![[image of the Head of a GNU]](/graphics/gnu-head-sm.jpg)
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GNU's Bulletin June, 1994
The GNU's Bulletin is the semi-annual newsletter of the Free Software Foundation, bringing you news about the GNU Project.
Free Software Foundation, Inc. Telephone: +1--617--876--3296
675 Massachusetts Avenue Fax: +1--617--492--9057
Cambridge, MA 02139-3309 Fax (in Japan):
USA 0031--13--2473 (KDD)
Electronic mail: gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu 0066--3382--0158 (IDC)
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Michael Bushnell continues to work on the Hurd, while also
maintaining tar.
Roland McGrath maintains make and the GNU C library, and is
now working on the Hurd.
Jan Brittenson is working on the Hurd network server.
Karl Heuer has come on board to maintain and enhance GNU Emacs.
Omar Richardson-Sutherland is coordinating the GNU Dictionary
Project (see section Announcing the Dictionary Project).
Noah Friedman is our system ambiguator, release coordinator, and maintains a few programs in his copious spare time. Carl Hoffman is our fundraiser and conference organizer.
Robert J. Chassell is again our Treasurer, replacing Lisa `Opus' Goldstein, who is on her way to China (`finally!', she says). Lisa Bloch is our new Executive Director, taking over from Lisa Goldstein. Britton Bradley and Larissa Carlson assist Lisa Bloch with many tasks in the Business Office. Charles Hannum works on typesetting and many other jobs.
Jim Blandy has left to adapt GNU Emacs for use by the University of Illinois' Ribosome Database Project; he is also working on free, Scheme-based drawing software. Melissa Weisshaus and Tom Lord have also left the FSF. All still volunteer part-time.
Richard Stallman continues as a volunteer who does countless tasks, such as Emacs maintenance. Volunteer Len Tower remains our online JOAT (jack-of-all-trades), handling mailing lists and gnUSENET, information requests, etc.
Written and Edited by: Melissa Weisshaus, Noah S. Friedman,
Robert J. Chassell, and Leonard H. Tower Jr.
Illustrations by: Etienne Suvasa and Jamal Hannah
Japanese Edition by: Mieko Hikichi and Nobuyuki Hikichi
ISSN (International Standard Serial Number): 1075-7813
The GNU's Bulletin is published at the end of January and June of each year. Please note that there is no postal mailing list. To get a copy, send your name and address with your request to the address on page 1. Enclosing a business sized self-addressed stamped envelope ($0.52) and/or a donation of a few dollars is appreciated but not required. If you're from outside the USA, sending a mailing label and enough International Reply Coupons for a package of about 100 grams is appreciated but not required. (Including a few extra International Reply Coupons for copying costs is also appreciated.)
Copyright (C) 1994 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies of this document, in any medium, provided that the copyright notice and permission notice are preserved, and that the distributor grants the recipient permission for further redistribution as permitted by this notice.
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We don't have a patent on irony and satire; those tools are available for you to use in your own work.
- Guerrilla Girls, a New York City performance group
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The Free Software Foundation is dedicated to eliminating restrictions on people's right to use, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. We promote the development and use of free software in all areas using computers. Specifically, we are putting together a complete, integrated software system named "GNU" ("GNU's Not Unix", pronounced "guh-new") that will be upwardly compatible with Unix. Most parts of this system are already being used and distributed.
The word "free" in our name refers to freedom, not price. You may or may not pay money to get GNU software, but regardless you have two specific freedoms once you get it: first, the freedom to copy a program and give it away to your friends and co-workers; and second, the freedom to change a program as you wish, by having full access to source code. You can study the source and learn how such programs are written. You may then be able to port it, improve it, and share your changes with others. If you redistribute GNU software you may charge a distribution fee or give it away, so long as you include the source code and the GPL; see section What Is Copyleft?, for details.
Other organizations distribute whatever free software happens to be available. By contrast, the Free Software Foundation concentrates on the development of new free software, working towards a GNU system complete enough to eliminate the need to purchase a proprietary system.
Besides developing GNU, the FSF distributes GNU software and manuals for a distribution fee and accepts gifts (tax-deductible in the U.S.) to support GNU development. Most of the FSF's funds come from this distribution service.
The Board of the Foundation is: Richard M. Stallman, President;
Robert J. Chassell, Secretary/Treasurer; Gerald J. Sussman,
Harold Abelson, and Leonard H. Tower Jr., Directors.
The simplest way to make a program free is to put it in the public domain, uncopyrighted. But this permits proprietary modifications, denying others the freedom to use and redistribute improvements; it is contrary to the intent of increasing the total amount of free software. To prevent this, copyleft uses copyrights in a novel manner. Typically copyrights take away freedoms; copyleft preserves them. It is a legal instrument that requires those who pass on a program to include the rights to use, modify, and redistribute the code; the code and rights become legally inseparable.
The copyleft used by the GNU Project is made from the combination of a regular copyright notice and the GNU General Public License (GPL). The GPL is a copying license which basically says that you have the aforementioned freedoms. An alternate form, the GNU Library General Public License (LGPL), applies to a few GNU libraries. This license permits linking the libraries into proprietary executables under certain conditions. The appropriate license is included in all GNU source code distributions and many manuals. Printed copies are available upon request.
We strongly encourage you to copyleft your programs and documentation, and we have made it as simple as possible for you to do so. The details on how to apply either license appear at the end of each license.
GNU is to be a complete integrated computational environment: everything you need to work with a computer, either as a programmer or as a person in an office or home. The core is an operating system, which consists of a central program called a kernel that runs the other programs on the computer, and a large number of ancillary programs for handling files, etc. The FSF is developing an advanced kernel called the Hurd (see section What Is the Hurd?).
A complete system has tools for programmers, such as compilers and debuggers. It also has editors, sketchpads, calendars, calculators, spreadsheets, databases, electronic mail readers, and Internet navigators. The FSF already distributes most of the programs used in an operating system, all the tools regularly used by programmers, and much more.
Already, you can set yourself up as an entrepreneur to sell your services teaching, installing, improving, and modifying this software for others. Already, you can set yourself up as a programmer or writer who works on a 80386 or 80486 based computer and use only software that is freely redistributable. Already, all the tools you need as a programmer for editing, compiling, and debugging are free; all the tools you need as a writer for editing, revising, and typesetting a book are free; many tools you need for calculations or mathematics are free; and many games and other applications are free. Tools for electronic communications are free.
Not only are these tools useful to you, they are useful institutionally. Since distribution is free, you can pass on copies to other people in your company or organization without hindrance. No paperwork. As a teacher, you can give programs to your students without fearing that you are breaking the law. As a student, you can copy programs for your friends, and do good by doing so. If you are poor, you can copy and use the same software used by the rich; and if you are rich, you can contribute your improvements to the common heritage. If you are ignorant, you can learn. If you know a great deal, you can help others.
