WHATIS(1)                  Commands and Applications                 WHATIS(1)

NAME

       whatis, apropos - locate commands by name or keyword lookup

SYNOPSIS

       apropos [[ -Mpath ] | [ -mpath ]] [ -nV ] keyword ...
       whatis [[ -Mpath ] | [ -mpath ]] [ -nV ] keyword...

DESCRIPTION

       whatis  shows  the manual page title line for the specified keyword(s),
       while apropos shows which manual pages contain instances of any of  the
       given  keyword(s)  in  their title line.  Each word is considered sepa‐
       rately and, for the GNO implementation, the case of letters is ignored.
       Words  which  are  part of other words are considered; when looking for
       compile, apropos will also list all instances of compiler.

       If a line output by either of these commands starts with

            name (section) ...

       you can enter manname or man section name to get its documentation.

OPTIONS

       -M path
              Override the list of  standard  directories  apropos  or  whatis
              search  for  the  whatis  database.  The supplied path must be a
              colon- or space-delimited list of directories.  This search path
              may  also  be  set  using the environment variable MANPATH.  The
              space delimiter is provided for compatibility with  GS/OS's  use
              of  the  colon as a pathname component delimiter.  If the search
              path contains no spaces  nor  /  characters  (such  as  :usr:lo����
              cal:man),  it  is  assumed  to  be  a single path, not a list of
              paths.  If spaces are used as delimiters, remember to quote them
              from the shell.

       -m path
              Augment  the  list  of  standard  directories  apropos or whatis
              search for its database.  The supplied path must be a colon-  or
              space-delimited  list of directories.  These directories will be
              searched after the standard directories or the directories  sup‐
              plied by the MANPATH environment variable are searched.  If spa‐
              ces are used as delimiters, remember  to  quote  them  from  the
              shell.

       -n     Normally, in addition to searching the various whatis databases,
              apropos and whatis will also search the  Orca  shell  15/syscmnd
              file.   Specifying the -n flag will keep apropos and whatis from
              searching this file.

       -V     Show version information.

ENVIRONMENT

       MANPATH
              If set, its value overrides /usr/man as the list of  directories
              where  apropos  and  whatis search for their databases.  (The -M
              flag, in turn, overrides this value.)  See  the  description  of
              the -M flag for syntax details.

       USRMAN If  MANPATH  is not set, then the value of USRMAN (if set) over‐
              rides /usr/man as the list  of  directories  where  apropos  and
              whatis search for their databases.  (The -M flag, in turn, over‐
              rides this value.)  See the description of the -M flag for  syn‐
              tax details.

       MANDIR If  neither  MANPATH nor USRMAN is set, then the value of MANDIR
              (if set) overrides /usr/man as the  list  of  directories  where
              apropos and whatis search for their databases.  (The -M flag, in
              turn, overrides this value.)  See the description of the -M flag
              for syntax details.

VERSION

       This manual page documents apropos and whatis versions 3.1.

FILES

       /usr/[share/]man/whatis - The whatis(1) database.

SEE ALSO

       man(1), whereis(1), catman(8), makewhatis(8)

HISTORY

       The  GNO  version  of apropos first appeared in GNO version 1.0 and was
       written by Mike Horwath.  This version was rewritten  from  scratch  by
       Devin Reade.



GNO                              28 March 1998                       WHATIS(1)