whatis

[gngrossi]

Not sure what to expect... thanks

output from a Linux on Z RHEL 7.x server

$ whatis ls ls (1p) - list directory contents ls (1) - list directory contents

output from an x86 RHEL 8.x server

$ whatis ls ls: nothing appropriate.

--

RC=(0) [SYSA] bash-5.2$ which whatis /hewitt/zopentools/guild/man-db-2.10.2/bin/whatis

RC=(0) [SYSA] bash-5.2$ whatis ls ls: nothing appropriate.

RC=(16) [SYSA] bash-5.2$ whatis --version whatis 2.10.2

RC=(0) [SYSA] bash-5.2$ whatis --help Usage: whatis [OPTION...] KEYWORD...

-d, --debug emit debugging messages -v, --verbose print verbose warning messages -r, --regex interpret each keyword as a regex -w, --wildcard the keyword(s) contain wildcards -l, --long do not trim output to terminal width -C, --config-file=FILE use this user configuration file -L, --locale=LOCALE define the locale for this search -m, --systems=SYSTEM use manual pages from other systems -M, --manpath=PATH set search path for manual pages to PATH -s, --sections=LIST, --section=LIST search only these sections (colon-separated) -?, --help give this help list --usage give a short usage message -V, --version print program version

Mandatory or optional arguments to long options are also mandatory or optional for any corresponding short options. Report bugs to cjwatson@debian.org.

[MikeFultonDev]

@gngrossi Both whatis andapropos require that you run mandb on the GNU man pages to generate an index. After you've done this, you can see one-liners for matching man pages for whatis. For example: whatis iconv should print out:

You should see a raw text match of headers with apropos, e.g. apropos iconv should print out:

[MikeFultonDev]

Simplest way to get all the GNU man pages set up is:

cd ~/zopen/boot
mandb .
cd ~/zopen/prod
mandb .

This will setup indexes for your 'prod' and 'boot' tools

[gngrossi]

bash-5.2$ man --version man 2.10.2

after running mandb for the first time

mandb_output.txt

bash-5.2$ whatis apropos apropos (1) - search the manual page names and descriptions

bash-5.2$ whatis iconv iconv (1) - character set conversion iconv (3) - perform character set conversion

bash-5.2$ whatis vim vim (1) - Vi IMproved, a programmer's text editor

[MikeFultonDev]

ok - what looks right to me. Any concerns or can we close?

[gngrossi]

Does this look OK for the mandb output? thanks

mandb: warning: $MANPATH set, ignoring /u/jenkins/zopen/prod/man-db-2.10.2/etc/man_db.conf mandb: warning: no MANDB_MAP directives in /u/jenkins/zopen/prod/man-db-2.10.2/etc/man_db.conf, using your manpath

EDC5129I No such file or directory. mandb: warning:

Processing manual pages under /hewitt/coz/current/doc/man... mandb: can't update index cache /hewitt/coz/current/doc/man/84546389: EDC5129I No such file or directory. Updating index cache for path `/hewitt/coz/current/doc/man/man5'. Wait...done. Checking for stray cats under /hewitt/coz/current/doc/man... Processing manual pages under /hewitt/coz/current/doc/man/cat1... mandb: can't update index cache /hewitt/coz/current/doc/man/cat1/84546389: EDC5129I No such file or directory. Processing manual pages under /hewitt/coz/current/doc/man/cat5... mandb: can't update index cache /hewitt/coz/current/doc/man/cat5/84546389: EDC5129I No such file or directory.

Processing manual pages under /usr/lpp/ported/man/C... mandb: warning: cannot create catdir /usr/lpp/ported/man/C/cat1

Removing obsolete cat directory /hewitt/coz/current/doc/man/cat1/catsearch.1...

73 man subdirectories contained newer manual pages. 5746 manual pages were added. 0 stray cats were added. 0 old database entries were purged.

[MikeFultonDev]

Yes – that’s similar to what I see. Did you say ‘mandb .’ or just ‘mandb’ ? If just mandb, it is probably using your MANPATH to update indexes and when it tries to look at the system ‘man’, it doesn’t have update access to it (which is good!)

[gngrossi]

I ran: bash-5.2$ pwd /hewitt/zopentools/guild

then mandb

Should I run mandb . instead?

Also, the update below, was that OK?

Processing manual pages under /hewitt/coz/current/doc/man... mandb: can't update index cache /hewitt/coz/current/doc/man/84546389: EDC5129I No such file or directory. Updating index cache for path `/hewitt/coz/current/doc/man/man5'. Wait...done. Checking for stray cats under /hewitt/coz/current/doc/man... Processing manual pages under /hewitt/coz/current/doc/man/cat1... mandb: can't update index cache /hewitt/coz/current/doc/man/cat1/84546389: EDC5129I No such file or directory. Processing manual pages under /hewitt/coz/current/doc/man/cat5... mandb: can't update index cache /hewitt/coz/current/doc/man/cat5/84546389: EDC5129I No such file or directory.

Removing obsolete cat directory /hewitt/coz/current/doc/man/cat1/catsearch.1...

[gngrossi]

bash-5.2$ pwd /hewitt/zopentools/guild

bash-5.2$ mandb . mandb_output2.txt

[MikeFultonDev]

ok. so... i guess i shouldn't just punt on those messages - i was thinking it was 'working as designed' but i haven't validated that (i.e. the cache messages are 'ok'). Can you change the title to 'validate messages from mandb .' or something like that since I think 'whatis' is ok, but perhaps mandb isn't ?

[gngrossi]

Closing issue and opening a new issue "Validate messages from mandb".