a regular expression, this option implies -a.

I tried to use this option and replace the word mark-modified-lines with the regex mark.modified.lines, where the hyphens are themselves replaced with the metacharacter . which should match any character:

$ man -s1 -Kw --regex 'mark.modified.lines'

It still doesn't print any page, while I know that the text is written in the bash man page.

The metacharacter . in the regex seems to be parsed as expected, since this command:

$ man -s1 -Kw --regex 'mark.mo'

Prints:

 /usr/share/man/man1/x11perfcomp.1.gz
 /usr/share/man/man1/xditview.1.gz

And these 2 manpages (x11perfcomp, xditview) are both matched by the regex mark.mo.
More specifically, man x11perfcomp contains this line:

Mark Moraes wrote the original scripts to compare servers.
^^^^^^^

And man xditview contains this line:

 Mark Moraes (University of Toronto)
 ^^^^^^^

However, man -s1 -Kw --regex 'mark.mo' doesn't print the bash man page:

/usr/share/man/man1/bash.1.gz

While I expected it would, since it contains this line:

mark-modified-lines (Off)
^^^^^^^

Is it possible to search for a pattern containing hyphens inside the man pages?

man

man

share|improve this question

edited 55 mins ago

asked 1 hour ago

user938271

14417

share|improve this question

edited 55 mins ago

asked 1 hour ago

user938271

14417

share|improve this question

share|improve this question

edited 55 mins ago

edited 55 mins ago

edited 55 mins ago

asked 1 hour ago

user938271

14417

asked 1 hour ago

user938271

14417

asked 1 hour ago

user938271

14417

14417

add a comment | 

add a comment | 

1 Answer
1

active

oldest

votes

up vote
5
down vote



accepted

man -K searches the source code of the manual pages, not their rendered form (as displayed by man). Hyphens are encoded -, so you need to search for that:

man -s1 -Kw 'mark-mo'

(Yes, this is rather obscure.)

share|improve this answer

answered 52 mins ago

Stephen Kitt

152k23337405

add a comment | 

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1 Answer
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active

oldest

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oldest

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active

oldest

votes

up vote
5
down vote



accepted

man -K searches the source code of the manual pages, not their rendered form (as displayed by man). Hyphens are encoded -, so you need to search for that:

man -s1 -Kw 'mark-mo'

(Yes, this is rather obscure.)

share|improve this answer

answered 52 mins ago

Stephen Kitt

152k23337405

add a comment | 

up vote
5
down vote



accepted

man -K searches the source code of the manual pages, not their rendered form (as displayed by man). Hyphens are encoded -, so you need to search for that:

man -s1 -Kw 'mark-mo'

(Yes, this is rather obscure.)

share|improve this answer

answered 52 mins ago

Stephen Kitt

152k23337405

add a comment | 

up vote
5
down vote



accepted

up vote
5
down vote



accepted

man -K searches the source code of the manual pages, not their rendered form (as displayed by man). Hyphens are encoded -, so you need to search for that:

man -s1 -Kw 'mark-mo'

(Yes, this is rather obscure.)

share|improve this answer

answered 52 mins ago

Stephen Kitt

152k23337405

man -K searches the source code of the manual pages, not their rendered form (as displayed by man). Hyphens are encoded -, so you need to search for that:

man -s1 -Kw 'mark-mo'

(Yes, this is rather obscure.)

share|improve this answer

answered 52 mins ago

Stephen Kitt

152k23337405

share|improve this answer

share|improve this answer

answered 52 mins ago

Stephen Kitt

152k23337405

answered 52 mins ago

Stephen Kitt

152k23337405

answered 52 mins ago

Stephen Kitt

152k23337405

152k23337405

add a comment | 

add a comment | 

 

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