(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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