intro(1M)                                                         intro(1M)




 NAME    [Toc]    [Back]
      intro - introduction to system maintenance commands and application
      programs

 DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]
      This section describes commands that are used chiefly for system
      maintenance and administration purposes.  The commands in this section
      should be used in conjunction with other sections of this manual, as
      well as the HP-UX System Administration manuals for your system.

    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.

 RETURN STATUS    [Toc]    [Back]
      Upon termination, each command returns two bytes of status, one



 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 1 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003






 intro(1M)                                                         intro(1M)




      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'', or ``return code'', 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 upon encountering 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.


 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 2 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003