whereis(1)

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 and any (single) trailing  extension  of  the  form
   .ext  (for  example:  .c)  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.

EXAMPLE

   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 *

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.

AVAILABILITY

   The  whereis  command  is  part of the util-linux package and is
   available from Linux  Kernel  Archive  ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub
   /linux/utils/util-linux/.

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Free and Open Source Software