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Archive-name: apple2/GNO-faq
Last-modified: 06 May 1998 05:12:23
Version: 1.18
URL: http://www.gno.org/~gno/FAQ.html
Posting-Frequency: monthly
This is the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) posting of the
comp.sys.apple2.gno newsgroup. This document can be freely copied so
long as
1. it is not sold (although it may be included in commercial
distributions of Apple II archives such as the Golden Orchard
CD series); and
2. any sections reposted elsewhere from it are credited back to
this FAQ with the FAQ's copyright info and official FTP and
WWW location left in place.
Explicit permission is granted to carry this FAQ on electronic forums
dealing with Apple II computers such as BBSs and service providers
such as Genie and Delphi.
This FAQ is available via ftp and on the WWW at
ftp://ftp.gno.org/pub/apple2/gs.specific/gno/doc/faq/CURRENT
http://www.gno.org/~gno/FAQ.html
A summary of recent updates may be found at
ftp://ftp.gno.org/pub/apple2/gs.specific/gno/doc/faq/LOG
http://www.gno.org/~gno/FAQ-log.html
This FAQ may also be found in archives of comp.answers and news.answers,
such as those at rtfm.mit.edu.
The question numbers in this FAQ are auto-generated. Therefore, when
referring to questions in this FAQ, please either give the version number
of the FAQ or (preferably) give some context that identifies to which
question you refer.
The FAQ was originally maintained by C. Matthew Curtin,
. It contains contributions (intentional
or otherwise) from many users of GNO.
The FAQ is currently maintained by Devin Reade, .
Questions, comments, suggestions, and submissions to this FAQ are welcome
and should be emailed to Devin Reade or posted to comp.sys.apple2.gno.
This FAQ is undergoing active development. Consequently, some questions
may have annotations starting with three asterisks ("***"). These are
questions that are in the process of having their answers written or
modified.
In the event that this FAQ appears to be abandoned, someone else is
welcome to take it over as the official maintainer or to use this FAQ
as the basis for a new one, provided that you credit the previous
maintainers. The criteria for abandonment are:
1. The FAQ has not been updated nor posted to comp.sys.apple2.gno
for a period of at least six months;
2. Attempts to contact the current maintainer (Devin Reade)
have failed. You must try for a period not less than 30
days, and you must try contacting the maintainer through
email, and postings to comp.sys.apple2.gno and the Delphi
(delphi.com) Apple II Programmers' Forum.
In addition, please ensure that there is a general consensus on
comp.sys.apple2.gno that the FAQ is indeed abandoned before you attempt
to take it over. I have not included this as a criterion since a
"general consensus" is difficult to quantify in any practical sense.
Table of Contents
=================
General
^^^^^^^
Q#1.1: What is GNO?
Q#1.2: What is the status of GNO?
Q#1.3: What is the current version of GNO?
Q#1.4: What are GNO's minimum system requirements?
Q#1.5: Where can I get GNO?
Q#1.6: What support is available for GNO?
Q#1.7: Where can I get the files/archives recommended in this FAQ?
Q#1.8: Why is this FAQ written in such a drab format?
Compatibility
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Q#2.1: With what standard version of UNIX is GNO compatible?
Q#2.2: Can I run ORCA/Shell from GNO (or vice-versa)?
Q#2.3: Is GNO compatible with the SecondSight VGA card?
Q#2.4: Are desktop applications compatible with GNO?
Q#2.5: Can I use prizm (the ORCA desktop environment) with GNO?
Q#2.6: What new features are expected to be in the next version
(2.0.6)?
Documentation
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Q#3.1: What documentation comes with GNO?
Q#3.2: What additional documentation is recommended for GNO?
Q#3.3: What are all the numbers in parenthesis following program
names?
Q#3.4: I've just finished writing a new program (or library or
whatever). What documentation should I include?
Q#3.5: I'm writing a manual page. What format should I use?
Q#3.6: What should be in a manual page?
Q#3.7: Man(3) is too slow when formatting pages. Can I speed it up?
Q#3.8: What are the standard manual page chapters?
