whatis(1)whatis(1)NAMEwhatis - Describes a command's function
SYNOPSISwhatis [-M pathname] keyword...
The whatis command looks up a keyword, which may be a command, system
call, library function, or special filename and displays the NAME line
from the reference page. You can then issue the man command to display
additional information.
OPTIONS
Specifies an alternative search path. The search path is a list of
directories, separated by : (colons), in which whatis expects to find
the standard manual subdirectories. (For more information, see the man
command.)
DESCRIPTION
The whatis command is equivalent to the man command with the -f option.
EXAMPLES
To find out what function the ls command performs, enter: whatis ls
FILES
Keyword database. Creates the whatis keyword database. Used by
mkwhatis to extract keywords from the manuals.
SEE ALSO
Commands: apropos(1), man(1), catman(8)whatis(1)