This manual describes several commands and utilities in the DIGITAL UNIX system, including facilities for text manipulation, macro and program generation, and source file management.
The commands and utilities described in this manual are intended primarily for programmers, but some of them, particularly those described in Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, and Chapter 6, can be very useful for writers and other types of users as well. The manual assumes that you are a moderately experienced user of UNIX systems.
This manual has been revised to document all of the
Programming Support Tools
changes that are part of the current release.
One important change is the
removal of the chapter on
setld.
The information on
setld
has been moved into the
Guide to Preparing Product Kits
manual.
This manual comprises seven chapters, a glossary, and an index. A brief description of the contents follows:
| Chapter 1 | Introduces the concept of regular
expressions and describes the rules for forming them, and describes
grep, a command that uses regular expressions for searching text
files. |
| Chapter 2 | Describes the
awk
command and its text-processing language. |
| Chapter 3 | Describes the
sed
stream editor, a noninteractive tool for rapidly performing complex and repetitive
editing tasks. |
| Chapter 4 | Describes the
lex
and
yacc
programs for generating lexical analyzers and
parsers for processing input to a program. |
| Chapter 5 | Describes the
m4
macro preprocessor and explains how to create macros that can be used in programs
or in other files such as documentation source. |
| Chapter 6 | Describes how to manage libraries of source files by using the Source Code Control System (SCCS) or the Revision Control System (RCS). |
| Chapter 7 | Describes how to use the
make
utility to build and maintain complex programs and applications. |
This manual is an adjunct to the DIGITAL UNIX Programmer's Guide; neither manual requires that you have the other in order to use its contents.
The printed version of the DIGITAL UNIX documentation set is color coded to help specific audiences quickly find the books that meet their needs. (You can order the printed documentation from DIGITAL.) This color coding is reinforced with the use of an icon on the spines of books. The following list describes this convention:
| Audience | Icon | Color Code |
| General users | G | Blue |
| System and network administrators | S | Red |
| Programmers | P | Purple |
| Device driver writers | D | Orange |
| Reference page users | R | Green |
Some books in the documentation set help meet the needs of several audiences. For example, the information in some system books is also used by programmers. Keep this in mind when searching for information on specific topics.
The Documentation Overview, Glossary, and Master Index provides information on all of the books in the DIGITAL UNIX documentation set.
DIGITAL welcomes any comments and suggestions you have on this and other DIGITAL UNIX manuals.
You can send your comments in the following ways:
Fax: 603-884-0120 Attn: UBPG Publications, ZKO3-3/Y32
Internet electronic mail:
readers_comment@zk3.dec.com
A Reader's Comment form is located on your system in the following location:
/usr/doc/readers_comment.txt
Mail:
Digital Equipment Corporation
UBPG Publications Manager
ZKO3-3/Y32
110 Spit Brook Road
Nashua, NH 03062-9987
A Reader's Comment form is located in the back of each printed manual. The form is postage paid if you mail it in the United States.
Please include the following information along with your comments:
The full title of the book and the order number. (The order number is printed on the title page of this book and on its back cover.)
The section numbers and page numbers of the information on which you are commenting.
The version of DIGITAL UNIX that you are using.
If known, the type of processor that is running the DIGITAL UNIX software.
The DIGITAL UNIX Publications group cannot respond to system problems or technical support inquiries. Please address technical questions to your local system vendor or to the appropriate DIGITAL technical support office. Information provided with the software media explains how to send problem reports to DIGITAL.
The following typographical conventions are used in this manual:
%$A percent sign represents the C shell system prompt. A dollar sign represents the system prompt for the Bourne, Korn, and POSIX shells.
#A number sign represents the superuser prompt.
Boldface type in interactive examples indicates typed user input.
Italic (slanted) type indicates variable values, placeholders, and function argument names.
In syntax definitions, brackets indicate items that are optional and braces indicate items that are required. Vertical bars separating items inside brackets or braces indicate that you choose one item from among those listed.
coloredtext
In syntax definitions, literal elements are colored green. Variable values, placeholders, and function argument names are colored red. No special colored text is used outside of syntax descriptions.
In syntax definitions, a horizontal ellipsis indicates that the preceding item can be repeated one or more times.
cat(1)A cross-reference to a reference page includes the appropriate section
number in parentheses.
For example,
cat(1)
indicates that you can find information on the
cat
command in Section 1 of the reference pages.
In an example, a key name enclosed in a box indicates that you press that key.
This symbol indicates that you hold down the first named key while pressing the key or mouse button that follows the slash. In examples, this key combination is enclosed in a box (for example, [Ctrl/C] ).