usr/src/usr.bin/whatis/whatis.1

.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1987 Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.  The Berkeley software License Agreement
.\" specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
.\"
.\"     @(#)whatis.1    6.4 (Berkeley) %G%
.\"
.TH WHATIS 1 ""
.UC 4
.SH NAME
whatis \- describe what a command is
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B whatis
[
.B -M
.I path
]
command ...
.SH DESCRIPTION
\fIWhatis\fP looks up a given command and gives the header line from the
manual page.  You can then use the \fIman\fP(1) command to get more
information.
.PP
Normally \fIwhatis\fP checks in a standard location (/usr/man) for its
database ``whatis''.  This can be changed by supplying a \fIpath\fP (a
la the Bourne shell) with the \fB-M\fP flag.  This search path must be
a colon (``:'') separated list of directories which \fIwhatis\fP will
search for files named ``whatis''.  The path can also be set with the
environmental variable \fIMANPATH\fP.
.SH FILES
.DT
/usr/man/whatis         data base
.SH "SEE ALSO"
apropos(1), man(1)