Open System Services Shell and Utilities Reference Manual (G06.25+, H06.03+)

Miscellaneous Files and Commands merge_whatis(8)
NAME
merge_whatis - Creates and updates the whatis database file used by the apropos, man, and
whatis commands
SYNOPSIS
merge_whatis
[MANPATH_entry ]
FLAGS
MANPATH_entry
Specifies the absolute pathname of the directory in which the whatis database
file should be located. If this operand is omitted, the default directory expected
by the man command (/usr/share/man) is used.
DESCRIPTION
The merge_whatis command allows you to create or replace the whatis database file that
corresponds to a set of installed reference (man) pages. To execute the merge_whatis command
for reference pages distributed by HP, your user ID must be the super ID. (This restriction is
imposed by the security of the directories that contain the files processed by the command.)
Use this command after you install an HP product for which reference pages are added to your
system or updated on your system. You can also use the merge_whatis command after adding
reference pages that are written on site or by other software vendors, provided the database file
file-naming convention and placement shown under FILES later in this reference page are met.
You can determine whether this command needs to be executed by recording the last-
modification dates for all files in the whatis.frag directory after each installation. After the next
installation, check the current dates against the dates you recorded from the previous installation.
If the last-modification date for any file changes after an installation, then the merge_whatis
command should be used.
EXAMPLES
1. Using the command to update the /usr/share/man/whatis file:
merge_whatis
FILES
/usr/share/man/whatis
Contains the default database used by the apropos, man, and whatis commands.
/usr/share/man/whatis.frag/whatis.fragment
Contains the database fragment files used to create the /usr/share/man/whatis
file.
For HP products, the fragment value is normally the Tandem product number (T
number) of the corresponding pax archive file that contains the product code.
Such pax archive files are installed from /G/tsvvol/zossutl/fragmentman.
MANPATH_entry/whatis
Contains an alternate database used by the apropos, man, and whatis com-
mands. The merge_whatis command can create this database file in any direc-
tory that contains directories of reference pages, provided the directory named
whatis.frag also exists in the directory specified by the MANPATH_entry
operand.
MANPATH_entry/whatis/whatis.frag/whatis.fragment
Contains the database fragment files used to create the MANPATH_entry/whatis
file. This set of files must be present in the directory specified by the
527188-003 Hewlett-Packard Company 12−17