# Where to find the help document?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-to-find-the-help-document/179329>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [November 22, 2009, 10:30am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-to-find-the-help-document/179329 "2009-11-22T10:30:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rubynut](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/8e8cbc/32.png) [@rubynut](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubynut)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 10:30am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-to-find-the-help-document/179329/1 "2009-11-22T10:30:23Z")

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Hello,

How to find ruby’s help document?  
for example, I want to know what’s the difference between two  
functions of “p” and “print”, but don’t know where to search.

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![rubynut](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/8e8cbc/32.png) [@rubynut](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubynut)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 10:40am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-to-find-the-help-document/179329/2 "2009-11-22T10:40:06Z")

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These are described in the Pickaxe book which is distributed with Ruby.  
Also you can use ri.

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**Author:** ![rubynut](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/8e8cbc/32.png) [@rubynut](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubynut)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 10:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-to-find-the-help-document/179329/3 "2009-11-22T10:44:10Z")

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Or have a look at [http://www.ruby-doc.org](http://www.ruby-doc.org) .

Marvin

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**Author:** ![rubynut](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/8e8cbc/32.png) [@rubynut](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubynut)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 11:06am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-to-find-the-help-document/179329/4 "2009-11-22T11:06:40Z")

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2009/11/22 nas [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid):

> Here are the core docs [RDoc Documentation](http://ruby-doc.org/core/)
> 
> and here the standard library docs [RDoc Documentation](http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib/)

Thanks all.  
So, is there a convenient way to check the usage of a function?  
like unix’s `man printf` or Perl’s perldoc -f print

Regards.

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**Author:** ![rubynut](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/8e8cbc/32.png) [@rubynut](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubynut)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 10:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-to-find-the-help-document/179329/5 "2009-11-22T10:56:08Z")

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Here are the core docs [RDoc Documentation](http://ruby-doc.org/core/)

and here the standard library docs [RDoc Documentation](http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib/)

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**Author:** ![rubynut](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/8e8cbc/32.png) [@rubynut](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubynut)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 9:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-to-find-the-help-document/179329/6 "2009-11-23T09:42:00Z")

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In message [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid), Haoqi  
Haoqi [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) writes

> man ri

Or for Windows users:

ri --help

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**Author:** ![rubynut](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/8e8cbc/32.png) [@rubynut](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rubynut)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 11:37am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-to-find-the-help-document/179329/7 "2009-11-22T11:37:19Z")

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man ri