Specifications
The ULTRIX Operating System, Version 4.5 SPD 26.40.32
— Execute interleaved files remotely through NFS
Internationalization
ULTRIX Operating System includes a comprehensive
set of library routines, commands and utilities to support
the development of internationalized application soft-
ware.
•
Native Language System (NLS)
The internationalized environment is based on the def-
inition of the NLS interface in XPG3. This includes
language support databases, an announcement mech-
anism (setlocale), and a message catalog system.
The base system includes language support databases
for French, English, and German for each of three code-
sets: Digital’s MCS, ISO 8859/1, and ISO 646. A com-
piler, ic, is provided for users to define new language
support databases.
The default locale is called the C locale and is American
English/ASCII.
The message catalog system includes the
gencat
utility
and related library functions that are used to access a
message catalog from a C language application at run
time.
•
I18N Tools
A set of tools is provided to assist engineers with the
process of extracting message text from C programs
and generating message catalogs. Message text source
files can be translated using the utility
trans
or with any
8-bit transparent text editor. These tools (extract, strex-
tract, strmerge) are designed to work with the XPG3
message catalog system and are Digital enhancements
to the NLS environment.
•
Commands and Utilities
There are 71 8-bit transparent commands as specified
in XPG3. Several other commands are also 8-bit trans-
parent including editors (vi, ex, ed, sed) and networking
commands (rlogin, ftp, tip, uucp).
All NLS commands are provided and conform to the
XPG3 specification. Refer to
I18N Tools
.
The utility iconv provides a mechanism for codeset con-
version that may be necessary in a heterogeneous net-
work.
•
Libraries
A library of internationalization routines that conform to
XPG3 is provided (libi) as well as modifications to the
standard C library. These changes meet both the XPG3
and POSIX specifications.
ctype library routines have been modified to make use
of locale/culture specific information.
Standard C library functions handle 8-bit characters
properly in accordance with XPG3.
The routines setlocale, strxfrm, strcoll, and strftime
are in libc. The setlocale routine allows users to se-
lect a specific instance of localization such as dictio-
nary or telephone ordering instead of character ordering
(@modifier syntax).
•
Kernel
The kernel provides support for the use of Digital’s MCS
character set as well as ISO 8859/1 (e.g., 8-bit coded
character sets).
•
Networking
Networking commands provide full 8-bit character sup-
port. Mail is not 8-bit transparent since the U.S. gov-
ernment RFC 822 specifically states that the high order
bit is to be stripped. X/Open has recognized this as a
problem and will likely withdraw the requirement for 8-bit
transparent Mail.
DECnet is 8-bit transparent.
•
Filesystem
The ULTRIX filesystem provides full 8-bit transparency.
Data interchange routines, such as tar and cpio, support
8-bit filenames. This can potentially cause an interop-
erability problem with UNIX® systems that only provide
7-bit ASCII support.
•
System Administration
Usernames with 8-bit characters are fully supported and
tools, such as adduser, have been updated to reflect
this.
Architectural Differences
The following differences exist between ULTRIX VAX cc
and ULTRIX RISC cc:
• Hardware architectural differences exist.
• ULTRIX RISC pointers are unsigned; VAX pointers
are signed.
• Cannot dereference NULL ptrs on ULTRIX RISC; in-
cludes arg to strlen.
• asm( ) is not supported with ULTRIX RISC in any
form.
• MIPS-ANSI C is not avaliable on ULTRIX VAX sys-
tems.
• VAX C is not available on ULTRIX RISC systems.
• The MIPS R2000, R3000 and R4000 series systems
uses the COFF format (Common Object File Format)
in its object files and load modules.
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