NAME
intro — introduction to command utilities and application programs
DESCRIPTION
This section describes commands accessible by users,
as opposed to system calls in Section (2)
or library routines in Section (3),
which are accessible by user programs.
Command Syntax
Unless otherwise noted, commands described in this section accept options and
other arguments according to the following syntax:
name [ option ( s )] [ cmd_arg ( s )]
where the elements are defined as follows:
- name
Name of an executable file.
- option
One or more
options
can appear on a command line.
Each takes one of the following forms:
- -no_arg_letter
A single letter representing an option without an argument.
- -no_arg_letters
Two or more single-letter options
combined into a single command-line argument.
- -arg_letter<>opt_arg
A single-letter option followed by a required argument where:
- arg_letter
is the single letter representing an option that requires an argument,
- opt_arg
is an argument (character string) satisfying the preceding
arg_letter,
- <>
represents optional white space.
- cmd_arg
Path name (or other command argument)
not
beginning with
-,
or
-
by itself indicating the standard input.
If two or more
cmd_args
appear, they must be separated by white space.
Manual Entry Formats
All manual entries follow an established topic format, but not all topics
are included in each entry.
- NAME
Gives the name(s) of the entry and briefly states its purpose.
- SYNOPSIS
Summarizes the use of the entry or program entity being described. A few
conventions are used:
Computer font
strings are literals, and are to be typed exactly as they appear in the
manual (except for parameters in the SYNOPSIS section of entries in
Sections 2 and 3).
Italic
strings represent substitutable argument names and names of manual entries
found elsewhere in the manual.
Square brackets [] around an argument name indicate that the argument is
optional.
Ellipses (...) are used to show that the previous argument can be
repeated.
A final convention is used by the commands themselves. An argument
beginning with a dash (-), a plus sign (+), or an equal sign (=) is often
taken to be some sort of option argument, even if it appears in a postion
where a file name could appear. Therefore it is unwise to have file names
that begin with -, +, or =.
- DESCRIPTION
Discusses the function and behavior of each entry.
- EXTERNAL INFLUENCES
Information under this heading pertains to programming for various spoken
languages. Typical entries indicate support for single- and/or multi-byte
characters, the effect of language-related environment variables on system
behavior, and other related information.
- NETWORKING FEATURES
Information under this heading is applicable only if you are using the
networking feature described there (such as NFS).
- RETURN VALUE
Discusses various values returned upon completion of program calls.
- DIAGNOSTICS
Discusses diagnostics indications that may be produced. Self-explanatory
messages are not listed.
- ERRORS
Lists error conditions and their corresponding error message or return
value.
- EXAMPLES
Provides examples of typical usage, where appropriate.
- WARNINGS
Points out potential pitfalls.
- DEPENDENCIES
Points out variations in HP-UX operation that are related to the user or
specific hardware or hardware combinations.
- AUTHOR
Indicate the origin of the software documented by the manual entry.
- FILES
Lists file names that are built into the program or command.
- SEE ALSO
Provides pointers to related topics.
- BUGS
Discusses known bugs and deficiencies, occasionally suggesting fixes.
- STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
This section
lists the standard specifications to which the HP-UX component conforms.
RETURN VALUE
Upon termination, each command returns two bytes of status,
one supplied by the system giving the cause for termination,
and (in the case of ``normal'' termination) one supplied by the program
(for descriptions, see
wait(2)
and
exit(2)).
The system-supplied byte is 0 for normal termination.
The byte provided by the program is customarily 0
for successful execution and non-zero to indicate errors
or failure such as incorrect parameters in the command line,
or bad or inaccessible data.
Values returned are usually called variously ``exit code'',
``exit status'', ``return code'', or ``return value'',
and are described only where special conventions are involved.
WARNINGS
Some commands produce unexpected results
when processing files containing null characters.
These commands often treat text input lines as strings,
and therefore become confused when they encounter a null character
(the string terminator) within a line.
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