When hg is invoked without parameters, the short list help is displayed. When hg is executed without parameters ( or hg is executed with the 'help shortlist' command ) the short help list is displayed. If the 'help' command is passed on the commandline the full help list is displayed. In both the cases if the switch '-v' is passed, the help contains also the aliases of the short/full commands list and the global switches.

+ hg init
+ hg add a
+ hg commit -m test -d 0 0
+ hg history
changeset:   0:acb14030fe0a
tag:         tip
user:        test
date:        Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
summary:     test

+ hg manifest
b789fdd96dc2f3bd229c1dd8eedf0fc60e2b68e3 644 a
+ hg cat a
a
+ hg verify
checking changesets
checking manifests
crosschecking files in changesets and manifests
checking files
1 files, 1 changesets, 1 total revisions