Function: apropos

apropos is an autoloaded, interactive and byte-compiled function defined in apropos.el.gz.

Signature

(apropos PATTERN &optional DO-ALL)

Documentation

Show all meaningful Lisp symbols whose names match PATTERN.

Symbols are shown if they are defined as functions, variables, or faces, or if they have nonempty property lists.

PATTERN can be a word, a list of words (separated by spaces), or a regexp (using some regexp special characters). If it is a word, search for matches for that word as a substring. If it is a list of words, search for matches for any two (or more) of those words.

With C-u (universal-argument) prefix, or if apropos-do-all is non-nil, consider all symbols (if they match PATTERN).

Return list of symbols and documentation found.

Probably introduced at or before Emacs version 1.8.

Key Bindings

Source Code

;; Defined in /usr/src/emacs/lisp/apropos.el.gz
;;;###autoload
(defun apropos (pattern &optional do-all)
  "Show all meaningful Lisp symbols whose names match PATTERN.
Symbols are shown if they are defined as functions, variables, or
faces, or if they have nonempty property lists.

PATTERN can be a word, a list of words (separated by spaces),
or a regexp (using some regexp special characters).  If it is a word,
search for matches for that word as a substring.  If it is a list of words,
search for matches for any two (or more) of those words.

With \\[universal-argument] prefix, or if `apropos-do-all' is non-nil,
consider all symbols (if they match PATTERN).

Return list of symbols and documentation found."
  (interactive (list (apropos-read-pattern "symbol")
		     current-prefix-arg))
  (setq apropos--current (list #'apropos pattern do-all))
  (apropos-parse-pattern pattern)
  (apropos-symbols-internal
   (apropos-internal apropos-regexp
		     (and (not do-all)
			  (not apropos-do-all)
			  (lambda (symbol)
			    (or (fboundp symbol)
				(boundp symbol)
				(facep symbol)
				(symbol-plist symbol)))))
   (or do-all apropos-do-all)))