7 Help Files

The Starlink portable help system (HLP) is used to provide help if ? or ?? is typed in response to a parameter prompt. Instructions for creating help libraries and navigating through them may be found in SUN/124.

Interface File entries specifying help libraries may be given as standard pathnames e.g.:

  helplib /star/help/kappa/kappa.shl

or

  help %/star/help/kappa/kappa ADD Parameters IN1

Note that the file extension .shl is optional.

The system will also accept environment variables and ˜ in the help library name, e.g.:

$KAPPA_DIR/kappahelp.shl or $KAPPA_HELP or ˜/help/myprog

For historical reasons, so that the same Interface File entry will work with both Unix and VMS, the VMS form:

KAPPA_DIR:kappahelp.shl or KAPPA_HELP:

will be accepted.

If the VMS form is used, the environment variable name will be forced to upper case, and the filename to lower case for interpretation. Unix-style specifications will be interpreted as given.