Help command now writes to stderr when there is no help information

2 files changed, 19 insertions, 10 deletions

diff --git a/cmd2/cmd2.py b/cmd2/cmd2.py
index 6b085a98..869b7b04 100644
--- a/cmd2/cmd2.py
+++ b/cmd2/cmd2.py
@@ -2057,8 +2057,8 @@ class Cmd(cmd.Cmd):
 
             return self.do_shell(statement.command_and_args)
         else:
-            self.perror('*** {} is not a recognized command, alias, or macro'.format(statement.command),
-                        err_color=Fore.RESET, traceback_war=False)
+            self.perror('{} is not a recognized command, alias, or macro'.format(statement.command),
+                        traceback_war=False, err_color=Fore.RESET)
 
     def pseudo_raw_input(self, prompt: str) -> str:
         """Began life as a copy of cmd's cmdloop; like raw_input but
@@ -2586,12 +2586,20 @@ class Cmd(cmd.Cmd):
         else:
             # Getting help for a specific command
             func = self.cmd_func(args.command)
+            help_func = getattr(self, HELP_FUNC_PREFIX + args.command, None)
+
+            # If the command function uses argparse, then use argparse's help
             if func and hasattr(func, 'argparser'):
                 completer = AutoCompleter(getattr(func, 'argparser'), self)
                 tokens = [args.command] + args.subcommand
                 self.poutput(completer.format_help(tokens))
+
+            # If there is no help information then print an error
+            elif help_func is None and (func is None or not func.__doc__):
+                self.perror("No help on {}".format(args.command), traceback_war=False, err_color=Fore.RESET)
+
+            # Otherwise delegate to cmd base class do_help()
             else:
-                # No special behavior needed, delegate to cmd base class do_help()
                 super().do_help(args.command)
 
     def _help_menu(self, verbose: bool = False) -> None:
@@ -3719,7 +3727,7 @@ class Cmd(cmd.Cmd):
         :param message_to_print: the message reporting that the command is disabled
         :param kwargs: not used
         """
-        self.perror(message_to_print, err_color=Fore.RESET, traceback_war=False)
+        self.perror(message_to_print, traceback_war=False, err_color=Fore.RESET)
 
     def cmdloop(self, intro: Optional[str] = None) -> None:
         """This is an outer wrapper around _cmdloop() which deals with extra features provided by cmd2.
diff --git a/tests/test_cmd2.py b/tests/test_cmd2.py
index 44ca89e0..6733be19 100644
--- a/tests/test_cmd2.py
+++ b/tests/test_cmd2.py
@@ -952,10 +952,10 @@ undoc
 """)
     assert out == expected
 
-def test_help_undocumented(help_app):
-    out = run_cmd(help_app, 'help undoc')
-    expected = normalize('*** No help on undoc')
-    assert out == expected
+def test_help_undocumented(help_app, capsys):
+    run_cmd(help_app, 'help undoc')
+    out, err = capsys.readouterr()
+    assert err.startswith("No help on undoc")
 
 def test_help_overridden_method(help_app):
     out = run_cmd(help_app, 'help edit')
@@ -1787,8 +1787,9 @@ def test_macro_create_with_escaped_args(base_app, capsys):
     assert out == normalize("Macro 'fake' created")
 
     # Run the macro
-    out = run_cmd(base_app, 'fake')
-    assert 'No help on {1}' in out[0]
+    run_cmd(base_app, 'fake')
+    out, err = capsys.readouterr()
+    assert err.startswith('No help on {1}')
 
 def test_macro_usage_with_missing_args(base_app, capsys):
     # Create the macro