Hi all, I am checking the cross references at CRAN and base R, and I am having trouble understanding how to reconcile the documentation and how R help links work. Checking the documentation [1] it seems that in a cross reference such as \link[pkg:x]{text} x should be a topic (created with \alias{topic} in R documentation). But I found some cases exploring the output of tools::base_rdxrefs_db() where it is a file name (without the .Rd extension). For instance, ?print has a link with text (Target as named by the output) ".print.via.format" and the anchor "tools:print.via.format". The topic would be print.via.format, but if one uses: help(topic = "print.via.format", package = "tools"): No documentation for 'print.via.format' in specified packages and libraries: you could try '??print.via.format' However, if one accesses the html help page and clicks .print.via.format, is redirected to the right help page (found in the REPL too with help(topic = ".print.via.format", package = "tools") ). I see a paragraph in R 4.1 NEWS about a change in behaviour [2] (also hinted in WRE), where it is described as: ... "and fall back to a file link only if the topic is not found in the target package. The earlier rule which prioritized file names over topics can be restored by setting the environment variable _R_HELP_LINKS_TO_TOPICS_ to a false value." The internal variable _R_HELP_LINKS_TO_TOPICS_ isn't mentioned on R-internals and this behaviour of html pages is not mentioned on WRE. - Perhaps documentation at R-internals and WRE could be updated to show how html page links are created? - And/or the behaviour could continue the path started on R 4.1 and start complaining about anchors pointing to files? In the second case, ~10 links in base R would be affected but on CRAN this could affect ~1700 more packages than those currently with "Rd cross-references" notes. Regards, Llu?s [1]: https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-devel/R-exts.html#Cross_002dreferences [2]: https://developer.r-project.org/blosxom.cgi/R-4-1-branch/NEWS/2021/04/20#n2021-04-21