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.\"	$Id: whatis.1,v 1.8 2012/03/24 01:54:43 kristaps Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2011, 2012 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv>
.\"
.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
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.\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
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.Dd $Mdocdate: March 24 2012 $
.Dt WHATIS 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm whatis
.Nd search for manual pages by page names
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl C Ar file
.Op Fl M Ar manpath
.Op Fl m Ar manpath
.Op Fl S Ar arch
.Op Fl s Ar section
.Ar name ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility searches databases generated by
.Xr mandocdb 8
for manuals containing the word
.Ar name
in their page name, ignoring case.
It returns the header lines from all matching pages.
You can then use the
.Xr man 1
command to get more information.
.Pp
By default,
.Nm
searches for
.Xr mandocdb 8
databases in the default paths stipulated by
.Xr man 1 .
If standard output is a TTY, a result may be selected from a list and
its manual displayed with the pager.
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl C Ar file
Specify an alternative configuration
.Ar file
in
.Xr man.conf 5
format.
.It Fl M Ar manpath
Use the colon-separated
.Ar manpath
instead of the default list of paths searched for
.Xr mandocdb 8
databases.
Invalid paths, or paths without manual databases, are ignored.
.It Fl m Ar manpath
Prepend the colon-separated
.Ar manpath
to the list of paths searched for
.Xr mandocdb 8
databases.
Invalid paths, or paths without manual databases, are ignored.
.It Fl S Ar arch
Search only for a particular architecture.
.It Fl s Ar cat
Search only for a manual section.
See
.Xr man 1
for a listing of manual sections.
.El
.Pp
Results are sorted by manual title, with output formatted as
.Pp
.D1 title(sec) \- description
.Pp
Where
.Qq title
is the manual's title (note multiple manual names may exist for one
title),
.Qq sec
is the manual section, and
.Qq description
is the manual's short description.
If an architecture is specified for the manual, it is displayed as
.Pp
.D1 title(cat/arch) \- description
.Pp
If on a TTY, results are prefixed with a numeric identifier.
.Pp
.D1 [index] title(cat) \- description
.Pp
One may choose a manual be entering the index at the prompt.
Valid choices are displayed using
.Ev MANPAGER ,
or failing that ,
.Ev PAGER
or just
.Xr more 1 .
Source pages are formatted with
.Xr mandoc 1 ;
preformatted pages with
.Xr cat 1 .
.Pp
.Nm
is identical to running
.Xr apropos 1
as follows:
.Pp
.Dl $ apropos -- -i 'Nm~[[:<:]]term[[:>:]]'
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Ev MANPAGER
Default pager for manuals.
If this is unset, falls back to
.Ev Pager .
.It Ev PAGER
The second choice for a manual pager.
If this is unset, use
.Xr more 1 .
.It Ev MANPATH
Colon-separated paths modifying the default list of paths searched for
manual databases.
Invalid paths, or paths without manual databases, are ignored.
Overridden by
.Fl M .
If
.Ev MANPATH
begins with a
.Sq \&: ,
it is appended to the default list;
else if it ends with
.Sq \&: ,
it is prepended to the default list; else if it contains
.Sq \&:: ,
the default list is inserted between the colons.
If none of these conditions are met, it overrides the default list.
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width "/etc/man.conf" -compact
.It Pa whatis.db
name of the
.Xr mandocdb 8
keyword database
.It Pa whatis.index
name of the
.Xr mandocdb 8
filename database
.It Pa /etc/man.conf
default
.Xr man 1
configuration file
.El
.Sh EXIT STATUS
.Ex -std
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr apropos 1 ,
.Xr man 1 ,
.Xr man.conf 5 ,
.Xr mandocdb 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
utility first appeared in
.Bx 2 .
It was rewritten from scratch as part of the
.Xr mandocdb 8
project for
.Ox 5.1 .
.Sh AUTHORS
.An -nosplit
.An Bill Joy
wrote the original
.Bx
.Nm
in 1979.
The current version was written by
.An Kristaps Dzonsons ,
.Mt kristaps@bsd.lv .