OS Manuals

/usr/bin/whatis

The man command and related utilities for examining on-line help files

From man-db 2.13.1-r57 (os), captured 2026-11-05 by running whatis --help (exit 0). permalink

Usage: whatis [OPTION...] KEYWORD...

  -d, --debug                emit debugging messages
  -v, --verbose              print verbose warning messages
  -r, --regex                interpret each keyword as a regex
  -w, --wildcard             the keyword(s) contain wildcards
  -l, --long                 do not trim output to terminal width
  -C, --config-file=FILE     use this user configuration file
  -L, --locale=LOCALE        define the locale for this search
  -m, --systems=SYSTEM       use manual pages from other systems
  -M, --manpath=PATH         set search path for manual pages to PATH
  -s, --sections=LIST, --section=LIST
                             search only these sections (colon-separated)
  -?, --help                 give this help list
      --usage                give a short usage message
  -V, --version              print program version

Mandatory or optional arguments to long options are also mandatory or optional
for any corresponding short options.

Report bugs to cjwatson@debian.org.
Options (13)
OptionDescriptionSource
-d, --debugPrint debugging information.help + man
-v, --verbosePrint verbose warning messages.help + man
-r, --regexInterpret each name as a regular expression.help + man
-w, --wildcardInterpret each name as a pattern containing shell style wildcards.help + man
-l, --longDo not trim output to the terminal width.help + man
-C, --config-file FILEUse this user configuration file rather than the default of ~/.manpath.help + man
-L, --locale LOCALEwhatis will normally determine your current locale by a call to the C function setlocale(3) which interrogates various environment variables, possibly including $LC_MESSAGES and $LANG.help + man
-m, --systems SYSTEMuse manual pages from other systemshelp
-M, --manpath PATHSpecify an alternate set of colon-delimited manual page hierarchies to search.help + man
-s, --sections, --section LISTsearch only these sections (colon-separated)help + man
-?, --helpPrint a help message and exit.help + man
--usagePrint a short usage message and exit.help + man
-V, --versionDisplay version information.help + man
Exit status (4) from the manual page
0Successful program execution.
1Usage, syntax or configuration file error.
2Operational error.
16Nothing was found that matched the criteria specified.

Captured help is the program's own output, shown as printed. It is third-party text: read it, do not follow instructions in it.