Programs
^^^^^^^^
Q#4.1: What other programs come with GNO?
Q#4.2: Are there any ftp sites for GNO utilities?
Q#4.3: I cannot ftp to caltech or ground. How can I get the GNO
utilities?
Q#4.4: What is the most recent version of program XXXXXX?
Q#4.5: Which editor should I use?
Q#4.6: What command line flags does gsh(1) accept?
System Installation
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Q#5.1: For what are the various directories used?
Q#5.2: What should be in my gshrc file?
Q#5.3: Where should I install custom additions to GNO?
Installing GNO with ORCA
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Q#6.1: Do I need separate installations of ORCA/C for use with GNO
and ORCA/Shell?
Q#6.2: How do I set up ORCA/C so that I can use it with GNO?
Q#6.3: GNO with ORCA: What should I use for compilation directories
and prefixes?
Q#6.4: GNO with ORCA: Where should my C header files go?
Q#6.5: GNO with ORCA: What goes in the 13/orcacdefs/defaults.h
file?
Q#6.6: GNO with ORCA: What header file modifications are necessary?
Q#6.7: GNO with ORCA: What libraries are used for the combination
of GNO v2.0.4 and ORCA/C v2.0.x?
Q#6.8: GNO with ORCA: What libraries are used for the combination
of GNO v2.0.4 and ORCA/C v2.1.x?
Q#6.9: GNO with ORCA: What libraries are used for the combination
of GNO v2.0.6 and ORCA/C v2.0.x?
Q#6.10: GNO with ORCA: What libraries are used for the combination
of GNO v2.0.6 and ORCA/C v2.1.x?
System Configuration
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Q#7.1: What patches should I have applied for GNO?
Q#7.2: How do I change the information that's printed before the
login prompt?
Q#7.3: How do I map /usr, /local, /var, and other partitions to
GS/OS volume or directory names?
Q#7.4: How do I set up cron?
Q#7.5: Why won't my entry in the inittab file work correctly?
Networking
^^^^^^^^^^
Q#8.1: Does GNO provide TCP/IP and/or SLIP support?
Q#8.2: Is GS/TCP available? Where can I get it?
Q#8.3: Does Marinetti work with GNO?
Q#8.4: What TCP/IP network utilities are available?
Q#8.5: Is there a WWW browser for GNO and GS/TCP?
Q#8.6: Can I use a serial card or internal modem with GNO?
Q#8.7: What should I use for my modem port control panel settings.
Q#8.8: How can I initialize my serial ports at GNO "boot" time?
Q#8.9: How do I hook up a terminal to the IIgs' printer/modem port?
Q#8.10: How do I enable GNO to activate dialup access.
Q#8.11: What do I use for a ProTERM termcap entry?
Q#8.12: Is there a mail/news package available for GNO?
Q#8.13: How do I use copycat?
Q#8.14: How do I use rz/sz?
Q#8.15: Why do I get errors when trying to access the (modem/serial)
port?
Porting UNIX Programs to the GNO Environment
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Q#9.1: What programs/utilities should I have to port UNIX source
code to GNO?
Q#9.2: What are the common problems encountered when porting UNIX
source to GNO?
Q#9.3: Are there any other recommendations for porting programs?
Compiling
^^^^^^^^^
Q#10.1: Which language should I use?
Q#10.2: Should I purchase the ORCA Subroutine Library Source?
Q#10.3: What is occ?
Q#10.4: What is dmake?
Q#10.5: What macros should I be using for conditional compilation?
Q#10.6: When I'm using the new header files (post-v2.0.4), sometimes
ORCA/C can't find my header files. Why?
Libraries and Header Files
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Q#11.1: I keep getting "va_end" as an unresolved symbol when
linking. Why?
Q#11.2: Why do I keep getting "getc" and "putc" as unresolved
symbols when linking?
Q#11.3: How can I tell what order my libraries are in?
Q#11.4: How can I sort my libraries (or other files)?
Q#11.5: How can I tell what is in library XXXX?
Q#11.6: Why isn't the common function XXXX in the libraries?
Q#11.7: Function XXXX is declared in the GNO header files, but it's
not in the libraries. Why?
