Linux options and google

[hush]

This is not a direct linux question and that is why I have put it under misc but it is searching google for answers to linux questions that is the reason for posting. There is also a linux question which I don't know the answer to in there if that is any better . I would have thought it could be solved as a function of the shell but don't know for sure. I was chatting to this guy who works for google and he was loving his shell knowledge. He also loved regex but that's another story.

I have come across the notion that percent-encoding can be used to search for certain characters that are used for special purposes within google. the hyphen is not one of these however, so when I attempt to find the answer to the question 'can i use wild card with man -k?' I have no why of representing the "-" and thus about a googol results.

hush

[scm]

Try searching for 'can I use the wild card with apropos' instead. Or you could try using %2D for the hyphen.

[hush]

Hi scm,

Thanks that's just what I was getting @.

[bigtomrodney]

Most GNU utilities will stop taking switches/options if you pass the '--' double hyphen to single an end. Make sure it is the last switch you use as switches will be ignored after it.