The Hurd will be the foundation of the whole GNU system. It is built on top of the Mach 3.0 kernel, a free message-passing kernel developed by CMU. Mach's virtual memory management and message-passing facilities are extensively used by the Hurd. The GNU C Library will provide the Unix system call interface, and will call the Hurd for needed services it can't provide itself.
One goal of the Hurd is to establish a framework for shared development and maintenance. The Hurd is like GNU Emacs in that it will allow a broad range of users to create and share useful projects without knowing much about the internal workings of the system--projects that might never have been attempted without freely available source, a well-designed interface, and a multiserver-based design.
Currently there are free ports of the Mach kernel to the 386 PC, the DEC
PMAX workstation, the Luna 88k, and several other machines, with more in
progress, including the Amiga and DEC Alpha-3000 machines. Contact CMU
c/o mach@cs.cmu.edu, if you want to help with one of these or
start your own. Porting the GNU Hurd and GNU C Library is easy (easier
than porting GNU Emacs, certainly easier than porting GCC) once a Mach port
to a particular platform exists.
Important progress has been made recently; see section GNUs Flashes.
There are significant projects relating to the Hurd for which we need
volunteers. Experienced system programmers who are interested should send
mail to gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu. Porting the Mach kernel or the
GNU C Library to new systems is another way to help development of the
Hurd.
by Richard Stallman
Austin Code Works, a redistributor of free software, has agreed to support free software development by giving the FSF 20% of the selling price for the GNU software packages they produce and sell.
The Sun Users Group Deutschland has agreed to add a donation to the FSF to the price of their next CD-ROM of GNU software. Potential purchasers will know precisely how much is for the FSF and how much is for SUGD.
In the long run, the success of free software depends on how much new free software people develop. Free software distribution offers an opportunity to raise funds for such development in an ethical way. These two redistributors have made use of the opportunity. Many others let it go to waste.
You can help promote free software development by convincing for-a-fee redistributors to contribute--either by doing development themselves, or by donating to development organizations (the FSF and others).
The way to convince distributors to contribute is to demand and expect this of them. This means choosing among distributors partly by how much they give to free software development. Then you can show distributors they must compete to be the one who gives the most.
To make this work, you must insist on numbers that you can compare, such as, "We will give ten dollars to the Foobar project for each disk sold." A vague commitment, such as "A portion of the profits are donated", doesn't give you a basis for comparison. Even a precise fraction "of the profits from this disk" is not very meaningful, since creative accounting and unrelated business decisions can greatly alter what fraction of the sales price counts as profit.
Also, press developers for firm information about what kind of development they do or support. Some kinds make much more long-term difference than others. For example, maintaining a separate version of a GNU program contributes very little; maintaining a program on behalf of the GNU project contributes much. Easy new ports contribute little, since someone else would surely do them; difficult ports such as adding a new CPU to the GNU compiler contribute more; major new features and programs contribute the most.
By establishing the idea that supporting further development is "the proper thing to do" when distributing free software for a fee, we can assure a steady flow of resources for making more free software.
When choosing a free software business, ask those you are considering how much they do to assist free software development, e.g., by contributing money to free software development or by writing free software improvements themselves for general use. By basing your decision partially on this factor, you can help encourage those who profit from free software to contribute to its growth.
These free software support companies regularly donate a part of their income to the Free Software Foundation to support the development of new GNU programs. Listing them here is our way of thanking them. Also see section Cygnus Matches Donations!.
Contributed Software GbR Graefestr. 76 D-10967 Berlin Germany Telephone: (+49-30) 694-69-07 Fax: (+49-30) 694-68-09 Electronic-Mail:info@contrib.deBBS & no-charge free software archive: Dialins: (+49-30) 693-40-51 (eight USR DS's) (+49-30) 694-60-55 (five ZyXELs) Telnet:uropax.contrib.de[192.109.39.2] FTP:ftp.contrib.deWWW: `http://www.contrib.de/'
Hundred Acre Consulting
5301 Longley Lane, Suite D-144
Reno, NV 89511
USA
Telephone: 702-829-9700
+1-800-245-2885
Fax: 702-829-9926
Electronic-Mail: info@pooh.com
FTP: ftp.pooh.com
WWW: `http://www.pooh.com/'
Gopher: gopher.pooh.com
The Free Software Foundation does not provide any technical support. Although we create software, we leave it to others to earn a living providing support. We see programmers as providing a service, much as doctors and lawyers now do; both medical and legal knowledge are freely redistributable entities for which the practitioners charge a distribution and service fee.
The GNU Service Directory is a list of people who offer support
and other consulting services. It is in the file `etc/SERVICE' in the
GNU Emacs distribution, `SERVICE' in the GCC distribution and
`/pub/gnu/GNUinfo/SERVICE' on GNU's FTP host
prep.ai.mit.edu. Contact us if you would like a copy or wish to
be listed in it. Those companies who share their income with the FSF are
listed in section Help from Free Software Companies.
If you find a deficiency in any GNU software, we want to know. We have
many Internet mailing lists for bug reports, announcements and questions.
They are also gatewayed into USENET news as the gnu.* newsgroups.
You can request a list of the mailing lists from either address on
the top menu.
When we receive a bug report, we usually try to fix the problem. While our bug fixes may seem like individual assistance, they are not. Our task is so large that we must focus on that which helps the community as a whole; we do not have the resources to help individuals. We may send you a patch for a bug so that you can help us test the fix and ensure its quality. If your bug report does not evoke a solution from us, you may still get one from another user who reads our bug report mailing lists. Otherwise, use the Service Directory.
Please do not ask us to help you install software or figure out how to use it--but do tell us how an installation script does not work or where documentation is unclear.
If you have no Internet access, you can get mail and USENET news via UUCP. Contact a local UUCP site, or a commercial UUCP site such as:
UUNET Communications Services
3110 Fairview Park Drive -- Suite 570
Falls Church, VA 22042
USA
Telephone: +1-800-4UUNET4
+1-703-204-8000
Fax: +1-703-204-8001
Electronic-Mail: info@uunet.uu.net
A list of commercial UUCP and Internet service providers is posted
periodically to USENET in the newsgroup news.announce.newusers with
`Subject: How to become a USENET site'. You can also get it via
anonymous FTP from rtfm.mit.edu in the file
`How_to_become_a_USENET_site', in the directory
`/pub/usenet-by-group/news.announce.newusers'.
When choosing a service provider, ask those you are considering how much they do to assist free software development, e.g., by contributing money to free software development or by writing free software improvements themselves for general use. By basing your decision partially on this factor, you can help encourage those who profit from free software to contribute to its growth.
The League for Programming Freedom (LPF) aims to protect the freedom to write software. This freedom is threatened by "look-and-feel" interface copyright lawsuits and by software patents. The LPF does not endorse free software or the FSF.
The League's members include programmers, entrepreneurs, students, professors, and even software companies.
From the League membership form:
The League for Programming Freedom is a grass-roots organization of professors, students, business people, programmers, and users dedicated to bringing back the freedom to write programs. The League is not opposed to the legal system that Congress intended--copyright on individual programs. Our aim is to reverse the recent changes made by judges in response to special interests.
