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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

       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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       during   the   conversion  of  the  source  files  to  man  page  format.  To  report  such  errors,  see
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