GLOSSARY(1)

NAME
glossary - definitions of common UNIX system terms and symbols

SYNOPSIS
[ help ] glossary [ term ]

DESCRIPTION

The UNIX System help Facility command glossary provides definitions of common technical terms and symbols.

Without an argument, glossary displays a menu screen listing the terms and symbols that are currently included in glossary. A user may choose one of the terms or may exit to the shell by typing q (for ``quit''). When a term is selected, its definition is retrieved and displayed. By selecting the appropriate menu choice, the list of terms and symbols can be redisplayed.

A term's definition may also be requested directly from shell level (as shown above), causing a definition to be retrieved and the list of terms and symbols not to be displayed. Some of the symbols must be escaped if requested at shell level in order for the facility to understand the symbol. The following is a table which list the symbols and their escape sequence.

    SYMBOL | ESCAPE SEQUENCE
    "" | \"\"
    '' | \'\'
    . | \\.
    [] | \\[\\]
    `` | \`\`
    # | \#
    & | \&
    * | \*
    \ | \\\\
    | | \|

From any screen in the facility, a user may execute a command via the shell (sh(1)) by typing a ! and the command to be executed. The screen will be redrawn if the command that was executed was entered at a first level prompt. If entered at any other prompt level, only the prompt will be redrawn.

By default, the help facility scrolls the data that is presented to the user. If a user prefers to have the screen clear before printing the data (non-scrolling), a variable must be defined in the user's .profile file called SCROLL. The variable SCROLL must be set to no and exported for non-scrolling to occur. If the user later decides that scrolling is desired, the variable SCROLL must be set to yes or deleted from the user's .profile file.

Further information on the UNIX System help Facility can be found on the help(1), usage(1), starter(1), and locate(1) manual pages.

SEE ALSO
help(1), locate(1), usage(1), starter(1).

WARNINGS

If the TERM variable is not set in the user's .profile file, then TERM will default to the terminal value type 450 ( a hardcopy terminal ). For a list of valid terminal types, refer to term(5) in the UNIX Programmer's Manual. The help facility assumes that tabs are set on the user's terminal.