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67 lines
3 KiB
TeX
67 lines
3 KiB
TeX
\section{\module{pydoc} ---
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Documentation generator and online help system}
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\declaremodule{standard}{pydoc}
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\modulesynopsis{Documentation generator and online help system.}
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\moduleauthor{Ka-Ping Yee}{ping@lfw.org}
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\sectionauthor{Ka-Ping Yee}{ping@lfw.org}
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\versionadded{2.1}
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\index{documentation!generation}
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\index{documentation!online}
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\index{help!online}
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The \module{pydoc} module automatically generates documentation from
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Python modules. The documentation can be presented as pages of text
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on the console, served to a Web browser, or saved to HTML files.
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The built-in function \function{help()} invokes the online help system
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in the interactive interpreter, which uses \module{pydoc} to generate
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its documentation as text on the console. The same text documentation
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can also be viewed from outside the Python interpreter by running
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\program{pydoc} as a script at the operating system's command prompt.
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For example, running
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\begin{verbatim}
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pydoc sys
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\end{verbatim}
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at a shell prompt will display documentation on the \refmodule{sys}
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module, in a style similar to the manual pages shown by the \UNIX{}
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\program{man} command. The argument to \program{pydoc} can be the name
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of a function, module, or package, or a dotted reference to a class,
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method, or function within a module or module in a package. If the
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argument to \program{pydoc} looks like a path (that is, it contains the
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path separator for your operating system, such as a slash in \UNIX),
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and refers to an existing Python source file, then documentation is
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produced for that file.
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Specifying a \programopt{-w} flag before the argument will cause HTML
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documentation to be written out to a file in the current directory,
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instead of displaying text on the console.
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Specifying a \programopt{-k} flag before the argument will search the
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synopsis lines of all available modules for the keyword given as the
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argument, again in a manner similar to the \UNIX{} \program{man}
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command. The synopsis line of a module is the first line of its
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documentation string.
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You can also use \program{pydoc} to start an HTTP server on the local
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machine that will serve documentation to visiting Web browsers.
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\program{pydoc} \programopt{-p 1234} will start a HTTP server on port
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1234, allowing you to browse the documentation at
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\code{http://localhost:1234/} in your preferred Web browser.
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\program{pydoc} \programopt{-g} will start the server and additionally
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bring up a small \refmodule{Tkinter}-based graphical interface to help
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you search for documentation pages.
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When \program{pydoc} generates documentation, it uses the current
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environment and path to locate modules. Thus, invoking
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\program{pydoc} \programopt{spam} documents precisely the version of
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the module you would get if you started the Python interpreter and
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typed \samp{import spam}.
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Module docs for core modules are assumed to reside in
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{}\url{http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/}. This can be overridden by
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setting the \envvar{PYTHONDOCS} environment variable to a different URL or
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to a local directory containing the Library Reference Manual pages.
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