Open System Services Porting Guide (G06.29+, H06.06+, J06.03+)

OSS signal See Open System Services (OSS) signal.
parent process The process that created a given process, or (if that process has stopped) a process that has
inherited a given process.
See also child process.
path prefix In the OSS environment, a pathname, with an optional final slash (/) character, that refers to a
directory.
pathname In the OSS file system and Network File System (NFS), the string of characters that uniquely
identifies a file within its file system. A pathname can be either relative or absolute. See also
ISO/IEC IS 9945-1:1990 (ANSI/IEEE Std. 1003.1-1990 or POSIX.1), Clause 2.2.2.57.
pathname
component
See filename.
pathname
resolution
In the OSS environment, the process of associating a single file with a specified pathname.
pathname-variable
limits
Limits that can vary within the OSS file hierarchy. That is, the limits on a pathname variable can
vary according to the directory in which pathname resolution begins.
persistent process A process that must always exist. Persistent processes are usually controlled by a monitor process
that checks on the status of persistent processes and restarts them, if necessary.
PIC See position-independent code (PIC).
PID In the Open System Services (OSS) environment, a synonym for process ID. OSS process ID is
the preferred term in HP NonStop™ system publications.
In the Guardian environment, PID is sometimes used to mean either:
• A Guardian process identifier such as the process ID
• The cpu, pin value that is unique to a process within an Expand node.
See also OSS process ID (PID).
pipe An unnamed FIFO, created programmatically by invoking the pipe() function or interactively
with the shell pipe syntax character (|). A shell pipe redirects the standard output of one process
to become the standard input of another process. A programmatic pipe is an interprocess
communication mechanism.
PLINSTL See Public Library Installation Tool.
portable
application
An application that can execute on a wide range of hardware systems from multiple manufacturers.
A portable application is a program that can be moved with little or no change in its source code
from another manufacturer’s system to an HP NonStop system.
position-independent code (PIC)
Executable program or library code that is designed to be loaded and executed at any virtual
memory address, without any modification. Addresses that can be modified by the loader do not
appear in PIC code, only in data that can be modified by the loader.
See also dynamic-link library (DLL).
POSIX The Portable Operating System Interface, as defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Each POSIX interface is
separately defined in a numbered ANSI/IEEE standard or draft standard. The application program
interface (API), known as POSIX.1, has become ISO/IEC IS 9945-1: 1990.
procedure A programming abstraction that collects one or more statements into a named entity to be
invoked, also often called “routine”, “subroutine”, or “function”.
1.
2. In the TAL and pTAL programming languages, a PROC or SUBPROC.
3. Because of the TAL legacy, a term used for Guardian functions in the system library, which
are listed in the Guardian Procedure Calls Reference Manual.
See also function.
process An instance of the execution of a program. A process has an address space and other resources
necessary to execute the program.
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