1.\" $NetBSD: whatis.1,v 1.8 2003/08/07 11:17:16 agc 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. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 15.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 16.\" without specific prior written permission. 17.\" 18.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 19.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 20.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 21.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 22.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 23.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 24.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 25.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 26.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 27.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 28.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 29.\" 30.\" @(#)whatis.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 31.\" 32.Dd June 6, 1993 33.Dt WHATIS 1 34.Os 35.Sh NAME 36.Nm whatis 37.Nd describe what a command is 38.Sh SYNOPSIS 39.Nm 40.Op Fl C Ar path 41.Op Fl M Ar path 42.Op Fl m Ar path 43.Ar command Ar ... 44.Sh DESCRIPTION 45.Nm 46looks up a given command and gives the header line from the manual page. 47You can then use the 48.Xr man 1 49command to get more information. 50.Pp 51The options are as follows: 52.Bl -tag -width Fl 53.It Fl C Ar path 54Use different 55.Xr man 1 56configuration file than the default, 57.Pa /etc/man.conf . 58.It Fl M Ar path 59Override the list of standard directories 60.Nm 61searches for its database named 62.Dq Pa whatis.db . 63The supplied 64.Ar path 65must be a colon 66.Dq \&: 67separated list of directories. 68This search path may also be set using the environment variable 69.Ev MANPATH . 70.It Fl m Ar path 71Augment the list of standard directories 72.Nm 73searches for its database named 74.Dq Pa whatis.db . 75The supplied 76.Ar path 77must be a colon 78.Dq \&: 79separated list of directories. 80These directories will be searched before the standard directories 81or the directories supplied with the 82.Fl M 83option or the 84.Ev MANPATH 85environment variable are searched. 86.El 87.Sh ENVIRONMENT 88.Bl -tag -width MANPATH 89.It Ev MANPATH 90The standard search path used by 91.Xr man 1 92may be overridden by specifying a path in the 93.Ev MANPATH 94environment variable. 95.El 96.Sh FILES 97.Bl -tag -compact -width /etc/man.conf1 98.It Pa whatis.db 99name of the whatis databases 100.It Pa /etc/man.conf 101.Xr man 1 102configuration file, used to get location of whatis databases if 103.Ev MANPATH 104is not set. 105.El 106.Sh SEE ALSO 107.Xr apropos 1 , 108.Xr man 1 , 109.Xr whereis 1 , 110.Xr man.conf 5 , 111.Xr makewhatis 8 112.Sh HISTORY 113The 114.Nm 115command appeared in 116.Bx 3.0 . 117