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 only if no file operands are specified; 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 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, 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

COPYRIGHT

       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition,
       Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open  Group  Base
       Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 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 .

IEEE/The Open Group                                   2003                                                ASA(P)