WHATIS(1)                  OpenBSD Reference Manual                  WHATIS(1)

NAME
     whatis - describe what a command is

SYNOPSIS
     whatis [-C file] [-M path] [-m path] command ...

DESCRIPTION
     whatis looks up a given command and gives the header line from the manual
     page.  You can then use the man(1) command to get more information.
     whatis will match on a case insensitive basis and for multiple word
     entries will match on each individual word.

     The options are as follows:

     -C file
             Specify an alternate configuration file in man.conf(5) format.
             The default is /etc/man.conf.

     -M path
             Override the list of standard directories whatis searches for its
             database named ``whatis.db''.  The supplied path must be a colon
             (`:') separated list of directories.  This search path may also
             be set using the environment variable MANPATH.

     -m path
             Augment the list of standard directories whatis searches for its
             database named ``whatis.db''.  The supplied path must be a colon-
             separated list of directories.  These directories will be
             searched before the standard directories or the directories
             supplied with the -M option or the MANPATH environment variable
             are searched.

ENVIRONMENT
     MANPATH  The standard search path used by man(1) may be overridden by
              specifying a path in the MANPATH environment variable.

FILES
     whatis.db      name of the whatis database
     /etc/man.conf  default man(1) configuration file

SEE ALSO
     apropos(1), man(1), whereis(1), which(1), man.conf(5), makewhatis(8)

HISTORY
     The whatis command appeared in 3.0BSD.

OpenBSD 4.9                     August 6, 2007                     OpenBSD 4.9