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-<head>
-<title>intro(1) - Plan 9 from User Space</title>
-<meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv=Content-Type>
-</head>
-<body bgcolor=#ffffff>
-<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width=100%>
-<tr height=10><td>
-<tr><td width=20><td>
-<tr><td width=20><td><b>INTRO(1)</b><td align=right><b>INTRO(1)</b>
-<tr><td width=20><td colspan=2>
- <br>
-<p><font size=+1><b>NAME </b></font><br>
-
-<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=2><td><tr><td width=20><td>
-
- intro &ndash; introduction to Plan 9 from User Space<br>
-
-</table>
-<p><font size=+1><b>DESCRIPTION </b></font><br>
-
-<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=2><td><tr><td width=20><td>
-
- Plan 9 is a distributed computing environment built at Bell Labs
- starting in the late 1980s. The system can be obtained from Bell
- Labs at <tt><font size=+1>http://plan9.bell&#8722;labs.com/plan9</font></tt> and runs on PCs and a
- variety of other platforms. Plan 9 became a convenient platform
- for experimenting with new ideas,
- applications, and services.
- <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
-
- Plan 9 from User Space provides many of the ideas, applications,
- and services from Plan 9 on Unix-like systems. It runs on FreeBSD
- (x86), Linux (x86 and PowerPC), Mac OS X (PowerPC), OpenBSD (x86),
- and SunOS (Sparc).<br>
- <p><font size=+1><b>Commands </b></font><br>
- Plan 9 from User Space expects its own directory tree, conventionally
- <tt><font size=+1>/usr/local/plan9</font></tt>. When programs need to access files in the tree,
- they expect the <tt><font size=+1>$PLAN9</font></tt> environment variable to contain the name
- of the root of the tree. See <a href="../man1/install.html"><i>install</i>(1)</a> for details about installation.
-
- <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
-
- Many of the familiar Unix commands, for example <a href="../man1/cat.html"><i>cat</i>(1)</a>, <a href="../man1/ls.html"><i>ls</i>(1)</a>,
- and <a href="../man1/wc.html"><i>wc</i>(1)</a>, are present, but in their Plan 9 forms: <i>cat</i> takes no
- arguments, <i>ls</i> does not columnate its output when printing to a
- terminal, and <i>wc</i> counts UTF characters. In some cases, the differences
- are quite noticeable: <a href="../man1/grep.html"><i>grep</i>(1)</a> and <a href="../man1/sed.html"><i>sed</i>(1)</a> expect Plan 9
- regular expressions (see <a href="../man7/regexp.html"><i>regexp</i>(7)</a>), which are closest to what
- Unix calls extended regular expressions. Because of these differences,
- it is not recommended to put <tt><font size=+1>$PLAN9/bin</font></tt> before the usual system
- <tt><font size=+1>bin</font></tt> directories in your search path. Instead, put it at the end
- of your path and use the <a href="../man1/9.html"><i>9</i>(1)</a> script when you want to
- invoke the Plan 9 version of a traditional Unix command.
- <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
-
- Occasionally the Plan 9 programs have been changed to adapt to
- Unix. <a href="../man1/Mk.html"><i>Mk</i>(1)</a> now allows mkfiles to choose their own shell, and
- <a href="../man1/rc.html"><i>rc</i>(1)</a> has a <i>ulimit</i> builtin and manages <tt><font size=+1>$PATH</font></tt>.
