# R: Show R Manuals and Other Documentation

RShowDoc {utils} | R Documentation

## Show R Manuals and Other Documentation

### Description

Utility function to find and display R documentation.

### Usage

    RShowDoc(what, type = c("pdf", "html", "txt"), package)

### Arguments

`what` | a character string: see Details.
`type` | an optional character string giving the preferred format.
`package` | an optional character string specifying the name of a package within which to look for documentation.

### Details

`what` can specify one of several different sources of documentation, including the R manuals (`R-admin`, `R-data`, `R-exts`, `R-intro`, `R-ints`, `R-lang`), `NEWS`, `COPYING` (the GPL licence), `FAQ` (also available as `R-FAQ`), and the files in ‘R_HOME/doc’.

If `package` is supplied, documentation is looked for in the ‘doc’ and top-level directories of an installed package of that name.

If `what` is missing a brief usage message is printed.

The documentation types are tried in turn starting with the first specified in `type` (or `"pdf"` if none is specified).

### Value

A invisible character string given the path to the file found.

### Examples

    ## Not run:
    RShowDoc("R-lang")
    RShowDoc("FAQ", type="html")
    RShowDoc("frame", package="grid")
    RShowDoc("changes.txt", package="grid")
    RShowDoc("NEWS", package="MASS")
    ## End(Not run)

[Package utils version 2.6.0 Index]