hdbexamine: Examine a help database

Package: softools

Usage

hdbexamine

Parameters

helpdb = "helpdb"

The filename of the help database to be examined. The reserved name "helpdb" causes the actual filename to be taken from the environment variable of the same name.

verbose = no

If this switch is enabled, hdbexamine will print a detailed description of the help database listing the modules in each package, the date the entry for the package was last modified, and other information. A more concise summary listing only the packages and the number of help modules in each package is printed by default.

Description

The hdbexamine task is used to examine the contents of a help database. By default the standard IRAF help database is examined. Examining the help database with hdbexamine verifies that it can be read by help, and may be useful as a diagnostic in the event that an invalid help directory file (".hd") somewhere in the help directory tree, causes the database to be compiled incorrectly.

Examples

1. Print a concise summary of the contents and structure of the standard help database.

cl> hdbexamine
Help database dev$help.db created Feb 14 21:34 by tody
Database contains 794 modules in 43 packages, file size 105460 bytes

_clpackage   Nov  4  1984 tody     clpackage$_clpackage.hd
clpackage    May 29 17:44 rooke    clpackage$clpackage.hd
os           Feb 13 11:06 tody     host$os/doc/os.hd
root         Nov  4  1984 tody     lib$root.hd
_math        Apr  1 13:38 tody     math$_math.hd
curfit       Jan  6 16:23 tody     math$curfit/doc/curfit.hd
gsurfit      Jan  2 14:46 davis    math$gsurfit/doc/gsurfit.hd
iminterp     Aug  6 16:31 davis    math$iminterp/doc/iminterp.hd
bias         Dec 17  8:53 valdes   pkg$imred/bias/bias.hd
coude        Dec 31 14:38 valdes   pkg$imred/coude/coude.hd
vtel         Jan 22  8:36 lytle    pkg$imred/vtel/vtel.hd
plot         Jan 28 14:04 hammond  pkg$plot/plot.hd

See also

mkhelpdb, help