#!/bin/sh
# manindex: Generate a list of topic lines that you can grep through.
# Then create 'apropos' and other aliases to search the list.
# Run this periodically--once a month should suffice
mandir=/usr/share/man     # where the manual pages are stored
manlist="cat1 cat2 cat3"  # list particular directories you care about
indexfile="/home/mike/manindex.txt"

rm -f $indexfile
for directory in $manlist
do
        cd $mandir/$directory
        # the sed command turns filenames into "manual page" names
        # e.g., converts sed.1.z to sed.  
        # BUG:  won't handle names like a.out.4.Z correctly
        for manpage in `ls | sed -e 's/\..*$//g'`
        do
                # use man to unpack the manual page; it might be compressed
                # use col to strip garbage characters
                # egrep looks for spaces, manual page name, and dash
                man $manpage | col -b -x | egrep "^ +$manpage.* - " | uniq
        done
done > $indexfile