Installing SQL*Plus Online Help

Online help is available from the command line of either the Graphical User interface or the Command Line interface while you are using SQL*Plus. The database administrator creates the SQL*Plus help tables and populates them with SQL*Plus help data.

Prerequisites

Before you can install SQL*Plus help, ensure that:

• SQL*Plus is installed, otherwise, you cannot create and load the help tables.

• The default tablespace for the SYSTEM user is large enough to accommodate the help system. You must have at lease 128K of free disk space.

• The SQL*Plus help script files are available in

  %ORACLE_HOME%\SQLPLUS\ADMIN\HELP\
  

The help script files are:

HELPBLD.SQL - to drop and create new help tables.

HELPUS.SQL - to populate the help tables with the help data.

HELPDROP.SQL - to drop existing SQL*Plus help tables.

The Windows command file, HELPINS.BAT, is available in

%ORACLE_HOME%\BIN\ 

Installing SQL*Plus Help

To install SQL*Plus help:

Select the "Enable InterMedia demos and add SQL*Plus help tables" from the Database Configuration Assistant during installation.

or

1. Set an environment variable, SYSTEM_PASS, to hold the SYSTEM user login with:

   SET SYSTEM_PASS=SYSTEM/PASSWORD
   
   

   where PASSWORD is the password you have defined for the SYSTEM user. The default SYSTEM user password is MANAGER.

   The HELPINS utility reads this login from SYSTEM_PASS to run successfully.

2. Run the batch file, HELPINS.BAT, from a command line prompt with:

   C:\> %ORACLE_HOME%\BIN\HELPINS US
   
   

or

1. Run SQL*Plus as the SYSTEM user with:

   C:\> SQLPLUS SYSTEM/PASSWORD
   
   

   where PASSWORD is the password you have defined for the SYSTEM user.

2. Run the SQL script, HELPBLD.SQL, from SQL*Plus with:

   SQL> @%ORACLE_HOME%/SQLPLUS/ADMIN/HELP/HELPBLD.SQL
   

Accessing SQL*Plus Help

To access SQL*Plus help, enter one of the following commands in SQL*Plus:

	SQL> HELP

or

	SQL> HELP INDEX

or

	SQL> HELP TOPIC

If you know the topic for which you want help, enter the following:

SQL> 	HELP topic

where topic is a SQL*Plus help topic. For example, enter

SQL> HELP COLUMN

for help on the Column command.

If you get a response that help is unavailable, check that you have correctly installed SQL*Plus help in the SYSTEM schema.

For more information about the Help command, see Chapter 8, "Command Reference" in the SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference.