>have you tried searching for something in, say, Bash's manpage?
I frequently have this problem where I have to wade through a lot of irrelevant matches in less when searching for a keyword in a manpage, and I've been thinking about it for a bit. In my mind, the best solution to the problem is for the manpage authors to be more careful in not using the important keywords elsewhere in the manpage, but in reality, I don't think it's doable to avoid that because what words are important will vary from person to person and even from situation to situation.
Usually my way of finding an answer is to first consult the manpages and if I don't find an answer within a few seconds then I'll just use Google instead. It's a bad habit, I think, because when I'm without internet access -- which actually does happen from time to time, e.g. when I'm on vacation -- I end up having troubles finding out how to do things.
I frequently have this problem where I have to wade through a lot of irrelevant matches in less when searching for a keyword in a manpage, and I've been thinking about it for a bit. In my mind, the best solution to the problem is for the manpage authors to be more careful in not using the important keywords elsewhere in the manpage, but in reality, I don't think it's doable to avoid that because what words are important will vary from person to person and even from situation to situation.
Usually my way of finding an answer is to first consult the manpages and if I don't find an answer within a few seconds then I'll just use Google instead. It's a bad habit, I think, because when I'm without internet access -- which actually does happen from time to time, e.g. when I'm on vacation -- I end up having troubles finding out how to do things.