1ASA(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual ASA(1P)
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6 This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux
7 implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding
8 Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
9 not be implemented on Linux.
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13 asa — interpret carriage-control characters
14
16 asa [file...]
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19 The asa utility shall write its input files to standard output, mapping
20 carriage-control characters from the text files to line-printer control
21 sequences in an implementation-defined manner.
22 The first character of every line shall be removed from the input, and
24 the following actions are performed.
25 If the character removed is:
27 <space> The rest of the line is output without change.
29 0 A <newline> is output, then the rest of the input line.
31 1 One or more implementation-defined characters that causes an
33 advance to the next page shall be output, followed by the
34 rest of the input line.
35 + The <newline> of the previous line shall be replaced with one
37 or more implementation-defined characters that causes print‐
38 ing to return to column position 1, followed by the rest of
39 the input line. If the '+' is the first character in the
40 input, it shall be equivalent to <space>.
41 The action of the asa utility is unspecified upon encountering any
43 character other than those listed above as the first character in a
44 line.
45
47 None.
48
50 file A pathname of a text file used for input. If no file operands
51 are specified, the standard input shall be used.
52
54 The standard input shall be used if no file operands are specified, and
55 shall be used if a file operand is '−' and the implementation treats
56 the '−' as meaning standard input. Otherwise, the standard input shall
57 not be used. See the INPUT FILES section.
58
60 The input files shall be text files.
61
63 The following environment variables shall affect the execution of asa:
64 LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization vari‐
66 ables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions vol‐
67 ume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 8.2, Internationalization Vari‐
68 ables for the precedence of internationalization variables
69 used to determine the values of locale categories.)
70 LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of
72 all the other internationalization variables.
73 LC_CTYPE Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of
75 bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
76 opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input
77 files).
78 LC_MESSAGES
80 Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format
81 and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard
82 error.
83 NLSPATH Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing
85 of LC_MESSAGES.
86
88 Default.
89
91 The standard output shall be the text from the input file modified as
92 described in the DESCRIPTION section.
93
95 None.
96
98 None.
99
101 None.
102
104 The following exit values shall be returned:
105 0 All input files were output successfully.
107 >0 An error occurred.
109
111 Default.
112 The following sections are informative.
114
116 None.
117
119 1. The following command:
120 asa file
122 permits the viewing of file (created by a program using FORTRAN-
124 style carriage-control characters) on a terminal.
125 2. The following command:
127 a.out | asa | lp
129 formats the FORTRAN output of a.out and directs it to the printer.
131
133 The asa utility is needed to map ``standard'' FORTRAN 77 output into a
134 form acceptable to contemporary printers. Usually, asa is used to pipe
135 data to the lp utility; see lp.
136 This utility is generally used only by FORTRAN programs. The standard
138 developers decided to retain asa to avoid breaking the historical large
139 base of FORTRAN applications that put carriage-control characters in
140 their output files. There is no requirement that a system have a FOR‐
141 TRAN compiler in order to run applications that need asa.
142 Historical implementations have used an ASCII <form-feed> in response
144 to a 1 and an ASCII <carriage-return> in response to a '+'. It is sug‐
145 gested that implementations treat characters other than 0, 1, and '+'
146 as <space> in the absence of any compelling reason to do otherwise.
147 However, the action is listed here as ``unspecified'', permitting an
148 implementation to provide extensions to access fast multiple-line slew‐
149 ing and channel seeking in a non-portable manner.
150
152 None.
153
155 fort77, lp
156 The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 8, Environment
158 Variables
159
161 Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
162 from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
163 -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
164 Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri‐
165 cal and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is
166 POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the
167 event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
168 The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
169 is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
170 at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
171 Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are
173 most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
174 files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.ker‐
175 nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
176IEEE/The Open Group 2013 ASA(1P)