Hi,
The man page does not make it clear, but as far as I can tell
option '-u' only has an effect when one of the options '-bms'
is also specified. The command given in the EXAMPLE section:
whereis -u -M /usr/man/man1 -S /usr/src -f *
does not do what it says it does. A simpler example follows.
(For clarity I have inserted a blank line before each prompt.)
$ cd /bin
$ whereis open*
open: /bin/open /usr/share/man/man2/open.2.gz /usr/share/man/man1/open.1.gz
openvt: /bin/openvt /usr/share/man/man1/openvt.1.gz
$ whereis -u open*
open: /bin/open /usr/share/man/man2/open.2.gz /usr/share/man/man1/open.1.gz
openvt: /bin/openvt /usr/share/man/man1/openvt.1.gz
$ whereis -u -m open*
open: /usr/share/man/man2/open.2.gz /usr/share/man/man1/open.1.gz
$ whereis -u -m -M /usr/share/man/man1 -f open*
$ whereis -u -m -M /usr/share/man/man2 -f open*
openvt:
$ whereis -u -M /usr/share/man/man2 -f open*
open: /bin/open /usr/share/man/man2/open.2.gz
openvt: /bin/openvt
The latter is equivalent to what the example in the man page does,
but it lists all given names, not just the unusual ones.
Attached patch tries to improve the whereis man page.
(It also does a lot of minor editing all over the place.)
$ whereis -V
whereis from util-linux 2.20.1
But current git still behaves the same.
Benno
--
http://www.fastmail.fm - Accessible with your email software
or over the web
From 3c4dcbd7e379a8ac63b975bf0d607dde1696e1ec Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Benno Schulenberg <bensberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2013 23:01:09 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] textual: fix the example in whereis man page, plus further improvements
Signed-off-by: Benno Schulenberg <bensberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
misc-utils/whereis.1 | 83 ++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------------------
1 files changed, 41 insertions(+), 42 deletions(-)
diff --git a/misc-utils/whereis.1 b/misc-utils/whereis.1
index f7f7d29..86e6a39 100644
--- a/misc-utils/whereis.1
+++ b/misc-utils/whereis.1
@@ -30,109 +30,108 @@
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.\" @(#)whereis.1 from UCB 4.2
-.TH WHEREIS 1 "June 2012" "util-linux" "User Commands"
+.TH WHEREIS 1 "January 2013" "util-linux" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
whereis \- locate the binary, source, and manual page files for a command
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B whereis
.RB [ options ]
.RB [ \-BMS
-.IR directory ...
-.BR \-f ]
-.IR filename ...
+.IR directory "... " \fB\-f\fR ]
+.IR name ...
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B whereis
-locates source/binary and manuals sections for specified files.
+locates the binary, source and manual files for the specified command names.
The supplied names are first stripped of leading pathname components
and any (single) trailing extension of the form
-.BI . ext\fR,\fP
-for example,
-.BR .c .
+.BI . ext
+(for example:
+.BR .c )
Prefixes of
.B s.
resulting from use of source code control are also dealt with.
.B whereis
then attempts to locate the desired program in
-a list of standard Linux places.
+the standard Linux places, and in the places specified by
+.BR $PATH .
+
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.IP "\fB\-b\fP"
Search only for binaries.
.IP "\fB\-m\fP"
-Search only for manual sections.
+Search only for manuals.
.IP "\fB\-s\fP"
Search only for sources.
.IP "\fB\-u\fP"
-Search for unusual entries. A file is said to be unusual if it does
-not have one entry of each requested type. Thus
+Only show the command names that have unusual entries. A command
+is said to be unusual if it does
+not have just one entry of each explicitly requested type. Thus
.RB ` "whereis\ \ \-m\ \ \-u\ \ *" '
asks for those files in the current
-directory which have no documentation.
+directory which have no documentation file, or more than one.
.IP "\fB\-B \fIlist\fP"
-Change or otherwise limit the places where
+Limit the places where
.B whereis
-searches for binaries by white-space separated list of directories.
+searches for binaries, by a whitespace-separated list of directories.
.IP "\fB\-M \fIlist\fP"
-Change or otherwise limit the places where
+Limit the places where
.B whereis
-searches for manual sections by white-space separated list of directories.
+searches for manuals, by a whitespace-separated list of directories.
.IP "\fB\-S \fIlist\fP"
-.B \-S
-Change or otherwise limit the places where
+Limit the places where
.B whereis
-searches for sources white-space separated list of directories.
+searches for sources, by a whitespace-separated list of directories.
.IP "\fB\-f\fP"
-Terminate the last directory list and signals the start of file names,
-and
+Terminates the directory list and signals the start of filenames. It
.I must
be used when any of the
.BR \-B ,
.BR \-M ,
or
.BR \-S
-options are used.
+options is used.
+
.SH EXAMPLE
-Find all files in
+To find all files in
.B /usr/bin
which are not documented
in
.B /usr/man/man1
-with source in
+or have no source in
.BR /usr/src :
.IP
-.nf
-.ft B
-$ cd /usr/bin
-$ whereis \-u \-M /usr/man/man1 \-S /usr/src \-f *
-.fi
-.ft R
+.B $ cd /usr/bin
+.br
+.B $ whereis \-u \-ms \-M /usr/man/man1 \-S /usr/src \-f *
+
.SH FILES
.B whereis
-has basic set of hard-coded paths (see below). If the option
+contains a basic set of hard-coded paths (see below), but if the
.B \-B
-is not specified then also follows
+option is not specified, it also follows the
.B $PATH
environment variable (since version 2.21).
-
-.TP 20
+.IP
+.br
/{bin,sbin,etc}
-.TP
+.br
/usr/{lib,\:bin,\:old,\:new,\:local,\:games,\:include,\:etc,\:src,\:man,\:sbin,\:X386,\:TeX,\:g++-include}
-.TP
+.br
/usr/local/{X386,\:TeX,\:X11,\:include,\:lib,\:man,\:etc,\:bin,\:games,\:emacs}
.SH "SEE ALSO"
-.BR chdir (2V)
+.BR chdir (2)
.SH BUGS
Since
.B whereis
uses
-.BR chdir (2V)
+.BR chdir (2)
to run faster, pathnames given with the
+.BR \-B ,
.BR \-M ,
-.BR \-S ,
or
-.B \-B
-must be full; that is, they must begin with a
+.BR \-S
+options must be full; that is, they must begin with a
.RB ` / '.
.PP
.SH AVAILABILITY
--
1.7.0.4
