whatis(1)
NAME
whatis − describe what a command is
SYNOPSIS
whatis command ...
DESCRIPTION
whatis looks up a given command and gives the header line from the manual section. You can then run the man(1) command to get more information. If the line starts ‘name(section) ...’ you can do man section name to get the documentation for it. Try whatis ed and then you should do man 1 ed to get the manual.
whatis is actually just the −f option to the man(1) command.
FILES
/usr/lib/whatis Data base
/usr/lib/makewhatis Build script
SEE ALSO
AUTHOR
William Joy
CX/UX User’s Reference Manual