diff --git a/man/mkindex b/man/mkindex
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..543bf1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/man/mkindex
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+#!/usr/local/plan9/bin/rc
+
+. 9.rc
+
+# creates the index used by lookman
+>lookman.index
+for(i in $PLAN9/man/man[0-9]*/[a-z0-9:]*.[0-9]*){
+	deroff -w_ < $i |
+	tr 'A-Z' 'a-z' |
+	sort -u |
+	comm -23 - junkwords |
+	sed 's@$@	'$i'@' >>lookman.index		# stick file name on end of line
+}
+sort -o lookman.index lookman.index