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 correspond-
       ing 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 specified; 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 Variables 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
       FORTRAN 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
       suggested that implementations treat characters other than 0, 1, and '+' as <space> in the absence of any compelling reason  to	do  other-
       wise.  However, the action is listed here as "unspecified", permitting an implementation to provide extensions to access fast multiple-line
       slewing 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 Technol-
       ogy -- 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)