.\"	$OpenBSD: makewhatis.8,v 1.20 2012/01/22 13:45:22 schwarze Exp $
.\"	$NetBSD: makewhatis.8,v 1.2.2.1 1997/11/10 19:57:45 thorpej Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1997 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation
.\" by Robert Dobbs <banshee@gabriella.resort.com>.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
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.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
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.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE NETBSD FOUNDATION, INC. AND CONTRIBUTORS
.\" ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
.\" TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
.\" PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE FOUNDATION OR CONTRIBUTORS
.\" BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
.\" CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
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.\"
.Dd $Mdocdate: January 22 2012 $
.Dt MAKEWHATIS 8
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm makewhatis
.Nd create a whatis.db database
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm makewhatis
.Op Fl pv
.Op Ar manpath ...
.Nm makewhatis
.Op Fl pv
.Fl d Ar manpath
.Ar files ...
.Nm makewhatis
.Op Fl pv
.Fl u Ar manpath
.Ar files ...
.Nm makewhatis
.Op Fl pv
.Fl t
.Ar files
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm
extracts the NAME lines from compiled or raw
.Xr man 1
pages and creates
a whatis.db database (that is, a subject index)
for use with
.Xr apropos 1 ,
.Xr whatis 1 ,
and
.Xr man 1 Ns 's
.Fl k
option.
If
.Ar manpath
is unspecified,
.Nm
by default creates databases for each directory prefixed by
the _whatdb keyword in
.Pa /etc/man.conf .
Man pages compressed with
.Xr compress 1
and
.Xr gzip 1
are uncompressed before processing.
.Pp
If the
.Fl d
option is used,
.Nm
merges the description of
.Ar files
with an existing
.Pa whatis.db
database in
.Ar manpath .
.Pp
If the
.Fl u
option is used,
.Nm
removes the description of
.Ar files
from an existing
.Pa whatis.db
database in
.Ar manpath .
.Pp
By default,
.Nm
is relatively silent.
If the
.Fl v
is used,
.Nm
will be more verbose about manpages with problems.
If the
.Fl p
option is used,
.Nm
is less forgiving and warns about incorrect man pages.
.Pp
The
.Fl t
option can be used to check a set of potential man pages without
changing any
.Pa whatis.db
database.
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /etc/man.conf -compact
.It Pa whatis.db
index to man pages in directory
.It Pa /etc/man.conf
man configuration information
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr apropos 1 ,
.Xr man 1 ,
.Xr whatis 1 ,
.Xr man.conf 5
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm
utility first appeared in
.Bx 2 .
It was rewritten in
.Xr perl 1
for
.Ox 2.7 .
.Pp
The
.Ar dir
argument first appeared in
.Nx 1.0 ;
the options
.Fl dptu
in
.Ox 2.7 ;
and the option
.Fl v
in
.Ox 4.9 .
.Sh AUTHORS
.An Bill Joy
wrote the original
.Bx
.Nm
in February 1979.
.An Marc Espie
started the Perl version in 2000.
.Sh BUGS
.Nm
should parse
.Pa /etc/man.conf
and deal with extra configuration information.
.Pp
The use of heuristics to retrieve subjects
from most man pages is not 100% accurate.