[NTLUG:Discuss] Portability of whatis [was: Re: Strings in BASH, an easier way?]

[Leroy Tennison]

Fred James wrote:
> Stephen Davidson wrote:
>> SuSE 10.3
>> steve at sda64:~> whatis --version
>> whatis, version 2.4.3, 2005-07-03
>> steve at sda64:~> man --version
>> man, version 2.4.3, 2005-07-03
>> steve at sda64:~>
>>
>> Just a suggestion.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Steve
> Stephen Davidson
> Portability is perhaps boring without all the latest bells and whistles, 
> but my leaning has always been for portability.  This little exercise 
> might be suggesting that 'whatis' isn't very?
> Regards
> Fred James
> 
> PS:  For what it may be worth: Mandriva 2008 and 2009 both return the 
> same for 'whatis --version' ... 'whatis from man -1.6e'
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> 
This unfortunately is a characteristic of *NIX, they aren't all created 
equal, not even the utilities.  With freedom of choice you also get 
variety with the inevitable result of inequality.  The good news is that 
some of this straightens out over time.  An earlier post mentioned 'man 
-k' to which  I thought "yea, if I wasn't on SuSE" because previous 
versions of SuSE included a man program which didn't have this switch. 
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the man program included 
with SuSE 10.3 does have it.