MAKEWHATIS(8)           OpenBSD System Manager's Manual          MAKEWHATIS(8)

NAME
     makewhatis - create a whatis.db database

SYNOPSIS
     makewhatis [-pv] [manpath ...]
     makewhatis [-pv] -d manpath files ...
     makewhatis [-pv] -u manpath files ...
     makewhatis [-pv] -t files

DESCRIPTION
     makewhatis extracts the NAME lines from compiled or raw man(1) pages and
     creates a whatis.db database (that is, a subject index) for use with
     apropos(1), whatis(1), and man(1)'s -k option.  If manpath is
     unspecified, makewhatis by default creates databases for each directory
     prefixed by the _whatdb keyword in /etc/man.conf.  Man pages compressed
     with compress(1) and gzip(1) are uncompressed before processing.

     If the -d option is used, makewhatis merges the description of files with
     an existing whatis.db database in manpath.

     If the -u option is used, makewhatis removes the description of files
     from an existing whatis.db database in manpath.

     By default, makewhatis is relatively silent.  If the -v is used,
     makewhatis will be more verbose about manpages with problems.  If the -p
     option is used, makewhatis is less forgiving and warns about incorrect
     man pages.

     The -t option can be used to check a set of potential man pages without
     changing any whatis.db database.

FILES
     whatis.db      index to man pages in directory
     /etc/man.conf  man configuration information

SEE ALSO
     apropos(1), man(1), whatis(1), man.conf(5)

BUGS
     makewhatis should parse /etc/man.conf and deal with extra configuration
     information.

     The use of heuristics to retrieve subjects from most man pages is not
     100% accurate.

OpenBSD 4.9                    February 22, 2011                   OpenBSD 4.9