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PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of
this interface may differ (consult the corresponding 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.1‐2017, 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 otherwise. 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.1‐2017, Chapter 8, Environment Variables
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std
1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface
(POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 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 .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have
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