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 ALSOapropos(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
