ASA(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual ASA(1P)PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux
implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding
Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
asa - interpret carriage-control characters
SYNOPSIS
asa [ file ... ]
DESCRIPTION
The asa utility shall write its input files to standard output, mapping
carriage-control characters from the text files to line-printer control
sequences in an implementation-defined manner.
The first character of every line shall be removed from the input, and
the following actions are performed.
If the character removed is:
<space>
The rest of the line is output without change.
0 A <newline> is output, then the rest of the input line.
1 One or more implementation-defined characters that causes an
advance to the next page shall be output, followed by the rest
of the input line.
+ The <newline> of the previous line shall be replaced with one or
more implementation-defined characters that causes printing to
return to column position 1, followed by the rest of the input
line. If the '+' is the first character in the input, it shall
be equivalent to <space>.
The action of the asa utility is unspecified upon encountering any
character other than those listed above as the first character in a
line.
OPTIONS
None.
OPERANDS
file A pathname of a text file used for input. If no file operands
are specified, the standard input shall be used.
STDIN
The standard input shall be used only if no file operands are speci‐
fied; see the INPUT FILES section.
INPUT FILES
The input files shall be text files.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of asa:
LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables
that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of
IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Vari‐
ables for the precedence of internationalization variables used
to determine the values of locale categories.)
LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all
the other internationalization variables.
LC_CTYPE
Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of
bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input files).
LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format
and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.
NLSPATH
Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
LC_MESSAGES .
ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.
STDOUT
The standard output shall be the text from the input file modified as
described in the DESCRIPTION section.
STDERR
None.
OUTPUT FILES
None.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
None.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned:
0 All input files were output successfully.
>0 An error occurred.
CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
Default.
The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
None.
EXAMPLES
1. The following command:
asa file
permits the viewing of file (created by a program using FORTRAN-style
carriage-control characters) on a terminal.
2. The following command:
a.out | asa | lp
formats the FORTRAN output of a.out and directs it to the printer.
RATIONALE
The asa utility is needed to map "standard" FORTRAN 77 output into a
form acceptable to contemporary printers. Usually, asa is used to pipe
data to the lp utility; see lp.
This utility is generally used only by FORTRAN programs. The standard
developers decided to retain asa to avoid breaking the historical large
base of FORTRAN applications that put carriage-control characters in
their output files. There is no requirement that a system have a FOR‐
TRAN compiler in order to run applications that need asa.
Historical implementations have used an ASCII <form-feed> in response
to a 1 and an ASCII <carriage-return> in response to a '+' . It is sug‐
gested that implementations treat characters other than 0, 1, and '+'
as <space> in the absence of any compelling reason to do otherwise.
However, the action is listed here as "unspecified", permitting an
implementation to provide extensions to access fast multiple-line slew‐
ing and channel seeking in a non-portable manner.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
fort77, lp
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2003 ASA(1P)
