About This Manual

This manual describes certain aspects of the program development environment for Compaq C on Linux Alpha.

The manual is based on the Compaq Tru64 UNIX Programmer's Guide, which describes the complete program development environment for Compaq C (and other supported languages) on Tru64 UNIX. For reference, the information specific to Tru64 UNIX has been retained in this manual and is clearly identified as such (see Conventions).

Audience

This manual addresses all programmers who create or maintain Compaq C programs on Linux Alpha.

This manual is also for anyone interested in creating or maintaining programs on the Tru64 UNIX operating system, in any supported language (with emphasis on Compaq C).

New and Changed Features

The following major changes and additions have been made to this manual for the Version 6.4 release of Compaq C for Linux Alpha:

Chapter 1 -- The following new data types have been added: _Bool, float _Complex, double _Complex, and long double _Complex (see Section 1.2.1 and Section 1.2.2). A new macro, _ _STDC_VERSION_ _, has been added (see Section 1.3.1). A note has been added to Section 1.3.2 about potential name conflicts when using the new <math.h> header file. Section 1.9, Inline Assembly Code (ASMs), has been added.

Chapter 2 -- Section 2.10 (pragma optimize Directive) and Section 2.13 (pragma unroll Directive) have been added. Section 2.1 (pragma assertDirective) has been modified: a new format function assertion has been added to pragma assert func_attrs.

[Tru64] Several changes have been made in portions of the manual that apply only to Tru64 UNIX systems.

Organization

This manual contains 13 chapters and 6 appendixes.

Chapter 1	Describes the tools that make up the compiler system and how to use them. Topics covered include compiler commands, preprocessors, compilation options, multilanguage programs, and the archiver.
Chapter 2	Describes the implementation-specific pragmas that the C compiler supports.
Chapter 3	[Tru64] Describes the use, creation, and maintenance of shared libraries and discusses how symbols are resolved.
Chapter 4	[Tru64] Describes how to use the `dbx` debugger. It includes information about the `dbx` commands, working with the monitor, setting breakpoints, and debugging machine code.
Chapter 5	[Tru64] Describes how to use the `lint` command to produce clean code.
Chapter 6	[Tru64] Describes how to use the Third Degree tool to perform memory access checks and leak detection on an application program.
Chapter 7	[Tru64] Describes how to use various tools and techniques to profile your code, enabling you to find which portions of code are consuming the most execution time. It also describes how to feed profiling data back to the C compiler to provide some automatic optimization of the code.
Chapter 8	[Tru64] Describes how to use prepackaged Atom tools to instrument an application program for various purposes, such as to obtain profiling data or to perform cache-use analysis. It also describes how you can design and create custom Atom tools.
Chapter 9	Describes how to optimize your code using the optimizer and the `spike`postlink optimizer.
Chapter 10	[Tru64] Describes how to use the features of the C compiler to write a structured exception handler or a termination handler.
Chapter 11	[Tru64] Describes how to develop multithreaded programs.
Chapter 12	[Tru64] Describes some programming considerations associated with using the OpenMP parallel-processing interface.
Chapter 13	[Tru64] Describes how to use the Event Manager utility to post and receive event notifications.
Appendix A	[Tru64] Describes how to use 32-bit pointers on a Tru64 UNIX system.
Appendix B	[Tru64] Describes how to achieve source code compatibility for C language programs in the System V habitat.
Appendix C	[Tru64] Describes how to write dynamically configurable kernel subsystems.
Appendix D	[Tru64] Describes the old-style parallel processing pragmas implemented before OpenMP.
Appendix E	[Tru64] Describes the routines that handle conversions between the old-style and new-style names of device special files.
Appendix F	[Tru64] Describes how to optimize a program with the `cc` command's -om and -cord options.

Related Information

In addition to this manual, see the following sections for information pertaining to program development.

[Linux] Related Linux Alpha Information

For Linux Alpha information, see:

The Linux Alpha web page at http://alphalinux.org.

The Linux Documentation Project (LDP) web page at http://www.linuxdoc.org.

[Tru64] Related Tru64 UNIX Documents

See the following Tru64 UNIX manuals:

Programming: General

Calling Standard for Alpha Systems

Assembly Language Programmer's Guide

Programming Support Tools

Network Programmer's Guide

Compaq Portable Mathematics Library

Writing Software for the International Market

Kernel Debugging

Ladebug Debugger Manual

Writing Kernel Modules

Alpha Architecture Reference Manual, 2nd Edition (Butterworth-Hinemann Press, ISBN:1-55558-145-5)

Programming: Realtime

Guide to Realtime Programming

Programming: Streams

Programmer's Guide: STREAMS

Programming: Multithreaded Applications

Guide to the POSIX Threads Library

OpenMP C and C++ Application Programming Interface specification, available on the Internet from http://www.openmp.org/specs/.

General User Information

Release Notes

Icons on Tru64 UNIX Printed Books

The printed version of the Tru64 UNIX documentation uses letter icons on the spines of the books to help specific audiences quickly find the books that meet their needs. (You can order the printed documentation from Compaq.) The following list describes this convention:

G	Books for general users
S	Books for system and network administrators
P	Books for programmers
D	Books for device driver writers
R	Books for reference page users

Some books in the documentation help meet the needs of several audiences. For example, the information in some system books is also used by programmers. Keep this in mind when searching for information on specific topics.

The Documentation Overview provides information on all of the books in the Tru64 UNIX documentation set.

Conventions

[Linux]

Marks the beginning of Linux Alpha-specific text, which can consist of anything from a sentence or code fragment to an entire section, chapter or appendix.

In the HTML version of this manual, for display with a Web browser, all Linux Alpha-specific text is color coded dark orchid. Text that is not color coded (black, by default) is common to both Linux Alpha and Tru64 UNIX.

In the PDF version of this manual, for display with Adobe Acrobat, change bars in the margin mark any Linux Alpha-specific or Tru64 UNIX-specific text.

[Tru64]

Marks the beginning of Tru64 UNIX-specific text, which can consist of anything from a sentence or code fragment to an entire section, chapter or appendix.

In the HTML version of this manual, for display with a Web browser, all Tru64 UNIX-specific text is color coded royal blue. Text that is not color coded (black, by default) is common to both Linux Alpha and Tru64 UNIX.

In the PDF version of this manual, for display with Adobe Acrobat, change bars in the margin mark any Linux Alpha-specific or Tru64 UNIX-specific text.

% $

A percent sign represents the C shell system prompt. A dollar sign represents the system prompt for the Bourne, Korn, and POSIX shells.

#

A number sign represents the superuser prompt.

% cat

Boldface type in interactive examples indicates typed user input.

file

Italic (slanted) type indicates variable values, placeholders, and function argument names.

[ | ] { | }

In syntax definitions, brackets indicate items that are optional and braces indicate items that are required. Vertical bars separating items inside brackets or braces indicate that you choose one item from among those listed.

colored text

In syntax definitions, literal elements are colored green. Variable values, placeholders, and function argument names are colored red. No special colored text is used outside of syntax descriptions.

. . .

In syntax definitions, a horizontal ellipsis indicates that the preceding item can be repeated one or more times.

cat(1)

A cross-reference to a reference page includes the appropriate section number in parentheses. For example, cat(1) indicates that you can find information on the cat command in Section 1 of the reference pages.

[Return]

In an example, a key name enclosed in a box indicates that you press that key.

[Ctrl/x]

This symbol indicates that you hold down the first named key while pressing the key or mouse button that follows the slash. In examples, this key combination is enclosed in a box (for example, [Ctrl/C] ).