Which statement about the apropos command is accurate?

• A. Updates the manual page index database.
• B. Searches the titles of manual pages for a keyword.
• C. Displays the contents of a manual page.
• D. Installs the locate command.

Answer: (B)

Apropos is used to find commands by searching the manual page description database for a keyword. It works by querying the whatis database that stores brief titles or summaries for each manual page, which is built and kept up to date by tools like mandb or makewhatis. When you provide a keyword, apropos returns the manual pages whose descriptions mention that keyword, along with the one-line summary.

That makes the statement about searching the titles of manual pages for a keyword the best fit: the keyword match is done against those short descriptions (the titles or summaries) rather than the full man page text. It’s not responsible for updating the index, not used to display contents of a manual page, and not involved in installing other commands.