SGIHELP(1)SGIHELP(1)NAMEsgihelp - The SGI Help Viewer
SYNOPSISsgihelp [ -debug ] [ -nofork ]
sgihelp-app app_classname -c index [ -l lib_path ] [ -debug ] [ -nofork ]
sgihelp-b book_name -k help_key [ -app app_classname ]
[ -l lib_path ] [ -debug ] [ -nofork ] [ -m user_data ] ]
DESCRIPTIONsgihelp is an online help viewer. This viewer provides an easy-to-use
interface which allows the user to browse through help information that
is distributed from Silicon Graphics.
sgihelp is based on the insight(1) on-line viewing technology. The
content for the help information that is displayed is derived from the
insight(1) books.
sgihelp is an application that gets started only when a request is made
for "help". A user should never have to start sgihelp from the command-
line, unless it is used to generate a help request through a combination
of the command-line arguments described below. Requests can be generated
from:
o Help menu item(s) found within an application
o A help pushbutton on an application window
o An application sending a request directly
o SGIHelp itself
sgihelp renders the request, if the help content is available (see
"FILES" below).
The sgihelp window is composed of two panes (areas): the Viewer pane and
the Contents/Search pane. For further information, consult the sgihelp
on-line help.
DEFINITIONS
A bookshelf is defined as a directory containing a set of books. By
default, bookshelves are located in:
/usr/share/Insight/library/SGI_bookshelves
To examine a sample bookshelf, look under this default path. Most of the
directories contained under this area are defined as bookshelves. By
convention, below each of those bookshelf directories exists a
subdirectory named "books". The "books" subdirectory contains all
available online books for this bookshelf.
For example, examining the path:
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/usr/share/Insight/library/SGI_bookshelves/SGI_EndUser/books/Desktop_UG
SGI_EndUser is the bookshelf and Desktop_UG is the book.
OPTIONS-app The -app app_classname options tells sgihelp to process a help
request for the given application. The app_classname coincides with
an associated help file that can be found in (default)
/usr/share/help or it can be the same as the name used for the
application's defaults file, found in /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults.
-b The -b book_name option tells sgihelp to examine the specified book
for help content for the given request. The book_name is the
abbreviated short title for the book. Note that this option is
case-sensitive. For example:
sgihelp-b IRISEssentials ...
-k The -k help_key option tells sgihelp to render the help card that
has a specified "HelpId=" attribute of help_key.
-c The -c command option is used to invoke sgihelp and open the
Contents/Search area for the designated app_classname. You must
specify index as the parameter following this option; which is an
artifact of an older version of sgihelp.
For example, the command used for opening sgihelp and loading the
available help information for the insight application would be:
sgihelp-app Insight -c index
-debug
Tells sgihelp to print messages it is receiving to stdout.
-nofork
The -nofork (or -f) option tells sgihelp to run in the foreground.
The default is to automatically background when starting.
-l The -l lib_path option tells sgihelp to load the specified IRIS
InSight library. A library is defined as a collection of
bookshelves. By default, the library is rooted at
/usr/share/Insight/library. The path (relative or full) to the new
library should be specified. Only one library may be specified. For
example:
sgihelp-l /usr/share/Insight/lib_XXX ...
Another method for specifying the designated library is to set the
resource, "defLibPath". The resource value should be designated as:
SGIHelp*defLibPath: /usr/share/Insight/lib_XXX
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SGIHELP(1)SGIHELP(1)-m The -m user_data option is used to pass data to sgihelp and is
currently only used by the System Monitor; see sysmon(1m).
NOTES
If you are having problems viewing remote, web-based help documents you
may need to run the program webcontrol to configure an underlying set of
toolkits (webviewer, websupport_eoe) that sgihelp uses. See the man page
on webcontrol(1) for details. This will be required if your site is
behind a "firewall", or uses a proxy server, for example.
To browse the available bookshelves and books on the local system, in
your web browser or in the IRIX Interactive Desktop (see IID(1G)) File
Manager, open the following file:
/usr/share/Insight/library/SGI_bookshelves/index.html
Localized books can be browsed by opening the following file:
/usr/share/Insight/library/<language>_bookshelves/index.html
Specifically, here is one such file (available only if localized books
have been installed):
/usr/share/Insight/library/fr_bookshelves/index.html
If you see warnings about books in an "old/unreadable format", those
books can be converted using the -c and (optionally) the -doption(s) of
the insightAdmin(1) command. Additional information can be found in the
insight Release Notes.
FILES
/usr/sbin/sgihelp, /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/SGIHelp
Help content for the IRIX Interactive Desktop(TM) is retrieved from the
following sample of book subsystems (subject to change):
desktop_eoe.books.* IRIX Interactive Desktop(TM) Books
dmedia_eoe.books.* Digital Media Tools User's Guide, Help
eoe.books.* IRIX Execution Environment Books
imgtools.books.* ImageVision Tools User's Guide, Help
impr_base.books.* Impressario User's Guide
sysmon.books.* Desktop System Monitor Help
*.books.[Hh]elp Various Help-related books
SEE ALSOinfosearch(1), insightAdmin(1)
insight Release Notes.
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