diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 52d84cdd8..ce814eede 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1651,7 +1651,11 @@ if test "x$matriplet" != "x"; then
   AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED([MULTIARCHTRIPLET], ["$matriplet"],
   ["Multi-arch triplet for whereis library search path"])
 fi
-UL_BUILD_INIT([whereis], [yes])
+AC_ARG_ENABLE([whereis],
+  AS_HELP_STRING([--disable-whereis], [do not build whereis]),
+  [], [UL_DEFAULT_ENABLE([whereis], [check])]
+)
+UL_BUILD_INIT([whereis])
 AM_CONDITIONAL([BUILD_WHEREIS], [test "x$build_whereis" = xyes])
 
 UL_BUILD_INIT([getopt], [yes])
diff --git a/misc-utils/whereis.1 b/misc-utils/whereis.1
index 08e351cec..2ecc70f21 100644
--- a/misc-utils/whereis.1
+++ b/misc-utils/whereis.1
@@ -42,11 +42,7 @@ whereis \- locate the binary, source, and manual page files for a command
 .SH DESCRIPTION
 .B whereis
 locates the binary, source and manual files for the specified command names.
-The supplied names are first stripped of leading pathname components and any
-(single) trailing extension of the form
-.BI . ext
-(for example:
-.BR .c )
+The supplied names are first stripped of leading pathname components.
 Prefixes of
 .B s.
 resulting from use of source code control are also dealt with.
diff --git a/misc-utils/whereis.c b/misc-utils/whereis.c
index 7a28a2c35..db092ce60 100644
--- a/misc-utils/whereis.c
+++ b/misc-utils/whereis.c
@@ -107,10 +107,12 @@ static const char *bindirs[] = {
 	"/usr/local/lib/" MULTIARCHTRIPLET,
 #endif
 	"/usr/lib",
+	"/usr/lib32",
 	"/usr/lib64",
 	"/etc",
 	"/usr/etc",
 	"/lib",
+	"/lib32",
 	"/lib64",
 	"/usr/games",
 	"/usr/games/bin",
@@ -390,29 +392,32 @@ static void free_dirlist(struct wh_dirlist **ls0, int type)
 }
 
 
-static int filename_equal(const char *cp, const char *dp)
+static int filename_equal(const char *cp, const char *dp, int type)
 {
 	int i = strlen(dp);
 
 	DBG(SEARCH, ul_debug("compare '%s' and '%s'", cp, dp));
 
-	if (dp[0] == 's' && dp[1] == '.' && filename_equal(cp, dp + 2))
+	if (type & SRC_DIR &&
+	    dp[0] == 's' && dp[1] == '.' && filename_equal(cp, dp + 2, type))
 		return 1;
-	if (!strcmp(dp + i - 2, ".Z"))
-		i -= 2;
-	else if (!strcmp(dp + i - 3, ".gz"))
-		i -= 3;
-	else if (!strcmp(dp + i - 3, ".xz"))
-		i -= 3;
-	else if (!strcmp(dp + i - 4, ".bz2"))
-		i -= 4;
+	if (type & MAN_DIR) {
+		if (i > 1 && !strcmp(dp + i - 2, ".Z"))
+			i -= 2;
+		else if (i > 2 && !strcmp(dp + i - 3, ".gz"))
+			i -= 3;
+		else if (i > 2 && !strcmp(dp + i - 3, ".xz"))
+			i -= 3;
+		else if (i > 3 && !strcmp(dp + i - 4, ".bz2"))
+			i -= 4;
+		else if (i > 3 && !strcmp(dp + i - 4, ".zst"))
+			i -= 4;
+	}
 	while (*cp && *dp && *cp == *dp)
 		cp++, dp++, i--;
 	if (*cp == 0 && *dp == 0)
 		return 1;
-	while (isdigit(*dp))
-		dp++;
-	if (*cp == 0 && *dp++ == '.') {
+	if (!(type & BIN_DIR) && *cp == 0 && *dp++ == '.') {
 		--i;
 		while (i > 0 && *dp)
 			if (--i, *dp++ == '.')
@@ -422,7 +427,8 @@ static int filename_equal(const char *cp, const char *dp)
 	return 0;
 }
 
