About This Manual
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## About This Manual

This manual discusses several topics of interest to programmers writing applications for the IRIX operating system on Silicon Graphics computers. These topics include memory management, interprocess communication, models of parallel computation, file and record locking, font access, and internationalization.

## What This Manual Contains

This manual contains the following major parts:

- Part I, “The Process Address Space,” tells how the virtual address space of a process is created and how objects are mapped into it.

- Part II, “Interprocess Communication,” covers all the facilities for communicating and coordinating among processes such as semaphores, shared memory, signals, message queues, and file and record locks.

- Part III, “Advanced File Control,” describes advanced uses of disk files: file locking, asynchronous I/O, direct I/O, and guaranteed-rate I/O.

- Part IV, “Models of Parallel Computation,” gives an overview of the different ways you can specify parallel execution in Silicon Graphics systems.

- Part V, “Working With Fonts,” discusses typography and font use on Silicon Graphics computers, and describes the Font Manager library.

- Part VI, “Internationalizing Your Application,” explains how to create an application that can be adapted for use in different countries.

- Appendix A, “ISO 3166 Country Names and Abbreviations,” lists country codes for use with internationalization and localization.

## What You Should Know Before Reading This Manual

This manual assumes that you are writing an application that executes under IRIX version 6.2 or later, and that you are familiar with the programming conventions of UNIX in general and IRIX in particular.

All examples are in the C language, although the descriptions are valid for C++ or any other language that provides access to IRIX kernel functions, such as Silicon Graphics Ada95 or MIPSpro Fortran 90.

## Other Useful References

In addition to this manual, which covers specific IRIX features, you will need to refer to Silicon Graphics manuals that describe compilers and programming languages. Some of the most useful are listed in Table i.

Table 1. Books for Further Reading in IRIX Development

Topic | Document Title | Number
--- | --- | ---
Overview of the IRIX library of manuals for developers | Programming on Silicon Graphics Systems: An Overview | 007-2476-nnn
Compiling, linking, and tuning programs in C, C++, or Fortran | MIPSpro Compiling and Performance Tuning Guide | 007-2360-nnn
Writing modules in assembly language. | MIPSpro Assembly Language Programmer's Guide | 007-2418-nnn
C language | C Language Reference Manual | 007-0701-nnn
C++ language | C++ Language System Overview | 007-1621-nnn
Fortran language | MIPSpro Fortran 77 Programmer's Guide | 007-2361-nnn
| MIPSpro Fortran 90 Programmer's Guide | 007-2761-nnn
System Configuration | IRIX Admin: System Configuration and Tuning | 007-2859-nnn
Writing real-time applications | REACT/Pro Real Time Programmer's Guide | 007-2499-nnn
Controlling devices directly | IRIX Device Driver Programmer's Guide | 007-0911-nnn
Details of the MIPS processor hardware | MIPS R4000 Microprocessor User's Manual |

You can find additional information about internationalization from X/Open Company Limited. X/Open Portability Guide, Volume 1, XSI Commands and Utilities, Volume 2; XSI System Interface; and Volume 3, XSI Supplementary Definitions. Berkshire, United Kingdom. Prentice-Hall, Inc.

### Obtaining Manuals

Silicon Graphics manuals are usually read online using IRIS InSight. This manual and many of the books in Table i are installed as part of the IRIS Development Foundation feature. When the books are installed or mounted on your workstation, use the command `iiv`, or double-click the IRIS InSight icon, to launch IRIS Insight. Then select the book you want from the “bookshelf” display.

When the manuals are not accessible to your workstation you can examine or order any Silicon Graphics manual on the World Wide Web using the following URL: http://techpubs.sgi.com.

## Conventions Used in This Manual

This manual uses the conventions and symbols shown in Table ii.

Table 2. Typographical Conventions

Type of Information | Example of Typography
--- | ---
Filenames and pathnames | This structure is declared in `/usr/include/sys/time.h`.
IRIX command names and options used in normal text | Update these variables with `systune`; then build a new kernel with `autoconfig -vf`.
Names of program variables, structures, and data types, used in normal text | Global variable mainSema points to an IRIX semaphore, which has type usema_t.
Names of IRIX system functions, library functions, and functions in example code | Use `mmap()` to map an object into the address space, and `munmap()` to remove it.
Names of IRIX reference (man) pages. You can click on any of these to display the page | See the `plock(2)` reference page.

When complete lines of example code or commands are set off from normal text, they are displayed as follows.

    ipcrm -s semid

Parts of the code or command that need to be typed exactly as shown are displayed in a monospaced font. Operands that you supply are italicized.

## Reader Comments

If you have comments about the technical accuracy, content, or organization of this document, please tell us. Be sure to include the title and document number of the manual with your comments. (Online, the document number is located in the frontmatter of the manual. In printed manuals, the document number can be found on the back cover.)

You can contact us in any of the following ways:

- Send e-mail to the following address:

      techpubs@sgi.com

- Use the Feedback option on the Technical Publications Library World Wide Web page:

      http://techpubs.sgi.com

- Contact your customer service representative and ask that an incident be filed in the SGI incident tracking system.

- Send mail to the following address:

  Technical Publications
  SGI
  1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy., M/S 535
  Mountain View, California 94043-1351

  - Send a fax to the attention of “Technical Publications” at +1 650 932 0801.

We value your comments and will respond to them promptly.

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Topics in IRIX® Programming |  | Part I. The Process Address Space