---
name: "makewhatis"
section: "8"
platform: "macos"
package: "doc_cmds"
version: "69"
release: "macOS 26.5"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "openbsd", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/makewhatis"
---

# makewhatis(8)

create whatis database

## NAME

**makewhatis** – create whatis database

## SYNOPSIS

**makewhatis** \[**-a**\] \[**-i** *column*\] \[**-n** *name*\] \[**-o** *file*\] \[**-v**\] \[**-L**\] \[*directories* *...*\]

## DESCRIPTION

The **makewhatis** utility collects the names and short descriptions from all the unformatted man pages in the *directories* and puts them into a file used by the [whatis(1)](/whatis/1.md) and [apropos(1)](/apropos/1.md) commands. Directories may be separated by colons instead of spaces. If no *directories* are specified, the contents of the MANPATH environment variable will be used, or if that is not set, the default directory */usr/share/man* will be processed.

The options are as follows:

- **-a**

  Appends to the output file(s) instead of replacing them. The output will be sorted with duplicate lines removed, but may have obsolete entries.

- **-i** *column*

  Indents the description by *column* characters. The default value is 24.

- **-n** *name*

  Uses *name* instead of *whatis*.

- **-o** *file*

  Outputs all lines to the *file* instead of *\*/man/whatis*.

- **-v**

  Makes **makewhatis** more verbose about what it is doing.

- **-L**

  Process only localized subdirectories corresponding to the locale specified in the standard environment variables.

## ENVIRONMENT

- LC\_ALL, LC\_CTYPE, LANG

  These variables control what subdirectories will be processed if the **-L** option is used.

- MACHINE

  If set, its value is used to override the current machine type when searching machine specific subdirectories.

- MANPATH

  Determines the set of directories to be processed if none are given on the command line.

## FILES

- */usr/share/man*

  Default directory to process if the MANPATH environment variable is not set.

- *\*/man/whatis*

  The default output file.

## DIAGNOSTICS

The **makewhatis** utility exits 0 on success, and \>0 if an error occurs.

## SEE ALSO

[apropos(1)](/apropos/1.md), [whatis(1)](/whatis/1.md)

## HISTORY

The **makewhatis** command appeared in FreeBSD 2.1.

## AUTHORS

The **makewhatis** program was originally written in Perl and was contributed by Wolfram Schneider. The current version of **makewhatis** was rewritten in C by John Rochester.