HELP_OPEN(1) — USER COMMANDS

NAME

help_open − causes help_viewer to open a file

SYNOPSIS

help_open [-a] filename

AVAILABILITY

Sun386i systems only.

DESCRIPTION

help_open is used to cause a running help_viewer to open a file. ’filename’ is typically the name of a help_viewer file. A call is made to help_viewer using the same RPC mechanism as is used by Spot Help.

If "filename" is relative, help_viewer looks for it relative to the default help directory (as defined in the user’s defaults database). Otherwise, help_viewer treats "filename" as absolute.

If the RPC call to help_viewer fails, help_open attempts to spawn help_viewer, with "filename" as a command line argument. If the −a command line option was given, then "filename" is first converted to an absolute path name, as described in OPTIONS, below.

OPTIONS

−a Convert "filename" to absolute path; this option causes help_open to get the current working directory and append it to the front of "filename" (thus creating an absolute pathname) before passing "filename" on to help_viewer. This allows help_open to be used with other processes, such as Sun Organizer (see organizer (1)), which deal in relative pathnames. The −a option has no effect if "filename" begins with the character ’/’.

EXAMPLES

maple% help_open help/Help_Basics

This causes help_viewer to open the file help/Help_Basics. This file is located relative to the default help directory (as defined in the user’s defaults database). So in the case where the default help directory was set to /vol/help/language/USA-English/, this would be /vol/help/language/USA-English/help/Help_Basics.

maple% help_open help/Help_Basics 3

Same as previous example, but opens Help_Basics to page 3.

maple% help_open /home/mtravis/somefile

Causes help_viewer to open somefile, relative to /home/mtravis/.

maple% cd /home/ahinkle
maple% help_open -a anotherfile

Causes help_viewer to open /home/ahinkle/anotherfile.

FILES

/usr/lib/help/∗

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