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Annotation of researchv10dc/dist/man/v4/man0/intro, revision 1.1

1.1     ! root        1: .lg
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        !            34: .ce
        !            35: UNIX PROGRAMMER'S MANUAL
        !            36: .ps 12
        !            37: .vs 14p
        !            38: .sp 2
        !            39: .ft I
        !            40: .ce
        !            41: Fourth Edition
        !            42: .sp 3
        !            43: .ce 3
        !            44: K. Thompson
        !            45: .sp .5
        !            46: D. M. Ritchie
        !            47: .sp 2
        !            48: .ce
        !            49: November, 1973
        !            50: .sp 2.5i
        !            51: .ps 10
        !            52: .vs 12p
        !            53: .ft R
        !            54: .ce 2
        !            55: Copyright \(co 1972, 1973
        !            56: Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.
        !            57: .sp
        !            58: .ce 3
        !            59: No part of this document may be reproduced,
        !            60: or distributed outside the Laboratories, without
        !            61: the written permission of Bell Telephone Laboratories.
        !            62: .bp
        !            63: .sp 3i
        !            64: .ce2
        !            65: Copyright \(co 1972, 1973
        !            66: Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated
        !            67: .sp 3i
        !            68: .ll 4.5i
        !            69: .in 1.5i
        !            70: .ft R
        !            71: This manual was set
        !            72: by a Graphic Systems phototypesetter driven
        !            73: by the \fItroff\fR formatting program operating
        !            74: under the \s8UNIX\s10 system.
        !            75: The text of the manual was
        !            76: prepared using the \fIed\fR text editor.
        !            77: .br
        !            78: .ft R
        !            79: .ll 6i
        !            80: .in 0
        !            81: .bp 1
        !            82: .sp 3
        !            83: .ce 2
        !            84: PREFACE
        !            85: to the Fourth Edition
        !            86: .sp
        !            87: .de CF
        !            88: .ro
        !            89: .tl ''%''
        !            90: .ar
        !            91: ..
        !            92: In the months since the last appearance of this manual,
        !            93: many changes have occurred
        !            94: both in the system itself and in the way it is
        !            95: used.
        !            96: The most important changes result from a complete
        !            97: rewrite of the \s8UNIX\s10 system in the C language.
        !            98: There have also been substantial changes in much of the
        !            99: system software.
        !           100: It is these changes, of course,
        !           101: which mandated the new edition of this manual.
        !           102: .pg
        !           103: The number of \s8UNIX\s10 installations
        !           104: is now above 20, and many more are expected.
        !           105: None of these has exactly the same complement
        !           106: of hardware or software.
        !           107: Therefore, at any particular installation,
        !           108: it is quite possible that this manual will
        !           109: give inappropriate information.
        !           110: In particular,
        !           111: .ft I
        !           112: the information in this manual applies
        !           113: only to \s8UNIX\s10 systems which operate
        !           114: under the C language versions of the system.
        !           115: .ft R
        !           116: Installations which use older versions of \s8UNIX\s10
        !           117: will find earlier editions of this manual
        !           118: more appropriate to their situation.
        !           119: .pg
        !           120: Even in installations which have the latest versions of the
        !           121: operating system,
        !           122: not all the software and other
        !           123: facilities mentioned herein
        !           124: will be available.
        !           125: For example,
        !           126: the typesetter, voice response unit, and voice synthesizer
        !           127: are hardly universally available devices;
        !           128: also, some of the \s8UNIX\s10 software has not been
        !           129: released for use outside the
        !           130: Bell System.
        !           131: .sp 2
        !           132: The authors are grateful
        !           133: to L. L. Cherry,
        !           134: M. E. Lesk,
        !           135: E. N. Pinson,
        !           136: and C. S. Roberts for their
        !           137: contributions
        !           138: to the system software,
        !           139: and to L. E. McMahon for software and for
        !           140: his contributions to this manual.
        !           141: We are particularly appreciative of the
        !           142: invaluable technical, editorial, and administrative
        !           143: efforts of
        !           144: J. F. Ossanna, M. D. McIlroy, and R. Morris.
