Since when is there a stand alone "Help" command in IOS?

ande0255

I was working with address-family's and saw the modifer "Help" and decided to look at what it does or explains and get this:

R1(config-router-af)#help ?
<cr>

R1(config-router-af)#help
Help may be requested at any point in a command by entering
a question mark '?'. If nothing matches, the help list will
be empty and you must backup until entering a '?' shows the
available options.
Two styles of help are provided:
1. Full help is available when you are ready to enter a
command argument (e.g. 'show ?') and describes each possible
argument.
2. Partial help is provided when an abbreviated argument is entered
and you want to know what arguments match the input
(e.g. 'show pr?'.)

R1(config-router-af)#

I had never seen this before, and noticed it is not on other sub-menu's within the address-family configuration (What if I don't know about the ? in that sub-menu???), and I was just shocked to see the IOS had a "Help" command in it.

Like where the fack was that when I was troubleshooting a router the last time??? But then found it explains the ? usage, and just laughed and rolled my eyes, like if you're in address-family configuration mode in Named EIGRP, you probably got a grasp on what the ? does

/rant, that is all, got my IT geek chuckle in of the day.

Danielh22185

Context help has always been there. The explanation of the usage format of context help that as you have quoted here seems maybe new(ish?). Maybe is attributed to specific code versions.

MontagueVandervort

I know it was there in 2013 so for at least that long.