- <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
-
- Many of the graphical programs from Plan 9 are present, including
- <a href="../man1/sam.html"><i>sam</i>(1)</a> and <a href="../man1/acme.html"><i>acme</i>(1)</a>. An X11 window manager <a href="../man1/rio.html"><i>rio</i>(1)</a> mimics Plan 9&#8217;s
- window system, with command windows implemented by the external
- program <a href="../man1/9term.html"><i>9term</i>(1)</a>. Following the style of X Windows, these programs
- run in new windows rather than the one in
- which they are invoked. They all take a <tt><font size=+1>&#8722;W</font></tt> option to specify the
- size and placement of the new window. The argument is one of <i>width</i><tt><font size=+1>x</font></tt><i>height</i>,
- <i>width</i><tt><font size=+1>x</font></tt><i>height</i><tt><font size=+1>@</font></tt><i>xmin</i><tt><font size=+1>,</font></tt><i>xmax</i>, or <i>xmin</i><tt><font size=+1>,</font></tt><i>ymin</i><tt><font size=+1>,</font></tt><i>xmax</i><tt><font size=+1>,</font></tt><i>ymax</i>.
- <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
-
- The <a href="../man4/plumber.html"><i>plumber</i>(4)</a> helps to connect the various Plan 9 programs together,
- and fittings like <a href="../man1/web.html"><i>web</i>(1)</a> connect it to external programs such
- as web browsers; one can click on a URL in <i>acme</i> and see the page
- load in <i>Firefox</i>.<br>
- <p><font size=+1><b>User-level file servers </b></font><br>
- In Plan 9, user-level file servers present file trees via the
- Plan 9 file protocol, 9P. Processes can mount arbitrary file servers
- and customize their own name spaces. These facilities are used
- to connect programs. Clients interact with file servers by reading
- and writing files.
- <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
-
- This cannot be done directly on Unix. Instead the servers listen
- for 9P connections on Unix domain sockets; clients connect to
- these sockets and speak 9P directly using the <a href="../man3/9pclient.html"><i>9pclient</i>(3)</a> library.
- <a href="../man4/Intro.html"><i>Intro</i>(4)</a> tells more of the story. The effect is not as clean as
- on Plan 9, but it gets the job done and still provides a uniform
- and
- easy-to-understand mechanism. The <a href="../man1/9p.html"><i>9p</i>(1)</a> client can be used in
- shell scripts or by hand to carry out simple interactions with
- servers.<br>
- <p><font size=+1><b>External databases </b></font><br>
- Some programs rely on large databases that would be cumbersome
- to include in every release. Scripts are provided that download
- these databases separately. These databases can be downloaded
- separately. See <tt><font size=+1>$PLAN9/dict/README</font></tt> and <tt><font size=+1>$PLAN9/sky/README</font></tt>.<br>
- <p><font size=+1><b>Programming </b></font><br>
- The shell scripts <i>9c</i> and <i>9l</i> (see <a href="../man1/9c.html"><i>9c</i>(1)</a>) provide a simple interface
- to the underlying system compiler and linker, similar to the <i>2c</i>
- and <i>2l</i> families on Plan 9. <i>9c</i> compiles source files, and <i>9l</i> links
- object files into executables. When using Plan 9 libraries, <i>9l</i>
- infers the correct set of libraries from the object files, so
- that no <tt><font size=+1>&#8722;l
- </font></tt>options are needed.
- <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
-
- The only way to write multithreaded programs is to use the <a href="../man3/thread.html"><i>thread</i>(3)</a>
- library. <a href="../man3/Rfork.html"><i>Rfork</i>(3)</a> exists but is not as capable as on Plan 9. There
- are many unfortunate by necessary preprocessor diversions to make
- Plan 9 and Unix libraries coexist. See <a href="../man3/intro.html"><i>intro</i>(3)</a> for details.
- <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
-
- The debuggers <a href="../man1/acid.html"><i>acid</i>(1)</a> and <a href="../man1/db.html"><i>db</i>(1)</a> and the debugging library <a href="../man3/mach.html"><i>mach</i>(3)</a>
- are works in progress. They are platform-independent, so that
- x86 Linux core dumps can be inspected on PowerPC Mac OS X machines,
- but they are also fairly incomplete. The x86 target is the most
- mature; initial PowerPC support exists; and other
- targets are unimplemented. The debuggers can only inspect, not
- manipulate, target processes. Support for operating system threads
- and for 64-bit architectures needs to be rethought. On x86 Linux
- systems, <i>acid</i> and <i>db</i> can be relied upon to produce reasonable
- stack traces (often in cases when GNU <i>gdb</i> cannot) and
- dump data structures, but that it is the extent to which they
- have been developed and exercised.<br>
- <p><font size=+1><b>Porting programs </b></font><br>
- The vast majority of the familiar Plan 9 programs have been ported,
- including the Unicode-aware <a href="../man1/troff.html"><i>troff</i>(1)</a>.
