IRAF and the CL

On-Line Help


This section describes:

Getting Help

Online help is displayed using the help command,*1 which takes the name about which you want help. For example:

fi> help mkmulti


Displaying On-line Help

Two STSDAS tasks are available that will display only certain sections of the help file.

Finding Tasks

There are three ways to find a task that does what you need:

Using apropos

The apropos task looks through a list of IRAF and STSDAS package menus to find tasks that match a specified keyword. Figure 2.6 shows how to use apropos. Note that the name of the package in which the task is found is shown in parentheses. (A similar task is references.)



Using apropos

STSDAS Package Structure

STSDAS version 1.3 is structured so that tasks are logically grouped. In many cases, you can easily find a task that does whatever function you need simply by looking in the appropriate package. For example, all of the tasks that are used in the calibration process can be found in the hst_calib package and tasks used for general image display and plotting can be found in the graphics package. Figure 2.7 shows the STSDAS package structure.

Sample data sets are also provided with STSDAS so that you can experiment with tasks for which you might not otherwise have suitable data. The sample data sets are found in the directory scidata$.



STSDAS Version 1.3 Package Structure


High-level descriptions of nearly every STSDAS package are available within the IRAF online help facility using the opt=sys qualifier. For example, to see an overview of the packages and tasks in the hst_calib package you could type: help hst_calib opt=sys


User Support--HotSeat

If you have problems using STSDAS or IRAF and you can't find the solution in the manuals or the on-line help, you can contact the STSDAS user support staff by sending e-mail to: hotseat@stsci.edu


[HotSeat] - Contact the HotSeat now


Before calling the HotSeat, there are a couple of easy things you can do to make sure that you don't have a simple memory or parameter conflict:

Getting Help
Finding Tasks
Using apropos
STSDAS Package Structure
User Support--HotSeat

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