xref: /freebsd/share/man/man3/intro.3 (revision f4f33ea0c752ff0f9bfad34991d5bbb54e71133d)
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31.Dd March 22, 2017
32.Dt INTRO 3
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm intro
36.Nd introduction to the C libraries
37.Sh DESCRIPTION
38This section provides an overview of the C
39library functions, their error returns and other
40common definitions and concepts.
41Most of these functions are available from the C library,
42.Em libc .
43Other libraries, such as the math library,
44.Em libm ,
45must be indicated at compile time with the
46.Fl l
47option of the compiler.
48.Pp
49The various libraries (followed by the loader flag):
50.Bl -tag -width "libc (-lc)"
51.It Em libc Pq Fl l Ns Ar c
52Standard C library functions.
53When using the C compiler
54.Xr cc 1 ,
55it is not necessary
56to supply the loader flag
57.Fl l Ns Ar c
58for these functions.
59There are several `libraries' or groups of functions included inside of
60.Em libc
61: the standard
62.Tn I/O
63routines,
64database routines,
65bit operators,
66string operators,
67character tests and character operators,
68des encryption routines,
69storage allocation, time functions, signal handling and more.
70.It Em libcurses Pq Fl l Ns Ar curses Fl l Ns Ar termcap
71Terminal independent screen management routines
72for two dimensional non-bitmap display terminals.
73(See
74.Xr ncurses 3 . )
75.It Em libcompat Pq Fl l Ns Ar compat
76Functions which are obsolete but are available for compatibility with
77.Bx 4.3 .
78In particular,
79a number of system call interfaces provided in previous releases of
80.Bx
81have been included for source code compatibility.
82Use of these routines should, for the most part, be avoided.
83The manual page entry for each compatibility routine
84indicates the proper interface to use.
85.It Em libkvm Pq Fl l Ns Ar kvm
86Functions used to access kernel memory are in this library.
87They can be used
88against both a running system and a crash dump.
89(See
90.Xr kvm 3 . )
91.It Em libl Pq Fl l Ns Ar l
92The library for
93.Xr lex 1 .
94.It Em libm Pq Fl l Ns Ar m
95The math library,
96.Em libm .
97The math library is loaded as needed by the Pascal compiler,
98but not by the C compiler which requires the
99.Fl l Ns Ar m
100flag.
101(See
102.Xr math 3 . )
103.It Em libmp Pq Fl l Ns Ar mp
104.It Em libtermcap Pq Fl l Ns Ar termcap
105The terminal independent operation library package.
106(See
107.Xr termcap 3 . )
108.It Em liby Pq Fl l Ns Ar y
109The library for
110.Xr yacc 1 .
111.El
112.Sh FILES
113.Bl -tag -width /usr/lib/libm_p.a -compact
114.It Pa /usr/lib/libc.a
115the C library
116.It Pa /usr/lib/libc_p.a
117the C library compiled for profiling
118.It Pa /usr/lib/libm.a
119the math library
120.It Pa /usr/lib/libm_p.a
121the math library compiled for profiling
122.El
123.Sh SEE ALSO
124.Xr cc 1 ,
125.Xr ld 1 ,
126.Xr nm 1 ,
127.Xr intro 2 ,
128.Xr math 3 ,
129.Xr stdio 3
130.Sh HISTORY
131An
132.Nm
133manual appeared in
134.At v7 .
135