

For example, whatis "string" would not find a match when encountering strings, but apropos "string" would.įor completeness's sake, if you use zsh, you can use ls To get a list grouped by directory, use ls or printf "%s\n" (unsorted but in the order they would be found) printf "%s\n" | xargs -L 1 basename | sort -u will give you a list of just the commands without paths.ĭo note that this only shows executables, not aliases or functions. The man page for apropos states the following:Īpropos searches a set of database files containing short descriptions of system commands for keywords and displays the result on the standard output.īasically, the difference is apropos does not require complete word matches. There also exists a similar command called apropos. Only complete word matches are displayed. Whatis searches a set of database files containing short descriptions of system commands for keywords and displays the result on the standard output. The man page for whatis states the following:
Can find tools on mac computer windows#
It uses windows and icons to show you the contents of your Mac, iCloud Drive, and other storage devices. It includes the Finder menu bar at the top of the screen and the desktop below that. It opens automatically and stays open as you use other apps. Therefore, to get a list of all commands in the database, enter the command given below. The Finder is the first thing that you see when your Mac finishes starting up. This the whatis command will accept regular expressions. Ruby(1) - Interpreted object-oriented scripting language

For example, the output from entering whatis "ruby" is shown below. To get a one line description of a command in the database, enter whatis followed by the command. However, there is no requirement to do so.

When a command is installed, an entry should have been placed in the whatis database.
