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