On Thu, 04 Jul 2019 10:37:35 +0100, Bob Dunlop wrote:
> nvi
> text data bss dec hex filename
> 27061 2048 256 29365 72b5 /usr/bin/nvi
> 442019 18688 144 460851 70833 /usr/lib64/libvi.so.0
> 430302 17628 2552 450482 6dfb2 /lib64/libncursesw.so.6
This type of output was not something I was familiar with. I can see
that size(1) produces output in this format, given a list of object
files, but what method did you use to produce the list of files,
excluding common operating system libraries?
More generally, this highlighted to me a gap in my knowledge about how
to discover utilities that fill a particular need without first
knowing their names. I had already forgotten the route I took to
discovering size(1) within minutes of discovering it. It began with a
web search for the column headings in the output and ended with some
poking around on the local system.
I discovered ldd(1) in a similarly poorly remembered fashion, but it's
clearly not the whole solution.
I was inspired to read man(1)'s manual page and to belatedly try out
man -k and man -K. However, it is difficult to devise keywords that
are specific enough to select the right manual pages and generic
enough to appear in their short descriptions.
For example, the short description of size(1) does not make any
mention of object files:
$ man -f size
size (1) - list section sizes and total size.
Even if it did mention object files, that would need to be the
terminology that came to mind if I wanted to find size(1) using:
$ apropos -a object size
(It seems to me that man -k has no direct equivalent to the -a option
of apropos.)
So, I still feel in want of a good categorised summary of well-known
commands, or at least a search technique that can expand my search to
include conceptually-related terms.
Patrick
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