Membership dues in the League are $42 per year for programmers, managers and professionals; $10.50 for students; $21 for others.
To join, please send a check and the following information:
The League is not connected with the Free Software Foundation and is not itself a free software organization. The FSF supports the LPF because, like any software developer smaller than IBM, it is endangered by software patents. You are in danger too! It would be easy to ignore the problem until you or your employer is sued, but it is more prudent to organize before that happens.
If you haven't made up your mind yet, write to LPF for more information:
League for Programming Freedom
1 Kendall Square - #143
P.O. Box 9171
Cambridge, MA 02139
USA
Telephone: +1-617-243-4091
Electronic-Mail: lpf@uunet.uu.net
Mieko (h-mieko@sra.co.jp) and Nobuyuki Hikichi
(hikichi@sra.co.jp) continue to volunteer for the GNU
Project in Japan. They translate each issue of this Bulletin into
Japanese and distribute it widely, along with their translation of the
GNU General Public License Version 2. This translation of the GPL is
authorized by the FSF and is available by anonymous FTP from
srawgw.sra.co.jp in /pub/gnu/local-fix/GPL2-j.
They are working on a formal translation of the GNU Library General
Public License. They also solicit donations and offer GNU software
consulting.
nepoch (the Japanese versions of Epoch) and MULE are available and
widely used in Japan. MULE (the MULtilingual Enhancement of GNU Emacs) can
handle many character sets at once. Eventually its features will be merged
into the FSF's version of Emacs. The FSF does not distribute
nepoch, but MULE is available on the section May 1994 Source Code CD-ROM. You
can also FTP it from sh.wide.ad.jp in /JAPAN/mule or
etlport.etl.go.jp in /pub/mule. See section GNU Software,
for more information about MULE.
The Village Center, Inc. prints a Japanese translation of the GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual and uploads the Texinfo source to various bulletin boards. They have also published a copylefted book, Nobuyuki's and Mieko's Think GNU. This appears to be the first non-FSF copylefted publication in Japan. Part of the profits are donated to the FSF. Their address is:
Village Center, Inc. 3-2 Kanda Jinbo-cho, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 101, Japan Telephone: 03-3221-3520
Addison-Wesley Publishers Japan Ltd. has printed a Japanese translation of the GNU Make Manual and GAWK Manual. Their address is:
Addison-Wesley Publishers Japan Ltd. Nichibou Bldg. 2F 1-2-2 Sarugaku-cho, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 101, Japan Telephone: 03-3291-4581
GNU manuals (in English), T-shirts and CD-ROMs are available from both:
Shosen Book Tower 1-11-6 Kanda Sakuma-cho, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 101, Japan Telephone: 03-5296-0051 Shosen Grande 1-3 Kanda Jinbo-cho, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 101, Japan Telephone: 03-3295-0011
The Institute for New Generation Computer Technology, ICOT, has released
the "ICOT Free Software (IFS)" distribution. The famous Fifth Generation
Computing System project produced this distribution, which includes over 80
systems for symbol processing, knowledge processing, problem solving,
inference, and natural language processing. Many of them are based on
parallel logic programming. For details, contact
ifs@icot.or.jp.
There is a mailing list in Japan to discuss both hardware and software
which is under the GNU General Public License. This list provides
information about making your own computer system. The main language used
on the list is Japanese. If you are interested in getting information or
having discussions in English, contact mka@apricot.juice.or.jp
or ishiz@muraoka.info.waseda.ac.jp.
Many groups in Japan now distribute GNU software. They include JUG, a PC user group; ASCII, a periodical and book publisher; the Fujitsu FM Towns users group; and SRA's special GNU support group, called Wingnut, who also purchased the first Deluxe package in Japan. (Since then, there have been several other purchases of the Deluxe package in Japan.)
Anonymous UUCP is available until the end of December, 1994. After that it
will be canceled due to a lack of disk space, time and the ease with which
GNU software can be obtained via FTP and on CD-ROM and other media. Since
the service was started 5 years ago, over 300 tapes have been made, and
over 600 hosts have made more than 20,000 calls to the UUCP server to get
GNU and other free software. For more information, contact
toku@dit.co.jp.
It is easy to place an order directly with the FSF from Japan, thus funding
new code. To get an FSF Order Form written in Japanese, ask
japan-fsf-orders@prep.ai.mit.edu. There are also two toll-free
Fax numbers for use in Japan (see
the top menu).
We encourage you to buy
software on tapes or CDs: for example, every 150 tape orders allows FSF to
hire a programmer for a year to write more free software.
The FSF has a copy of the Century Dictionary, an unabridged dictionary now in the public domain, and we are planning to put it online. We tried OCR, but it wasn't reliable enough. So we're looking for volunteers to type it in--20 pages per volunteer. We estimate that takes around 45 hours if you type reasonably fast, including proofreading.
If you'd like to volunteer, please send mail to
dictionary@gnu.ai.mit.edu. We'll send you 20 xeroxed pages
plus the description of the online dictionary format. (Be very
careful to follow the format.)
This project provides a way for people without programming skills or money to contribute to the GNU Project.
ps, most of the
shellutils, most of the textutils and all of the fileutils. Progress is
being made so rapidly that by the time you read this it probably does much
more.
For a complete non-network system, we still need to finish the support for
signals (although some simple test programs that use signals already work),
the terminal driver, and the local sockets code (at least for pipes). We
have a mailing list to distribute announcements about progress; send mail
to hurd-ann-request@prep.ai.mit.edu to be added to it.
ed has been added. elvis has been replaced by nvi.
See section GNU Software and section Utilities Tape, for more information.
arnold@gnu.ai.mit.edu, a long-time volunteer
for the GNU project, is the author of "What's GNU?", a regular column in
the new monthly magazine Linux Journal. The column discusses the
GNU project, its software and other interesting free software. It is
available from the publishers of Linux Journal. Contact Arnold or
Phil Hughes, phil@fylz.com, the publisher of Linux
Journal for more information.
Information about the current status of released GNU programs can be found in section GNU Software. Here is some news of future plans.
makeinfo and the World Wide Web (Also see section GNU Software)
makeinfo is being modified to translate Texinfo source files into
HTML documents that can be displayed from the Internet's World Wide Web.
schelter@math.utexas.edu.
gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu.
cs.nyu.edu in `/pub/gnat',
though it is not yet stable. News about GNAT is posted to the USENET
newsgroup comp.lang.ada. Volunteers are also developing a
Pascal front end.
f2c & GCC, see section GNU Software)
GNU Fortran (g77) is in "private" alpha test (testing by a small
group of experts) and is not yet publicly released. Until g77 is
fully released to the public, we ask people to use f2c (a
Fortran-to-C translator) with GCC. As g77 uses a lot of these tools
(the f2c libraries and the GCC back end), using them and reporting
any problems you find will help speed the release of g77.
