glossary.9 (2010 09)

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glossary(9) glossary(9)
minor number
A number that is an attribute of special files, specified during their creation and used whenever they are
accessed, to enable I/O to or from specific devices. This number is passed to the device driver and is used
to select which device in a family of devices is to be used, and possibly some operational modes. The exact
format and meaning of the minor number depends both on the driver and on the addressing format
(legacy or agile) being used. In legacy format, the minor number encodes path information, but in agile
format, the minor number is opaque and based on the WWID.
mode
A 16-bit word associated with every file in the file system, stored in the inode. The least-significant 12
bits of the mode determine the read, write, and execute permissions for the file owner, file group, and all
others, and contain the set-user-ID, set-group-ID, and sticky bits. The least-significant 12 bits can be set
by the chmod(1) command if you are the file’s owner or the superuser. These 12 bits are sometimes
referred to as permission bits. The most-significant 4 bits specify the file type for the associated file and
are set as the result of open (2) or mknod(2) system calls.
mountable file system
A removable blocked file system contained on some mass storage medium with its own root directory and
an independent hierarchy of directories and files. See block special file and mount (1M).
msqid
See message queue identifier.
Multiplexer (MUX)
Multiplexer (MUX) is a high-speed serial communication multiple port product. It combines various sig-
nals for transmission over a single channel and provides intelligent communication functions to off-load
CPU serial communication processing tasks.
multiuser state
The condition of the HP-UX operating system in which terminals (in addition to the system console) allow
communication between the system and its users. By convention, multiuser run level is set at state 2,
which is usually defined to contain all the terminal processes and daemons needed in a multiuser
environment. Run levels are table driven, and are specified by init (1M), which sets the run level by look-
ing at the file
/etc/inittab. Do not confuse the multiuser system with the multiuser state. A mul-
tiuser system is a system which can have more than one user actively communicating with the system
when it is in the multiuser state. The multiuser state removes the single-user restriction imposed by the
single-user state (see single-user state, inittab (4)).
native language
A computer user’s spoken or written language, such as Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek,
Italian, Katakana, Korean, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, and so on.
Network File System (NFS)
The Network File System (NFS) allows a client node to perform transparent file access over the network.
By using NFS, a client node operates on files residing on a variety of servers and server architectures,
and across a variety of operating systems. File access calls on the client (such as read requests) are con-
verted to NFS protocol requests and sent to the server system over the network. The server receives the
request, performs the actual file system operation, and sends a response back to the client.
NFS operates in a stateless manner using remote procedure calls (RPC) built on top of an external data
representation (XDR) protocol. The RPC protocol enables version and authentication parameters to be
exchanged for security over the network.
A server grants access to a specific file system to clients by adding an entry for that file system to the
server’s
/etc/dfs/dfstab file.
Native Language Support (NLS)
A feature of HP-UX that provides the user with internationalized software and the application program-
mer with tools to develop this software.
newline character
The character with an ASCII value of 10 (line feed) used to separate lines of characters. It is represented
by
\n in the C language and in various utilities. The terminal driver normally interprets a carriage-
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