1.\" $NetBSD: whatis.1,v 1.7 2002/03/08 20:27:42 jdolecek Exp $ 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1993 4.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 5.\" 6.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 8.\" are met: 9.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 11.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 12.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 13.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 14.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 15.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 16.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 17.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 18.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 19.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 20.\" without specific prior written permission. 21.\" 22.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 23.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 24.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 25.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 26.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 27.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 28.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 29.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 30.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 31.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 32.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 33.\" 34.\" @(#)whatis.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 35.\" 36.Dd June 6, 1993 37.Dt WHATIS 1 38.Os 39.Sh NAME 40.Nm whatis 41.Nd describe what a command is 42.Sh SYNOPSIS 43.Nm 44.Op Fl C Ar path 45.Op Fl M Ar path 46.Op Fl m Ar path 47.Ar command Ar ... 48.Sh DESCRIPTION 49.Nm 50looks up a given command and gives the header line from the manual page. 51You can then use the 52.Xr man 1 53command to get more information. 54.Pp 55The options are as follows: 56.Bl -tag -width Fl 57.It Fl C Ar path 58Use different 59.Xr man 1 60configuration file than the default, 61.Pa /etc/man.conf . 62.It Fl M Ar path 63Override the list of standard directories 64.Nm 65searches for its database named 66.Dq Pa whatis.db . 67The supplied 68.Ar path 69must be a colon 70.Dq \&: 71separated list of directories. 72This search path may also be set using the environment variable 73.Ev MANPATH . 74.It Fl m Ar path 75Augment the list of standard directories 76.Nm 77searches for its database named 78.Dq Pa whatis.db . 79The supplied 80.Ar path 81must be a colon 82.Dq \&: 83separated list of directories. 84These directories will be searched before the standard directories 85or the directories supplied with the 86.Fl M 87option or the 88.Ev MANPATH 89environment variable are searched. 90.El 91.Sh ENVIRONMENT 92.Bl -tag -width MANPATH 93.It Ev MANPATH 94The standard search path used by 95.Xr man 1 96may be overridden by specifying a path in the 97.Ev MANPATH 98environment variable. 99.El 100.Sh FILES 101.Bl -tag -compact -width /etc/man.conf1 102.It Pa whatis.db 103name of the whatis databases 104.It Pa /etc/man.conf 105.Xr man 1 106configuration file, used to get location of whatis databases if 107.Ev MANPATH 108is not set. 109.El 110.Sh SEE ALSO 111.Xr apropos 1 , 112.Xr man 1 , 113.Xr whereis 1 , 114.Xr man.conf 5 , 115.Xr makewhatis 8 116.Sh HISTORY 117The 118.Nm 119command appeared in 120.Bx 3.0 . 121