LIBAST(3)

💖 NAME 💖

okay bestie, this is LIBAST(3) from the Library Functions Manual, and it’s literally an introduction to the ast library — libast, to be exact. 🫶 iykyk.

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

This section describes the AST (AT&T Software Technology) library functions of the libast library. No cap, libast serves three major purposes, and the way it stacks them is highkey iconic:

1. First, it presents (a subset of) POSIX/ANSI standard headers and interfaces on non-compliant systems. ✨
2. Second, it provides a portable base of routines that implement concepts common to all UNIX system variants. 🦋
3. Finally, it is a forum for modern implementations of features present (or lacking) in the standard C libraries. 🔥

Features better provided by separate libraries are omitted from libast — periodt. For example, most terminal driver interface issues are left for special purpose libraries such as curses(3). 🌈

The libast related header files are installed in the directories include/ast. Routines that do not advertize their own headers are prototyped in <ast.h>. <ast.h> is ANSI, K&R and C++ compatible and includes or defines the equivalent of <limits.h>, <stddef.h>, <stdlib.h>, <sys/types.h>, <string.h> and <unistd.h>. Other libraries that depend on libast may also have headers installed in the include/ast directories. 🎀

🎀 FILES 🎀

• include/ast — the ast package header directory 🌸
• lib/libast.a — the libast library
• lib/libast-g.a — the libast library compiled for debugging 🐛
• lib/libast-pg.a — the libast library compiled for profiling 📈
• lib/libast.so.4.0 — the libast shared library ✨

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

• intro(3)
• intro(2)
• cc(1)

💀 CAVEATS 💀

The library documentation is still under construction. Yes, some of it has been in this state for 20 years. Thank goodness our commands self-document. 😭💀 lowkey iconic, highkey a mood.

Signed off by the 4th Berkeley Distribution on this LIBAST(3) page 💖 — the footer doesn’t give a date, bestie, so I’m not inventing one. periodt ✨