\" $NetBSD: whatis.1,v 1.5 2022/09/11 20:32:37 gutteridge Exp $

\" $NetBSD: whatis.1,v 1.5 2022/09/11 20:32:37 gutteridge Exp $
\"
\" Copyright (c) 2012 Joerg Sonnenberger <[email protected]>
\" All rights reserved.
\"
\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
\" are met:
\"
\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in
\" the documentation and/or other materials provided with the
\" distribution.
\"
\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
\" ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
\" LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS
\" FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
\" COPYRIGHT HOLDERS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
\" INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING,
\" BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
\" LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED
\" AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY,
\" OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT
\" OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
\" SUCH DAMAGE.
\"
Dd June 16, 2016
Dt WHATIS 1
Os
Sh NAME
Nm whatis
Nd describe what a command is
Sh SYNOPSIS
Nm
Op Fl C Ar path
Ar command Ar ...
Sh DESCRIPTION
The
Nm
program queries the apropos database built by
Xr makemandb 8 .
It searches for manual pages with name
Ar command
and outputs name of the matching manual pages along with the section and the
brief description from the NAME section.
Pp
It supports the following options:
Bl -tag -width indent
It Fl C Ar path
Use different
Xr man 1
configuration file than the default,
Pa /etc/man.conf .
El
Sh FILES
Bl -hang -width /etc/man.conf -compact
It Pa /etc/man.conf
The location of the SQLite FTS database can be configured using the
Cd _mandb
tag.
El
Sh SEE ALSO
Xr apropos 1 ,
Xr man 1 ,
Xr man.conf 5 ,
Xr makemandb 8
Sh HISTORY
The
Nm
command appeared in 3.0BSD.
It was rewritten in
Nx 6.0
to use the SQLite index created by
Xr makemandb 8 .