HELP(1-SysV) RISC/os Reference Manual HELP(1-SysV)
NAME
help - UNIX system Help Facility
SYNOPSIS
help
[ help ] starter
[ help ] usage [ -d ] [ -e ] [ -o ] [ command_name ]
[ help ] locate [ keyword1 [ keyword2 ] ... ]
[ help ] glossary [ term ]
help arg ...
DESCRIPTION
The UNIX system Help Facility provides on-line assistance
for UNIX system users, whether they desire general informa-
tion or specific assistance for use of the Source Code Con-
trol System (SCCS) commands.
Without arguments, help prints a menu of available on-line
assistance commands with a short description of their func-
tions. The commands and their descriptions are:
COMMAND DESCRIPTION
starter information about the UNIX system for the
beginning user
locate locate UNIX system commands using
function-related keywords
usage UNIX system command usage information
glossary definitions of UNIX system technical
terms
The user may choose one of the above commands by entering
its corresponding letter (given in the menu), or may exit to
the shell by typing q (for "quit").
With arguments, help directly invokes the named on-line
assistance command, bypassing the initial help menu. The
commands starter, locate, usage, and glossary, optionally
preceded by the word help, may also be specified at shell
level. When executing glossary from shell level some of the
symbols listed in the glossary must be escaped (preceded by
one or more backslashes, ``\'') to be understood by the Help
Facility. For a list of symbols refer and how many
backslashes to use for each, refer to the glossary(1) manual
page.
From any screen in the Help Facility, a user may execute a
command via the shell (sh(1)) by typing a ! and the command
to be executed. The screen will be redrawn if the command
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HELP(1-SysV) RISC/os Reference Manual HELP(1-SysV)
that was executed was entered at a first level prompt. If
entered at any other prompt level, only the prompt will be
redrawn.
By default, the Help Facility scrolls the data that is
presented to the user. If you prefer to have the screen
clear before printing the data (non-scrolling), the shell
variable SCROLL must be set to no and exported so it will
become part of your environment. This is done by adding the
following line to your .profile file (see profile(4)):
``export SCROLL ; SCROLL=no''. If you later decide that
scrolling is desired, SCROLL must be set to yes.
Information on each of the Help Facility commands (starter,
locate, usage, glossary, and help) is located on their
respective manual pages.
The Help Facility can be tailored to a customer's needs by
use of the helpadm(1M) command.
If the first argument to help is different from starter,
usage, locate, or glossary, help assumes information is
being requested about the SCCS Facility. The arguments may
be either message numbers (which normally appear in
parentheses following messages) or command names, of one of
the following types:
type1 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., ge3 for message 3 from the get command).
type2 Does not contain numerics (as a command, such as
get).
type3 Is all numeric (e.g., 212).
SEE ALSO
admin(1), cdc(1), comb(1), delta(1), get(1), glossary(1),
locate(1), prs(1), rmdel(1), sact(1), sccsdiff(1), sh(1),
starter(1), unget(1), usage(1), val(1), vc(1), what(1).
profile(4), sccsfile(4), term(5) in the Programmer's Refer-
ence Manual.
helpadm(1M) in the System Administrator's Reference Manaual.
WARNINGS
If the shell variable TERM (see sh(1)) is not set in the
user's .profile file, then TERM will default to the terminal
value type 450 (a hard-copy terminal). For a list of valid
terminal types, refer to term(5).
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