The advanced software technology department has been collecting useful C

routines in a single library called libast. libast is used by nmake, the

nmake cpp (which is mainly based on another library (libpp)), CIA

(C information abstractor from Robin Chen), and a collection of other

/bin and /usr/bin commands that benefit from concentrating functionality

in libast.

More detail is available in the man pages. libast contains:

(1) routines to support a generic environment for

a variety of UNIX operating system variants

(2) routines that update standard libc routines

(3) routines shared between several commands

If you already have nmake 2.0 or newer installed then use

`nmake install' from this directory, otherwise use

ship/shipin from the root of the distribution directory tree.

Some of the routines not found in section 3:

hash: generic, scoped hash table support

hashalloc create a hash table or push new scope

hashdump debug dump of one or all hash tables

hashfree free a hashalloc()'d table

hashlook low level name lookup

hashscan entry generator for scoped table scan

hashsize explicitly change table size (usually automatic)

hashwalk apply function to each table entry

memhash return hash code for n-char chunk of memory

strhash return hash code for null terminated string

include/ast: libast support headers

align.h compile time type alignmnent support

dirent.h POSIX directory(3) interface definitions

error.h error() interface definitions

ftw.h ftwalk() interface definitions

hash.h hash*() interface definitions

ls.h strls() interface definitions

re.h re*() interface definitions

tar.h POSIX ustar format interface definitions

tm.h tm*() interface definitions

misc:

cmdargs apply a sequence of cmd line option parsers

cmdopen like popen() but stdin and stdout are specified

cvtatoe convert ASCII to EBCDIC

cvtetoa convert EBCDIC to ASCII

error output generic error and trace messages

ftwalk an ftw(3) that works -- used in new tw(1)

getcwd uses $PWD if ok, doesn't use /bin/pwd

getshell return full path of shell for cmdopen()

ooptget optget() for obsolete ar(1) and tar(1) options

optget YA getopt(3) but no argc or error message output

pathaccess find file with specific acces on list of dirs

pathcanon canonicalize path name in place

pathcmd return full path name of executable using $PATH

pathroot determine `related root' directory for command

perror uses strerror()

readargs append each line of file to argv[0]

re: egrep(1) and ed(1) style re's from V9

(not the good awk(1) algorithm)

recomp compile re pattern

reerror report re*() errors

reexec match string using compiled re

resub ed(1) style substitute using last reexec()

string:

chresc return next char in string converting \ sequences

ctoi convert char constant string to int

strcopy like strcpy(3) but returns end of destination

strdup malloc(3) and strcpy(3) smashed together

strerror return error message string given errno

stresc convert \ sequences in string in place

streval evaluate C expression in string

strls ls -l format support

strmatch Korn shell file pattern match

strmode return ls -l style output given st.st_mode

strsignal return signal id string given SIG* number

strtape convert generic tape unit to /dev/* file

token generate space separated tokens in string

tm: time conversion support

tmdate convert date string to time_t

tmform format time_t to date string

tmmake return current time_t

tmtime convert struct tm to time_t