1.\" $NetBSD: whatis.1,v 1.4 1997/10/20 03:17:44 lukem 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 BSD 4 39.Sh NAME 40.Nm whatis 41.Nd describe what a command is 42.Sh SYNOPSIS 43.Nm 44.Op Fl M Ar path 45.Op Fl m Ar path 46.Ar command Ar ... 47.Sh DESCRIPTION 48.Nm 49looks up a given command and gives the header line from the manual page. 50You can then use the 51.Xr man 1 52command to get more information. 53.Pp 54The options are as follows: 55.Bl -tag -width Fl 56.It Fl M Ar path 57Override the list of standard directories 58.Nm 59searches for its database named 60.Dq Pa whatis.db . 61The supplied 62.Ar path 63must be a colon 64.Dq \&: 65separated list of directories. 66This search path may also be set using the environment variable 67.Ev MANPATH . 68.It Fl m Ar path 69Augment the list of standard directories 70.Nm 71searches for its database named 72.Dq Pa whatis.db . 73The supplied 74.Ar path 75must be a colon 76.Dq \&: 77separated list of directories. 78These directories will be searched before the standard directories 79or the directories supplied with the 80.Fl M 81option or the 82.Ev MANPATH 83environment variable are searched. 84.El 85.Sh ENVIRONMENT 86.Bl -tag -width MANPATH 87.It Ev MANPATH 88The standard search path used by 89.Xr man 1 90may be overridden by specifying a path in the 91.Ev MANPATH 92environment variable. 93.El 94.Sh FILES 95.Bl -tag -width whatis.db 96.It Pa whatis.db 97name of the whatis database 98.El 99.Sh SEE ALSO 100.Xr apropos 1 , 101.Xr man 1 , 102.Xr whereis 1 103.Sh HISTORY 104The 105.Nm 106command appeared in 107.Bx 3.0 . 108