Q#11.8: I want to release my library to the GNO community. Is there
anything in particular that I should do?
Q#11.9: How do I get the file descriptor from a stdio FILE pointer?
Q#11.10: My (ported) source requires . Why isn't it
there?
Q#11.11: Why, when I '#include ' (or some other file), does
the compiler take it out of my current directory instead of
out of the system header directories?
Q#11.12: When using the December 1997 libraries (or later version),
why are my programs larger than they used to be?
Kernel Internals
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Q#12.1: Can task-switching occur during an interrupt?
Q#12.2: Can I tell GNO/ME to not task switch during a short (like a
couple of ASM instructions) sequence?
Debugging (During Program Development)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Q#13.1: What debuggers are available for GNO?
Q#13.2: Why is the Splat! debugger crashing when my code calls
fork(2)?
Q#13.3: Part way through my debugging session, Splat! no longer
shows my source file. Why?
General Problems
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Q#14.1: Some programs I run have two cursors and sometimes
characters I type don't get sent to the program. When I quit
the program, the characters show up on the command line!
What's wrong?
Q#14.2: Whenever I try to launch the Finder from GNO, I am told that
the Finder needs more memory. I know there is enough memory
available. What's the deal?
Q#14.3: My program is crashing when calling open(2). Why?
Q#14.4: What are the known bugs?
General
-------
Q#1.1: What is GNO?
A#1.1: GNO is a UNIX-like multitasking environment for the Apple IIGS.
GNO provides:
1. Pre-emptive multitasking.
2. A shell that takes full advantage of the multitasking provided
(i.e., job control), and 'regular expressions', and a simple
programming language.
3. A powerful programming environment. All the calls needed to
control processes, support Inter-Process Communication (IPC),
and other tools necessary to support multitasking are
available to the programmer.
4. The first completely consistent method for accessing serial
and console I/O on the Apple II. This makes such things as
attaching terminals to your GS, multiline BBSes, remote
dial-ups, UUCP or SLIP that doesn't take over your computer,
as well as countless other applications a possibility.
Q#1.2: What is the status of GNO?
A#1.2: GNO was developed by Procyon Enterprises (Jawaid Bazyar, prop.).
Until August 1997, GNO was a commercial product. In August 1997,
Jawaid changed GNO's status to that of freeware. Procyon still
retains the copyright on the kernel, gsh, and other components
which were written by or for Procyon.
GNO IS NOT PUBLIC DOMAIN.
Q#1.3: What is the current version of GNO?
A#1.3: The currently released version is v2.0.4. The version currently
under development is v2.0.6. v2.0.5 never had a general release,
and is not available.
For those programmers using ORCA/C v2.1.x, there was a update made
available (for both GNO v2.0.4 and GNO v2.0.6 users) on 22 Dec 97.
It consists of updated headers, libraries, and manual pages. It
is available at the following site:
ftp://ftp.gno.org/pub/apple2/gs.specific/gno/base206
Q#1.4: What are GNO's minimum system requirements?
A#1.4: The GNO documentation specifies that the minimum requirement
is an Apple IIGS with 1.25 MB of memory and a 3.5" disk drive.
Realistically (especially with all the third-party add-ons),
a hard drive (or other large mass storage device) should be
considered a necessity. An accelerator and additional memory
is recommended.
There is not an official "minimum disk space" requirement
as yet. When this information becomes available, it will
be added to this FAQ.
Q#1.5: Where can I get GNO?
A#1.5: The base GNO distribution may be obtained via anonymous ftp
from the following sites. See also Q#1.7:
ftp://ftp.gno.org/pub/apple2/gs.specific/gno/base204
ftp://ftp.hypermall.com/pub/gno
The documentation for GNO v2.0.4 is now available via ftp and
http at the following sites. MS-Word versions are also available
via ftp:
http://www.gno.org/~gno
ftp://ftp.gno.org/pub/apple2/gs.specific/gno/doc
ftp://ftp.hypermall.com/pub/gno/docs
For those who aren't able to make decent printed copies of the
documentation on their own, Procyon still offers the printed
documentation for sale. (Do *NOT* ask Devin Reade for the
printed documentation. He does not work for Procyon and does
not sell it.) At last check, this is the Kernel Reference Manual,
the GSH Reference Manual, selected manual pages, and the release
and installation notes. This contents list is unofficial and
subject to correction by Procyon.
