HP-UX Reference (11i v1 00/12) - 5 Miscellaneous Topics, 7 Device (Special) Files, 9 General Information, Index (vol 9)

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STANDARD Printed by: Nora Chuang [nchuang] STANDARD
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a
glossary(9) glossary(9)
NAME
glossary - a description of common HP-UX terms
DESCRIPTION
HP-UX and other UNIX-like systems use a specialized vocabulary in which certain words and terms have
very specific meanings. This glossary is intended as an aid in promoting exactness in use of these special-
ized terms whose meanings sometimes differ from those that might be encountered in other environments.
GLOSSARY ENTRIES
. (dot) A special file name that refers to the current directory. It can be used alone or at the
beginning of a directory path name. See also path name resolution. The dot also func-
tions as a special command in the Bourne and Korn shells, and has special meaning in text
editors and formatters, in parsing regular expressions and in designating file names.
.. (dot-dot) A special file name that refers to the parent directory. If it begins a path name, dot-
dot refers to the parent of the current directory. If it occurs in a path name, dot-dot
refers to the parent directory of the directory preceding dot-dot in the path name string.
As a special case, dot-dot refers to the current directory in any directory that has no
parent (most often, the root directory). See also path name resolution.
.o (dot-oh) The suffix customarily given to a relocatable object file. The term dot-oh file is sometimes
used to refer to a relocatable object file. The format of such files is sometimes called dot-oh
format. See a.out(4).
a.out The name customarily given to an executable object code file on HP-UX. The format is
machine-dependent, and is described in a.out(4) for each implementation. Object code that
is not yet linked has the same format, but is referred to as a
.o (dot-oh) file.
a.out is
also the default output file name used by the linker, ld(1).
absolute path name
A path name beginning with a slash (
/). It indicates that the file’s location is given relative
to the root directory (/), and that the search begins there.
access The process of obtaining data from or placing data in storage, or the right to use system
resources. Accessibility is governed by three process characteristics: the effective user ID,
the effective group ID, and the group access list. The access(2) system call determines
accessibility of a file according to the bit pattern contained in its amode parameter, which is
constructed to read, write, execute or check the existence of a file. The access(2) system
call uses the real user ID instead of the effective user ID and the real group ID instead
of the effective group ID.
access groups
The group access list is a set of supplementary group IDs used in determining resource
accessibility. Access checks are performed as described below in file access permissions.
access mode An access mode is a form of access permitted to a file. Each implementation provides
separate read, write, and execute/search access modes.
address A number used in information storage or retrieval to specify and identify memory location.
An address is used to mark, direct, indicate destination, instruct or otherwise communi-
cate with computer elements.
In mail, address is a data structure whose format can be recognized by all elements
involved in transmitting information. On a local system, this might be as simple as the
user’s login name, while in a networked system, address specifies the location of the
resource to the network software.
In a text editor (such as
vi, ex, ed,orsed), an address locates the line in a file on which
a given instruction is intended.
For adb, the address specifies at what assembly-language instruction to execute a given
command.
In disk utilities such as fsdb, address might refer to a raw or block special file, the
inode number, volume header, or other file attribute.
In the context of peripheral devices, address refers to a set of values that specify the loca-
tion of an I/O device to the computer. The exact details of the formation of an address
differ between systems. On Series 700 systems, the address consists of up to two elements:
Section 9−−2 − 1 − HP-UX Release 11i: December 2000
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