Libhelp xmhelp

xmhelp is a very small example program for using the libhelp interface funtions. It is a standalone help browser which additionally can be used as a help server for libhlpclient.

Command line options

Usage:
xmhelp [<Xt options>] [-update] [<help-file>]
<Xt options>
Standard Xt toolkit options like -geometry or -bg etc.
-update
forces libhelp to flush all buffers before loading the requested help document. useful when using xmhelp as a HTML-previewer.
<help-file>
the URL for the initial help document.

Using xmhelp by remote control

If an application sends a SIGUSR1 signal to xmhelp, it will read the next help request from a communication file in your home directory named

$HOME/.xmhelp.<pid>
(the HOME environment variable should be set propperly) where <pid> denotes the process id of the xmhelp process (maybe you'll have more than one). The communication file should contain a single line with the filename (URL) for the help document to display. After xmhelp has finished displaying the help document, it removes the communication file.

Possible areas of use

I use xmhelp for the following purposes:

  1. As global help system for my computing environment. Xmhelp comes up with my global-index, which contains links to all project help files and other useful documentation.
  2. As a HTML-previewer for emacs's html-mode (which uses the -update commandline switch. Send me a mail if you want to get it.)
  3. As help server for applications linked to libhlpclient.

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Libhelp version 1.8.1 (Jun 28. 95).
Thomas Harrer