Procyon Enterprises Inc maintains a web page at:
http://www.hypermall.com/companies/procyon
or you can contact them by snail-mail at:
Procyon, Inc.
P.O. Box 620334
Littleton, CO 80162-0334
303/933-4649
Q#1.6: What support is available for GNO?
A#1.6: For the most part, the only support available is that given
by GNO developers in the Apple II community. In other words,
what you get is what you get. Often a polite question posted
to comp.sys.apple2.gno will result in a helpful response.
Procyon still offers limited support for people who purchased
GNO prior to August 1997. No support is available from Procyon
for those who obtained GNO after it changed to freeware status.
There is a group of programmers (known as the gno-devel list)
working toward getting v2.0.6 out the door. Information regarding
this work will be posted to comp.sys.apple2.gno as it becomes
available. Have patience; we all have day jobs and this is
a hobby.
Q#1.7: Where can I get the files/archives recommended in this FAQ?
A#1.7: The "core" files of the GNO distribution (such as the GNO
kernel and gsh(1)) are available through anonymous ftp as
described in Q#1.5.
Non-commercial files, unless otherwise specified, should be
available from major Apple ftp sites. There is often a GNO-
specific directory, but compatible programs, patches, etc,
may appear anywhere under the Apple II hierarchy. The GNO
distribution also contains many files in this category;
ensure you have newest versions by checking the ftp sites.
The three main Apple II sites are
ftp://apple2.caltech.edu/Zocalo/pub/apple2
ftp://ground.isca.uiowa.edu/apple2
ftp://ftp.gno.org/pub/apple2
The latter (also known as trenco.gno.org) is the master site for
GNO development, as of August 1997. GNO-specific files can be
found in the /pub/apple2/gs.specific/gno directory on ftp.gno.org.
Other sites are listed in the comp.sys.apple2 FAQ, which is
available from the above two sites and
http://www.visi.com/~nathan/a2/faq/csa2.html
Q#1.8: Why is this FAQ written in such a drab format?
A#1.8: Because it was considered critical that there is a easily
readable text-only version available. Combined with the fact
that the maintainer didn't want to spend a lot of time with
source translators, this placed a restriction on the type
of formatting available.
Compatibility
-------------
Q#2.1: With what standard version of UNIX is GNO compatible?
A#2.1: GNO contains components that originate with a variety of
flavors of UNIX. These include 4.3BSD, XINU, and SYSV.
It is mostly BSD. As of GNO v2.0.6, GNO has become closer
to 4.4BSD. Work is in progress to make it as compliant as
possible to POSIX 1003.1 and POSIX 1003.2.
Q#2.2: Can I run ORCA/Shell from GNO (or vice-versa)?
A#2.2: No. GNO with a shell (such as gsh) is intended to be a replacement
for ORCA/Shell. Similarly, one cannot run GNO from ORCA/Shell.
However, you can still use the various ORCA languages and (the
majority of) utilities from GNO. See the sections on "Programs"
and "Compiling", below.
Q#2.3: Is GNO compatible with the SecondSight VGA card?
A#2.3: Yes. GNO is completely compatible with the SecondSight card.
However, GNO's console driver currently does not support the
SecondSight card's VGA specific text modes. A SecondSight aware
console driver is planned as a future enhancement.
Q#2.4: Are desktop applications compatible with GNO?
A#2.4: In most cases, yes. However, GNO doesn't currently allow more than
one desktop program to run concurrently. It does allow you to
run multiple text applications with or without a desktop application,
to the limits of your available memory.
There is a program (also available from Procyon), called Switch-It!,
that allows one two switch between running desktop programs.
It is not multitasking (in that only the currently displayed
desktop program is actually running), nor does it _require_
GNO. It is, however, complementary to and compatible with GNO.
Other (text based) processes running in the background continue to
do so when Switch-It! is active.
