New email: weekly run output

[D G]

Hopefully this is a super quick question, but I couldn't find anything about this on google or the forum search. Today I got a new email from my freenas that I've never received before (I get the security and update emails regularly, and file those away), but today I got a new category of email:

The title is:
freenas.local weekly run output

And the only content of the email was:
Rebuilding whatis database:

-- End of weekly output --

What are these weekly emails for? What kind of information is usually conveyed in them? What is this in particular-why would it be rebuilding whatis database?

 

[BigDave]

I too, received that email. It's nothing. A UNIX database. My guess, bug related.

 

[DrKK]

I received it too.

Ignored it.

 

[Glorious1]

I don't know if the periodic weekly maintenance tasks (early Saturday morning) at /etc/periodic/weekly/ were running in previous versions, but some of them are now. I suspect they just enabled the whatis database building weekly. It's a command to help you find where commands reside.

There is also a locate database supposed to be built weekly, but it is purposefully disabled, apparently because it can become too big if you have a lot of files. locate is like find but easier to use.

Feature #8781

 

[joeschmuck]

Lets just say this is a weekly rebuild of the "whatis" database, why does this need to be done? Under what circumstances would this database need to be updated because as I understand it, the rebuild simply would update a database with a short description of the available commands and since the build of FreeNAS is well controlled, I don't' know how a new command could slip in. If someone is manually manipulating their copy of FreeNAS, well they could just rebuild the whatis database themselves, why force everyone to run this. I'm just struggling to understand why this task needs to run.

 

[Apollo]

I received it too.

Ignored it.

Saying to ignore it is irresponsible and definitely irrelevant and pointless.
Even though this seems a genuine action from the latest Freenas update, knowing what the "whatis" database is and what it is for is just common sense and will lead you to a better understanding of the Freenas system.

So I may ask the following:

- What is it for.
- What is the "whatis" database.
- What does that database contain?
- Do I need it and? if I do, then why running it only once a week apparently? or is it?
- Can I have it in different color? (I think this one is a complete nonsense)
- Is this going to conflict with my scrubs and SMART schedules?
- If I need to adjust any of the "whatis" parameter rebulding process, where do I go, how can I do it.
- Will a proper answer to the original post reduce forum postings?
- Why is it most of the e-mail reports are more or less cryptic?

 

[DrKK]

Saying to ignore it is irresponsible and definitely irrelevant and pointless.

Listen, you pompous jackass, I didn't recommend that people ignore it. I simply said that *I* was comfortable to ignore it. Any user, including yourself, is welcome to do whatever they please with that information, including disregarding it. I have no "responsibility" one way or the other.

 

[rogerh]

Listen, you pompous jackass, I didn't recommend that people ignore it. I simply said that *I* was comfortable to ignore it. Any user, including yourself, is welcome to do whatever they please with that information, including disregarding it. I have no "responsibility" one way or the other.

I do think that Apollo may have been speaking a little facetiously rather thean critically; ICBW!

 

[Apollo]

I do think that Apollo may have been speaking a little facetiously rather thean critically; ICBW!

Exactly.

*I* was comfortable to ignore it.

That's how I understood it.

However this leave me clueless about what the "whatis" database is for.

 

[Ericloewe]

Whatis seems to be similar to man, but simpler.

Something like whatis cat would return something like "cat - concatenate files and such".

Why this database is being rebuilt every few weeks is a good question, since it sounds like a rather static thing.

 

[rogerh]

Rather strange:

Code:

[root@mojave] ~# whatis csh
csh: nothing appropriate

Code:

[root@mojave] ~# whatis sh
nanobsd(8), nanobsd.sh(8) - utility used to create a FreeBSD system image suitable for embedded applications
sh(1)                    - command interpreter (shell)
(END)

I am sure it is useful for something!

 

[DrKK]

I do think that Apollo may have been speaking a little facetiously rather thean critically; ICBW!

Alright, well for the record, I react poorly when I am told that I am being "irresponsible" to the FreeNAS community.

I apologize if my reaction was not inline with reason.

 

[DrKK]

So, "whatis" appears to work like this:

It is a keyword search of the documentation. Try "whatis directory" and you'll see what I mean.

I'm not sure why "man" isn't sufficient, but, the "whatis" functionality appears to work on a keyed database of search terms, and that is what is being rebuilt.

 

[joeschmuck]

Why this database is being rebuilt every few weeks is a good question, since it sounds like a rather static thing.

Exactly my point.

And to some of the folks here who didn't know what it was... Neither did I however I did a Google search for "FreeBSD whatis" and it gave me results that were easy to understand.