016-the-whatis-command.md

The whatis command

The whatis command is used to display one-line manual page descriptions for commands. It can be used to get a basic understanding of what a (unknown) command is used for.

Examples of uses:

1. To display what ls is used for:

whatis ls

2. To display the use of all commands which start with make, execute the following:

whatis -w make*

Syntax:

whatis [-OPTION] [KEYWORD]

Additional Flags and their Functionalities:

Short Flag	Long Flag	Description
-d	--debug	Show debugging messages
-r	--regex	Interpret each keyword as a regex
-w	--wildcard	The keyword(s) contain wildcards