It is sometimes required to read Microsoft Windows help files (.chm) in Linux. Once such case could be for cross developing applications using MinGW for Windows in Linux. Another case could be reading documentation of a generic stuff like JavaScript programming etc.

Linux supports a command called “xchm” that can be used to view .chm files. You can install it using “yum” command in Fedora/RHEL Linux as shown below.

[root@techpulp ~]# yum -y install xchm

After successful installation you should see a new command xchm available.

To open a .chm help file, use following command.

[neo@techpulp ~]# xchm jquery.chm

There’s a KDE version of CHM file viewer called “kchm“. I never used it. But you can explore it for yourself and post your views on it as a comment here.