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308 lines
6.7 KiB
Groff
308 lines
6.7 KiB
Groff
.TH MAKEWHATIS 8 "28 March 1998" GNO "System Administration"
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.SH NAME
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.B makewhatis
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\- generate the whatis database file
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.SH SYNOPSIS
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.B makewhatis
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[
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.B -c
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.B -C
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] [
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.BI -f " outfile"
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] [
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.BI -l " logfile"
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] [
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.BI -o " dbfile"
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] [
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.BI -p " path"
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] [
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.BI -v " n"
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] [
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.B -V
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]
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.SH DESCRIPTION
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This manual page documents
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.B makewhatis
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version 3.1.
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.LP
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.B makewhatis
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generates the whatis database for
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.BR apropos (1),
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.BR man (1),
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and
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.BR whatis (1).
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This database is a text file containing line oriented records. Each record
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contains a man page name, the section number, and the brief description.
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.LP
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.B Makewhatis
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makes use of one of the environment variables
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.BR MANPATH ,
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.BR USRMAN ,
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or
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.BR MANDIR ,
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in the listed order of preference. It will use this
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environment variable to determine for which manual pages the whatis
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database should be built. If the environment variable contains more than
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one path (delimited by either colons or spaces),
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then whatis databases will be generated
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in all of the specified paths. This may be overridden by the
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.BR -p
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flag.
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.LP
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By default,
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.BR makewhatis
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will generate its database from manual pages existing in the
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.IB manpath_component /man X
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subdirectories (where
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.I X
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is the section number)
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that are either
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.BR aroff
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or
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.BR nroff
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source files.
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However, since many GNO programmers are providing only preformatted
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text versions of their man pages, using the
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.I -c
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flag will cause
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.B makewhatis
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to also use manual pages in the
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.IB manpath_component /cat X
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subdirectories when building the database.
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If there is a corresponding manual page in both the
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.BI man X
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and
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.BI cat X
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subdirectory, then only the page in the
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.BI man X
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subdirectory will be used.
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.LP
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Manual pages which are
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.BR nroff
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source files in the
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.BI man X
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subdirectory, or are preformatted text in the
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.BI cat X
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subdirectory may be compressed by either
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.BR compress (1),
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.BR freeze (1),
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or
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.BR gzip (1),
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provided that the suffixes on the compressed file are
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.BR ".Z" ,
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.BR ".F" ,
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and
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.BR ".gz" ,
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respectively. The case of the suffix is significant.
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.BR Aroff
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source files
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.I "must not"
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be compressed by any method.
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.LP
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All
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.BR aroff
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link files are ignored. A file is assumed to be an
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.BR aroff
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link file if it ends in
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.B ".l"
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(dot lower-case ell) and is not within a
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.BR manl
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(man-ell) or a
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.BR catl
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(cat-ell) subdirectory.
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.LP
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Note that the lines in the whatis database file are created in the order
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that the man pages are found. It is suggested that the database files
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be sorted after
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.B makewhatis
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is finished. See
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.BR sort (1)
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or
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.BR msort (1) .
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.SH OPTIONS
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.IP "\fB\-c\fP"
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will check
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.BI cat X
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subdirectories as well as
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.BI man X
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subdirectories.
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.IP \fB\-C\fP
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will check
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.I only
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.BI cat X
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subdirectories,
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.I not
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.BI man X
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subdirectories.
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.IP "\fB-f\fR \fIoutfile\fR"
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causes the
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.B makewhatis
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status output to be placed in
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.IR outfile .
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Invoking
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.B -f
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without
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.B -v2
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produces no output.
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.IP "\fB-l\fR \fIlogfile\fR"
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will cause any error messages to be printed to
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.IR logfile .
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Invoking
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.B -l
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without either
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.B -v1
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or
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.B -v2
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produces no output.
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.IP "\fB-o\fR \fIdbfile\fR"
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will make
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.B makewhatis
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use
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.I dbfile
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as the name for the generated whatis databases. While it is possible to
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use a full pathname for
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.IR dbfile ,
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this will result in that file being overwritten for each colon- or
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space-delimited entry in
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.BR MANPATH .