Q#2.5: Can I use prizm (the ORCA desktop environment) with GNO?
A#2.5: In a nutshell, no. The exact reasons are not generally known,
but the author (Mike Westerfield) does not ever expect to have
a compatible version available.
Q#2.6: What new features are expected to be in the next version (2.0.6)?
A#2.6: This list is unofficial and subject to change. With that in mind:
- Complete kernel support for TCP/IP.
- Lots of little bug fixes that should improve stability.
- An updated and expanded libc.
- An OrcaLib compatible with the ORCA/C v2.1 OrcaLib.
- Updates to various shell programs.
Documentation
-------------
Q#3.1: What documentation comes with GNO?
A#3.1: GNO/ME Overview
Kernel Reference Manual
Shell (gsh) User's Manual
Manual Pages (some printed, all online)
Online versions of these documents are also available. See Q#1.5.
Q#3.2: What additional documentation is recommended for GNO?
A#3.2: The GNO Overview has quite a complete reading list for users and
programmers, and it is too long to go into detail here. However,
in general, the references are broken down into the following
categories:
- UNIX reference books.
- C reference books.
- Editor reference books.
- Apple IIgs Programming References
The following list, should also be considered "must have" for
any serious programming:
- The ORCA/C and/or ORCA/M manuals, as appropriate.
- Toolbox volumes 1, 2, 3
- Programmers' Reference for System 6.0/6.0.1
- GS/OS Reference
- Firmware Reference
- Apple Technical Notes
- Apple File Type Notes
- A manual on 65816 assembly programming, if you are
using assembly. One very good manual is:
Lichty, Ron and Eyes, David. _Programming_the_IIgs_
_in_Assembly_Language_, Brady, 1989.
ISBN 0-13-729559-6
You will likely have to get it second hand, as it is no
longer in print.
The following books are recommended:
- Hardware Reference
- Apple Numerics Manual
- Device Driver Reference
- IEEE Std 1003.1-1988 (or later) -- The POSIX standard
for computer environments.
- ANSI/ISO 9899 Standard (defines ANSI/C).
This is an expensive document, but you get a cheap copy
by purchasing Schildt, Herbert _The_Annotated_ANSI_
_C_Standard_, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-07-881952-0. The book
is set up so that the standard is printed on the "left"
pages and the annotations are on the "right" pages.
MAKE SURE YOU USE ONLY THE LEFT PAGES; the annotations
have just enough errors in them to be dangerous. Some
of the "left" pages (from the Standard) are also missing.
Q#3.3: What are all the numbers in parenthesis following program names?
A#3.3: When you see something like "ls(1)" in the documentation, it
refers to something called "ls" which is documented in Chapter 1
of the manual pages. Similarly, "select(2)" is refering to
something called "select" which is documented in Chapter 2. To
find out what the various chapters are for, type in the command
man 4 intro
substituting "4" for whichever chapter you wish to learn about.
Q#3.4: I've just finished writing a new program (or library or whatever).
What documentation should I include?
A#3.4: Including the following documentation components will not only
help anyone who is maintaining a GNO site, but they will also
make your contribution look more professional. Remember, if
someone can't tell what your program is supposed to do, they
are less likely to try it out.
You should have:
- A manual page (see also Q#3.5). Unless your program requires
a large reference manual ( > 5-10 pages of written text), the
manual page should be the primary document.
Ensure the man page is assigned to the correct section. One
common mistake is to mix up Section 1 (User Commands) with
Section 8 (System Administration).
- A describe(1) database entry. Try to use the ".desc" suffix
on the file name. (For example, if you wrote the "foo" program,
you should have a text file "foo.desc" containing the database
entry.) If you have WWW access, please update the online
describe database maintained by Soenke Behrens -- see Q#4.4.
The describe entry is very suitable as a brief README file
when uploading your program to ftp sites, or when posting to
comp.binaries.apple2.
Describe entries should only be written for programs, not
libraries or individual routines.
- An rVersion resource fork. If you don't want to write a rez
source file, then use setvers(1).
There is a new format out which includes rVersion as a subset.
