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whatis
!!!whatis
NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
EXIT STATUS
ENVIRONMENT
FILES
SEE ALSO
AUTHOR
----
!!NAME


whatis - display manual page descriptions
!!SYNOPSIS


__whatis__ [[__-dhV__] [[__-r__|__-w__] [[__-m__
''system''[[,...]] [[__-M__ ''path''] ''name''
...
!!DESCRIPTION


Each manual page has a short description available within
it. __whatis__ searches the manual page names and
displays the manual page descriptions of any ''name''
matched.


''name'' may contain wildcards (__-w__) or be a
regular expression (__-r__). Using these options, it may
be necessary to quote the ''name'' or escape () the
special characters to stop the shell from interpreting
them.


__index__ databases are used during the search. To
produce an old style text __whatis__ database from the
relative __index__ database, issue the
command:


__whatis -M__ ''manpath'' __-w '*' | sort __
''manpath/whatis''


where ''manpath'' is a manual page hierarchy such as
''/usr/man''.
!!OPTIONS


__-d, --debug__


Print debugging information.


__-r, --regex__


Interpret each ''name'' as a regular expression. If a
''name'' matches any part of a page name, a match will be
made. This option causes __whatis__ to be somewhat slower
due to the nature of database searches.


__-w, --wildcard__


Interpret each ''name'' as a pattern containing shell
style wildcards. For a match to be made, an expanded
''name'' must match the entire page name. This option
causes __whatis__ to be somewhat slower due to the nature
of database searches.


__-m__ ''system''[[,...]__,
--systems=__''system''[[,...]


If this system has access to other operating system's manual
page names, they can be accessed using this option. To
search NewOS's manual page names, use the option __-m
NewOS__.


The ''system'' specified can be a combination of comma
delimited operating system names. To include a search of the
native operating system's manual page names, include the
system name __man__ in the argument string. This option
will override the $__SYSTEM__ environment
variable.


__-M__ ''path''__,
--manpath=__''path''


Specify an alternate set of colon-delimited manual page
hierarchies to search. By default, __apropos__ uses the
$__MANPATH__ environment variable, unless it is empty or
unset, in which case it will determine an appropriate
manpath based on your $__PATH__ environment variable.
This option overrides the contents of
$__MANPATH__.


__-h, --help__


Print a help message and exit.


__-V, --version__


Display version and author information.
!!EXIT STATUS


__0__


Successful program execution.


__1__


Usage, syntax or configuration file error.


__2__


Operational error.


__16__


No manual pages were found that matched the criteria
specified.
!!ENVIRONMENT


__SYSTEM__


If $__SYSTEM__ is set, it will have the same effect as if
it had been specified as the argument to the __-m__
option.


__MANPATH__


If $__MANPATH__ is set, its value is interpreted as the
colon-delimited manual page hierarchy search path to
use.
!!FILES


''/usr/share/man/index.(bt|db|dir|pag)''


A traditional global ''index'' database
cache.


''/var/cache/man/index.(bt|db|dir|pag)''


An alternate or FSSTND compliant global ''index''
database cache.


''/usr/share/man/.../whatis''


A traditional __whatis__ text database.
!!SEE ALSO


apropos(1), man(1).
!!AUTHOR


Wilf. (G.Wilford@ee.surrey.ac.uk).
Fabrizio Polacco (fpolacco@debian.org).
----
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Last edited on Tuesday, June 4, 2002 12:23:00 am by "perry"
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