-static void findin(const char *dir, const char *pattern, int *count, char **wait)
+static void findin(const char *dir, const char *pattern, int *count,
+		   char **wait, int type)
 {
 	DIR *dirp;
 	struct dirent *dp;
@@ -434,7 +440,7 @@ static void findin(const char *dir, const char *pattern, int *count, char **wait
 	DBG(SEARCH, ul_debug("find '%s' in '%s'", pattern, dir));
 
 	while ((dp = readdir(dirp)) != NULL) {
-		if (!filename_equal(pattern, dp->d_name))
+		if (!filename_equal(pattern, dp->d_name, type))
 			continue;
 
 		if (uflag && *count == 0)
@@ -467,9 +473,6 @@ static void lookup(const char *pattern, struct wh_dirlist *ls, int want)
 				want & BIN_DIR ? "bin" : "",
 				want & MAN_DIR ? "man" : "",
 				want & SRC_DIR ? "src" : ""));
-	p = strrchr(patbuf, '.');
-	if (p)
-		*p = '\0';
 
 	if (!uflag)
 		/* if -u not specified then we always print the pattern */
@@ -477,7 +480,7 @@ static void lookup(const char *pattern, struct wh_dirlist *ls, int want)
 
 	for (; ls; ls = ls->next) {
 		if ((ls->type & want) && ls->path)
-			findin(ls->path, patbuf, &count, &wait);
+			findin(ls->path, patbuf, &count, &wait, ls->type);
 	}
 
 	free(wait);
diff --git a/tests/expected/misc/whereis b/tests/expected/misc/whereis
index 2e9ba477f..69d1a6ef2 100644
--- a/tests/expected/misc/whereis
+++ b/tests/expected/misc/whereis
@@ -1 +1,5 @@
-success
+fsck success
+fsck.ext4 success
+python success
+python3 success
+python3.8 success
diff --git a/tests/ts/misc/whereis b/tests/ts/misc/whereis
index ee7ec2701..44643aefa 100755
--- a/tests/ts/misc/whereis
+++ b/tests/ts/misc/whereis
@@ -20,11 +20,31 @@ ts_init "$*"
 
 ts_check_test_command "$TS_CMD_WHEREIS"
 
-LS_COUNT=$($TS_CMD_WHEREIS ls | wc -w)
-if [ $LS_COUNT -lt 2 ]; then
-	echo "ls binary nor manual not found?" > $TS_OUTPUT
-else
-	echo "success" > $TS_OUTPUT
-fi
+BIN_DIR="$(mktemp -d "${TS_OUTDIR}/binXXXXXXXXXXXXX")"
+MAN_DIR="$(mktemp -d "${TS_OUTDIR}/manXXXXXXXXXXXXX")"
+touch "$BIN_DIR/fsck"
+touch "$MAN_DIR/fsck.8.zst"
+touch "$BIN_DIR/fsck.ext4"
+touch "$MAN_DIR/fsck.ext4.8.zst"
+touch "$BIN_DIR/fsck.minix"
+touch "$BIN_DIR/python"
+touch "$MAN_DIR/python.1.gz"
+touch "$BIN_DIR/python3"
+touch "$MAN_DIR/python3.1"
+touch "$BIN_DIR/python3.8"
+touch "$BIN_DIR/python3.8-config"
+touch "$MAN_DIR/python3.8.1"
+
+for COMMAND in fsck fsck.ext4 python python3 python3.8
+do
+	COUNT=$($TS_CMD_WHEREIS -B $BIN_DIR -M $MAN_DIR -f $COMMAND | wc -w)
+	if [ $COUNT -eq 3 ]; then
+		echo "$COMMAND success" >> $TS_OUTPUT
+	else
+		echo "$COMMAND failure" >> $TS_OUTPUT
+	fi
+done
+
+rm -rf "$BIN_DIR" "$MAN_DIR"
 
 ts_finalize