        !           145: They all contributed greatly to the stock of
        !           146: \s8UNIX\s10 software and to this manual.
        !           147: Their inventiveness,
        !           148: thoughtful criticism,
        !           149: and ungrudging support
        !           150: increased immeasurably
        !           151: not only whatever success the \s8UNIX\s10 system enjoys,
        !           152: but also our own enjoyment in its creation.
        !           153: .bp
        !           154: .sp 2
        !           155: .ce
        !           156: INTRODUCTION TO THIS MANUAL
        !           157: .pg
        !           158: .pg
        !           159: This manual gives descriptions of the publicly available
        !           160: features of \s8UNIX\s10.
        !           161: It provides neither a general
        !           162: overview (see ``The \s8UNIX\s10 Time-sharing System'' for that)
        !           163: nor details of the implementation of the system (which
        !           164: remain to be disclosed).
        !           165: .pg
        !           166: Within the area it surveys, this manual attempts
        !           167: to be as complete and timely as possible.
        !           168: A conscious
        !           169: decision was made to describe each program
        !           170: in exactly the state it was in at the time
        !           171: its manual section
        !           172: was prepared.
        !           173: In particular, the
        !           174: desire to describe something as it should be, not as it is,
        !           175: was resisted.
        !           176: Inevitably, this means that
        !           177: many sections will soon be out of date.
        !           178: .pg
        !           179: This manual is divided into
        !           180: eight sections:
        !           181: .pg
        !           182: .nf
        !           183:        I.      Commands
        !           184:        II.     System calls
        !           185:        III.    Subroutines
        !           186:        IV.     Special files
        !           187:        V.      File formats
        !           188:        VI.     User-maintained programs
        !           189:        VII.    Miscellaneous
        !           190:        VIII.   Maintenance
        !           191: .pg
        !           192: .fi
        !           193: Commands are programs intended to be invoked directly by
        !           194: the user, in contradistinction to subroutines, which are
        !           195: intended to be called by the user's programs.
        !           196: Commands generally reside in directory
        !           197: .ft I
        !           198: /bin
        !           199: .ft R
        !           200: (for \fIbin\fR\|ary programs).
        !           201: This directory is searched automatically
        !           202: by the command line interpreter.
        !           203: Some programs also reside in
        !           204: .ft I
        !           205: /\|usr/\|bin,
        !           206: .ft R
        !           207: to save space in
        !           208: \fI/bin.\fR
        !           209: Some programs
        !           210: classified as commands are located elsewhere; this
        !           211: fact is indicated in the appropriate sections.
        !           212: .pg
        !           213: System calls are entries into the \s8UNIX\s10 supervisor.
        !           214: In assembly language, they are coded with the use
        !           215: of the opcode \fIsys\fR, a synonym for the
        !           216: \fItrap\fR instruction.
        !           217: In this edition,
        !           218: the C language interface routines to the system
        !           219: calls have been incorporated in section II.
        !           220: .pg
        !           221: A small assortment
        !           222: of subroutines is available;
        !           223: they are described in section III.
        !           224: The binary form of most of them is kept in
        !           225: the system library
        !           226: \fI/\|lib/\|liba.a.\fR
        !           227: The subroutines available from C and from Fortran are also included;
        !           228: they reside in
        !           229: \fI/\|lib/\|libc.a\fR
        !           230: and
        !           231: \fI/\|lib/\|libf.a\fR
        !           232: respectively.
        !           233: .pg
        !           234: The special files section IV discusses the characteristics of
        !           235: each system ``file'' which actually refers to an I/O device.
        !           236: The names in this
        !           237: section refer to the DEC device names for the
        !           238: hardware,
        !           239: instead of the names of
        !           240: the special files themselves.
        !           241: .pg
        !           242: The file formats section V documents the structure of particular
        !           243: kinds of files; for example, the form of the output of the loader and
        !           244: assembler is given.  Excluded are files used by only one command,
        !           245: for example the assembler's intermediate files.
