1.fp 5 CW 2.de Af 3.if \\$2 .nr ;G \\$1 4.ie !\\$3 \{\ 5\\f\\$1\\$3\\f\\$2 6.if !\\$4 .Af \\$2 \\$1 "\\$4" "\\$5" "\\$6" "\\$7" "\\$8" 7\} 8.. 9.de aF 10.nr ;G \\n(.f 11.Af "\\$1" "\\$2" "\\$3" "\\$4" "\\$5" "\\$6" "\\$7" "\\$8" 12.ft \\n(;G 13.. 14.de L 15.aF 5 \\n(.f "\\$1" "\\$2" "\\$3" "\\$4" "\\$5" "\\$6" 16.. 17.de LR 18.aF 5 1 "\\$1" "\\$2" "\\$3" "\\$4" "\\$5" "\\$6" 19.. 20.de RL 21.aF 1 5 "\\$1" "\\$2" "\\$3" "\\$4" "\\$5" "\\$6" 22.. 23.de EX \" start example 24.ta 1i 2i 3i 4i 5i 6i 25.PP 26.RS 27.PD 0 28.ft 5 29.nf 30.. 31.de EE \" end example 32.fi 33.ft 34.PD 35.RE 36.PP 37.. 38.TH LIBAST 3 39.UC 4 40.SH NAME 41libast \- introduction to the ast library 42.SH DESCRIPTION 43This section describes the 44.I AST 45(AT&T Software Technology) library functions of the 46.B libast 47library. 48.B libast 49serves three major purposes. 50First, it presents (a subset of) POSIX/ANSI standard headers and interfaces on 51non-compliant systems. 52Second, it provides a portable base of routines that implement concepts 53common to all UNIX system variants. 54Finally, it is a forum for 55modern implementations of features present (or lacking) 56in the standard C libraries. 57Features better provided by separate libraries are omitted from 58.BR libast . 59For example, most terminal driver interface issues are left for 60special purpose libraries such as 61.IR curses (3). 62.PP 63The 64.B libast 65related header files are installed in the directories 66.LR include/ast . 67Routines that do not advertize their own headers are prototyped in 68.LR <ast.h> . 69.L <ast.h> 70is ANSI, K&R and C++ compatible and includes or defines the equivalent of 71.LR <limits.h> , 72.LR <stddef.h> , 73.LR <stdlib.h> , 74.LR <sys/types.h> , 75.L <string.h> 76and 77.LR <unistd.h> . 78Other libraries that depend on 79.B libast 80may also have headers installed in the 81.L include/ast 82directories. 83.SH FILES 84.nf 85include/ast the \fBast\fP package header directory 86lib/libast.a the \fBlibast\fP library 87lib/libast-g.a the \fBlibast\fP library compiled for debugging 88lib/libast-pg.a the \fBlibast\fP library compiled for profiling 89lib/libast.so.4.0 the \fBlibast\fP shared library 90.fi 91.SH "SEE ALSO" 92intro(3), 93intro(2), 94cc(1) 95.SH CAVEATS 96The library documentation is still under construction. 97Yes, some of it has been in this state for 20 years. 98Thank goodness our commands self-document. 99