help(1)

NAME

help − ask for help

SYNOPSIS

help [args]

DESCRIPTION

help finds information to explain a message from a command or explain the use of a command. Zero or more arguments can be supplied. If no arguments are given, help prompts for one.

The arguments can be either message numbers (which normally appear in parentheses following messages) or command names, of one of the following types:

type 1 Begins with non-numerics, ends in numerics. The non-numeric prefix is usually an abbreviation for the program or set of routines which produced the message (e.g., ge6, for message 6 from the get command).

type 2 Does not contain numerics (as a command, such as get)

type 3 Is all numeric (e.g., 212)

The response of the program is the explanatory information related to the argument, if there is any.

When all else fails, try help stuck.

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

Environment Variables

LC_CTYPE determines the interpretation of text as single- and/or multi-byte characters.

LANG determines the language in which messages are displayed.

If LC_CTYPE is not specified in the environment or is set to the empty string, the value of LANG is used as a default for each unspecified or empty variable. If LANG is not specified or is set to the empty string, a default of "C" (see lang(5)) is used instead of LANG. If any internationalization variable contains an invalid setting, help behaves as if all internationalization variables are set to "C". See environ(5).

International Code Set Support

Single- and multi-byte character code sets are supported.

DIAGNOSTICS

Use the help command for explanations.

WARNINGS

Only SCCS and a very few other commands currently use help.

FILES

/usr/lib/help directory containing files of message text.

/usr/lib/help/helploc
file containing locations of help files not in /usr/lib/help.

Museum