(libc.info.gz) Roadmap to the Manual
Info Catalog
(libc.info.gz) Using the Library
(libc.info.gz) Introduction
1.4 Roadmap to the Manual
=========================
Here is an overview of the contents of the remaining chapters of this
manual.
* Error Reporting, describes how errors detected by the
library are reported.
* Memory, describes the GNU C Library's facilities for
managing and using virtual and real memory, including dynamic
allocation of virtual memory. If you do not know in advance how
much memory your program needs, you can allocate it dynamically
instead, and manipulate it via pointers.
* Character Handling, contains information about character
classification functions (such as 'isspace') and functions for
performing case conversion.
* String and Array Utilities, has descriptions of functions
for manipulating strings (null-terminated character arrays) and
general byte arrays, including operations such as copying and
comparison.
* Character Set Handling, contains information about
manipulating characters and strings using character sets larger
than will fit in the usual 'char' data type.
* Locales, describes how selecting a particular country or
language affects the behavior of the library. For example, the
locale affects collation sequences for strings and how monetary
values are formatted.
* Searching and Sorting, contains information about functions
for searching and sorting arrays. You can use these functions on
any kind of array by providing an appropriate comparison function.
* Pattern Matching, presents functions for matching regular
expressions and shell file name patterns, and for expanding words
as the shell does.
* I/O Overview, gives an overall look at the input and output
facilities in the library, and contains information about basic
concepts such as file names.
* I/O on Streams, describes I/O operations involving streams
(or 'FILE *' objects). These are the normal C library functions
from 'stdio.h'.
* Low-Level I/O, contains information about I/O operations on
file descriptors. File descriptors are a lower-level mechanism
specific to the Unix family of operating systems.
* File System Interface, has descriptions of operations on
entire files, such as functions for deleting and renaming them and
for creating new directories. This chapter also contains
information about how you can access the attributes of a file, such
as its owner and file protection modes.
* Pipes and FIFOs, contains information about simple
interprocess communication mechanisms. Pipes allow communication
between two related processes (such as between a parent and child),
while FIFOs allow communication between processes sharing a common
file system on the same machine.
* Sockets, describes a more complicated interprocess
communication mechanism that allows processes running on different
machines to communicate over a network. This chapter also contains
information about Internet host addressing and how to use the
system network databases.
* Low-Level Terminal Interface, describes how you can change
the attributes of a terminal device. If you want to disable echo
of characters typed by the user, for example, read this chapter.
* Mathematics, contains information about the math library
functions. These include things like random-number generators and
remainder functions on integers as well as the usual trigonometric
and exponential functions on floating-point numbers.
* Low-Level Arithmetic Functions Arithmetic, describes
functions for simple arithmetic, analysis of floating-point values,
and reading numbers from strings.
* Date and Time, describes functions for measuring both
calendar time and CPU time, as well as functions for setting alarms
and timers.
* Non-Local Exits, contains descriptions of the 'setjmp' and
'longjmp' functions. These functions provide a facility for
'goto'-like jumps which can jump from one function to another.
* Signal Handling, tells you all about signals--what they
are, how to establish a handler that is called when a particular
kind of signal is delivered, and how to prevent signals from
arriving during critical sections of your program.
* Program Basics, tells how your programs can access their
command-line arguments and environment variables.
* Processes, contains information about how to start new
processes and run programs.
* Job Control, describes functions for manipulating process
groups and the controlling terminal. This material is probably
only of interest if you are writing a shell or other program which
handles job control specially.
* Name Service Switch, describes the services which are
available for looking up names in the system databases, how to
determine which service is used for which database, and how these
services are implemented so that contributors can design their own
services.
* User Database, and Group Database, tell you how to
access the system user and group databases.
* System Management, describes functions for controlling and
getting information about the hardware and software configuration
your program is executing under.
* System Configuration, tells you how you can get information
about various operating system limits. Most of these parameters
are provided for compatibility with POSIX.
* Language Features, contains information about library
support for standard parts of the C language, including things like
the 'sizeof' operator and the symbolic constant 'NULL', how to
write functions accepting variable numbers of arguments, and
constants describing the ranges and other properties of the
numerical types. There is also a simple debugging mechanism which
allows you to put assertions in your code, and have diagnostic
messages printed if the tests fail.
* Library Summary, gives a summary of all the functions,
variables, and macros in the library, with complete data types and
function prototypes, and says what standard or system each is
derived from.
* Installation, explains how to build and install the GNU C
Library on your system, and how to report any bugs you might find.
* Maintenance, explains how to add new functions or port the
library to a new system.
If you already know the name of the facility you are interested in,
you can look it up in Library Summary. This gives you a summary
of its syntax and a pointer to where you can find a more detailed
description. This appendix is particularly useful if you just want to
verify the order and type of arguments to a function, for example. It
also tells you what standard or system each function, variable, or macro
is derived from.
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(libc.info.gz) Using the Library
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