portal(5)							File Formats Manual							 portal(5)

NAME

       portal - a "window to the future" for applications

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

       This header file is a "window to the future" for applications.  It will help you to:

       o  Write code that is portable across 32-bit and 64-bit systems,
       o  Avoid undocumented assumptions about sizes of integral types,
       o  Write portable code that needs to be explicit about the sizes of integral types,
       o  Write code that is portable to a platform which has different sizes of integral types, and
       o  Share frequently used macros that are portable across 32-bit and 64-bit systems.

       In addition to the macros defined in this file, it includes the header files (see limits(5)) and (see inttypes(5)).

       The following macros are defined in

       This macro can be used to create a mask that has one bit set.
	      bit_num  is  the	position  of  the  bit to set, and type is the data type of the mask.  A -1 is returned in the case of overflow or
	      underflow.

       This macro can be used to set a bit in a mask.
	      mask is the current value of the mask, bit_num is the position of the bit to set, and type is the data type of the mask.

       This macro can be used to return the bit position
	      of the sign bit for the specified data type.  type is the data type for which to return the position of the sign bit.

       This macro can be used to return a mask for the sign bit for
	      the specified data type.	type is the data type for which to return the sign bit mask.

       This macro can be used to do a sign extension from one
	      data type to another.  value is the current value that is to be sign-extended.  old_type is the  current	data  type  of	value  and
	      new_type is the new data type of value.

       This macro can be used to check if code has been
	      compiled big or little endian.  endian is an integer in which the result will be returned.

       The  following  macros  can be used for print formatting and scan formatting of values of data types that can change in size based upon the
       compilation flag Examples of such data types are off_t and fpos_t.

EXAMPLES

       The macro in the following example will turn on the high bit in a 64-bit integer.

       The macro in the following example will be used to turn on all bits except the sign bit in a 32-bit integer.

       The macro in the following example will turn on the three least significant bits of the maximum integer.

       The macro in the following example will return the position of the sign bit in a 32-bit integer.

       The macro in the following example will return a sign bit mask for a 32-bit integer.

       The macro in the following example will convert the 8-bit integer stored in a char data type to a 64-bit integer and correctly  extend  the
       sign.

       The macro in the following example will store a 1 in endian if the compilation was big endian; otherwise, it will store a 0 in endian.

AUTHOR

       was developed by HP.

FILES

SEE ALSO

       inttypes(5), limits(5), printf(3S), scanf(3S).

																	 portal(5)