The primary focus of the alpha test is to test the g77 front end,
since that has most of the new code. The secondary focus of the alpha test
is to test the integration between the front end and the back end.
Currently, this is where most of the bugs seem to be. The tertiary focus
is the quality of code generated by the GNU back end for Fortran.
We hope to have a g77 beta release in summer 1994, as part of the
regular compiler distribution.
A mailing list exists for announcements about g77. To subscribe,
ask info-gnu-fortran-request@prep.ai.mit.edu. To contact the
author and maintainer of g77, write to
fortran@prep.ai.mit.edu.
rjl@monu1.cc.monash.edu.au.
gmp (For current status, see section GNU Software)
The GNU mp library, version 2.0, (due out soon) has arbitrary precision
floating point arithmetic, is more portable, and is up to 4 times
faster than previous versions.
sed; eventually we will distribute it as a separate package as
well.
This new library is nearly a drop-in replacement for the current regex
library used by the GNU Project, but it needs a few more features before it
can be used in Emacs.
Freely redistributable information isn't just software. Here are a few
groups providing various books, historical documents, and more. Please let
either address on
the top menu
know of additional entries. You can FTP
a more complete list
in file `/pub/gnu/FreelyAvailableTexts'
from prep.ai.mit.edu.
world.std.com in
`/obi/Networking/John.Goodwin'. To volunteer, contact
jgoodwin@delphi.fnal.gov.
obi.std.com in `/obi'.
You can also dial world.std.com with a modem
(617-739-9753, 8N1)
and create an account to access this information (login as new).
Accounts on world are charged for their connect time (ask
info@world.std.com for details).
mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu in file `/etext' and
oes.orst.edu in file `/pub/almanac/etext'. To find out how
to obtain text via e-mail, send the word `HELP' in the body of a message to
BITFTP%PUCC.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu. Or look at
bit.listserv.gutnberg, a USENET newsgroup. For more
information, write to
dircompg@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu.
ftp.lysator.liu.se in
`/pub/runeberg/README'. Access Gopher via type 1 host
gopher.lysator.liu.se path `/project-runeberg'.
`http://www.lysator.liu.se:7500/runeberg/Main.html' is the URL on
the World Wide Web. For more information or to join the mailing list, ask
runeberg-list-request@lysator.liu.se, or send postal mail to:
Lysator, Universitetet, S-581 83 Linkoping, Sweden.
2@c
GNU is dedicated to having quality, easy-to-use online and printed documentation. GNU manuals are intended to explain the underlying concepts, describe how to use all the features of each program, and give examples of command use. GNU manuals are distributed as Texinfo source files, which yield both typeset hardcopy via the TeX document formatting system, and online hypertext-like display via the menu-driven Info system. Source for these manuals comes with our software, and they are available in hardcopy; see the see section Free Software Foundation Order Form.
Most GNU manuals are bound as soft cover books with lay-flat bindings. This allows you to open them so they lie flat on a table without creasing the binding. Each book has an inner cloth spine and an outer cardboard cover that will not break or crease as an ordinary paperback will. Currently, the Emacs, GDB, Emacs Lisp Reference, GAWK, Make, Flex, Bison, and Texinfo manuals have this binding. The other GNU manuals are also bound so they lie flat when opened, using a GBC binding. All of our manuals are 7in by 9.25in except the Calc manual, which is 8.5in by 11in.
The edition number of the manual and version number of the program listed after each manual's name were current at the time this Bulletin was published.
The Emacs Manual (9th Edition for Version 19) describes editing with
GNU Emacs. It explains advanced features, including outline mode and
regular expression search, how to use special modes for programming in
languages like C++ and TeX, how to use the tags utility, how
to compile and correct code, how to make your own keybindings, and other
elementary customizations.
Debugging with GDB (Edition 4.09 for Version 4.9) tells how to use the GNU Debugger, run your program under debugger control, examine and alter data, modify a program's flow of control, and use GDB through GNU Emacs.
The GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual (Edition 2.3 for Version 19.23) covers this programming language in depth, including data types, control structures, functions, macros, syntax tables, searching/matching, modes, windows, keymaps, byte compilation, and the operating system interface.
The GAWK Manual (Edition 0.16 for Version 2.16) tells how to use the
GNU implementation of awk. It is written for those who have never
used awk and describes the features of this powerful string and
record manipulation language.
The Make Manual (Edition 0.43 for Version 3.68) describes GNU
make, a program used to rebuild parts of other programs. The manual
tells how to write makefiles, which specify how a program is to be
compiled and how its files depend on each other. Included are an
introductory chapter for novice users and a section about automatically
generated dependencies.
The Flex Manual (Edition 1.03 for Version 2.3.7) tells you how to
write a lexical scanner definition for the flex program to create a
C++ or C-coded scanner that will recognize the patterns described.
You need no prior knowledge of scanner generators.
The Bison Manual (December 1993 Edition for Version 1.23) teaches you how to write context-free grammars for the Bison program that convert into C-coded parsers. You need no prior knowledge of parser generators.
Using and Porting GNU CC (October 1993 Edition for Version 2.5) explains how to run, install, and port the GNU C Compiler to new systems. It describes new features and incompatibilities of the compiler, but people not familiar with C will also need a good reference on the C programming language. This manual also covers G++.
The Texinfo Manual (Edition 2.19 for Version 3) explains the markup language used to generate both the online Info documentation and typeset hardcopies. It tells you how to make tables, lists, chapters, nodes, indexes, cross references, how to use Texinfo mode in GNU Emacs, and how to catch mistakes. This second edition describes over 50 new commands.
The Termcap Manual (2nd Edition for Version 1.2), often described as "twice as much as you ever wanted to know about termcap," details the format of the termcap database, the definitions of terminal capabilities, and the process of interrogating a terminal description. This manual is primarily for programmers.
The C Library Reference Manual (June 1993 Edition for Version 1.07)
describes most of the facilities of the GNU C library, including both what
Unix calls "library functions" and "system calls." We are doing
limited copier runs of this manual until it becomes more stable. It is
new, and needs corrections and improvements. Please send them to
bug-glibc-manual@prep.ai.mit.edu.
The Emacs Calc Manual (Edition 2.02 for Version 2.02) includes both a tutorial and a reference manual for Calc. It describes how to do ordinary arithmetic, how to use Calc for algebra, calculus, and other forms of mathematics, and how to extend Calc.
All our software is available via anonymous FTP; see section How to Get GNU Software. In addition we offer software on various media and printed documentation:
We welcome all bug reports sent to the appropriate electronic mailing list (see section Free Software Support).
In the articles describing the contents of each medium, the version number listed after each program name was current when we published this Bulletin. When you order a distribution tape or diskette, some of the programs may be newer, and therefore the version number higher.
Key to cross reference:
Configuring GNU Software:
We are using a uniform scheme for configuring GNU software packages in
order to compile them, which uses the autoconf program. All GNU
software supports the same alternatives for naming machine and system
types. This makes it possible to configure any and all GNU software in the
same manner.
