About this book

Table of contents

• About this book
  • How this book is organized
  • Related documentation
  • Typographical conventions
  • How can we improve this book?

• ``How this book is organized''

• ``Related documentation''

• ``Typographical conventions''

This book is clearly too short to be a full reference to the system. There are in excess of five hundred commands, and two thousand files in a basic operating system; however, for most activities you only need to be familiar with a handful of them.

How this book is organized

This book, which is divided into three sections, is designed to lead you through the workings of the SCO Operating System, from using its office automation facilities to set up your calendar, to writing simple shell scripts that perform tasks for you.

Office automation

The SCO OpenServer^(TM) system contains a number of powerful office automation tools that allow you to manage your work. Chapter 1, ``Using SCO Shell'' contains a guide to using the SCO office automation tools. Chapter 2, ``SCO Shell accessories'' explains how to use the Calendar and Calculator accessories provided with the SCO Shell.

Working at the shell prompt

The shells are powerful programs that you can use to issue commands directly to the SCO OpenServer system. The chapters in this section, beginning with Chapter 3, ``Working with files and directories'', introduce you to the shells and explain how to use them to run a variety of programs which are present on your system. This section also explains the basic concepts of file storage and manipulation, and how to manage your work environment effectively.

Shell programming

The three available shells provide a powerful but simple programming language that you can use to automate complex tasks, write your own commands, and connect other programs together to perform a sequence of operations. This section contains the following chapters:

• Chapter 10, ``Configuring and working with the shells'', -- an explanation of the different shells you may be working in, and their special features

• Chapter 11, ``Automating frequent tasks'' -- examples and explanations of how to write simple scripts

• Chapter 12, ``Regular expressions'' -- the extensive pattern matching facilities that these tools use to identify data

• Chapter 13, ``Using awk'' -- a powerful but complex tool provided for manipulating and reporting on textual data)

• Chapter 14, ``Manipulating text with sed'' -- a stream editor, used for rapidly making changes to large files

Appendices

The following appendices are provided:

• Appendix A, ``An overview of the system'' contains useful background material for the main text. It explains the basic history and design philosophy of the SCO OpenServer system; what its components are, what they do, and how they all work together to provide your work environment.

• Appendix B, ``vi commands'' provides a concise listing of the commands recognized by the vi text editor.

• Appendix C, ``DOS command equivalents'' provides a table showing common MS-DOS® commands and their SCO OpenServer system equivalents.

• Appendix D, ``Sample shell startup files'' contains some sample listings and explanations of the standard user shell startup files.

• Appendix E, ``Further reading'' contains references to sources of further information that lie beyond the scope of this book.

SCO OpenServer systems include comprehensive documentation. Depending on which SCO OpenServer system you have, the following books are available in online and/or printed form. Access online books by double-clicking on the Desktop Help icon. Additional printed versions of the books are also available. The Desktop and most SCO OpenServer programs and utilities are linked to extensive context-sensitive help, which in turn is linked to relevant sections in the online versions of the following books. See ``Getting help'' in the SCO OpenServer Handbook.

Release Notes

contain important late-breaking information about installation, hardware requirements, and known limitations. The Release Notes also highlight the new features added for this release.

Operating System Tutorial

provides a basic introduction to the SCO OpenServer operating system. This book can also be used as a refresher course or a quick-reference guide. Each chapter is a self-contained lesson designed to give hands-on experience using the SCO OpenServer operating system.

Graphical Environment Help

describes how to use Calendar, Edit, the Desktop, Help, Mail, Paint, the SCO Panner window manager, and the UNIX command-line window.

Operating System User's Reference

contains the manual pages for user-accessible operating system commands and utilities (section C).

SCO OpenServer Handbook

provides the information needed to get your SCO OpenServer system up and running, including installation and configuration instructions, and introductions to the Desktop, online documentation, system administration, and troubleshooting.

Mail and Messaging Guide

describes how to configure and administer your mail system. Topics include sendmail, MMDF, SCO Shell Mail, mailx, and the Post Office Protocol (POP) server.

