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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p
glossary(9) glossary(9)
path name A sequence of directory names separated by slashes, and ending with any file name. All file
names except the last in the sequence must be directories. If a path name begins with a
slash (/), it is an absolute path name; otherwise, it is a relative path name. A path
name defines the path to be followed through the hierarchical file system in order to find a
particular file.
More precisely, a path name is a null-terminated character string constructed as follows:
<path-name>::=<file-name><path-prefix><file-name>/
<path-prefix>::=<rtprefix>/<rtprefix>
<rtprefix>::=<dirname>/<rtprefix><dirname>/
where <file-name> is a string of one or more characters other than the ASCII slash and
null, and <dirname> is a string of one or more characters (other than the ASCII slash and
null) that names a directory. File and directory names can consist of up to 14 characters on
systems supporting short file names and up to 255 characters on systems supporting long
file names.
A slash (/) by itself names the root directory. Two or more slashes in succession
(////...) are treated as a single slash.
Unless specifically stated otherwise, the null or zero-length path name is treated as though
it named a nonexistent file.
path name resolution
The process that resolves a path name to a particular file in a file hierarchy.Multiple
path names can resolve to the same file, depending on whether resolution is sought in abso-
lute or relative terms (see below). Each file name in the path name is located in the direc-
tory specified by its predecessor (for example, in the path name fragment
a/b,file
b is
located in directory
a). Path name resolution fails if this cannot be accomplished.
If the path name begins with a slash, the predecessor of the first file name in the path
name is understood to be the root directory of the process, and the path name is referred
to as an absolute path name. If the path name does not begin with a slash, the predeces-
sor of the first file name of the path name is understood to be the current working directory
of the process, and the path name is referred to as a relative path name. A path name
consisting of a single slash resolves to the root directory of the process.
path prefix A path name with an optional ending slash that refers to a directory.
permission bits
The nine least-significant bits of a file’s mode are referred to as file permission bits.
These bits determine read, write, and execute permissions for the file’s owner, the file’s
group, and all others. The bits are divided into three parts: owner, group and other. Each
part is used with the corresponding file class of processes. The bits are contained in the file
mode, as described in stat(5). The detailed usage of the file permission bits in access deci-
sions is described in file access permissions.
PIC See position-independent code.
pipe An interprocess I/O channel used to pass data between two processes. It is commonly used
by the shell to transfer data from the standard output of one process to the standard input
of another. On a command line, a pipe is signaled by a vertical bar (
|). Output from the
command to the left of the vertical bar is channeled directly into the standard input of the
command on the right.
portable file name character set
The following set of graphical characters are portable across conforming implementations of
IEEE Standard P1003.1:
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
01234567890._-
The last three characters are the dot, underscore and hyphen characters, respectively. The
hyphen should not be used as the first character of a portable file name.
position-independent code (PIC)
Object code that can run unmodified at any virtual address. Position-independent code can
use PC-relative addressing modes and/or linkage tables. It is most often used in shared
HP-UX Release 11i: December 2000 − 14 − Section 9−−15
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