Patent ID: 7523101

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a help request from a user, the help request including at least a portion of a configuration file used to configure operation of a network device, the configuration file including statements for directing the operation of the network device; searching one or more reference or configuration sources of reference manuals or configuration guides to determine configuration information entries related to the statements, the determined configuration information entries being a section in the reference or configuration sources that includes reference information for directing the operation of the network device, the reference manual providing information about the network device and the configuration guide providing configuration information about the configuration file; generating one or more links to the configuration information for the statements, the links pointing to the configuration information entries of the reference or configuration sources that include the reference information for the statements, wherein links determined for a statement point to a entry in the reference or configuration sources that is determined to be related to the statement; and providing a document to the user, the document including the statements and the one or more links, wherein the one or more links are associated with statements on the document to allow a user to select a link to retrieve the section in the reference or configuration sources that is related to the statement.