NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     makewhatis - create a whatis.db database

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     makewhatis [-p] [manpath ...]
     makewhatis [-p] -d manpath files ...
     makewhatis [-p] -u manpath files ...
     makewhatis [-p] -t files

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     makewhatis strips 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.

     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    [Toc]    [Back]

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

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

     apropos(1), man(1), nroff(1), whatis(1), man.conf(5)

BUGS    [Toc]    [Back]

     makewhatis should parse /etc/man.conf and  deal  with  extra
configuration
     information.   In particular, it does not handle nroff(1) me
format.
     Likewise, its use of heuristics to  retrieve  subjects  from
most man pages
     is not 100% accurate.

OpenBSD      3.6                         October     17,     1997