intro(1)

intro(1)

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 de®ned as follows:

name Name of an executable ®le.

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 argu- ment.

-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 brie¯y states its purpose.

SYNOPSIS

Summarizes the use of the entry or program entity being described. A few conven-

 

tions 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 ®nal 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 ®le name could appear. Therefore it

 

is unwise to have ®le 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.

HP-UX Release 11i: December 2000

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