INTRO(3)

NAME
intro - introduction to the C libraries

DESCRIPTION
This section provides an overview of the C library functions, their error returns and other common definitions and concepts. Most of these functions are available from the C library, libc (see libc(3)). Other libraries, such as the math library, libm, must be indicated at compile time with the -l option of the compiler.

A subset of the libc(functions) are available from Fortran; they are described separately in intro(3f).

The various libraries (followed by the loader flag):

libc (-lc)
    Standard C library functions. (See libc(3).) When using the C compiler cc(1), it is not necessary to supply the loader flag -lc for these functions. There are several `libraries' or groups of functions included inside of libc(:) the standard I/O routines, database routines, bit operators, string operators, character tests and character operators, des encryption routines, storage allocation, time functions, signal handling and more.

    libcurses (-lcurses -ltermcap) Terminal independent screen management routines for two dimensional non-bitmap display terminals. (See curses(3).)

libcompat (-lcompat)
    Functions which are obsolete but are available for compatibility with 4.3BSD. In particular, a number of system call interfaces provided in previous releases of BSD have been included for source code compatibility. Use of these routines should, for the most part, be avoided. The manual page entry for each compatibility routine indicates the proper interface to use.

libl (-ll)
    The library for lex(1).

libm (-lm)
    The math library, libm. The math library is loaded as needed by the Pascal compiler pc(1), but not by the C compiler which requires the -lm flag. (See math(3).)

libmp (-lmp)

libplot (-lplot)
    Device independent plotting functions. (See plot(3).)

libplotf77 (-lplotf77)
    The device independent plotting functions for fortran. (See plot(3).)

libtermcap -ltermcap
    The terminal independent operation library package. (See termcap(3).)

liby (-ly)
    The library for yacc(1).

FILES
/usr/lib/libc.a
    the C library
/usr/lib/libm.a
    the math library
/usr/lib/libc_p.a
    the C library compiled for profiling
/usr/lib/libm_p.a
    the math library compiled for profiling

SEE ALSO
stdio(3), math(3), intro(2), cc(1), ld(1), nm(1)

HISTORY
An intro manual appeared in AT&T UNIX.