help() function

[Bengt Richter]

On 4 Nov 2002 18:05:19 -0600, Chris Spencer <clspence at one.net> wrote:

>	The documentation makes it clear that the help() function is only used
>in interactive mode.  However, I see it as a really neato-way of generating
>standalone .txt files from docstrings in modules.  However, as it currently
>stands, it looks like help() can ONLY be used in interactive mode, which means I
>can't capture the output to a file.
>	Is there any way to get the same docstring formatting that help() uses,
>but be able to capture it to a variable or a file handle?
>	Inquiring minds want to know.
>
YPMV (Your Path May Vary) but just type

[17:01] C:\pywk>D:\Python22\Lib\pydoc.py
pydoc - the Python documentation tool

D:\Python22\Lib\pydoc.py <name> ...
    Show text documentation on something.  <name> may be the name of a
    function, module, or package, or a dotted reference to a class or
    function within a module or module in a package.  If <name> contains
    a '\', it is used as the path to a Python source file to document.

D:\Python22\Lib\pydoc.py -k <keyword>
    Search for a keyword in the synopsis lines of all available modules.

D:\Python22\Lib\pydoc.py -p <port>
    Start an HTTP server on the given port on the local machine.

D:\Python22\Lib\pydoc.py -g
    Pop up a graphical interface for finding and serving documentation.

D:\Python22\Lib\pydoc.py -w <name> ...
    Write out the HTML documentation for a module to a file in the current
    directory.  If <name> contains a '\', it is treated as a filename; if
    it names a directory, documentation is written for all the contents.

If you are on windows and want to capture output, don't forget to run it
explicitly with 

    python D:\Python22\Lib\pydoc.py > a_file.txt

as extension-triggered program output is not always redirectable.

Regards,
Bengt Richter