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<html lang="en">
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<title>Getting Help - Untitled</title>
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<p>
<a name="Getting-Help"></a>
Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Command-Line-Editing.html#Command-Line-Editing">Command Line Editing</a>,
Previous: <a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Quitting-Octave.html#Quitting-Octave">Quitting Octave</a>,
Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Getting-Started.html#Getting-Started">Getting Started</a>
<hr>
</div>
<h3 class="section">2.3 Commands for Getting Help</h3>
<p><a name="index-on_002dline-help-83"></a><a name="index-help_002c-on_002dline-84"></a>
The entire text of this manual is available from the Octave prompt
via the command <kbd>doc</kbd>. In addition, the documentation for
individual user-written functions and variables is also available via
the <kbd>help</kbd> command. This section describes the commands used for
reading the manual and the documentation strings for user-supplied
functions and variables. See <a href="Function-Files.html#Function-Files">Function Files</a>, for more information
about how to document the functions you write.
<!-- ./help/help.m -->
<p><a name="doc_002dhelp"></a>
<div class="defun">
— Command: help <var>name</var><var><a name="index-g_t_0040var_007bname_007d-85"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>Display the help text for <var>name</var>.
If invoked without any arguments, <code>help</code> prints a list
of all the available operators and functions.
<p>For example, the command <kbd>help help</kbd> prints a short message
describing the <code>help</code> command.
<p>The help command can give you information about operators, but not the
comma and semicolons that are used as command separators. To get help
for those, you must type <kbd>help comma</kbd> or <kbd>help semicolon</kbd>.
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<p class="noindent"><strong>See also:</strong> <a href="doc_002ddoc.html#doc_002ddoc">doc</a>, <a href="doc_002dlookfor.html#doc_002dlookfor">lookfor</a>, <a href="doc_002dwhich.html#doc_002dwhich">which</a>.
</p></blockquote></div>
<!-- ./help/doc.m -->
<p><a name="doc_002ddoc"></a>
<div class="defun">
— Command: doc <var>function_name</var><var><a name="index-g_t_0040var_007bfunction_005fname_007d-86"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>Display documentation for the function <var>function_name</var>
directly from an on-line version of
the printed manual, using the GNU Info browser. If invoked without
any arguments, the manual is shown from the beginning.
<p>For example, the command <kbd>doc rand</kbd> starts the GNU Info browser
at the <code>rand</code> node in the on-line version of the manual.
<p>Once the GNU Info browser is running, help for using it is available
using the command <kbd>C-h</kbd>.
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<p class="noindent"><strong>See also:</strong> <a href="doc_002dhelp.html#doc_002dhelp">help</a>.
</p></blockquote></div>
<!-- ./help/lookfor.m -->
<p><a name="doc_002dlookfor"></a>
<div class="defun">
— Command: lookfor <var>str</var><var><a name="index-g_t_0040var_007bstr_007d-87"></a></var><br>
— Command: lookfor <b>-all</b><var> str<a name="index-g_t_002dall-88"></a></var><br>
— Function: [<var>func</var>, <var>helpstring</var>] = <b>lookfor</b> (<var>str</var>)<var><a name="index-lookfor-89"></a></var><br>
— Function: [<var>func</var>, <var>helpstring</var>] = <b>lookfor</b> (<var>'-all', str</var>)<var><a name="index-lookfor-90"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>Search for the string <var>str</var> in all functions found in the current
function search path. By default, <code>lookfor</code> searches for <var>str</var>
in the first sentence of the help string of each function found. The entire
help text of each function can be searched if the '-all' argument is
supplied. All searches are case insensitive.
<p>Called with no output arguments, <code>lookfor</code> prints the list of
matching functions to the terminal. Otherwise, the output arguments
<var>func</var> and <var>helpstring</var> define the matching functions and the
first sentence of each of their help strings.
