It's often very useful to be able to give users some help that describes the specific targets, build options, etc., that can be used for your build. &SCons; provides the &Help; function to allow you to specify this help text: Help(""" Type: 'scons program' to build the production program, 'scons debug' to build the debug version. """) (Note the above use of the Python triple-quote syntax, which comes in very handy for specifying multi-line strings like help text.) When the &SConstruct; or &SConscript; files contain such a call to the &Help; function, the specified help text will be displayed in response to the &SCons; -h option: % scons -h scons: Reading SConscript files ... scons: done reading SConscript files. Type: 'scons program' to build the production program, 'scons debug' to build the debug version. Use scons -H for help about command-line options. If there is no &Help; text in the &SConstruct; or &SConscript; files, &SCons; will revert to displaying its standard list that describes the &SCons; command-line options. This list is also always displayed whenever the -H option is used.