2006-02-17 Fred Fish <fnf@specifix.com>

	* gdb.texinfo (Symbols): Update descriptions of 'whatis' and
	'ptype' commands to reflect the fact that the only significant
	difference between them is that ptype prints the complete type
	description instead of just the name.

2 files changed, 21 insertions, 18 deletions

diff --git a/gdb/doc/ChangeLog b/gdb/doc/ChangeLog
index 41010bf2a63..34e6358403e 100644
--- a/gdb/doc/ChangeLog
+++ b/gdb/doc/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+2006-02-17  Fred Fish  <fnf@specifix.com>
+
+	* gdb.texinfo (Symbols): Update descriptions of 'whatis' and
+	'ptype' commands to reflect the fact that the only significant
+	difference between them is that ptype prints the complete type
+	description instead of just the name.
+
 2006-02-13  Wu Zhou  <woodzltc@cn.ibm.com>
 
 	* gdbint.texinfo (Watchpoints): Delete
diff --git a/gdb/doc/gdb.texinfo b/gdb/doc/gdb.texinfo
index 77c59aa9013..ca8d80fe453 100644
--- a/gdb/doc/gdb.texinfo
+++ b/gdb/doc/gdb.texinfo
@@ -10363,27 +10363,23 @@ This is the opposite of the @code{info address} command.  You can use
 it to find out the name of a variable or a function given its address.
 
 @kindex whatis
-@item whatis @var{expr}
-Print the data type of expression @var{expr}.  @var{expr} is not
-actually evaluated, and any side-effecting operations (such as
-assignments or function calls) inside it do not take place.
+@item whatis [@var{arg}]
+Print the data type of @var{arg}, which can be either an expression or
+a data type.  With no argument, print the data type of @code{$}, the
+last value in the value history.  If @var{arg} is an expression, it is
+not actually evaluated, and any side-effecting operations (such as
+assignments or function calls) inside it do not take place.  If
+@var{arg} is a type name, it may be the name of a type or typedef, or
+for C code it may have the form @samp{class @var{class-name}},
+@samp{struct @var{struct-tag}}, @samp{union @var{union-tag}} or
+@samp{enum @var{enum-tag}}.
 @xref{Expressions, ,Expressions}.
 
-@item whatis
-Print the data type of @code{$}, the last value in the value history.
-
 @kindex ptype
-@item ptype @var{typename}
-Print a description of data type @var{typename}.  @var{typename} may be
-the name of a type, or for C code it may have the form @samp{class
-@var{class-name}}, @samp{struct @var{struct-tag}}, @samp{union
-@var{union-tag}} or @samp{enum @var{enum-tag}}.
-
-@item ptype @var{expr}
-@itemx ptype
-Print a description of the type of expression @var{expr}.  @code{ptype}
-differs from @code{whatis} by printing a detailed description, instead
-of just the name of the type.
+@item ptype [@var{arg}]
+@code{ptype} accepts the same arguments as @code{whatis}, but prints a
+detailed description of the type, instead of just the name of the type.
+@xref{Expressions, ,Expressions}.
 
 For example, for this variable declaration: