There are thousands of Linux commands and it is unlikely you will be able to remember them all. The apropos command takes a phrase from you and searches for it among the various commands.
If you needed and didn’t remember a specific command while working on Linux, you could use the apropos command to find the one you want.
For example, if you are looking for a command that shows you a list of directories, you can type in the terminal:
$ apropos “list directory”
Or you can type in if you want to remotely log in and don’t know the command:
$ apropos “remote”
This will give you a list of messages related to your search, along with an explanation about them.
See Also: Windows 7 Update 2020
How does apropos work?
Each Linux command has its own guide that contains information about that command and how to use it. You can access this information using the man command:
$ man [command]
For example, to see the apropos command line type in the Linux terminal:
$ man has
The apropos command also searches for the phrase you provided as input in these help texts and returns the commands that are relevant to your search topic.
How to Find a command you used before
If you are looking for a command that you have used before, there is another way to do this than to search for apropos. If you press the Ctrl + R key together in the terminal, reverse search will open up the part of the command you want to remember and search for the command with the up and down arrow keys. You can select that command after finding the command using the Tab key or the right arrow.
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