BSD 4_3_Tahoe development

[unix-history] / usr / man / cat1 / whatis.0

WHATIS(1)           UNIX Programmer's Manual            WHATIS(1)



N\bNA\bAM\bME\bE
    whatis - describe what a command is

S\bSY\bYN\bNO\bOP\bPS\bSI\bIS\bS
    w\bwh\bha\bat\bti\bis\bs [ -\b-M\bM _\bp_\ba_\bt_\bh ] command ...

D\bDE\bES\bSC\bCR\bRI\bIP\bPT\bTI\bIO\bON\bN
    _\bW_\bh_\ba_\bt_\bi_\bs looks up a given command and gives the header line
    from the manual page.  You can then use the _\bm_\ba_\bn(1) command
    to get more information.

    Normally _\bw_\bh_\ba_\bt_\bi_\bs checks in a standard location (/usr/man) for
    its database ``whatis''.  This can be changed by supplying a
    _\bp_\ba_\bt_\bh (a la the Bourne shell) with the -\b-M\bM flag.  This search
    path must be a colon (``:'') separated list of directories
    which _\bw_\bh_\ba_\bt_\bi_\bs will search for files named ``whatis''.  The
    path can also be set with the environmental variable _\bM_\bA_\bN_\b-
    _\bP_\bA_\bT_\bH.

F\bFI\bIL\bLE\bES\bS
    /usr/man/whatis          data base

S\bSE\bEE\bE A\bAL\bLS\bSO\bO
    apropos(1), man(1)































Printed 7/9/88            June 30, 1987                         1