makewhatis command isn't found on both Debian and Rocky Linux installs - reinstall of make-db didn't work.

[Priest_Apostate]

Currently using Debian 12 on my laptop, and Rocky version 9 on my desktop system.
While studying/researching, I found that the makewhatis command isn't found on either system.

STEPS TAKEN (all of which were performed under sudo):
1. I removed the man-db package from both (used nala on the Debian, dnf on the Rocky), rebooted both, and reinstalled the packages - to no avail.
2. I then looked online to check if that package has been deprecated - but there doesn't seem to be any documentation mentioning such.
3. After the reinstalls, I performed a mandb -c command - to no avail.
4. checked both installs' /usr/sbin - there was no file/directory for makewhatis in either installs' directory.


I don't think it is likely that both installs were corrupted - I did check both installs, confirmed their .iso signatures and their sig files' signatures to confirm that there was nothing wrong with either installation when I performed their installs.

How should I create and update the man files, with that command removed?

 

[wizardfromoz]

Moving this to Command Line, it will get better attention there.

Good luck.

Wiz

 

[osprey]

Currently using Debian 12 on my laptop, and Rocky version 9 on my desktop system.
While studying/researching, I found that the makewhatis command isn't found on either system.

STEPS TAKEN:
1. I removed the man-db package from both (used nala on the Debian, dnf on the Rocky), rebooted both, and reinstalled the packages - to no avail.
2. I then looked online to check if that package has been deprecated - but there doesn't seem to be any documentation mentioning such.
3. After the reinstalls, I performed a mandb -c command - to no avail.
4. checked both installs' /usr/sbin - there was no file/directory for makewhatis in either directory.


How should I create and update the man files, with that command removed?
I did check both installs, checked the signatures and their sig files' signatures to confirm that there was nothing wrong with either installation when I performed their installs.

It was quite unnecessary to remove the man-db package to search for the makewhatis command.
To find the makewhatis file, all that was necessary was to visit the debian packages site:
the debian packages site:

Debian -- Packages

There you enter the name of the file, in this case "makewhatis", and it would have returned the following:

You have searched for paths that end with makewhatis in suite bookworm, all sections, and all architectures. Found 1 results.
File    Packages
/usr/sbin/makewhatis    mandoc

This would let you know that the makewhatis executable file is in the mandoc package.

To inspect the mandoc package, one can run:

[tom@min ~/notes]$ apt-file list mandoc
mandoc: /usr/bin/demandoc                
mandoc: /usr/bin/mandoc
mandoc: /usr/bin/mapropos
mandoc: /usr/bin/mman
mandoc: /usr/bin/msoelim
mandoc: /usr/bin/mwhatis
mandoc: /usr/sbin/makewhatis
mandoc: /usr/sbin/mandocd
mandoc: /usr/sbin/mcatman
mandoc: /usr/share/doc/mandoc/changelog.Debian.amd64.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/doc/mandoc/changelog.Debian.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/doc/mandoc/changelog.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/doc/mandoc/copyright
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man1/demandoc.1.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man1/mandoc.1.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man1/mapropos.1.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man1/mman.1.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man1/msoelim.1.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man1/mwhatis.1.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man5/man.conf.5.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man5/mandoc.db.5.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man7/mandoc_char.7.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man7/mandoc_eqn.7.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man7/mandoc_man.7.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man7/mandoc_mdoc.7.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man7/mandoc_roff.7.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man7/mandoc_tbl.7.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man8/makewhatis.8.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man8/mandocd.8.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man8/mcatman.8.gz

The output shows that the makewhatis man page is included in the package, so it's just a matter of installing the package to acquire it.

 

[Priest_Apostate]

It was quite unnecessary to remove the man-db package to search for the makewhatis command.
To find the makewhatis file, all that was necessary was to visit the debian packages site:
the debian packages site:

Debian -- Packages

There you enter the name of the file, in this case "makewhatis", and it would have returned the following:

You have searched for paths that end with makewhatis in suite bookworm, all sections, and all architectures. Found 1 results.
File    Packages
/usr/sbin/makewhatis    mandoc

This would let you know that the makewhatis executable file is in the mandoc package.

To inspect the mandoc package, one can run:

[tom@min ~/notes]$ apt-file list mandoc
mandoc: /usr/bin/demandoc            
mandoc: /usr/bin/mandoc
mandoc: /usr/bin/mapropos
mandoc: /usr/bin/mman
mandoc: /usr/bin/msoelim
mandoc: /usr/bin/mwhatis
mandoc: /usr/sbin/makewhatis
mandoc: /usr/sbin/mandocd
mandoc: /usr/sbin/mcatman
mandoc: /usr/share/doc/mandoc/changelog.Debian.amd64.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/doc/mandoc/changelog.Debian.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/doc/mandoc/changelog.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/doc/mandoc/copyright
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man1/demandoc.1.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man1/mandoc.1.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man1/mapropos.1.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man1/mman.1.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man1/msoelim.1.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man1/mwhatis.1.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man5/man.conf.5.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man5/mandoc.db.5.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man7/mandoc_char.7.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man7/mandoc_eqn.7.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man7/mandoc_man.7.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man7/mandoc_mdoc.7.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man7/mandoc_roff.7.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man7/mandoc_tbl.7.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man8/makewhatis.8.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man8/mandocd.8.gz
mandoc: /usr/share/man/man8/mcatman.8.gz

The output shows that the makewhatis man page is included in the package, so it's just a matter of installing the package to acquire it.

Thanks much for that! I wasn't aware of the apt-file command - but that worked like gangbusters on the Debian system!

Checking to find the Red Hat/CentOS/Fedora equivalent for the desktop!

I am curious about something though: I was under the impression that makewhatis is installed by default on initial installs. With that in mind, why the need to take the extra step to install it?

 

[osprey]

I am curious about something though: I was under the impression that makewhatis is installed by default on initial installs. With that in mind, why the need to take the extra step to install it?

The packages in the various installation options of debian vary according to which one is selected. I can't say which variety may include the mandoc package which includes the makewhatis executable, but if, for example, one initially installed debian using the netinst installer, they'd find various choices available ranging from minimal through to fully featured desktop environments.

With modern online facilities to install any of many packages from the debian repos, the motivation to include lots of packages probably simply isn't present.

To check on the number of available package you can run the following, and smile:

[tom@min ~/notes]$ apt-cache show <TAB>
Display all 65481 possibilities? (y or n)

Hit "n" to avoid a large output, and note that <TAB> means, hit the TAB key. The "possibilities" the output is referring to are packages.