asa(1) [osf1 man page]
asa(1) General Commands Manual asa(1) NAME
asa - Interprets carriage-control characters SYNOPSIS
asa [file...] STANDARDS
Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry standards as follows: asa: XCU5.0 Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about industry standards and associated tags. OPTIONS
None OPERANDS
The pathname of a file to be read. If this parameter is omitted, standard input is read. DESCRIPTION
The asa command writes its input files to standard output, mapping carriage-control characters from the text files to line-printer control sequences. The first character of every input line is removed and, depending on the character removed, an action performed on that character and the rest of the line. If the character removed is: The rest of the line is output without change. A newline character is output, followed by the rest of the input line. A form-feed character is output, followed by the rest of the input line. The newline character of the previ- ous line is replaced with a carriage-return character, which is output, followed by the rest of the input line. If + is the first character in the input, + has the same effect as the space character. [Tru64 UNIX] The character is output, followed by the rest of the input line. EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned: Successful completion. An error occurred. EXAMPLES
To view a file (created by a program using FORTRAN-style carriage control characters) on a terminal: asa file To format the FORTRAN output of a.out and direct it to the printer: a.out | asa | lp ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables affect the execution of asa: Provides a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the corresponding value from the default locale is used. If any of the internationalization vari- ables contain an invalid setting, the utility behaves as if none of the variables had been defined. If set to a non-empty string value, overrides the values of all the other internationalization variables. Determines 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). Determines the locale for the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error. Determines the location of message catalogues for the processing of LC_MESSAGES. SEE ALSO
Commands: lp(1) Standards: standards(5) asa(1)
Check Out this Related Man Page
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 if no file operands are specified, and shall be used if a file operand is '-' and the implementation treats the '-' as meaning standard input. Otherwise, the standard input shall not be used. 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 POSIX.1-2008, 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 The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2008, Chapter 8, Environment Variables COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technol- ogy -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) 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 Stan- dard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.unix.org/online.html . Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html . IEEE
/The Open Group 2013 ASA(1P)