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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-16T03:18:53+00:00

Using Windows XP and Python 2.7 I tried to run pydoc through the terminal.

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Using Windows XP and Python 2.7 I tried to run “pydoc” through the terminal. unfortunately it doesn’t work.

Since I’m not allowed to post a screenshot (Newbie). Here is what it says (white on black)

What I type:

"C:\Python27>pydoc raw_input  /"pydoc raw_input"

My result (It’s German an it roughly translates to”The command “pydoc” is either spelled wrong or couldn’t be found.):

Der Befehl "pydoc" ist entweder falsch geschrieben oder konnte nicht gefunden werden.

What am I doing wrong?

By the way, I just started to teach myself programming using Zed Shaws “Learn Python the Hard Way” and this is the first issue I really can’t figure out using Google. I start to believe that it is Windows an not me… (being too broke to afford a Mac and to scared to learn Linux).

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    pydoc is actually a Python script (so, on Windows, you need to look for pydoc.py), and it’s not added to the Windows %PATH% by default (so you need to give a full pathname).

    Try running c:\Python27\Lib\pydoc.py from your command line.

    Edit: For a graphical interface to Python’s documentation, you might want to instead run c:\Python27\Tools\Scripts\pydocgui.pyw (from the command line or from Windows Explorer). This starts pydoc’s web server on your local PC so you can access the documentation through your web browser.

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