The configuration scheme also supports configuring a directory containing several GNU packages with one command. When the GNU system is complete it will be possible to configure and build the entire system at once, eliminating the need to separately configure each individual package.
The configuration scheme can also specify both the host and target system, so you can easily configure and build cross-compilation tools.
GNU software currently available:
(For new features and coming programs, see section Forthcoming GNUs.)
acm (SrcCD, UtilT)
acm is a LAN-oriented, multiplayer aerial combat simulation that
runs under the MIT X Window System. Players engage in air to air combat
against one another using heat seeking missiles and cannons. Eventually we
hope to turn this into a more general purpose flight simulator.
m4 macro calls. Autoconf
requires GNU m4 to operate, but the resulting configure scripts it
generates do not.
Most GNU programs now use Autoconf-generated configure scripts.
sh and offers many extensions found in csh and
ksh. BASH has job control, csh-style command history, and
command-line editing (with Emacs and vi modes built-in, and the
ability to rebind keys) via the readline library. BASH conforms to
the POSIX 1003.2 shell specification.
bc (SrcCD, UtilT)
bc is an interactive algebraic language with arbitrary precision.
GNU bc follows the POSIX 1003.2
draft
standard, with several extensions including multi-character variable names,
an else statement and full Boolean expressions. GNU bc does
not require the separate dc program.
ld or GDB) to support many
different formats in a clean way. BFD provides a portable interface, so
that only BFD needs to know the details of a particular format. One result
is that all programs using BFD will support formats such as a.out, COFF,
ELF & OSF-Rose. BFD comes with source for Texinfo documentation (not yet
published on paper).
Presently BFD is not distributed separately because it is not yet
completely stable; however, it is included with packages that use it.
ar,
c++filt,
demangle,
gprof,
ld,
nlmconv,
nm,
objcopy,
objdump,
ranlib,
size,
strings,
&
strip.
Binutils Version 2 is completely rewritten to use the BFD library. The GNU
linker ld emits source-line numbered error messages for
multiply-defined symbols and undefined references. It interprets a
superset of the AT&T Linker Command Language, which gives general control
over where segments are placed in memory. nlmconv converts object
files into Novell NetWare Loadable Modules. The objdump program can
disassemble code for a29k, ALPHA, H8/300, H8/500, HP--PA, i386, i960, m68k,
m88k, MIPS, SH, SPARC, & Z8000 processors, and can display other data such
as symbols and relocations from any file format understood by BFD.
yacc. Texinfo source for the Bison Manual
and reference card are included. See section GNU Documentation.
malloc which
wastes less memory than the old GNU version. The GNU regular-expression
functions (regex) now nearly conform to the POSIX 1003.2
standard.
GNU stdio lets you define new kinds of streams, just by writing a
few C functions. The fmemopen function uses this to open a
stream on a string, which can grow as necessary. You can define your
own printf formats to use a C function you have written. For
example, you can safely use format strings from user input to implement
a printf-like function for another programming language.
Extended getopt functions are already used to parse options,
including long options, in many GNU utilities.
Version 1.08 has just been released, adding support for Sun RPC,
mmap and friends, and compatibility with several more traditional
Unix functions. It runs on Sun-3 (SunOS 4.1), Sun-4 (SunOS 4.1 or Solaris
2), HP 9000/300 (4.3BSD), SONY News 800 (NewsOS 3 or 4), MIPS DECstation
(Ultrix 4), DEC Alpha (OSF/1), i386/i486 (System V, SVR4, BSD, SCO 3.2 &
SCO ODT 2.0), Sequent Symmetry i386 (Dynix 3) & SGI (Irix 4). Texinfo
source for the GNU C Library Reference Manual is included
(see section GNU Documentation); the manual still needs updating.
gnuplot. Calc comes with Texinfo
source for a reference card and the Calc Manual, which serves as a
tutorial and reference. See section GNU Documentation.
Stuart Cracraft
25682 Cresta Loma
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677
USA
Telephone: +1-714-347-8107
Electronic-Mail: cracraft@ai.mit.edu
prep.ai.mit.edu.) Get source from ftp.cli.com. For
details ask schelter@math.utexas.edu.
cpio (SrcCD, UtilD, UtilT)
cpio is an alternative archive program with all the features of SVR4
cpio, including support for the final POSIX 1003.1 ustar
standard. mt, a program to position magnetic tapes, is included with
cpio.
office@usenix.org.
dc (SrcCD, UtilT)
dc is an RPN calculator. GNU bc does not require a separate
dc program to run. This version of dc will eventually be
merged with GNU bc.
expect,
which runs scripts to conduct dialogs with programs; and Tcl, which is an
embeddable scripting language. The FSF hopes to replace Tcl with a cleaner
programming language someday.
oak.oakland.edu in `/pub/msdos/demacs' (USA) &
utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp in `/GNU/demacs' (Japan). For an
FTP site list and the current status of Demacs, email to
demacs@sigmath.osaka-u.ac.jp. For details, FTP the `README'
file.
The FSF is offering Demacs on diskette. We will replace it with GNU
Emacs 19, as soon as the MS-DOS port is ready. See section Emacs Diskettes.
diff compares files showing line-by-line changes in several
flexible formats. It is much faster than traditional Unix versions. The
Diffutils package contains diff, diff3, sdiff,
and cmp.
These improvements have recently been made to Diffutils:
A new heuristic for diff greatly reduces the time needed to
compare large input files that contain many differences,
and produces output that is usually smaller rather than larger.
New diff options give detailed control over output format,
e.g. to provide if-then-else output for programming languages other than C.
Message wordings and the definition of "white space" have been
revised for compatibility with the POSIX.2 standard (ISO/IEC
9945-2:1993).
flex, GAS, and the GNU Binutils. Full source code is
provided.
It requires at least 5MB of hard disk space to install and 512K
of RAM to use.
It supports SVGA (up to 1024x768),
XMS & VDISK memory allocation,
himem.sys,
VCPI (e.g. QEMM, DESQview, & 386MAX), and
DPMI (e.g. Windows 3.x, OS/2, QEMM, & QDPMI).
