would something like this suffice?

require('telescope.builtin').man_pages({ sections = { 'ALL' }, default_text = vim.fn.expand('<cword>') })

@jamestrew, this will show too many entries as it will:

1. Search man pages that contain the word under cursor
2. Use fuzzy search and pull man pages with the word under cursor as abbreviation
3. Possibly search the word under cursor inside the man page description

For example, for open(...) the list will be 939 entries long and will include, for example:

• EVP_OpenInit (3ossl) - EVP envelope decryption
• OPENSSL_sk_new_reserve (3ossl) - stack container
• etc...

Using the proposed approach, there is no clutter and the only additional input required from the user (if at all) is to choose the correct section for the exact man page as word under cursor.

For open, the list will be only:

• open (3pm)
• open (2)

there is nothing to do here, this is currently already possible. and the current solution is much more flexible rather than only an explicit cword option because it allows you to define how you want to execute the apropos call.

Otherwise we would need to add even more options for regex, exact, full word matching etc ... You can use the following keymap if you are on an linux based system. I dont know if it also works on darwin/feebsd or if you have to slightly modify that command. You can test that with your cli

vim.keymap.set("n", "<leader>om", function()
  require("telescope.builtin").man_pages({
    sections = { "ALL" },
    man_cmd = { "apropos", "-r", "^" .. vim.fn.expand('<cword>') .. "$" }
  })
end, { noremap = true })