whatis(1)							     whatis(1)

NAME
       whatis - Describes a command's function

SYNOPSIS
       whatis [-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)

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