whatis

vb whatis NAME [OPTIONS]

Description

Resolve the symbol NAME into its canonical artifact hash artifact name and provide a description of what role that artifact plays.

Options

-f, --file

Find artifacts with the same hash as file NAME. If NAME is -, read content from standard input.

-q, --quiet

Show nothing if NAME is not found

--type TYPE

Only find artifacts of TYPE (one of: ci, t, w, g, or e)

-v, --verbose

Provide extra information (such as the RID)

Examples

• Commit a file

$ vb ci -m "base"
Committed version: 9817a7dff1ad06db8c3785562ef10e087394c1fe1160c1b41e09f9c52ff3aeaa

• Resolve artifact by file content hash

$ vb whatis -f ver.txt -v
name:       ver.txt
artifact:   bedef797cd3184c3c7e620c5c231bbdd523f52ab19ca6301d037c7f2a3f99780 (2)
size:       2 bytes
received:   2026-03-31 13:00:49 from 
file:       ver.txt
            part of [9817a7dff1] by ubuntu on 2026-03-31 13:00:49
            base