WHATIS(5MAN)            COMMAND REFERENCE            WHATIS(5MAN)



NAME
     whatis - manual page description database

DESCRIPTION
     The commands apropos and whatis search files known as
     whatisdatabases.  These databases are created by the command
     makewhatis and should exist in each manual page directory.

     A whatis database will contain a listing for each manual
     page in the manual page directories.  The file is sorted by
     section number, but pages are not sorted within each
     section.

     Each database entry has three fields separated by tabs, and
     no entry may contain tabs.  The entries are separated by
     newlines.  The first field of the entry is the manual page
     name.  The second field of the entry is the manual page
     section.  The last field is the manual page description.
     Most manual pages will have a NAME section like:

          command - what this command does

     This will cause one entry of the form:

           command<TAB>section<TAB>description


     Some manual pages will have a NAME section like:

          command1, command2, ... - what these commands do

     In this case, there will be a database entry for each of
     `command1', `command2', and so forth.  Each entry will have
     the same section and description fields, but each name field
     will be different.  (These correspond to links made by
     makewhatis for multiple commands.)

FILES
     whatis                   Special manual page description
                              database.

SEE ALSO
     apropos(1man), buildif(1man), help(1man), makewhatis(1man),
     man(1man), section(1man), whatis(1man), man(5man),
     manindex(5man), catman(8man).










Printed 10/17/86                                                1

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