makewhatis(1M)							makewhatis(1M)

NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     makewhatis, manwhat - make	manual page "whatis" database for use with
     apropos

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     /usr/lib/makewhatis [-M manpath] [filename]

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     makewhatis	scans the manual page (also known as reference page) trees,
     parses the	manual pages, and strips out the NAME section information to
     create the	"whatis" database used by apropos(1), man(1), and whatis(1).

     By	default, makewhatis creates the	file /usr/share/catman/whatis.
     Another file can be created as the	database by specifying its filename on
     the command line.

     An	alternate manual page tree can be specified by using the -M option to
     specify a path or paths to	a manual page tree or trees.  See the
     discussion	of the -M option in man(1) for more details.

     The format	of the "whatis"	file is	based on that used by William Joy's UC
     Berkeley version of apropos.

ENVIRONMENT    [Toc]    [Back]

     The environment variables used by man(1) apply to makewhatis.

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

     awf(1), apropos(1), man(1), sgindexAdmin(1), whatis(1).

FILES    [Toc]    [Back]

     /usr/share/catman		manual page tree
     /usr/share/catman/whatis	"whatis" database
     /usr/lib/manwhat The specialized version of the man(1) program that is
     used to build the database.

CAVEATS    [Toc]    [Back]

     Expect execution times of about 10-30 minutes, depending on the number of
     manual pages installed.  The reason is that the first portion of EVERY
     manual page on the	system is read.

     If	unformatted (nroff source) man pages are present, the dwb product
     should be installed, or makewhatis	may issues warning messages, because
     it	falls back on an awk script called awf(1) that emulates	nroff -man.

     You must run makewhatis as	root.

NOTE    [Toc]    [Back]

     This program is run automatically in the background during	system bootup,
     whenever products have been installed or removed (when /var/inst/hist is
     newer than	/usr/s), from the script /etc/init.d.configmsg.	 As of the
     IRIX 6.5 release, the sgindexAdmin(1) program will	run first, and use the
     installed information where possible, to reduce runtime.  Only if that



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makewhatis(1M)							makewhatis(1M)



     program is	not found, or fails, will makewhatis run to build the
     database.

     Manual pages in source form that use the .so directive will cause
     makewhatis	to complain that the other file	can't be found,	unless it is a
     full pathname.


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