<p>The ability of <code>lookfor</code> to correctly identify the first
sentence of the help text is dependent on the format of the
function's help. All Octave core functions are correctly
formatted, but the same can not be guaranteed for external packages and
user-supplied functions. Therefore, the use of the '-all' argument may
be necessary to find related functions that are not a part of Octave.
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<p class="noindent"><strong>See also:</strong> <a href="doc_002dhelp.html#doc_002dhelp">help</a>, <a href="doc_002ddoc.html#doc_002ddoc">doc</a>, <a href="doc_002dwhich.html#doc_002dwhich">which</a>.
</p></blockquote></div>
<p>To see what is new in the current release of Octave, use the <code>news</code>
function.
<!-- ./miscellaneous/news.m -->
<p><a name="doc_002dnews"></a>
<div class="defun">
— Function File: <b>news</b> ()<var><a name="index-news-91"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>Display the current NEWS file for Octave.
</p></blockquote></div>
<!-- ./miscellaneous/info.m -->
<p><a name="doc_002dinfo"></a>
<div class="defun">
— Function File: <b>info</b> ()<var><a name="index-info-92"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>Display contact information for the GNU Octave community.
</p></blockquote></div>
<!-- toplev.cc -->
<p><a name="doc_002dwarranty"></a>
<div class="defun">
— Built-in Function: <b>warranty</b> ()<var><a name="index-warranty-93"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>Describe the conditions for copying and distributing Octave.
</p></blockquote></div>
<p>The following functions can be used to change which programs are used
for displaying the documentation, and where the documentation can be
found.
<!-- help.cc -->
<p><a name="doc_002dinfo_005ffile"></a>
<div class="defun">
— Built-in Function: <var>val</var> = <b>info_file</b> ()<var><a name="index-info_005ffile-94"></a></var><br>
— Built-in Function: <var>old_val</var> = <b>info_file</b> (<var>new_val</var>)<var><a name="index-info_005ffile-95"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>Query or set the internal variable that specifies the name of the
Octave info file. The default value is
<samp><var>octave-home</var><span class="file">/info/octave.info</span></samp>, in
which <var>octave-home</var> is the root directory of the Octave installation.
The default value may be overridden by the environment variable
<code>OCTAVE_INFO_FILE</code><!-- /@w -->, or the command line argument
‘<samp><span class="samp">--info-file NAME</span></samp>’.
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<p class="noindent"><strong>See also:</strong> <a href="doc_002dinfo_005fprogram.html#doc_002dinfo_005fprogram">info_program</a>, <a href="doc_002ddoc.html#doc_002ddoc">doc</a>, <a href="doc_002dhelp.html#doc_002dhelp">help</a>, <a href="doc_002dmakeinfo_005fprogram.html#doc_002dmakeinfo_005fprogram">makeinfo_program</a>.
</p></blockquote></div>
<!-- help.cc -->
<p><a name="doc_002dinfo_005fprogram"></a>
<div class="defun">
— Built-in Function: <var>val</var> = <b>info_program</b> ()<var><a name="index-info_005fprogram-96"></a></var><br>
— Built-in Function: <var>old_val</var> = <b>info_program</b> (<var>new_val</var>)<var><a name="index-info_005fprogram-97"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>Query or set the internal variable that specifies the name of the
info program to run. The default value is
<samp><var>octave-home</var><span class="file">/libexec/octave/</span><var>version</var><span class="file">/exec/</span><var>arch</var><span class="file">/info</span></samp>
in which <var>octave-home</var> is the root directory of the Octave installation,
<var>version</var> is the Octave version number, and <var>arch</var>
is the system type (for example, <code>i686-pc-linux-gnu</code>). The
default value may be overridden by the environment variable
<code>OCTAVE_INFO_PROGRAM</code><!-- /@w -->, or the command line argument
‘<samp><span class="samp">--info-program NAME</span></samp>’.