The FSF offers it on the section DJGPP Diskettes, and on the section Compiler Tools Binaries CD-ROM. Or FTP file `/pub/msdos/djgpp' from
oak.oakland.edu (or another SimTel mirror site). Ask
djgpp-request@sun.soe.clarkson.edu to join a mailing list for
DJGPP users.
dld (LangT, SrcCD)
dld is a dynamic linker written by W. Wilson Ho. Linking your
program with the dld library allows you to dynamically load object
files into the running binary. Currently supported are VAX (Ultrix), Sun 3
(SunOS 3.4 & 4.0), SPARC (SunOS 4.0), Sequent Symmetry (Dynix), & Atari ST.
doschk (SrcCD, UtilT)
This program is intended as a utility to help software developers ensure
that their source file names are distinguishable on System V platforms with
14-character filenames and on MS-DOS with 8+3 character filenames.
ecc (SrcCD, UtilT)
ecc is a Reed-Solomon error correction checking program, which can
correct three byte errors in a block of 255 bytes and detect more severe
errors. Contact paulf@Stanford.EDU for more information.
ed (SrcCD, UtilT)
Ed is the standard text editor.
es (SrcCD, UtilT)
es is an extensible shell based on rc that has
first class functions, lexical scope, an exception system, and
rich return values (i.e. functions can return values other than just
numbers). Like rc, it is great for both interactive use and for
scripting, particularly because its quoting rules are much less baroque
than the C or Bourne shells.
f2c (LangT, SrcCD)
f2c converts Fortran-77 source files into C or C++, which can be
compiled with GCC. You can get bug fixes via FTP from
netlib.att.com in the file `/netlib/f2c/changes.Z' or
by email from netlib@research.att.com.
see section Forthcoming GNUs, for information about GNU Fortran.
bug-fax@prep.ai.mit.edu for more information.
chgrp,
chmod,
chown,
cp,
dd,
df,
dir,
du,
install,
ln,
ls,
mkdir,
mkfifo,
mknod,
mv,
mvdir,
rm,
rmdir,
touch,
&
vdir.
Only some of these are on the section Selected Utilities Diskettes.
find (SrcCD, UtilD, UtilT)
find is frequently used both interactively and in shell scripts to
find files which match certain criteria and perform arbitrary operations on
them. Also included are xargs, which applies a command to a
list of files, and locate, which scans a database for file
names that match a pattern.
flex (LangT, SrcCD, UtilD)
flex is a replacement for the lex scanner generator.
flex was written by Vern Paxson of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
and generates far more efficient scanners than lex does. Texinfo
source for the Flex Manual and reference card are included.
See section GNU Documentation.
bpltobzr,
bzrto,
charspace,
fontconvert,
gsrenderfont,
imageto,
imgrotate,
limn,
and
xbfe.
awk. It also provides several useful extensions not found in
other awk implementations. Texinfo source for the GAWK
Manual comes with the software. See section GNU Documentation.
object). As much as possible, G++ is kept compatible with the
evolving draft ANSI standard, but not with cfront (AT&T's compiler),
which has been diverging from ANSI.
The GNU C Compiler is a fairly portable optimizing compiler which performs
automatic register allocation, common sub-expression elimination, invariant
code motion from loops, induction variable optimizations, constant
propagation and copy propagation, delayed popping of function call
arguments, tail recursion elimination, integration of inline functions and
frame pointer elimination, instruction scheduling, loop unrolling, filling
of delay slots, leaf function optimization, optimized multiplication by
constants, a certain amount of common subexpression elimination (CSE)
between basic blocks (though not all of the supported machine descriptions
provide for scheduling or delay slots), a feature for assigning attributes
to instructions, and many local optimizations that are automatically
deduced from the machine description. Function-wide CSE has been written,
but needs to be cleaned up before it can be installed.
Position-independent code is supported on the 68k, i386, Hitachi Slt,
Hitachi H8/300, Clipper, 88k, SPARC & SPARClite.
GCC can open-code most arithmetic on 64-bit values (type long long
int). It supports extended floating point (type long double) on
the 68k; other machines will follow.
GCC supports full ANSI C, traditional C and GNU C extensions. GNU C has
been extended to support nested functions, nonlocal gotos, and taking the
address of a label.
GCC can generate a.out, COFF, ELF & OSF-Rose files when used with a
suitable assembler. It can produce debugging information in these
formats: BSD stabs, COFF, ECOFF, ECOFF with stabs & DWARF.
GCC generates code for many CPUs, including: a29k, Alpha, ARM, Convex cN,
Clipper, Elxsi, H8300, HP--PA (1.0 and 1.1) i370, i386, i486, i860, i960,
m68k, m68020, m88k, MIPS, ns32k, Pyramid, ROMP, RS6000, SH, SPARC,
SPARClite, VAX, and we32k.
Operating systems supported include: AIX, ACIS, AOS, BSD, Clix, Ctix,
DG/UX, Dynix, Genix, HP-UX, ISC, Irix, Linux, Luna, LynxOS, Mach, Minix,
NewsOS, OSF, OSF-Rose, RISCOS, SCO, Solaris 2, SunOS 4, SysV, Ultrix, Unos,
& VMS.
The old (version 1) machine descriptions for the Alliant, Tahoe and Spur
(as well as a new port for the Tron) do not work, but are still included in
the distribution in case someone wants to work on them.
Using the configuration scheme for GCC, building a cross-compiler is as
easy as building a compiler for the same target machine. Version 2
supports more general calling conventions: it can pass arguments "by
reference" and can preallocate the space for stack arguments. GCC 2 on
the SPARC uses the SPARC conventions for structure arguments and return
values.
We no longer distribute or maintain version 1 of GCC, G++, or
libg++.
Texinfo source for the GCC manual, Using and Porting GNU CC,
is included with the compiler.
See section Forthcoming GNUs, for plans for later releases of GCC.
xxgdb provides an X interface (but it is not
distributed or maintained by the FSF; it is available for anonymous FTP
from ftp.x.org in the `/contrib' directory).
GDB uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library which (so far)
has simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 & Super-H.
GDB can perform cross-debugging. To say that GDB targets a platform
means that it can perform native or cross-debugging for it. To say that
GDB can host a given platform means that it can be built on it, but
cannot necessarily debug native programs. GDB can:
gdbm (LangT, SrcCD, UtilD)
The gdbm library is the GNU replacement for the traditional
dbm and ndbm libraries. It implements a database using quick
lookup by hashing. gdbm does not need sparse file formats
(unlike its Unix counterparts).
enscript); a
utility to extract the text from a Postscript document; a much more
reliable (and faster) Microsoft Windows implementation; support for
Microsoft C/C++ 7.0; drivers for many new printers, including the
SPARCprinter, and for TIFF/F (fax) file format; many more Postscript Level
2 facilities, including most of the color space facilities (but not
patterns), and the ability to switch between Level 1 and Level 2
dynamically.
Ghostscript accepts commands in Postscript and executes them by writing
directly to a printer, drawing on an X window, or writing to a file that
you can print later (or to a bitmap file that you can manipulate with other
graphics programs).
Ghostscript includes a C-callable graphics library (for client programs
that do not want to deal with the Postscript language). It also supports
IBM PCs and compatibles with EGA, VGA, or SuperVGA graphics (but please do
not ask the FSF staff any questions about this; we do not use PCs).
See section Forthcoming GNUs, for plans for later releases of Ghostscript.
ghostview@cs.wisc.edu, has created Ghostview, a
previewer for multi-page files that runs on top of Ghostscript. Ghostview
provides an X11 user interface for the Ghostscript interpreter. Ghostview
and Ghostscript function as two cooperating programs; Ghostview creates a
viewing window and Ghostscript draws in it. There is a port for Ghostview
to MS-Windows called "GSview for Windows". For information about future
releases of this program, see section Forthcoming GNUs.
gmp (LangT, SrcCD)
GNU mp is a library for arbitrary precision arithmetic on signed integers
and rational numbers. It has a rich set of functions with a regular
interface.