        !           246: .pg
        !           247: User-maintained programs (section VI) are not considered part
        !           248: of the \s8UNIX\s10 system, and the principal reason for
        !           249: listing them is to indicate their existence without
        !           250: necessarily giving a complete description.
        !           251: The author should be consulted for information.
        !           252: .pg
        !           253: The miscellaneous section (VII) gathers odds and ends.
        !           254: .pg
        !           255: Section VIII discusses commands which are not intended
        !           256: for use by the ordinary user,
        !           257: in some cases because they disclose information
        !           258: in which he is presumably not interested,
        !           259: and in others because they perform
        !           260: privileged functions.
        !           261: .pg
        !           262: .pg
        !           263: Each section consists of a number of independent
        !           264: entries of a page or so each.
        !           265: The name of the entry is in the upper corners of its pages,
        !           266: its preparation date in the upper middle.
        !           267: Entries within each section are
        !           268: alphabetized.
        !           269: The page numbers of each entry start at 1.
        !           270: (The earlier hope for frequent, partial
        !           271: updates of the manual is clearly in vain, but
        !           272: in any event it is not feasible to
        !           273: maintain consecutive page numbering in a document
        !           274: like this.)
        !           275: .pg
        !           276: All entries are based on a common format,
        !           277: not all of whose subsections will always appear.
        !           278: .pg
        !           279: .in .5i
        !           280: The \fIname\fR section repeats the entry name and gives
        !           281: a very short description of its purpose.
        !           282: .pg
        !           283: The \fIsynopsis\fR summarizes the use of the
        !           284: program being described.
        !           285: A few conventions are used, particularly in the
        !           286: Commands section:
        !           287: .pg
        !           288: .in 1i
        !           289: \fBBoldface\fR words are considered literals, and
        !           290: are typed just as they appear.
        !           291: .pg
        !           292: Square brackets ( [ ] ) around an argument
        !           293: indicate that the argument is optional.
        !           294: When an argument is given as ``name'', it always
        !           295: refers to a file name.
        !           296: .pg
        !           297: Ellipses ``.\|.\|.'' are used to show that the previous argument-prototype
        !           298: may be repeated.
        !           299: .pg
        !           300: A final convention is used by the commands themselves.
        !           301: An argument beginning with a minus sign ``_''
        !           302: is often taken to mean some sort of flag argument
        !           303: even if it appears in a position where a file name
        !           304: could appear.  Therefore, it is unwise to have files
        !           305: whose names begin with ``_''.
        !           306: .pg
        !           307: .in .5i
        !           308: The \fIdescription\fR section discusses in detail the subject at hand.
        !           309: .pg
        !           310: The \fIfiles\fR section gives the names of files which are
        !           311: built into the program.
        !           312: .pg
        !           313: A
        !           314: .ft I
        !           315: see also
        !           316: .ft R
        !           317: section gives pointers to related information.
        !           318: .pg
        !           319: A \fIdiagnostics\fR
        !           320: section discusses
        !           321: the diagnostic indications which may be produced.
        !           322: Messages which are intended to be self-explanatory
        !           323: are not listed.
        !           324: .pg
        !           325: The \fIbugs\fR section gives
        !           326: known bugs and sometimes deficiencies.
        !           327: Occasionally also the suggested fix is
        !           328: described.
        !           329: .pg
        !           330: .in 0
        !           331: At the beginning of this document is a table of contents,
        !           332: organized by section and alphabetically within each section.
        !           333: There is also a permuted index derived from the table of contents.
        !           334: Within each index entry, the title
        !           335: of the writeup to which
        !           336: it refers is followed by the appropriate section number in parentheses.
        !           337: This fact is important because there is considerable
        !           338: name duplication among the sections,
        !           339: arising principally from commands which
        !           340: exist only to exercise a particular system call.
        !           341: .pg
        !           342: .pg
        !           343: This manual was prepared using the \s8UNIX\s10 text
        !           344: editor \fIed\fR and the formatting program \fItroff\fR.

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