| % File src/library/utils/man/help.start.Rd |
| % Part of the R package, https://www.R-project.org |
| % Copyright 1995-2018 R Core Team |
| % Distributed under GPL 2 or later |
| |
| \name{help.start} |
| \title{Hypertext Documentation} |
| \alias{help.start} |
| \description{ |
| Start the hypertext (currently HTML) version of \R's online |
| documentation. |
| } |
| \usage{ |
| help.start(update = FALSE, gui = "irrelevant", |
| browser = getOption("browser"), remote = NULL) |
| } |
| \arguments{ |
| \item{update}{logical: should this attempt to update the package index to |
| reflect the currently available packages. (Not attempted if |
| \code{remote} is non-\code{NULL}.)} |
| \item{gui}{just for compatibility with S-PLUS.} |
| \item{browser}{the name of the program to be used as hypertext |
| browser. It should be in the \env{PATH}, or a full path specified. |
| Alternatively, it can be an \R function which will be called with a |
| URL as its only argument. This option is normally unset on Windows, |
| when the file-association mechanism will be used.} |
| \item{remote}{A character string giving a valid URL for the |
| \file{\var{\link{R_HOME}}} directory on a remote location.} |
| } |
| \details{ |
| Unless \code{remote} is specified this requires the HTTP server to be |
| available (it will be started if possible: see |
| \code{\link{startDynamicHelp}}). |
| |
| One of the links on the index page is the HTML package index, |
| \file{R.home("docs")/html/packages.html}, which can be remade by |
| \code{\link{make.packages.html}()}. For local operation, |
| the HTTP server will remake a temporary version of this list when the |
| link is first clicked, and each time thereafter check if updating is |
| needed (if \code{\link{.libPaths}} has changed or any of the |
| directories has been changed). This can be slow, and using |
| \code{update = TRUE} will ensure that the packages list is updated |
| before launching the index page. |
| |
| Argument \code{remote} can be used to point to HTML help published by |
| another \R installation: it will typically only show packages from the |
| main library of that installation. |
| } |
| |
| \seealso{ |
| \code{\link{help}()} for on- and off-line help in other formats. |
| |
| \code{\link{browseURL}} for how the help file is displayed. |
| |
| \code{\link{RSiteSearch}} to access an on-line search of \R resources. |
| } |
| \examples{ |
| \donttest{help.start()} |
| \dontrun{ |
| if(.Platform$OS.type == "unix") # includes Mac |
| ## the 'remote' arg can be tested by |
| help.start(remote = paste0("file://", R.home())) |
| }} |
| \keyword{documentation} |