intro(1)                                                           intro(1)




 NAME    [Toc]    [Back]
      intro - introduction to command utilities and application programs

 DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]
      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    [Toc]    [Back]
      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    [Toc]    [Back]
      All manual entries follow an established topic format, but not all
      topics are included in each entry.




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 intro(1)                                                           intro(1)




      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 languagerelated
 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.



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 intro(1)                                                           intro(1)




      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    [Toc]    [Back]
                          This section lists the standard specifications to
                          which the HP-UX component conforms.

 RETURN VALUE    [Toc]    [Back]
      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 wai
).  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    [Toc]    [Back]
      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.

 SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]
      getopt(1), exit(2), wait(2), getopt(3C), hier(5), introduction(9).

      Web access to HP-UX documentation at http://docs.hp.com.


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