Guide to Gateways for LAN Servers

describes how to set up SCO® Gateway for NetWare® and LAN Manager Client software on an SCO OpenServer system to access printers, filesystems, and other services provided by servers running Novell® NetWare® and by servers running LAN Manager over DOS, OS/2®, or UNIX® systems.

PC-Interface Guide

describes how to set up PC-Interface^(TM) software on an SCO OpenServer system to provide print, file, and terminal emulation services to computers running PC-Interface client software under DOS or Microsoft® Windows^(TM).

Graphical Environment Guide

describes how to customize and administer the Graphical Environment, including the X Window System^(TM) server, the SCO® Panner^(TM) window manager, the Desktop, and other X clients.

Graphical Environment Reference

contains the manual pages for the X server (section XS), the SCO Panner window manager, Desktop, and X clients from SCO and MIT (section XC).

Networking Guide

provides information on configuring and administering TCP/IP, NFS®, and IPX/SPX^(TM) software to provide networked and distributed functionality, including system and network management, applications support, and file, name, and time services.

Networking Reference

contains the command, file, protocol, and utility manual pages for the IPX/SPX (section PADM), NFS (sections NADM, NC, and NF), and TCP/IP (sections ADMN, ADMP, SFF, and TC) networking software.

System Administration Guide

describes configuration and maintenance of the base operating system, including account, filesystem, printer, backup, security, UUCP, and virtual disk management.

Operating System Administrator's Reference

contains the manual pages for system administration commands and utilities (section ADM), system file formats (section F), hardware-specific information (section HW), miscellaneous commands (section M), and SCO Visual Tcl^(TM) commands (section TCL).

Performance Guide

describes performance tuning for uniprocessor, multiprocessor, and networked systems, including those with TCP/IP, NFS, and X clients. This book discusses how the various subsystems function, possible performance constraints due to hardware limitations, and optimizing system configuration for various uses. Concepts and strategies are illustrated with case studies.

SCO Merge User's Guide

describes how to use and configure an SCO® Merge^(TM) system. Topics include installing Windows, installing DOS and Windows applications, using DOS with the SCO OpenServer operating system, configuring hardware and software resources, and using SCO Merge in an international environment.

SCO Wabi User's Guide

describes how to use SCO® Wabi^(TM) software to run Windows 3.1 applications on the SCO OpenServer operating system. Topics include installing the Wabi software, setting up drives, configuring ports, managing printing operations, and installing and running applications.

Many other useful publications about SCO systems by independent authors are available from technical bookstores.

Typographical conventions

This publication presents commands, filenames, keystrokes, and other special elements as shown here:

Example . . . . . . . . Used for:

lp or lp(C)

commands, device drivers, programs, and utilities (names, icons, or windows); the letter in parentheses indicates the reference manual section in which the command, driver, program, or utility is documented

/new/client.list

files, directories, and desktops (names, icons, or windows)

root

system, network, or user names

filename

placeholders (replace with appropriate name or value)

<Esc>

keyboard keys

Exit program?

system output (prompts, messages)

yes or yes

user input

``Description''

field names or column headings (on screen or in database)

Cancel

button names

Edit

menu names

Copy

menu items

File → Find → Text

sequences of menus and menu items

open or open(S)

library routines, system calls, kernel functions, C keywords; the letter in parentheses indicates the reference manual section in which the file is documented

$HOME

environment or shell variables

SIGHUP

named constants or signals

``adm3a''

data values

employees

database names

orders

database tables

buf

C program structures

b_b.errno

structure members

What did you find particularly helpful in this book? Are there mistakes in this book? Could it be organized more usefully? Did we leave out information you need or include unnecessary material? If so, please tell us.

To help us implement your suggestions, include relevant details, such as book title, section name, page number, and system component. We would appreciate information on how to contact you in case we need additional explanation.

To contact us, use the card at the back of the SCO OpenServer Handbook or write to us at:

Technical Publications
Attn: CFT
The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
PO Box 1900
Santa Cruz, California 95061-9969
USA

or e-mail us at:

techpubs@sco.com or ... uunet!sco!techpubs

Thank you.