NAME

intro − introduction to commands

DESCRIPTION

This section describes publicly accessible commands in alphabetic order.  Certain distinctions of purpose are made in the following headings:

(1) Commands of general utility. 

(1C) Commands for communication with other systems. 

(1G) Commands used primarily for graphics and computer-aided design. 

N.B.: Commands related to system maintenance, which appeared in section 1, distinguished by (1M), in previous versions of the manual have been moved to section 8, as they are of minimal interest to most users. 

The word ‘VAX-11’ at the bottom of a page indicates some or all of the description applies only to the implementation for the Digital Equipment Corporation VAX-11.  Pages added or changed between the distribution of UNIX/32V and the Berkeley Distribution indicate ‘3rd Berkeley Distribution’ or ‘4th Berkeley Distribution’ at the lower portion of the page, as appropriate. 

SEE ALSO

Section (6) for computer games, section (8) for system maintenance commands. 

Introduction: How to get started. 

DIAGNOSTICS

Upon termination, each command returns two bytes of status, one supplied by the system giving the cause for termination, and (in the case of ‘normal’ termination) one supplied by the program, (see wait and exit(2)). The former byte is 0 for normal termination; the latter byte is customarily 0 for successful execution or nonzero to indicate troubles such as erroneous parameters, bad or inaccessible data, or other inability to handle the current task. This command variously called ‘exit code’, ‘exit status’ or ‘return code’, and is described only where special conventions are involved.

4th Berkeley Distribution  —  %W%%Q%%Y%