makewhatis

NAME

       makewhatis - builds the whatis manual database

SYNOPSIS

       makewhatis [-h] [-v] [-u] [-w] [manpath]

DESCRIPTION

       Makewhatis builds and updates the whatis databases used by
       apropos(1).  It requires Perl(1) version 4  or  higher  to
       run.

OPTIONS

       Makewhatis accepts the following options:

       -h      Print a brief help message and exit.


       -u      Update  the database with newer manual pages only.
               The default is to completely rebuild the database.


       -v      Verbose operation.


       -w      Use  `man  -w` to obtain the manpath.  This may be
               used in addition to a user-specified manpath.


       -c      This option is silently ignored on purpose.


       manpath A colon-seperated list of directories to  process,
               such  as "/usr/man:/usr/local/man".  More than one
               manpath may be specified, but if  none  is  speci-
               fied,  and the -w switch is not set, then the con-
               tents of the $MANPATH environment variable will be
               used.

ENVIRONMENT

       MANPATH Default path of directories to process.

SEE ALSO

       apropos(1),man(1),zcat(1)

BUGS

       Not  all possible nroff commands are detected and filtered
       out of source man pages; more will be added  as  they  are
       needed.

       The processing for "pre-processed" man pages is also prob-
       ably incomplete; this too will be modified as necessary.

       Although duplicate entries are filtered out of  the  path,
       there is currently no check for links pointing to the same
       directories, which means a directory may be processed more
       than once.

       Any manpath specified may not start with a dash character.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 1995 by Steve "Mr. Bassman" Bryant

       Permission is hereby given to  redistribute  this  program
       and  accompanying  manual page at no cost to the recipient
       (media fee notwithstanding), providing it  is  distributed
       in its entirety.  It may not be modified or be included in
       any commercial product without the author's permission.

WARNING

       This software is provided "as-is", with no warranty  what-
       soever.   Use  it  entirely at your own risk.  Neither the
       author nor the supplier  of  this  software  may  be  held
       responsible for any damage caused due to the use or misuse
       of this software.

AUTHOR

       This version was written in Perl  from  scratch  by  Steve
       "Mr. Bassman" Bryant <spbryant@tardis.soc.staffs.ac.uk>

       Don't  expect a quick response to email - I currently have
       no net access myself, although at the time  of  writing  I
       may be reached at itbryant@hpbbi26.bbn.hp.com.