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| <h3 class="section">1.4 Roadmap to the Manual</h3> |
| |
| <p>Here is an overview of the contents of the remaining chapters of |
| this manual. |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="Error-Reporting.html#Error-Reporting">Error Reporting</a>, describes how errors detected by the library |
| are reported. |
| |
| <li><a href="Language-Features.html#Language-Features">Language Features</a>, contains information about library support for |
| standard parts of the C language, including things like the <code>sizeof</code> |
| operator and the symbolic constant <code>NULL</code>, 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. |
| |
| <li><a href="Memory.html#Memory">Memory</a>, describes the GNU 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. |
| |
| <li><a href="Character-Handling.html#Character-Handling">Character Handling</a>, contains information about character |
| classification functions (such as <code>isspace</code>) and functions for |
| performing case conversion. |
| |
| <li><a href="String-and-Array-Utilities.html#String-and-Array-Utilities">String and Array Utilities</a>, has descriptions of functions for |
| manipulating strings (null-terminated character arrays) and general |
| byte arrays, including operations such as copying and comparison. |
| |
| <li><a href="I_002fO-Overview.html#I_002fO-Overview">I/O Overview</a>, gives an overall look at the input and output |
| facilities in the library, and contains information about basic concepts |
| such as file names. |
| |
| <li><a href="I_002fO-on-Streams.html#I_002fO-on-Streams">I/O on Streams</a>, describes I/O operations involving streams (or |
| <code>FILE *</code><!-- /@w --> objects). These are the normal C library functions |
| from <samp><span class="file">stdio.h</span></samp>. |
| |
| <li><a href="Low_002dLevel-I_002fO.html#Low_002dLevel-I_002fO">Low-Level I/O</a>, contains information about I/O operations |
| on file descriptors. File descriptors are a lower-level mechanism |
| specific to the Unix family of operating systems. |
| |
| <li><a href="File-System-Interface.html#File-System-Interface">File System Interface</a>, 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. |
| |
| <li><a href="Pipes-and-FIFOs.html#Pipes-and-FIFOs">Pipes and FIFOs</a>, 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. |
| |
| <li><a href="Sockets.html#Sockets">Sockets</a>, 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. |
| |
| <li><a href="Low_002dLevel-Terminal-Interface.html#Low_002dLevel-Terminal-Interface">Low-Level Terminal Interface</a>, 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. |
| |
| <li><a href="Mathematics.html#Mathematics">Mathematics</a>, 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. |
| |
| <li><a href="Arithmetic.html#Arithmetic">Low-Level Arithmetic Functions</a>, describes functions |
| for simple arithmetic, analysis of floating-point values, and reading |
| numbers from strings. |
| |
| <li><a href="Searching-and-Sorting.html#Searching-and-Sorting">Searching and Sorting</a>, 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. |
| |
| <li><a href="Pattern-Matching.html#Pattern-Matching">Pattern Matching</a>, presents functions for matching regular expressions |
| and shell file name patterns, and for expanding words as the shell does. |
| |
| <li><a href="Date-and-Time.html#Date-and-Time">Date and Time</a>, describes functions for measuring both calendar time |
| and CPU time, as well as functions for setting alarms and timers. |
| |
| <li><a href="Character-Set-Handling.html#Character-Set-Handling">Character Set Handling</a>, contains information about manipulating |
| characters and strings using character sets larger than will fit in |
| the usual <code>char</code> data type. |
| |
| <li><a href="Locales.html#Locales">Locales</a>, 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. |
| |
| <li><a href="Non_002dLocal-Exits.html#Non_002dLocal-Exits">Non-Local Exits</a>, contains descriptions of the <code>setjmp</code> and |
| <code>longjmp</code> functions. These functions provide a facility for |
| <code>goto</code>-like jumps which can jump from one function to another. |
| |
| <li><a href="Signal-Handling.html#Signal-Handling">Signal Handling</a>, 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. |
| |
| <li><a href="Program-Basics.html#Program-Basics">Program Basics</a>, tells how your programs can access their |
| command-line arguments and environment variables. |
| |
| <li><a href="Processes.html#Processes">Processes</a>, contains information about how to start new processes |
| and run programs. |
| |
| <li><a href="Job-Control.html#Job-Control">Job Control</a>, 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. |
| |
| <li><a href="Name-Service-Switch.html#Name-Service-Switch">Name Service Switch</a>, 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. |
| |
| <li><a href="User-Database.html#User-Database">User Database</a>, and <a href="Group-Database.html#Group-Database">Group Database</a>, tell you how to access |
| the system user and group databases. |
| |
| <li><a href="System-Management.html#System-Management">System Management</a>, describes functions for controlling and getting |
| information about the hardware and software configuration your program |
| is executing under. |
| |
| <li><a href="System-Configuration.html#System-Configuration">System Configuration</a>, tells you how you can get information about |
| various operating system limits. Most of these parameters are provided for |
| compatibility with POSIX. |
| |
| <li><a href="Library-Summary.html#Library-Summary">Library Summary</a>, 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. |
| |
| <li><a href="Maintenance.html#Maintenance">Maintenance</a>, explains how to build and install the GNU C library on |
| your system, how to report any bugs you might find, and how to add new |
| functions or port the library to a new system. |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p>If you already know the name of the facility you are interested in, you |
| can look it up in <a href="Library-Summary.html#Library-Summary">Library Summary</a>. 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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| |
