NAME

describe -- Display a description of the named task(s) or package(s).

USAGE

describe template

DESCRIPTION

The describe task is a shortcut for viewing only the DESCRIPTION section of a help file for any STSDAS task or package. It produces the same output as you would get by typing "help task section=description", but offers a more intuitive way of getting the information.

PARAMETERS

template [string]

Name of the task to be described. This may be a template with wildcards, and task names may be abbreviated. Multiple tasks may be specified by separating task names with a comma. Package names may also be specified with a period separating the package from the task. The general form of the pattern is:

package.task

For example, you could type "describe fits.st*" and descriptions would be displayed for both the strfits and the stwfits tasks in the fitsio package since both these tasks match the specified template. In practice, you may not wish to specify more than one task at a time because the descriptions will be concatenated rather than being separated.

If no package name is specified (with the "."), the task assumes you are looking for a task in the current package. The standard pattern matching metacharacters, i.e., "*?[]", are permitted in patterns. Simple patterns are assumed to be abbreviations.

EXAMPLES

1. Describe the grpcopy task in the tools package:

	cl> describe tools.grpcopy
or
	cl> describe grpcopy
or
	cl> describe grpc

2. Describe the dqfpar and noisepar tasks in the wfpc package. Send the output to your default printer.

cl> describe wfpc.*par | lpr

BUGS

On some systems, typing the next command keystroke before the end-of-page prompt is printed may result in the character being echoed (messing up the output) and then ignored when raw mode is enabled for the prompt.

SEE ALSO

examples, help