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
/build/1111/BRICK/man9/!!!intro.9
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d
glossary(9) glossary(9)
device address
See bus address.
device file See special file.
directory A file that provides the mapping between the names of files and their contents, and is mani-
pulated by the operating system alone. For every file name contained in a directory, that
directory contains a pointer to the file’s inode; The pointer is called a link. A file can have
several links appearing anywhere on the same file system. Each user is free to create as
many directories as needed (using mkdir(1)), provided that the parent directory of the
new directory gives the permission to do so. Once a directory has been created, it is ready
to contain ordinary files and other directories. An HP-UX directory is named and behaves
exactly like an ordinary file, with one exception: no user (including the superuser) is
allowed to write data on the directory itself; this privilege is reserved for the HP-UX
operating system.
By convention, a directory contains at least two links, . and .., referred to as dot and
dot-dot respectively. Dot refers to the directory itself and dot-dot refers to its parent
directory. A directory containing only . and .. is considered empty.
dot See . (dot).
dot-dot See .. (dot-dot).
dot-oh See .o (dot-oh).
dot-oh file See .o (dot-oh).
dot-oh format
See .o (dot-oh).
downshifting The conversion of an uppercase character to its lowercase representation.
dynamic loader
A routine invoked at process startup time that loads shared libraries into a process’ address
space. The dynamic loader also resolves symbolic references between a program and the
shared libraries, and initializesthe shared libraries’ linkage tables. See dld.sl(5) for details.
effective group ID
Every process has an effective group ID that is used to determine file access permis-
sions. A process’s effective group ID is determined by the file (command) that process is
executing. If that file’s set-group-ID bit is set (located in the mode of the file, see mode),
the process’s effective group ID is set equal to the file’s group ID. This makes the process
appear to belong to the file’s group, perhaps enabling the process to access files that must
be accessed in order for the program to execute successfully. If the file’s set-group-ID bit is
not set, the process’s effective group ID is inherited from the process’s parent. The set-
ting of the process’s effective group ID lasts only as long as the program is being exe-
cuted, after which the process’s effective group ID is set equal to its real group ID. See
group, real group ID, and set-group-ID bit.
effective user ID
A process has an effective user ID that is used to determine file access permissions
(and other permissions with respect to system calls, if the effective user ID is 0, which
means superuser). A process’s effective user ID is determined by the file (command) that
process is executing. If that file’s set-user-ID bit is set (located in the mode of the file, see
mode), the process’s effective user ID is set equal to the file’s user ID. This makes the pro-
cess appear to be the file’s owner, enabling the process to access files which must be
accessed in order for the program to execute successfully. (Many HP-UX commands which
are owned by
root, such as mkdir and mail, have their set-user-ID bit set so other
users can execute these commands.) If the file’s set-user-ID bit is not set, the process’s
effective user ID is inherited from that process’s parent. See real user ID and set-user-
ID bit.
end-of-file (EOF)
(1) The data returned when attempting to read past the logical end of a file via stdio(3S)
routines. In this case, end-of-file is not properly a character.
(2) The ASCII character Ctrl-D.
Section 9−−6 − 5 − HP-UX Release 11i: December 2000
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