sccs-help(1)

📦 version 2022.10.16, in opensuse-leap 16.0

💅 sccs-help(1) — the manual page

ok so this is the page for sccs-help (also just called help), which lives on the User Commands shelf. welcome bestie, let's get you un-stuck 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

sccs-help, help — the whole point of this icon is that you can ask it for help about SCCS error or warning messages. literally its job. 💖

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

/usr/ccs/bin/help [argument]...

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so the help utility is your little lookup bestie: it fetches information that explains error messages and warnings coming out of SCCS commands. it also has some info about how to actually use SCCS commands, which is lowkey so helpful. if you give it no arguments at all, help will just prompt you for one — it's not gonna sit there in silence, it's gonna ask. 💅

an argument can be either a message number (that number normally shows up in parentheses right after each SCCS error or warning message, iykyk) or an SCCS command name. help responds with an explanation of the message, or with a usage line for the command. iconic behavior, no cap.

now for the search logic, because this part is a whole vibe check:

  • when the argument is all non-numeric, the text gets searched in the file cmds. the related base directory is in the FILES section below, scroll down bestie 👇
  • when the argument starts with alpha characters and ends in numbers, the alpha prefix is used as a key to locate a file. if that key shows up in the helploc file, a new directory prefix gets taken from that file; if it doesn't, the key is used as a file name with the standard prefix to search for messages. then the remainder of the argument is used to search a label in the message file and to print the message text.
  • when the argument starts with numbers, or a file related to the key could not be found, the text gets searched in the file default.
  • when all else fails, try:
/usr/ccs/bin/help  stuck

like genuinely, that's the move. 🧚

🎀 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 🎀

go look at environ(7) for the descriptions of these environment variables that affect how help(1) runs, because it's a whole list and we're respecting it: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH. 🌈

⭐ EXIT STATUS ⭐

the following exit values are returned:

  • 0 — successful completion. slay, it worked 💖
  • 1 — no help could be printed. 😭

🍓 FILES 🍓

  • /usr/ccs/lib/help/locale/locale_name — directory containing files of message text
  • /usr/ccs/lib/help/locale/C — directory containing default files of message text, in case there's no text for the current locale (backup bestie fr fr)
  • /usr/ccs/lib/help/helploc — a file that maps search keys to alternate directories to look for help messages. each line in the file contains a search key, a TAB character, and a directory name. if a matching key is found, the file searched for messages is named: directory_name/locale_name/key 🦋

💜 FILE FORMAT 💜

the message files use the following format, and yes we're going through all of it:

  • * — lines that start with a star are ignored and used as comments.
  • -label — lines that start with a minus sign and that end in a label mark the beginning of message text related to label. 👑
  • other — other text is the message block that gets printed until the next label or the end of the file is seen.

🔥 ATTRIBUTES 🔥

go check attributes(7) for the descriptions of the following attributes:

  • ATTRIBUTE TYPE: Availability — ATTRIBUTE VALUE: SUNWsprot

🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

okay this list is long but we're not skipping a single one, bestie, every single one of these ate:

sccs(1), sccs-add(1), sccs-admin(1), sccs-branch(1), sccs-cdc(1), sccs-check(1), sccs-clean(1), sccs-comb(1), sccs-commit(1), sccs-create(1), sccs-cvt(1), sccs-deledit(1), sccs-delget(1), sccs-delta(1), sccs-diffs(1), sccs-edit(1), sccs-editor(1), sccs-enter(1), sccs-fix(1), sccs-get(1), sccs-histfile(1), sccs-info(1), sccs-init(1), sccs-istext(1), sccs-ldiffs(1), sccs-log(1), sccs-print(1), sccs-prs(1), sccs-prt(1), sccs-rcs2sccs(1), sccs-remove(1), sccs-rename(1), sccs-rmdel(1), sccs-root(1), sccs-sact(1), sccs-sccsdiff(1), sccs-status(1), sccs-tell(1), sccs-unedit(1), sccs-unget(1), sccs-val(1), bdiff(1), diff(1), what(1), sccschangeset(5), sccsfile(5), attributes(7), environ(7), standards(7).

💀 BUGS 💀

none currently known. that's it, that's the bug list, we love a clean slate ✨

mail bugs and suggestions to schilytools@mlists.in-berlin.de or open a ticket at https://codeberg.org/schilytools/schilytools/issues. 🫶

the mailing list archive may be found at:

https://mlists.in-berlin.de/mailman/listinfo/schilytools-mlists.in-berlin.de

👑 AUTHORS 👑

the SCCS suite was originally written by Marc J. Rochkind at Bell Labs in 1972. 🕰️ Release 4.0 of SCCS — which introduced new versions of the programs admin(1), get(1), prt(1), and delta(1) — was published on February 18, 1977; it introduced the new text based SCCS v4 history file format (previous SCCS releases used a binary history file format, wild right?). the SCCS suite was later maintained by various people at AT&T and Sun Microsystems. since 2006, the SCCS suite has been maintained by Joerg Schilling and the schilytools project authors. main character energy fr fr 🌟

🧚 SOURCE DOWNLOAD 🧚

the source code for sccs is included in the schilytools project and may be retrieved from the schilytools project at Codeberg at

https://codeberg.org/schilytools/schilytools

the download directory is

https://codeberg.org/schilytools/schilytools/releases
that's the whole page bestie, you're officially an sccs-help expert 💅✨

and for the sign-off: this one's from SunOS 5.11, dated 2022/10/06, and it's the sccs-help(1) page. mwah, go fix your errors 🎀💖

📦 where this page comes from