The following is a bug or mis-design in help(package=): > showhelp <- function(packageName) help(package=packageName) > > showhelp("utils") Error in .find.package(pkgName, lib.loc, verbose = verbose) : none of the packages were found The problem is that it calls library(help=) with argument "packageName" instead of "utils". Unlike library(), it has no character.only argument to force interpretation of the packageName as a character vector. --please do not edit the information below-- Version: platform = i386-pc-mingw32 arch = i386 os = mingw32 system = i386, mingw32 status major = 2 minor = 1.0 year = 2005 month = 04 day = 18 language = R Windows XP Professional (build 2600) Service Pack 2.0 Search Path: .GlobalEnv, package:methods, package:stats, package:graphics, package:grDevices, package:utils, package:datasets, Autoloads, package:base