See section Forthcoming GNUs, for the plans for later releases of gmp.
gnuplot (SrcCD, UtilT)
gnuplot is an interactive program for plotting mathematical
expressions and data. It handles both curves (2 dimensions) and surfaces
(3 dimensions). Curiously, the program was neither written nor named for
the GNU Project; the name is a coincidence.
gperf (LangT, SrcCD)
gperf is a "perfect" hash-table generation utility. There are
actually two implementations of gperf, one written in C and one in
C++. Both will produce hash functions in either C or C++.
spline program;
examples of shell scripts using graph and plot; & a
statistics toolkit.
Existing ports need retesting. Contact Rich Murphey,
Rich@rice.edu, if you can help test/port it to anything beyond
a SPARCstation.
grep, egrep, and fgrep.
They are much faster than the traditional Unix versions.
dvi format, and typewriter-like
devices, as well as implementations of
eqn,
nroff,
pic,
refer,
tbl,
troff,
and the
man,
ms,
and
mm macros.
Groff's mm macro package is almost
compatible with the DWB mm macros and has several extensions.
Also included is a modified version of the Berkeley me macros and an
enhanced version of the X11 xditview previewer.
Written in C++, these programs can be compiled with GNU
C++ Version 2.5 or later.
Groff users are encouraged to contribute enhancements. Most needed
are complete Texinfo documentation, a grap emulation (a pic
preprocessor for typesetting graphs), a page-makeup postprocessor similar
to pm (see Computing Systems, Vol. 2, No. 2; ask
office@usenix.org for information on obtaining a copy) and an ASCII
output class for pic so that pic can be integrated with
Texinfo. Questions and bug reports from users who have read the
documentation that is provided with the distribution can be sent to
bug-groff@prep.ai.mit.edu.
gzip (DjgppD, EmcsT, LangT, SrcCD, UtilT)
Some of the contents of our tape and FTP distributions are compressed. We
have software on our tapes and FTP sites to uncompress these files. Due to
patent troubles with compress, we have switched to another
compression program, gzip. gzip can expand LZW-compressed
files but uses a different algorithm for compression which generally
produces better results. It also uncompresses files compressed with System
V's pack program.
hello (SrcCD, UtilT)
The GNU hello program produces a familiar, friendly greeting. It
allows non-programmers to use a classic computer science tool which would
otherwise be unavailable to them. Because it is protected by the GNU
General Public License, users are free to share and change it.
Like any truly useful program, hello provides a built-in mail
reader.
hp2xx (SrcCD, UtilT)
GNU hp2xx reads HP-GL files, decomposes all drawing commands into
elementary vectors, and converts them into a variety of vector and raster
output formats. It is also an HP-GL previewer. Currently supported vector
formats include encapsulated Postscript, Uniplex RGIP, Metafont and various
special TeX-related formats, and simplified HP-GL (line drawing only)
for imports. Raster formats supported include IMG, PBM, PCX, & HP-PCL
(including Deskjet & DJ5xxC support). Previewers work under X11 (Unix),
OS/2 (PM & full screen), MS-DOS (SVGA, VGA, & HGC).
indent (SrcCD, UtilD, UtilT)
GNU indent is a revision of the BSD version. By default, it formats
C source according to the GNU coding standards. The BSD default, K&R and
other formats are available as options. It is also possible to define your
own format.
GNU indent is more robust and provides more functionality than other
versions, e.g., it handles C++ comments.
ftp.maths.tcd.ie in `/pub/bosullvn/jacal',
altdorf.ai.mit.edu in `/archive/scm', or
prep.ai.mit.edu in `/pub/gnu/jacal'.
The FSF is not distributing JACAL on any media. To receive an IBM PC
floppy disk with the source and executable files, send $99.00 to:
Aubrey Jaffer 84 Pleasant Street Wakefield, MA 01880 USA
m4 (SrcCD, UtilD, UtilT)
GNU m4 is an implementation of the traditional Unix macro processor.
It is mostly SVR4 compatible, although it has some extensions (for example,
handling more than 9 positional parameters to macros). m4 also has
built-in functions for including files, running shell commands, doing
arithmetic, etc.
make (BinCD, EmcsT, LangT, SrcCD, UtilD, UtilT)
GNU make supports POSIX 1003.2 and has all but a few obscure
features of the BSD and System V versions of make, as well as many
of our own extensions. GNU extensions include long options, parallel
compilation, flexible implicit pattern rules, conditional execution and
powerful text manipulation functions. Recent versions have improved error
reporting and added support for the popular `+=' syntax to append
more text to a variable's definition. Texinfo source for the Make
Manual comes with the program. See section GNU Documentation.
GNU make is on several of our tapes because some system vendors
supply no make utility at all, and some native make programs
lack the VPATH feature essential for using the GNU configure system
to its full extent. The GNU make sources have a shell script to
build make itself on such systems.
nvi (SrcCD, UtilT)
nvi is a free implementation of the vi/ex Unix editor.
It has most of the functionality of the original vi/ex,
except "open" mode & the lisp option, which will be added.
Enhancements over vi/ex include split screens with multiple
buffers, ability to handle 8-bit data, infinite file & line lengths, tag
stacks, infinite undo & extended regular expressions. It runs under BSD,
Linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD, BSDI, AIX, HP-UX, DGUX, IRIX, PSF, PTX, Solaris,
SunOS, Ultrix, Unixware & should port easily to many other systems.
bug-octave@che.utexas.edu.
Octave is available via anonymous ftp from ftp.che.utexas.edu in
the directory `/pub/octave'. The files are in gzipped tar
format (see the file `/pub/gnu/README' on
prep.ai.mit.edu). Source is included for a 150+ page
Texinfo manual, which is not yet published by the FSF.
p2c (LangT, SrcCD)
p2c is a Pascal-to-C translator written by Dave Gillespie. It
recognizes many Pascal dialects including Turbo, HP, VAX, and ISO, and
produces readable, maintainable, portable C.
patch (SrcCD, UtilT)
patch is our version of Larry Wall's program to take diff's
output and apply those differences to an original file to generate the
modified version.
perl (LangT, SrcCD)
Larry Wall's perl combines the features and capabilities of
sed, awk, sh and C, as well as interfaces to all the
system calls and many C library routines. A perl mode for editing
perl code comes with GNU Emacs 19.
ptx (SrcCD, UtilD, UtilT)
GNU ptx is the GNU version of the traditional permuted index
generator. It can handle multiple input files at once, produce TeX
compatible output, and produce readable KWIC (KeyWords In Context)
indexes without needing to use nroff. This version does not handle
input files that do not fit in memory all at once.
rc (SrcCD, UtilT)
rc is a shell that features a C-like syntax (much more so than
csh) and far cleaner quoting rules than the C or Bourne shells.
