projects / OpenSPARC-T2-SAM / blame
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| 54 | ||
| 55 | <H1><A NAME="SECTION007100000000000000000"> | |
| 56 | 5.1 <tt class="module">pydoc</tt> -- | |
| 57 | Documentation generator and online help system</A> | |
| 58 | </H1> | |
| 59 | ||
| 60 | <P> | |
| 61 | <A NAME="module-pydoc"></A> | |
| 62 | ||
| 63 | <P> | |
| 64 | ||
| 65 | <span class="versionnote">New in version 2.1.</span> | |
| 66 | ||
| 67 | <a id='l2h-1059' xml:id='l2h-1059'></a> | |
| 68 | ||
| 69 | <P> | |
| 70 | The <tt class="module">pydoc</tt> module automatically generates documentation from | |
| 71 | Python modules. The documentation can be presented as pages of text | |
| 72 | on the console, served to a Web browser, or saved to HTML files. | |
| 73 | ||
| 74 | <P> | |
| 75 | The built-in function <tt class="function">help()</tt> invokes the online help system | |
| 76 | in the interactive interpreter, which uses <tt class="module">pydoc</tt> to generate | |
| 77 | its documentation as text on the console. The same text documentation | |
| 78 | can also be viewed from outside the Python interpreter by running | |
| 79 | <b class="program">pydoc</b> as a script at the operating system's command prompt. | |
| 80 | For example, running | |
| 81 | ||
| 82 | <P> | |
| 83 | <div class="verbatim"><pre> | |
| 84 | pydoc sys | |
| 85 | </pre></div> | |
| 86 | ||
| 87 | <P> | |
| 88 | at a shell prompt will display documentation on the <tt class="module"><a href="module-sys.html">sys</a></tt> | |
| 89 | module, in a style similar to the manual pages shown by the <span class="Unix">Unix</span> | |
| 90 | <b class="program">man</b> command. The argument to <b class="program">pydoc</b> can be the name | |
| 91 | of a function, module, or package, or a dotted reference to a class, | |
| 92 | method, or function within a module or module in a package. If the | |
| 93 | argument to <b class="program">pydoc</b> looks like a path (that is, it contains the | |
| 94 | path separator for your operating system, such as a slash in <span class="Unix">Unix</span>), | |
| 95 | and refers to an existing Python source file, then documentation is | |
| 96 | produced for that file. | |
| 97 | ||
| 98 | <P> | |
| 99 | Specifying a <b class="programopt">-w</b> flag before the argument will cause HTML | |
| 100 | documentation to be written out to a file in the current directory, | |
| 101 | instead of displaying text on the console. | |
| 102 | ||
| 103 | <P> | |
| 104 | Specifying a <b class="programopt">-k</b> flag before the argument will search the | |
| 105 | synopsis lines of all available modules for the keyword given as the | |
| 106 | argument, again in a manner similar to the <span class="Unix">Unix</span> <b class="program">man</b> | |
| 107 | command. The synopsis line of a module is the first line of its | |
| 108 | documentation string. | |
| 109 | ||
| 110 | <P> | |
| 111 | You can also use <b class="program">pydoc</b> to start an HTTP server on the local | |
| 112 | machine that will serve documentation to visiting Web browsers. | |
| 113 | <b class="program">pydoc</b> <b class="programopt">-p 1234</b> will start a HTTP server on port | |
| 114 | 1234, allowing you to browse the documentation at | |
| 115 | <code>http://localhost:1234/</code> in your preferred Web browser. | |
| 116 | <b class="program">pydoc</b> <b class="programopt">-g</b> will start the server and additionally | |
| 117 | bring up a small <tt class="module"><a href="module-Tkinter.html">Tkinter</a></tt>-based graphical interface to help | |
| 118 | you search for documentation pages. | |
| 119 | ||
| 120 | <P> | |
| 121 | When <b class="program">pydoc</b> generates documentation, it uses the current | |
| 122 | environment and path to locate modules. Thus, invoking | |
| 123 | <b class="program">pydoc</b> <b class="programopt">spam</b> documents precisely the version of | |
| 124 | the module you would get if you started the Python interpreter and | |
| 125 | typed "<tt class="samp">import spam</tt>". | |
| 126 | ||
| 127 | <P> | |
| 128 | Module docs for core modules are assumed to reside in | |
| 129 | <a class="url" href="http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/">http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/</a>. This can be overridden by | |
| 130 | setting the <a class="envvar" id='l2h-1060' xml:id='l2h-1060'>PYTHONDOCS</a> environment variable to a different URL or | |
| 131 | to a local directory containing the Library Reference Manual pages. | |
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| 167 | <span class="release-info">Release 2.4.2, documentation updated on 28 September 2005.</span> | |
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