glossary.9 (2010 09)

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glossary(9) glossary(9)
subdirectory
A directory that is one or more levels lower in the file system hierarchy than a given directory. Some-
times called a subordinate directory.
subordinate directory
See subdirectory.
Subset 1980
See CS/80.
superblock
A block on each file system’s mass storage medium which describes the file system. The contents of the
superblock vary between implementations. Refer to the system administrator manuals supplied with
your system for details.
superuser
The HP-UX system administrator. This user has access to all files, and can perform privileged opera-
tions. superuser has a real user ID and effective user ID of 0, and, by convention, the user name of
root.
superior directory
See parent directory.
supplementary group ID
A process has up to
sysconf(_SC_NGROUPS_MAX)
supplementary group IDs used in determining file
access permissions, in addition to the effective group ID. The supplementary group IDs of a process are
set to the supplementary group IDs of the parent process when the process is created. Note that the
value returned from
sysconf(_SC_NGROUPS_MAX)
may be larger than the value of NGROUPS_MAX
found in <limits.h> on certain HP-UX systems.
symbolic link
A type of file that indirectly refers to a path name. See symlink(4).
system
The HP-UX operating system. See also kernel.
system asynchronous I/O
A method of performing I/O whereby a process informs a driver or subsystem that it wants to know when
data has arrived or when it is possible to perform a write request. The driver or subsystem maintains a
set of buffers through which the process performs I/O. See ioctl (2), read (2), select (2), and write (2) for
more information.
system call
An HP-UX operating system kernel function available to the user through a high-level language (such as
FORTRAN, Pascal, or C). Also called an "intrinsic" or a "system intrinsic." The available system calls are
documented in Section 2 of the HP-UX Reference .
system console
A keyboard and display (or terminal) given a unique status by HP-UX and associated with the special file
/dev/console. All boot ROM error messages, HP-UX system error messages, and certain system
status messages are sent to the system console. Under certain conditions (such as the single-user state),
the system console provides the only mechanism for communicating with HP-UX. See the System
Administrator manuals and user guides provided with your system for details on configuration and use of
the system console.
system process
A system process is a process that runs on behalf of the system. It may have special implementation-
defined characteristics.
terminal
A character special file that obeys the specifications of termio (7).
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