NAME
whatis
- describe what a command is
SYNOPSIS
whatis
[-C path]
[-M path]
[-m path]
command ...
DESCRIPTION
whatis
looks up a given command and gives the header line from the manual page.
You can then use the
man(1)
command to get more information.
The options are as follows:
- -C path
-
Use different
man(1)
configuration file than the default,
/etc/man.conf
.
- -M path
-
Override the list of standard directories
whatis
searches for its database named
``
whatis.db
''.
The supplied
path
must be a colon
``:''
separated list of directories.
This search path may also be set using the environment variable
MANPATH
.
- -m path
-
Augment the list of standard directories
whatis
searches for its database named
``
whatis.db
''.
The supplied
path
must be a colon
``:''
separated list of directories.
These directories will be searched before the standard directories
or the directories supplied with the
-M
option or the
MANPATH
environment variable are searched.
ENVIRONMENT
MANPATH
-
The standard search path used by
man(1)
may be overridden by specifying a path in the
MANPATH
environment variable.
FILES
whatis.db
-
name of the whatis databases
/etc/man.conf
-
man(1)
configuration file, used to get location of whatis databases if
MANPATH
is not set.
SEE ALSO
apropos(1),
man(1),
whereis(1),
man.conf(5),
makewhatis(8)
HISTORY
The
whatis
command appeared in
3.0BSD.