Command: whatis
Displays descriptions of programs based on the Appinfo (.LSM)
files.
Use APROPOS to find programs that are apropriate for the given
subject.
Use WHATIS with a program name to get a one line description of that
program.
Use WHATIS without a program name to get a one line description of
all the external programs and utilities in your FreeDOS installation.
Internal commands (commands of command.com) are not displayed.
Syntax:
APROPOS [options] subject
Find commands related to the given subject
WHATIS [options] [command]
Displays a one-line description of the given command.
If no command is specified, all commands and their
one-line descriptions are listed
WHATIS /B [options]
Rebuilds the whatis database for use with WHATIS and APROPOS
Options:
/S [path] Non-default path to the lsm appinfo files.
/D [path] Non-default path for whatis database location.
/? Shows the help.
Comments:
These are FreeDOS clones of the GNU/Linux commands "apropos and whatis"
APROPOS and WHATIS base their help on the lsm files stored in the
APPINFO directory.
The first time it is run, APROPOS / WHATIS builds a database and stores
it in the help directory in the FreeDOS installation. This database can
be recreated by using:
WHATIS /B
Examples:
apropos edit will display a list of editors
apropos disk will display a list of disk utilities
whatis edit will display a short information about edit
whatis will display a short information about the DOS commands
See also:
apropos
fasthelp
fdhelp
help
How to use the Help
htmlhelp
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (C) 2003 Robert Platt, updated 2007 and 2020 by W. Spiegl.
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO.
See the file H2Cpying for copying conditions.