| <html lang="en"> |
| <head> |
| <title>Getting Started - The GNU C Library</title> |
| <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html"> |
| <meta name="description" content="The GNU C Library"> |
| <meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.13"> |
| <link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top"> |
| <link rel="up" href="Introduction.html#Introduction" title="Introduction"> |
| <link rel="next" href="Standards-and-Portability.html#Standards-and-Portability" title="Standards and Portability"> |
| <link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage"> |
| <!-- |
| This file documents the GNU C library. |
| |
| This is Edition 0.12, last updated 2007-10-27, |
| of `The GNU C Library Reference Manual', for version |
| 2.8 (Sourcery G++ Lite 2011.03-41). |
| |
| Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, |
| 2003, 2007, 2008, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc. |
| |
| Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document |
| under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or |
| any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the |
| Invariant Sections being ``Free Software Needs Free Documentation'' |
| and ``GNU Lesser General Public License'', the Front-Cover texts being |
| ``A GNU Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A |
| copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free |
| Documentation License". |
| |
| (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have the freedom to |
| copy and modify this GNU manual. Buying copies from the FSF |
| supports it in developing GNU and promoting software freedom.''--> |
| <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css"> |
| <style type="text/css"><!-- |
| pre.display { font-family:inherit } |
| pre.format { font-family:inherit } |
| pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } |
| pre.smallformat { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } |
| pre.smallexample { font-size:smaller } |
| pre.smalllisp { font-size:smaller } |
| span.sc { font-variant:small-caps } |
| span.roman { font-family:serif; font-weight:normal; } |
| span.sansserif { font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal; } |
| --></style> |
| <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../cs.css"> |
| </head> |
| <body> |
| <div class="node"> |
| <a name="Getting-Started"></a> |
| <p> |
| Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Standards-and-Portability.html#Standards-and-Portability">Standards and Portability</a>, |
| Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Introduction.html#Introduction">Introduction</a> |
| <hr> |
| </div> |
| |
| <h3 class="section">1.1 Getting Started</h3> |
| |
| <p>This manual is written with the assumption that you are at least |
| somewhat familiar with the C programming language and basic programming |
| concepts. Specifically, familiarity with ISO standard C |
| (see <a href="ISO-C.html#ISO-C">ISO C</a>), rather than “traditional” pre-ISO C dialects, is |
| assumed. |
| |
| <p>The GNU C library includes several <dfn>header files</dfn>, each of which |
| provides definitions and declarations for a group of related facilities; |
| this information is used by the C compiler when processing your program. |
| For example, the header file <samp><span class="file">stdio.h</span></samp> declares facilities for |
| performing input and output, and the header file <samp><span class="file">string.h</span></samp> |
| declares string processing utilities. The organization of this manual |
| generally follows the same division as the header files. |
| |
| <p>If you are reading this manual for the first time, you should read all |
| of the introductory material and skim the remaining chapters. There are |
| a <em>lot</em> of functions in the GNU C library and it's not realistic to |
| expect that you will be able to remember exactly <em>how</em> to use each |
| and every one of them. It's more important to become generally familiar |
| with the kinds of facilities that the library provides, so that when you |
| are writing your programs you can recognize <em>when</em> to make use of |
| library functions, and <em>where</em> in this manual you can find more |
| specific information about them. |
| |
| </body></html> |
| |
