The B Library in First Edition Unix

8th September 1999

This is the manual page for libb.a, the B library, from the Unix Programmer's Manual, First Edition of 1971, retyped by hand from a PDF scan of an old xerox of a rare paper copy. Details can be found in Dennis Ritchie's fascinating Unix Programmer's Manual, November 3, 1971 page, just off his home page at http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/who/dmr/index.html.

(There's also a manual page for libf.a, the Fortran library; but that page doesn't list the library contents, so it's not very interesting.)

11/3/71                                         /ETC/LIBB.A (VII)


NAME            libb.a  --  B library

SYNOPSIS        --

DESCRIPTION     This library contains all B-callable subroutines
                of general utility.  Its contents are detailed in
                the library section of the B manual.  At present
                its contents are:

                     char
                     getchr
                     putchr
                     exit
                     printf
                     seek
                     setuid
                     stat
                     time
                     unlink
                     wait
                     lchar
                     chdir
                     chmod
                     chown
                     close
                     creat
                     execl
                     execv
                     fork
                     fstat
                     getuid
                     intr
                     link
                     makdir
                     open
                     read
                     write
                     ctime

FILES           --

SEE ALSO        b

DIAGNOSTICS     --

BUGS            --

OWNER           ken, dmr
   

It's fascinating to see what the earliest Unix library functions were, and what was omitted.

Feedback to <mike@miketaylor.org.uk> is welcome!