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1 perry 1 whatis
2 !!!whatis
3 NAME
4 SYNOPSIS
5 DESCRIPTION
6 OPTIONS
7 EXIT STATUS
8 ENVIRONMENT
9 FILES
10 SEE ALSO
11 AUTHOR
12 ----
13 !!NAME
14
15
16 whatis - display manual page descriptions
17 !!SYNOPSIS
18
19
20 __whatis__ [[__-dhV__] [[__-r__|__-w__] [[__-m__
21 ''system''[[,...]] [[__-M__ ''path''] ''name''
22 ...
23 !!DESCRIPTION
24
25
26 Each manual page has a short description available within
27 it. __whatis__ searches the manual page names and
28 displays the manual page descriptions of any ''name''
29 matched.
30
31
32 ''name'' may contain wildcards (__-w__) or be a
33 regular expression (__-r__). Using these options, it may
34 be necessary to quote the ''name'' or escape () the
35 special characters to stop the shell from interpreting
36 them.
37
38
39 __index__ databases are used during the search. To
40 produce an old style text __whatis__ database from the
41 relative __index__ database, issue the
42 command:
43
44
45 __whatis -M__ ''manpath'' __-w '*' | sort __
46 ''manpath/whatis''
47
48
49 where ''manpath'' is a manual page hierarchy such as
50 ''/usr/man''.
51 !!OPTIONS
52
53
54 __-d, --debug__
55
56
57 Print debugging information.
58
59
60 __-r, --regex__
61
62
63 Interpret each ''name'' as a regular expression. If a
64 ''name'' matches any part of a page name, a match will be
65 made. This option causes __whatis__ to be somewhat slower
66 due to the nature of database searches.
67
68
69 __-w, --wildcard__
70
71
72 Interpret each ''name'' as a pattern containing shell
73 style wildcards. For a match to be made, an expanded
74 ''name'' must match the entire page name. This option
75 causes __whatis__ to be somewhat slower due to the nature
76 of database searches.
77
78
79 __-m__ ''system''[[,...]__,
80 --systems=__''system''[[,...]
81
82
83 If this system has access to other operating system's manual
84 page names, they can be accessed using this option. To
85 search NewOS's manual page names, use the option __-m
86 NewOS__.
87
88
89 The ''system'' specified can be a combination of comma
90 delimited operating system names. To include a search of the
91 native operating system's manual page names, include the
92 system name __man__ in the argument string. This option
93 will override the $__SYSTEM__ environment
94 variable.
95
96
97 __-M__ ''path''__,
98 --manpath=__''path''
99
100
101 Specify an alternate set of colon-delimited manual page
102 hierarchies to search. By default, __apropos__ uses the
103 $__MANPATH__ environment variable, unless it is empty or
104 unset, in which case it will determine an appropriate
105 manpath based on your $__PATH__ environment variable.
106 This option overrides the contents of
107 $__MANPATH__.
108
109
110 __-h, --help__
111
112
113 Print a help message and exit.
114
115
116 __-V, --version__
117
118
119 Display version and author information.
120 !!EXIT STATUS
121
122
123 __0__
124
125
126 Successful program execution.
127
128
129 __1__
130
131
132 Usage, syntax or configuration file error.
133
134
135 __2__
136
137
138 Operational error.
139
140
141 __16__
142
143
144 No manual pages were found that matched the criteria
145 specified.
146 !!ENVIRONMENT
147
148
149 __SYSTEM__
150
151
152 If $__SYSTEM__ is set, it will have the same effect as if
153 it had been specified as the argument to the __-m__
154 option.
155
156
157 __MANPATH__
158
159
160 If $__MANPATH__ is set, its value is interpreted as the
161 colon-delimited manual page hierarchy search path to
162 use.
163 !!FILES
164
165
166 ''/usr/share/man/index.(bt|db|dir|pag)''
167
168
169 A traditional global ''index'' database
170 cache.
171
172
173 ''/var/cache/man/index.(bt|db|dir|pag)''
174
175
176 An alternate or FSSTND compliant global ''index''
177 database cache.
178
179
180 ''/usr/share/man/.../whatis''
181
182
183 A traditional __whatis__ text database.
184 !!SEE ALSO
185
186
187 apropos(1), man(1).
188 !!AUTHOR
189
190
191 Wilf. (G.Wilford@ee.surrey.ac.uk).
192 Fabrizio Polacco (fpolacco@debian.org).
193 ----
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