NAME

       gphelp - GP-PARI online help script

SYNOPSIS

       gphelp  [-to_pod  file]  [-raw]  [-detex]  [-k]  [-ch  c1]  [-cb  c2]  [-cu c3] [keyword [
       @{1,2,3,4,5} ]] [tutorial] [refcard]...

DESCRIPTION

       Invokes the PARI-GP online help script. By default, keyword is  understood  as  a  section
       heading  (a GP function name), and gphelp looks for it in Chapter 3 of PARI User's Manual.
       If it is found, the corresponding section is copied  to  a  temporary  file  in  /tmp  (or
       $GPTMPDIR),  TeX  is run then the corresponding section is displayed in a separate window,
       using xdvi (or $GPXDVI).

       If more than one keyword is given on a single command line, the outputs are  concatenated.
       If keyword is omitted, open the whole manual users.dvi.  The keywords tutorial and refcard
       open the GP tutorial and reference card respectively.

       GP defaults, help sections (1 to 11) as well as some keywords  (readline,  bnf,  ell,  all
       operators...)  are  recognized  and  treated  in  a  special way to make sure they match a
       section heading. For instance && is translated to Comparison and boolean  operators  which
       isn't  that  obvious to guess.  Make sure to enclose keyword between quotes if it contains
       dangerous characters (e.g spaces). For instance, you need to type

              gphelp -k "elliptic curves"

       and not

              gphelp -k elliptic curves

       which would look for "elliptic" then  for  "curves"  and  output  e.g.   ploth  among  the
       relevant sections.

FULL SEARCH: @ MARKERS

       The  pattern  @x  (where  x  is  a  chapter  number between 1 and 5) at the end of keyword
       conducts the search in the corresponding chapter instead of the default Chapter 3. If  the
       number is omitted, search the whole manual. For instance
              gphelp -k gerepile@4
       will look for gerepile in Chapter 4 of users manual.
              gphelp -k gerepile@
       will search the whole manual. All chapters of the manual (usersch[1-5].tex) are assumed to
       be in $GPDOCDIR (defaultvaluesetby Configure). You are allowed to gzip (or compress) them,
       this won't affect the search.

OPTIONS

       The following command line options are available:

       -cb, -color_bold c2
              color used for bold. See -color_help.

       -ch, -color_help c1
              color (between 1 and 16) used for general printing. Only significant in detex mode.

       -cu, -color_underline c3
              color used for underline. See -color_help.

       -detex Use  detex  mode.  The  TeX  file  is  converted  to readable screen output that is
              directly written to the terminal; don't use tex or xdvi.

       -k     Switch to apropos mode. Only write to standard output the list of section  headings
              in manual which contain keyword.

              You  can  then  choose  an  element  in  the list and use it as argument for gphelp
              (surround it by quotes if it includes spaces), possibly followed by  a  trailing  @
              marker (see above).

       -raw   use internal format for output (using @x markers). For debugging only.

       -to_pod file
              try  to  convert file from TeX to POD format. Will only work on some subset of PARI
              User's Manual (Chapter 3, reference card). This should be the only arguments on the
              command line.

ENVIRONMENT

       COLUMNS
              number of columns available on screen (for detex mode)

       DISPLAY
              where to launch the dvi previewer. If unset, detex mode is assumed automatically.

       GPDOCDIR
              directory where PARI help files are located. Default value set at Configure time.

       GPTMPDIR
              directory where temporary files are written

       GPXDVI
              dvi previewer to use

FILES

       gp     the gp calculator

       gphelp the gphelp script

       users.dvi
              PARI/GP User's Manual

       tutorial.dvi
              PARI/GP tutorial

       refcard.dvi
              GP reference card

       refcard.ps
              GP reference card, printer ready

BUGS

       The  search  algorithm  is  rather crude and the data searched rather unstructured. Hence,
       searching outside of Chapter 3 may not  yield  useful  results,  except  in  apropos  mode
       (sections may be truncated too soon for instance).

       Multiword  search  patterns  have  a tendency to fail due to various TeX constructs in the
       source.

AUTHORS

       Originally written by Ilya Zakharevitch for the Math::Pari perl  package.   Rewritten  and
       expanded by Karim Belabas for the main PARI distribution.

SEE ALSO

       gp(1), gzip(1), readline(1), tex(1), xdvi(1).

COPYING

       This  program is  free  software;  you  can  redistribute  it and/or  modify  it under the
       terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation.

       This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY  WARRANTY;
       without  even  the  implied  warranty  of  MERCHANTABILITY  or  FITNESS FOR  A  PARTICULAR
       PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more details.

       You should have received a copy of the  GNU  General  Public  License   along   with  this
       program;  if  not,  write  to  the  Free  Software  Foundation,   Inc.,   675   Mass  Ave,
       Cambridge,  MA 02139, USA.

                                           25 June 1999                                 GPHELP(1)