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Asked: 2026-06-09T02:43:34+00:00

For some odd reason, the whatis command in my Unix shell (cygwin) is not

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For some odd reason, the “whatis” command in my Unix shell (cygwin) is not working. It constantly returns “ls: nothing appropriate” or “cd: nothing appropriate”. I’m wondering if there is something incorrectly set-up. Does anyone have any light to shed? Thanks!

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    From the Cygwin FAQ:

    Why doesn’t man -k (or apropos) work?

    Before you can use man -k or apropos, you must create the whatis database. Just run the command

    mandb

    (it may take a minute to complete).

    (Note: It used to say /usr/sbin/makewhatis instead of mandb in older versions of that FAQ.)

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