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.IP "\fB-p\fR \fIpath\fR"
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overrides the environment variables
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.B MANPATH
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et al for determining for which manual page hierarchies the databases must
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be generated.
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.IP "\fB-v\fR \fIn\fR"
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creates verbose status messages during execution. For
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.IR n =1
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only major error messages are printed out. For
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.IR n =2,
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the names of processed files are also printed. For
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.IR n =3,
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the output becomes very verbose with excessive status information, including
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listing any missing subdirectores.
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.IP \fB-V\fR
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will show version and usage information, then exit.
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.SH ENVIRONMENT
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.BR MANPATH
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.br
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.BR USRMAN
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.br
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.BR MANDIR
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.RS
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Unless the
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.B -p
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flag is used,
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.B makewhatis
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will use the first that it finds of these environment variables for
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determining where database files should be generated. The search
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is done in the order shown. While
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.B makewhatis
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will correctly handle
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.RB ` ~ '
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and
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.RB ` . '
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being part of these paths, it will not correctly handle
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.RB ` .. '.
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.sp 1
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Either colons or spaces can be used to delimit the individual paths.
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If the value of the selected environment variable contains no spaces
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nor
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.B /
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characters (such as
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.BR :usr:local:man ),
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it is assumed to be a single path, not a list of paths.
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.sp 1
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Although
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.B makewhatis
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allows
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.BR USRMAN
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and
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.BR MANDIR
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to be each a colon- or space-separated list of pathnames,
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it is recommended that for compatibility with
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.BR man
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(version 2.1 and earlier) these variables, if used, should be
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a single pathname.
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.RE
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.SH CAVEATS
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.B Makewhatis
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assumes that the programs
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.BR aroff ,
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.BR compress ,
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.BR freeze ,
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and
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.BR gzip
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are available to the executing shell via the
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.BR system (2)
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call.
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.BR Nroff
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is not used and need not be available.
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.LP
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Because
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.B makewhatis
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looks for the string
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.B NAME
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and one of
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.BR .SH ,
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.BR SYNOPSIS ,
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or
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.B DESCRIPTION
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when processing files, it can be confused by missing fields or
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some methods of formatting. For example, if in a preformatted manual page
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.B NAME
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is underlined by repeated backspace-_ sequences, then the generated
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description for that particular man page is unpredictable,
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though usually blank. When parsing preformatted manual pages,
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.B makewhatis
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will understand the common double- and quadruple-boldfaced
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subheadings, provided
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that the backspace character (control-H) is used to achieve this effect.
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.LP
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Similarily,
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.B makewhatis
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expects the subheading
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.B NAME
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to be in the format:
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.nf
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NAME
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\fIcommand_name\fR [...] - \fIbrief description\fR
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.fi
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If this is not so (ignoring whitespace), then the output is unpredictable.
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.LP
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Man pages must be CR-delimited (ASCII 015, or control\-M).
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.LP
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Where unpredictable output has been mentioned above, this means that
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the description in the database file will either be blank or random
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text from the man page. It
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.I "does not"
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mean that system integrity or that the remainder of the database file
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has been affected.
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.LP
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Any text appearing after
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.B NAME
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on the NAME header line will be ignored.
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.SH BUGS
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.B Makewhatis
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reads files in blocks of 1024 characters.
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If formatting information is split by the end
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of the input buffer, you may see formatting infomation such as
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.B .BR
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in the output. This was not fixed due to the overhead of having to
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check for such a condition.
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.LP
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Please report any additional bugs to Devin Reade, <gdr@trenco.gno.org>.
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.SH FILES
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.nf
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/usr/[share/]man/whatis -- the whatis database
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.fi
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.SH SEE ALSO
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.BR apropos (1),
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.BR aroff (1),
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.BR catman (1),
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.BR compress (1),
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.BR freeze (1),
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.BR gzip (1),
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.BR man (1),
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.BR nroff (1),
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.BR whatis (1)
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