It is called rProgramInfo (or rProgInfo), and was formalized
by Eric Shepherd. Information on this is available at the
usual ftp sites in the archive rProgInfo.shk. See also the
templates file listed later in this answer.
- "Standard" help and version flags. If possible, invoking your
program with the "-V" (capital vee) flag should print the
version number and exit. Invoking it with the "-h" flag should
print a usage (help) message and exit. Use of the "-?" flag
is discouraged because it is a meta-character in many shells.
It may not be practical to support these two flags, such as
if you are porting a program that already uses them for other
purposes, or if you are writing a daemon.
To make things easier, templates for manual pages, rVersion
source files, and describe database entries are available at
the usual sites. Look for an archive with a name similar
to
templates[version_number].shk
Q#3.5: I'm writing a manual page. What format should I use?
A#3.5: While man can handle both manually-edited preformatted pages and
pages that are aroff source (created by AppleWorks-GS or a
compatible editor), the recommended format is to use nroff source
with tmac "an" extensions.
The reason for this is that only nroff source can be reformatted
"on the fly" to suit different terminal characteristics. See also
Q#3.7.
Q#3.6: What should be in a manual page?
A#3.6: Whatever is necessary. However, there are some standard sections
for manual pages, based on which section (chapter) the manual
page is in. Templates with the suggested manual page formats
are available in the file
templates[version_number].shk
at the usual ftp sites.
For programs in particular (typically Chapters 1, 6, and 8), here
are some sections that should be in the man page. The order of
the first three are mandatory due to how some automated tools
work. The sequence on the remainder are suggested:
NAME - name and one line description
SYNOPSIS - list of options and arguments
DESCRIPTION - a detailed description
OPTIONS - explanation of the flags
ENVIRONMENT - relevant environment variables and their
semantics, if appropriate
FILES - related files, if appropriate
BUGS - known bugs, if appropriate
AUTHOR - your name and contact info, typically
an email address. Include your smail
address at your own risk.
LEGALITIES - Commercial, freeware, shareware, public
domain, copyleft, ... ?
ATTRIBUTIONS - Give credit when due. For example, if
your binary was linked with the ORCA
libraries, you should be including the
Run-Time Licence from Appendix C of the
ORCA/C manual.
SEE ALSO - related manual pages or other documents
Q#3.7: Man(3) is too slow when formatting pages. Can I speed it up?
A#3.7: Actually, it's not man(3), but nroff(3) which is slow. Nroff
is in desperate need of an update, not only for speed but for
functionality.
In the interim, however, you can get a faster response from man
at the cost of using more disk space by preformatting your man
pages. See catman(8).
Q#3.8: What are the standard manual page chapters?
A#3.8: Chapter 1: Commands and Applications
Chapter 2: System Calls
Chapter 3: Library Routines
Chapter 4: Devices
Chapter 5: File Formats
Chapter 6: Games
Chapter 7: Miscellaneous
Chapter 8: System Administration
For GNO, there should be no need to use Chapter n [New Commands],
or Chapter l (ell) [Local Commands], unless (in the latter case)
the manual page is for something that is not to be released to
the GNO community.
Chapter 3F is reserved for Fortran Routines, of which there
are none at this time (due to the lack of a publicly available
Fortran compiler).
Programs
--------
Q#4.1: What other programs come with GNO?
A#4.1: Lots of free utilities that bring some of the power of UNIX systems
to the IIGS. In addition to getting the utility executable files,
you get the source for many of these. These programs have been
provided by various authors.
Q#4.2: Are there any ftp sites for GNO utilities?
A#4.2: Yes. Many Apple II ftp sites have GNO-specific directories, although
GNO stuff can also be found in other directories on these sites.
The three primary general-purpose sites are:
ftp://apple2.caltech.edu/Zocalo/pub/apple2/shellprogs
ftp://ground.isca.uiowa.edu/apple2/apple16/gno
ftp://ftp.gno.org/pub/apple2
Trenco (trenco.gno.org or ftp.gno.org) is the master site for GNO
development as of August 1997. See Q#1.7.
