summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/misc-utils/whereis.1.adoc
blob: 6a85e6c4c8c11e2d2e212e10152664db859fdf7e (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
//po4a: entry man manual
////
Copyright (c) 1980, 1990 The Regents of the University of California.
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:
1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
   documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
   must display the following acknowledgement:
    This product includes software developed by the University of
    California, Berkeley and its contributors.
4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
   may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
   without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
SUCH DAMAGE.

@(#)whereis.1 from UCB 4.2
////
= whereis(1)
:doctype: manpage
:man manual: User Commands
:man source: util-linux {release-version}
:page-layout: base
:command: whereis

== NAME

whereis - locate the binary, source, and manual page files for a command

== SYNOPSIS

*whereis* [options] [*-BMS* _directory_... *-f*] _name_...

== DESCRIPTION

*whereis* locates the binary, source and manual files for the specified command names. The supplied names are *first stripped of leading pathname components*. Prefixes of *s.* resulting from use of source code control are also dealt with. *whereis* then attempts to locate the desired program in the standard Linux places, and in the places specified by *$PATH* and *$MANPATH*.

The search restrictions (options *-b*, *-m* and *-s*) are cumulative and apply to the subsequent _name_ patterns on the command line. Any new search restriction resets the search mask. For example,

____
*whereis -bm ls tr -m gcc*
____

searches for "ls" and "tr" binaries and man pages, and for "gcc" man pages only.

The options *-B*, *-M* and *-S* reset search paths for the subsequent _name_ patterns. For example,

____
*whereis -m ls -M /usr/share/man/man1 -f cal*
____

searches for "*ls*" man pages in all default paths, but for "cal" in the _/usr/share/man/man1_ directory only.

== OPTIONS

*-b*::
Search for binaries.

*-m*::
Search for manuals.

*-s*::
Search for sources.

*-u*::
Only show the command names that have unusual entries. A command is said to be unusual if it does not have just one entry of each explicitly requested type. Thus '*whereis -m -u **' asks for those files in the current directory which have no documentation file, or more than one.

*-B* _list_::
Limit the places where *whereis* searches for binaries, by a whitespace-separated list of directories.

*-M* _list_::
Limit the places where *whereis* searches for manuals and documentation in Info format, by a whitespace-separated list of directories.

*-S* _list_::
Limit the places where *whereis* searches for sources, by a whitespace-separated list of directories.

*-f*::
Terminates the directory list and signals the start of filenames. It _must_ be used when any of the *-B*, *-M*, or *-S* options is used.

*-l*::
Output the list of effective lookup paths that *whereis* is using. When none of *-B*, *-M*, or *-S* is specified, the option will output the hard-coded paths that the command was able to find on the system.

*-g*::
Interpret the next names as a *glob(7)* patterns. *whereis* always compares only filenames (aka basename) and never complete path. Using directory names in the pattern has no effect. Don’t forget that the shell interprets the pattern when specified on the command line without quotes. It’s necessary to use quotes for the _name_, for example:
____
  whereis -g 'find*'
____

include::man-common/help-version.adoc[]

== FILE SEARCH PATHS

By default *whereis* tries to find files from hard-coded paths, which are defined with glob patterns. The command attempts to use the contents of *$PATH* and *$MANPATH* environment variables as default search path. The easiest way to know what paths are in use is to add the *-l* listing option. Effects of the *-B*, *-M*, and *-S* are displayed with *-l*.

== ENVIRONMENT

*WHEREIS_DEBUG*=all::
enables debug output.

== EXAMPLES

To find all files in _/usr/bin_ which are not documented in _/usr/man/man1_ or have no source in _/usr/src_:
____
*cd /usr/bin* +
*whereis -u -ms -M /usr/man/man1 -S /usr/src -f **
____
include::man-common/bugreports.adoc[]

include::man-common/footer.adoc[]

ifdef::translation[]
include::man-common/translation.adoc[]
endif::[]