makewhatis(1)


NAME
     makewhatis - build the whatis(5) database

SYNOPSIS
     makewhatis directory

DESCRIPTION
     Makewhatis  makes  the  whatis(5)  database  in  the  given  manual  page
     directory.   This database is used by man(1) to map titles to manual page
     names and by whatis(1) to give one line descriptions.  See whatis(5)  for
     a  desciption  of  what  a  whatis  database  should  look  like  and the
     restrictions that are placed on the NAME sections so that makewhatis  can
     make whatis lines out of the manual pages.

SEE ALSO
     whatis(5).

BUGS
     Removing only font and size changes from the NAME section  is  often  not
     enough.

AUTHOR
     Kees J. Bot (kjb@cs.vu.nl)