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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.1‐2008, 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 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.1‐2008, 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 Technology -- 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 Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
http://www.unix.org/online.html .
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