1ASA(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual ASA(1P)
2
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.
10
12 asa — interpret carriage-control characters
13
15 asa [file...]
16
18 The asa utility shall write its input files to standard output, mapping
19 carriage-control characters from the text files to line-printer control
20 sequences in an implementation-defined manner.
21 The first character of every line shall be removed from the input, and
23 the following actions are performed.
24 If the character removed is:
26 <space> The rest of the line is output without change.
28 0 A <newline> is output, then the rest of the input line.
30 1 One or more implementation-defined characters that causes an
32 advance to the next page shall be output, followed by the
33 rest of the input line.
34 + The <newline> of the previous line shall be replaced with one
36 or more implementation-defined characters that causes print‐
37 ing to return to column position 1, followed by the rest of
38 the input line. If the '+' is the first character in the
39 input, it shall be equivalent to <space>.
40 The action of the asa utility is unspecified upon encountering any
42 character other than those listed above as the first character in a
43 line.
44
46 None.
47
49 file A pathname of a text file used for input. If no file operands
50 are specified, the standard input shall be used.
51
53 The standard input shall be used if no file operands are specified, and
54 shall be used if a file operand is '-' and the implementation treats
55 the '-' as meaning standard input. Otherwise, the standard input shall
56 not be used. See the INPUT FILES section.
57
59 The input files shall be text files.
60
62 The following environment variables shall affect the execution of asa:
63 LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization vari‐
65 ables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions vol‐
66 ume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 8.2, Internationalization Vari‐
67 ables for the precedence of internationalization variables
68 used to determine the values of locale categories.)
69 LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of
71 all the other internationalization variables.
72 LC_CTYPE Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of
74 bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
75 opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input
76 files).
77 LC_MESSAGES
79 Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format
80 and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard
81 error.
82 NLSPATH Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing
84 of LC_MESSAGES.
85
87 Default.
88
90 The standard output shall be the text from the input file modified as
91 described in the DESCRIPTION section.
92
94 None.
95
97 None.
98
100 None.
101
103 The following exit values shall be returned:
104 0 All input files were output successfully.
106 >0 An error occurred.
108
110 Default.
111 The following sections are informative.
113
115 None.
116
118 1. The following command:
119 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
130 formats the FORTRAN output of a.out and directs it to the printer.
132
134 The asa utility is needed to map ``standard'' FORTRAN 77 output into a
135 form acceptable to contemporary printers. Usually, asa is used to pipe
136 data to the lp utility; see lp.
137 This utility is generally used only by FORTRAN programs. The standard
139 developers decided to retain asa to avoid breaking the historical large
140 base of FORTRAN applications that put carriage-control characters in
141 their output files. There is no requirement that a system have a FOR‐
142 TRAN compiler in order to run applications that need asa.
143 Historical implementations have used an ASCII <form-feed> in response
145 to a 1 and an ASCII <carriage-return> in response to a '+'. It is sug‐
146 gested that implementations treat characters other than 0, 1, and '+'
147 as <space> in the absence of any compelling reason to do otherwise.
148 However, the action is listed here as ``unspecified'', permitting an
149 implementation to provide extensions to access fast multiple-line slew‐
150 ing and channel seeking in a non-portable manner.
151
153 None.
154
156 fort77, lp
157 The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Chapter 8, Environment
159 Variables
160
162 Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
163 from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Por‐
164 table Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifi‐
165 cations Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of
166 Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. 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.opengroup.org/unix/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 2017 ASA(1P)