The SunOS release 4.x man page table of contents and keyword database is called whatis. In the SunOS release 5.6 software, this information is in the windex file. In both releases, the database is created by the catman command, and is used by the man, apropos, and whatis commands.
The windex file also has a slightly different format than the whatis file, as you can see from the following comparison of the two release versions.
sunos4.1% man -k tset tset, reset (1) - establish or restore terminal characteristics |
sunos5.6% man -k tset reset tset (1b) - establish or restore terminal characteristics tset tset (1b) - establish or restore terminal characteristics |