




PROGRAM NAME:  help

AUTHOR:  pavo

DATE WRITTEN:  January 3, 1977

SOURCE LANGUAGE:  c

LOCATION OF SOURCE:  /usr/pavo/help.c

LOCATION OF BINARY:  /usr/bin/help

SYNTAX:
        help    [<file>  [<chapter>]  ]

        <file> can be a file associated with locally-written
                news and/or software, or <file> can be a UNIX
                command that is found in the UNIX manual
                given by the optional parameter <chapter>, the
                default is chapter 1 (shell commands).
        <chapter> is a UNIX manual section (1 through 8) and
                section 1 is default.

DESCRIPTION:
        Help is an online documentation manager that can be  used
by  both  the  novice  and  the experienced user.  Entering "help
<cr>" from the terminal will cause help to guide the user through
the  system documentation file structure.  The documentation sys-
tem is setup like the rest of the UNIX file  system;  on  a  tree
structure.   The root of the tree is given by the global variable
"root".
        For  the  experienced  user,  entering "help <file> <cr>"
will cause help to first search for locally-written documentation
and  then to search through the UNIX manual in the specified sec-
tion (defaults to section 1).  The user may move in  both  direc-
tions  in  the  "tree".  Moving up the tree (away from "root") is
the natural progression, as each new input from the  user  causes
help to check if the entry is a directory (continue moving up the
tree) or a file (print it out and prompt).  However, a  user  may
enter  the  characters  "/" (return to root and continue) or ".."
(move toward the root one level and continue) at any time.

MESSAGES & DIAGNOSTICS:
        Most messages will indicate within their context  whether
they  are  informative  (expected)  or corrective (fatal).  Error
messages such as "cant find <file>" will indicate that  the  file
is  not  documented in the root directory or the UNIX manual sec-
tion specified.  Messages such as "cant {open | read} <file>" may
indicate  that the documentation is not online  (presently, it is
mountable as a file system with root as "/doc").
        Help will prompt the user for input with a message "enter
file: ".  Help will wait for input.  Input can be any of the fol-
lowng:
        <file>  must be in the current working directory.
                <file> will either be listed (if it is a
                directory) or printed (if it is a file).










        ctrl-d  terminate the program immediately.
        ..      move (back) toward the root one level,
                and continue accepting input.
        /       move (back) to the  root  and  continue  accep-  
ting input.
        <number>  consider the file that was listed corre-
                sponding with <number> as the file.
                Otherwise, same as <file>.

SEE ALSO:
        man(i)

FILES USED:
        /usr/news       documentation system root















































