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1.1 root 1: .TH PHELP 1P "22 June 1983"
2: .UC 4
3: .SH NAME
4: phelp \- on-line help for a project
5: .SH SYNOPSIS
6: .B phelp
7: [\fB\-P \fRprojectname] [topic [subtopic ... ]]
8: .SH DESCRIPTION
9: .I Phelp
10: (\fIp\ze\h'0.1m'\v'-0.4m'-\v'0.4m'\h'0.1m'\'help\fR)
11: provides information about a project. There are two modes of operation:
12: .PP
13: .I Interactive
14: .PP
15: After the
16: .I phelp
17: command is typed, it will respond with `???' indicating that it is ready for
18: a command. The following commands are recognized:
19: .nf
20: .RS
21: .ta \w'carriage return only'u+.5i
22:
23: Command Response
24: .PP
25: \fIa topic name\fR Print help information on topic.
26: index Display list of topics available at this level.
27: help Display help on how to use \fIphelp\fR.
28: ? Display this command summary.
29: q Exit from \fIphelp\fR.
30: P \fIprojectname\fR Change to another project.
31: ~ Return to the top level of help topics.
32: \fIcarriage return only\fR Go up one level of help topics.
33: .DT
34: .RE
35: .fi
36: .PP
37: If a topic name is typed in reply,
38: .I phelp
39: will print a page of information and then wait until a space is typed
40: before it continues.
41: .PP
42: .I "Command line topics"
43: .PP
44: Information on a specific
45: .I topic
46: can be requested by giving the
47: .I phelp
48: command with the topic name as an argument on the command line.
49: If the last argument is
50: .B index,
51: the subtopics corresponding to the previous argument are listed.
52: Provided the information has not been redirected to a file,
53: .I phelp
54: will prompt for further commands once it has finished printing.
55: .PP
56: .B "Creating topics"
57: .PP
58: Project help files reside in the `help' directory located in the project
59: root directory. Subtopics are contained in subdirectories. A
60: subtopic directory has the same name as a help file but with a `.d'
61: suffix. For example, if ``bugfixes'' is a subtopic of ``news'', it will be
62: found in the directory `news.d', which itself is a subdirectory of the
63: project `help' directory.
64: .PP
65: Subtopics can be nested to any level.
66: .PP
67: Any filename beginning with a `.' is ignored by
68: .I phelp.
69: .SH OPTIONS
70: .IP "\fB\-P \fIprojectname\fR"
71: Specify a project other than the current working project.
72: .SH EXAMPLES
73: In the following examples,
74: .B bold
75: script indicates what the user types.
76: .PP
77: To find out about topic ``news'':
78: .nf
79: % \fBphelp\fR
80: (\fIprints introduction to phelp and a list of topics available\fR)
81: ??? \fBnews\fR
82: (\fIprints \fR``\fInews\fR'')
83: ??? \fBq\fR
84: %
85: .PP
86: Using command line arguments instead:
87: .PP
88: % \fBphelp news\fR
89: (\fIprints \fR``\fInews\fR'')
90: ??? \fBq\fR
91: %
92: .PP
93: To print topic ``news'' on the line printer:
94: .PP
95: % \fBphelp news | lpr\fR
96: %
97: .PP
98: If ``bugfixes'' is a subtopic of ``news'', then to print ``news'', and
99: then ``bugfixes'':
100: .PP
101: % \fBphelp news\fR
102: (\fIprints \fR``\fInews\fR'')
103: news subtopics: bugfixes
104: news-->??? \fBbugfixes\fR
105: (\fIprints \fR``\fIbugfixes\fR'')
106: news-->??? \fBq\fR
107: %
108: .fi
109: .SH FILES
110: .ta \w'/usr/new/lib/phelp.help'u+.5i
111: .nf
112: /usr/new/lib/phelp.help Introduction on how to use \fIphelp\fR.
113: /usr/new/lib/phelp.cmd \fIPhelp\fR command summary.
114: \fIproject\fR/help/* Help text files.
115: \fIproject\fR/help/*.d Subtopic directories.
116: .fi
117: .DT
118: .SH DIAGNOSTICS
119: Exit status 0 is normal. Exit status 1 indicates an error.
120: .SH AUTHOR
121: Peter J. Nicklin
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