Bootcamp 2.7

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Student Notes

"The Manual" is the HP-UX Reference Manual. The manual is very useful for looking up command syntax, but was not designed as a tutorial. Also, this was not very useful for learning how to use the UNIX operating system. Experienced UNIX system users refer to the manual for details about commands and their usage. The manual is divided into several sections, as illustrated in the slide.

Following is a brief description of each section:

• Section 1 - User Commands: This section describes programs issued directly by users or from shell programs. These are generally executable by any user on the system.
• Section 1M - System Maintenance: This section describes commands that are used by the system administrator for system maintenance. These are generally executable only by the user root, the login that is associated with the system administrator.
• Section 2 - System Calls: This section describes functions that interface into the UNIX system kernel, including the C-language interface.
• Section 3 - Functions and Function Libraries: This section illustrates functions that are provided on the system in binary format other than the direct system calls. They are usually accessed through C programs. Examples include input and output manipulation and mathematical operations.
• Section 4 - File Formats: This section defines the fields of the system configuration files (such as /etc/passwd), and documents the structure of various file types (such as a.out).
• Section 5 - Miscellaneous Topics: This section contains a variety of information such as descriptions of header files, character sets, macro packages, and other topics.
• Section 7 - Device Special Files: This section discusses the characteristics of the special (device) files that provide the link between the UNIX system and the system I/O devices (such as disks, tapes, and printers).
• Section 9 - Glossary: This section defines selected terms used throughout the reference manual.

Within each section, commands are listed in alphabetical order. In order to find a given command, users can reference the manual index.

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