[Tutor] How do you use pydoc?

[Jeff420harris00 at wmconnect.com]

   I have read but don't under stand how to use pydoc. here what i read can't 
figer out how to use it.....


5.1 pydoc -- Documentation generator and online help system 

New in version 2.1. The pydoc module automatically generates documentation 
from Python modules. The documentation can be presented as pages of text on the 
console, served to a Web browser, or saved to HTML files. The built-in 
function help() invokes the online help system in the interactive interpreter, which 
uses pydoc to generate its documentation as text on the console. The same text 
documentation can also be viewed from outside the Python interpreter by 
running pydoc as a script at the operating system's command prompt. For example, 
running pydoc sys
at a shell prompt will display documentation on the <A HREF="mk:@MSITStore:C:%5CPython24%5CDoc%5CPython24.chm::/lib/module-sys.html">sys</A> module, in a style 
similar to the manual pages shown by the Unix man command. The argument to pydoc 
can be the name of a function, module, or package, or a dotted reference to a 
class, method, or function within a module or module in a package. If the 
argument to pydoc looks like a path (that is, it contains the path separator for 
your operating system, such as a slash in Unix), and refers to an existing 
Python source file, then documentation is produced for that file. Specifying a -w 
flag before the argument will cause HTML documentation to be written out to a 
file in the current directory, instead of displaying text on the console. 
Specifying a -k flag before the argument will search the synopsis lines of all 
available modules for the keyword given as the argument, again in a manner 
similar to the Unix man command. The synopsis line of a module is the first line of 
its documentation string. You can also use pydoc to start an HTTP server on 
the local machine that will serve documentation to visiting Web browsers. pydoc 
-p 1234 will start a HTTP server on port 1234, allowing you to browse the 
documentation at http://localhost:1234/ in your preferred Web browser. pydoc -g 
will start the server and additionally bring up a small <A HREF="mk:@MSITStore:C:%5CPython24%5CDoc%5CPython24.chm::/lib/module-Tkinter.html">Tkinter</A>-based graphical 
interface to help you search for documentation pages. When pydoc generates 
documentation, it uses the current environment and path to locate modules. Thus, 
invoking pydoc spam documents precisely the version of the module you would 
get if you started the Python interpreter and typed "import spam". Module docs 
for core modules are assumed to reside in <A HREF="http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/">
http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/</A>. This can be overridden by setting the PYTHONDOCS environment variable to a 
different URL or to a local directory containing the Library Reference Manual 
pages. 


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