It's intended to be used interactively, but is also great for writing
scripts. It inspired the shell es.
diff, RCS can
handle binary files (executables, object files, 8-bit data, etc).
Also see the item about CVS in this article.
recode (SrcCD, UtilT)
GNU recode converts files between character sets and usages.
When exact transliterations are not possible, it may get rid of the
offending characters or fall back on approximations. This program
recognizes or produces nearly 150 different character sets and is able to
transliterate files between almost any pair. Most RFC 1345 character
sets are supported.
sed.
screen (SrcCD, UtilT)
screen is a terminal multiplexer that runs several separate
"screens" (ttys) on a single physical character-based terminal. Each
virtual terminal emulates a DEC VT100 plus several ANSI X3.64 and ISO 2022
functions. screen sessions can be detached and resumed later on a
different terminal type.
sed (SrcCD, UtilD, UtilT)
sed is a stream-oriented version of ed. It is used copiously
in shell scripts. GNU sed comes with the rx library,
which is a faster version of regex (see section Forthcoming GNUs).
basename,
date,
dirname,
echo,
env,
expr,
false,
groups,
id,
nice,
nohup,
printenv,
printf,
sleep,
stty,
su,
tee,
test,
true,
tty,
uname,
who,
whoami,
and
yes.
Matthias Mutz
Universitaet Passau, FMI
94030 Passau
Germany
Electronic-mail: mutz@fmi.uni-passau.de
gso, a
function, a CPU to generate code for, and how many instructions you can
accept. Its application in GCC is described in the ACM SIGPLAN
PLDI'92 proceedings. Superopt supports: SPARC, m68k, m68020, m88k, IBM
RS/6000, AMD 29000, Intel 80x86, Pyramid, DEC Alpha, & HP--PA.
tar (SrcCD, UtilT)
GNU tar includes multivolume support, the ability to archive sparse
files, automatic archive compression/decompression, remote archives and
special features that allow tar to be used for incremental and full
backups. Unfortunately, GNU tar implements an early draft of the
POSIX 1003.1 ustar standard which is different from the final
standard. Adding support for the new changes in a backward-compatible
fashion is not trivial.
web2c TeX package, the sources for which
are available via anonymous ftp; retrieval instructions are in
`pub/tex/FTP.nwc' on ftp.cs.umb.edu. If you receive any
installation support from the University of Washington, please consider
sending them a donation.
To order a full distribution written in tar on either a
1/4inch 4-track QIC-24 cartridge or a 4mm DAT cartridge, send
$210.00 to:
Northwest Computing Support Center
DR-10, Thomson Hall 35
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
USA
Electronic-Mail: unixtex@u.washington.edu
Telephone: +1-206-543-6259
Please make checks payable to the University of Washington.
Checks must be in U.S. dollars, drawn on a U.S. bank.
Prepaid orders are preferred but purchase orders are acceptable; however,
they carry an extra charge of $10.00 to pay for invoice processing.
Overseas sites: please add to the base cost $20.00 for shipment via
air parcel post, or $30.00 for shipment via courier.
Please check with the above for current prices and formats.
makeinfo,
info,
texi2dvi,
texindex,
tex2patch,
and
fixfonts.
Source for the Texinfo Manual is included. See section GNU Documentation.
cat,
cksum,
comm,
csplit,
cut,
expand,
fold,
head,
join,
nl,
od,
paste,
pr,
sort,
split,
sum,
tac,
tail,
tr,
unexpand,
uniq,
and
wc.
time (SrcCD, UtilT)
time is used to report statistics (usually from a shell) about the
amount of user, system and real time used by a process. On some
systems it also reports memory usage, page faults, and other statistics.
tput (SrcCD, UtilT)
tput is a portable way for shell scripts to use special terminal
capabilities. Our tput uses the Termcap database, instead of
Terminfo as most others do.
f,
g and v (in all window and packet sizes),
G,
t,
e,
Zmodem and two new bidirectional
(i and j) protocols. If you have a
Berkeley sockets library, it can make TCP connections. If you have TLI
libraries, it can make TLI connections. Source is included for a Texinfo
manual, which is not yet published by the FSF.
uuencode and uudecode (SrcCD, UtilT)
uuencode and uudecode are used to transmit binary files over
transmission mediums that support only simple ASCII data.
wdiff (SrcCD, UtilT)
wdiff is a front-end to GNU diff. It compares two files,
finding which words have been deleted or added to the first in order to
create the second. It has many output formats and interacts well with
terminals and pagers. wdiff is particularly useful when two texts
differ only by a few words and paragraphs have been refilled.
Here is a list of what package each GNU program or library is in.
Programs on the two X11 tapes and the 4.4BSD--Lite tapes are not
included, due to lack of space in this Bulletin. You can anonymous FTP a
full list from prep.ai.mit.edu in the file
`/pub/gnu/ProgramIndex'.
We offer Unix
source code on tapes in tar format on these media:
The contents of the reel and various cartridge tapes for Unix systems are the same (except for the RS/6000 Emacs tape, which also has executables for Emacs); only the media are different. For pricing information, see the see section Free Software Foundation Order Form. Source code for the manuals is included, in Texinfo format. See section GNU Documentation.
Some of the files on the tapes may be compressed with gzip to
make them fit. Refer to the top-level `README' file at the
beginning of each tape for instructions on uncompressing them.
uncompress and unpack do not work!
This tape contains programming tools: compilers, interpreters, and related programs (parsers, conversion programs, debuggers, etc.).
This tape consists mostly of smaller utilities and miscellaneous applications.
This tape has Common Lisp systems and libraries, GNU Emacs, assorted extensions that work with GNU Emacs, and a few other important utilities.
Scheme is a simplified, lexically-scoped dialect of Lisp. It was designed at MIT and other universities to teach students the art of programming, and to research new parallel programming constructs and compilation techniques.
This tape contains MIT Scheme 7.1, which conforms to the "Revised^4 Report On the Algorithmic Language Scheme" (MIT AI Lab Memo 848b), for which TeX source is included. It is written partly in C, but is presently hard to bootstrap. Binaries that can be used to bootstrap Scheme are available for:
If your system is not on this list and you don't enjoy the bootstrap challenge, see the JACAL item in section GNU Software.
The two X11 tapes contain Version 11, Release 6 of the MIT X Window System. The first tape contains all of the core software, documentation and some contributed clients. We call this the "required" X tape since it is necessary for running X or running GNU Emacs under X. The second, "optional" tape contains contributed libraries and other toolkits, the Andrew User Interface System, games, and other programs.
The X11 Required tape also contains all fixes and patches released to date. We update this tape as new fixes and patches are released for programs on both tapes. See section Tape & CD-ROM Subscription Service.
We will distribute X11R5 on tape until X11R6 is stable, and on the section November 1993 Source Code CD-ROM, whil