See the comp.sys.apple2 FAQ for other Apple II ftp sites.
Q#4.3: I cannot ftp to caltech or ground. How can I get the GNO utilities?
A#4.3: Perhaps you could use the FTP-by-mail service. Send mail to
ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com with the subject line of "help" and no body
for information.
Another alternative is to use the WWW to access those sites.
WWW access information is available in the comp.sys.apple2 FAQ
(see Q#1.7).
Q#4.4: What is the most recent version of program XXXXXX?
A#4.4: The best way to find out what programs are available for GNO,
including version numbers, authors, and other information is
to use the describe(1) database. The program, database, and
maintenance utilities are available at the usual ftp sites.
Soenke Behrens also maintains an online
describe database. This tends to be the most up-to-date version,
and is available at
http://www.arrowweb.com/sbehrens/describe.htm
Q#4.5: Which editor should I use?
A#4.5: Whichever one you want. Many editors work under GNO. Some
of the more popular ones are emacs (MicroEMACS), vi (Stevie),
ORCA/Editor, Edit-16, and Rose.
Many of these editors cannot be suspended from the shell. Some
have the "eating keystrokes" problem (see Q#14.1).
Q#4.6: What command line flags does gsh(1) accept?
A#4.6: There are two. The first is "-c arg", which is supposed to allow
one to specify a script on the command line. This seems to be
broken, though.
The second one is "-f", which tells gsh not to parse its gshrc
file, nor do other initialization tasks. Think of it as "fast
startup". Unfortunately, empirical tests seem to indicate that
gsh is no faster with this flag than without.
System Installation
-------------------
Q#5.1: For what are the various directories used?
A#5.1: The following is the suggested layout and use of various directories.
Any given site will likely have more, but these are the "standard"
ones. Note that these don't necessarily have to be on different
physical partitions due to the GNO namespace facility (see Q#7.3).
This FAQ assumes the following directory structure:
/HFSinclude GNO standard C header files (required if and
only if /usr/include is not on an HFS
partition)
/bin basic standard programs
/dev device drivers
/etc configuration files
/lang languages
/lang/orca ORCA languages
/lang/orca/languages compilers
/lang/orca/libraries standard ORCA libraries (not used
for GNO; see /lib instead)
/lang/orca/libraries/orcacdefs standard ORCA/C header files
/lang/orca/release.notes READMEs, release notes, etc
/lang/orca/shell ORCA editor and ORCA/Shell config files
/lang/orca/utilities ORCA/Shell compatible programs
/lang/orca/utilities/help These are the ORCA utility help files,
which show brief usage information.
The preformatted manual pages that
come with some utils should _not_ go
here.
/lang/orca/man/man1 manual pages for ORCA/Shell compatible
programs (nroff, troff, or aroff source)
/lang/orca/man/cat1 manual pages for ORCA/Shell compatible
programs (preformatted). These should not
be confused with the "help" files in
/lang/orca/utilities/help.
/lib standard GNO libraries
/lib/RInclude resource compiler include files
/lib/orcacdefs holds defaults.h; otherwise empty
/tmp scratch directory (for temporary files)
/usr UNIX system resources
/usr/X X (graphical interface) -related files
/usr/X/bin X programs
/usr/X/lib X libraries and configuration files
/usr/X/man X manual pages
/usr/bin additional standard programs
/usr/games games
/usr/games/lib game configuration files
/usr/include GNO standard C header files
/usr/lib optional libraries
/usr/lib/sendmail.d sendmail configuration files
/usr/lib/tmac nroff/troff macro files
/usr/local custom and local files
/usr/local/bin custom programs
/usr/local/etc custom configuration files
/usr/local/include custom C header files
/usr/local/lib custom libraries and configuration files
/usr/local/man manual pages for custom files
/usr/man standard manual pages
/usr/man/cat[1-8] standard manual pages (preformatted)
/usr/man/man[1-8] standard manual pages (nroff, troff, aroff)
/usr/sbin system maintenance programs
/var heavy write-use (variable) filesystem
/var/adm system administratin and log files
/var/mail user mailboxes
/var/spool spool directories for various daemons
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