---
name: "whereis"
section: "1"
platform: "macos"
package: "shell_cmds"
version: "329"
release: "macOS 26.5"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "openbsd", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/whereis"
---

# whereis(1)

locate programs

## NAME

**whereis** – locate programs

## SYNOPSIS

**whereis** \[**-abmqu**\] \[**-BM** *dir* *...* **-f**\] *program* *...*

## DESCRIPTION

The **whereis** utility checks the standard binary, and manual page directories for the specified programs, printing out the paths of any it finds. The supplied program names are first stripped of leading path name components and any single trailing extension added by [gzip(1)](/gzip/1.md), [compress(1)](/compress/1.md), or [bzip2(1)](/bzip2/1.md).

The default path searched is the string returned by the [sysctl(8)](/sysctl/8.md) utility for the “user.cs\_path” string, with */usr/libexec* and the current user's $PATH appended. Manual pages are searched by default along the $MANPATH.

The following options are available:

- **-B**

  Specify directories to search for binaries. Requires the **-f** option.

- **-M**

  Specify directories to search for manual pages. Requires the **-f** option.

- **-a**

  Report all matches instead of only the first of each requested type.

- **-b**

  Search for binaries.

- **-f**

  Delimits the list of directories after the **-B**, **-M**, or **-S** options, and indicates the beginning of the *program* list.

- **-m**

  Search for manual pages.

- **-q**

  (“quiet”). Suppress the output of the utility name in front of the normal output line. This can become handy for use in a backquote substitution of a shell command line, see EXAMPLES.

- **-u**

  Search for “unusual” entries. A file is said to be unusual if it does not have at least one entry of each requested type. Only the name of the unusual entry is printed.

## EXAMPLES

The following finds all utilities under */usr/bin* that do not have documentation:

```
whereis -m -u /usr/bin/*
```

## SEE ALSO

[find(1)](/find/1.md), [locate(1)](/locate/1.md), [man(1)](/man/1.md), [which(1)](/which/1.md), [sysctl(8)](/sysctl/8.md)

## HISTORY

The **whereis** utility appeared in 3.0BSD. This version re-implements the historical functionality that was lost in 4.4BSD.

## AUTHORS

This implementation of the **whereis** command was written by Jörg Wunsch.

## BUGS

This re-implementation of the **whereis** utility is not bug-for-bug compatible with historical versions. It is believed to be compatible with the version that was shipping with FreeBSD 2.2 through FreeBSD 4.5 though.