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<p class="noindent"><strong>See also:</strong> <a href="doc_002dinfo_005ffile.html#doc_002dinfo_005ffile">info_file</a>, <a href="doc_002ddoc.html#doc_002ddoc">doc</a>, <a href="doc_002dhelp.html#doc_002dhelp">help</a>, <a href="doc_002dmakeinfo_005fprogram.html#doc_002dmakeinfo_005fprogram">makeinfo_program</a>.
</p></blockquote></div>
<!-- help.cc -->
<p><a name="doc_002dmakeinfo_005fprogram"></a>
<div class="defun">
— Built-in Function: <var>val</var> = <b>makeinfo_program</b> ()<var><a name="index-makeinfo_005fprogram-98"></a></var><br>
— Built-in Function: <var>old_val</var> = <b>makeinfo_program</b> (<var>new_val</var>)<var><a name="index-makeinfo_005fprogram-99"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>Query or set the internal variable that specifies the name of the
program that Octave runs to format help text containing
Texinfo markup commands. The default value is <code>makeinfo</code>.
<!-- Texinfo @sp should work but in practice produces ugly results for HTML. -->
<!-- A simple blank line produces the correct behavior. -->
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<p class="noindent"><strong>See also:</strong> <a href="doc_002dinfo_005ffile.html#doc_002dinfo_005ffile">info_file</a>, <a href="doc_002dinfo_005fprogram.html#doc_002dinfo_005fprogram">info_program</a>, <a href="doc_002ddoc.html#doc_002ddoc">doc</a>, <a href="doc_002dhelp.html#doc_002dhelp">help</a>.
</p></blockquote></div>
<!-- help.cc -->
<p><a name="doc_002ddoc_005fcache_005ffile"></a>
<div class="defun">
— Built-in Function: <var>val</var> = <b>doc_cache_file</b> ()<var><a name="index-doc_005fcache_005ffile-100"></a></var><br>
— Built-in Function: <var>old_val</var> = <b>doc_cache_file</b> (<var>new_val</var>)<var><a name="index-doc_005fcache_005ffile-101"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>Query or set the internal variable that specifies the name of the
Octave documentation cache file. A cache file significantly improves
the performance of the <code>lookfor</code> command. The default value is
<samp><var>octave-home</var><span class="file">/share/octave/</span><var>version</var><span class="file">/etc/doc-cache</span></samp>,
in which <var>octave-home</var> is the root directory of the Octave installation,
and <var>version</var> is the Octave version number.
The default value may be overridden by the environment variable
<code>OCTAVE_DOC_CACHE_FILE</code><!-- /@w -->, or the command line argument
‘<samp><span class="samp">--doc-cache-file NAME</span></samp>’.
<!-- Texinfo @sp should work but in practice produces ugly results for HTML. -->
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<p class="noindent"><strong>See also:</strong> <a href="doc_002dlookfor.html#doc_002dlookfor">lookfor</a>, <a href="doc_002dinfo_005fprogram.html#doc_002dinfo_005fprogram">info_program</a>, <a href="doc_002ddoc.html#doc_002ddoc">doc</a>, <a href="doc_002dhelp.html#doc_002dhelp">help</a>, <a href="doc_002dmakeinfo_005fprogram.html#doc_002dmakeinfo_005fprogram">makeinfo_program</a>.
</p></blockquote></div>
<!-- help.cc -->
<p><a name="doc_002dsuppress_005fverbose_005fhelp_005fmessage"></a>
<div class="defun">
— Built-in Function: <var>val</var> = <b>suppress_verbose_help_message</b> ()<var><a name="index-suppress_005fverbose_005fhelp_005fmessage-102"></a></var><br>
— Built-in Function: <var>old_val</var> = <b>suppress_verbose_help_message</b> (<var>new_val</var>)<var><a name="index-suppress_005fverbose_005fhelp_005fmessage-103"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>Query or set the internal variable that controls whether Octave
will add additional help information to the end of the output from
the <code>help</code> command and usage messages for built-in commands.
</p></blockquote></div>
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