- <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
-
- Of the more recent additions to Plan 9, the <a href="../man1/secstore.html"><i>secstore</i>(1)</a> client
- has been ported, though <i>secstored</i> has not. <a href="../man1/Vac.html"><i>Vac</i>(1)</a> has been ported,
- though <i>vacfs</i> has not. <i>Factotum</i> and <i>venti</i> are in progress.
- <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
-
- A backup system providing a dump file system built atop Venti
- is also in progress.<br>
- <p><font size=+1><b>Porting to new systems </b></font><br>
- Porting the tree to new operating systems or architectures should
- be straightforward, as system-specific code has been kept to a
- minimum. The largest pieces of system-specific code are <tt><font size=+1>&lt;u.h&gt;</font></tt>, which
- must include the right system files and set up the right integer
- type definitions, and <i>libthread</i>, which must implement
- spin locks, operating system thread creation, and context switching
- routines. Portable implementations of these using <tt><font size=+1>&lt;pthread.h&gt;</font></tt> and
- <tt><font size=+1>&lt;ucontext.h&gt;</font></tt> already exist. If your system supports them, you may
- not need to write any system specific code at all.
- <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
-
- There are other smaller system dependencies, such as the terminal
- handling code in <a href="../man1/9term.html"><i>9term</i>(1)</a> and the implementation of <a href="../man3/getcallerpc.html"><i>getcallerpc</i>(3)</a>,
- but these are usually simple and are not on the critical path
- for getting the system up and running.<br>
-
-</table>
-<p><font size=+1><b>SEE ALSO </b></font><br>
-
-<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=2><td><tr><td width=20><td>
-
- The rest of this manual describes Plan 9 from User Space. Many
- of the man pages have been brought from Plan 9, but they have
- been updated, and others have been written from scratch.
- <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
-
- The manual pages are in a Unix style tree, with names like <tt><font size=+1>$PLAN9/man/man1/cat.1</font></tt>
- instead of Plan 9&#8217;s simpler <tt><font size=+1>$PLAN9/man/1/cat</font></tt>, so that the Unix
- <a href="../man1/man.html"><i>man</i>(1)</a> utility can handle it. Some systems, for example Debian
- Linux, deduce the man page locations from the search path, so
- that adding <tt><font size=+1>$PLAN9/bin</font></tt> to
- your path is sufficient to cause <tt><font size=+1>$PLAN9/man</font></tt> to be consulted for
- manual pages using the system <i>man</i>. On other systems, or to look
- at manual pages with the same name as a system page, invoke the
- Plan 9 <i>man</i> directly, as in <tt><font size=+1>9 man cat</font></tt>.
- <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
-
- The manual sections follow the Unix numbering conventions, not
- the Plan 9 ones.
- <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
-
- <a href="../man1">Section (1)</a> describes general publicly accessible commands.
- <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
-
- <a href="../man3">Section (3)</a> describes C library functions.
- <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
-
- <a href="../man4">Section (4)</a> describes user-level file servers.
- <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
-
- <a href="../man7">Section (7)</a> describes file formats and protocols. (On Unix, section
- (5) is technically for file formats but seems now to be used for
- describing specific files.)
- <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=5><td></table>
-
- <a href="../man9">Section (9p)</a> describes the Plan 9 file protocol 9P.<br>
-
-</table>
-<p><font size=+1><b>DIAGNOSTICS </b></font><br>
-
-<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr height=2><td><tr><td width=20><td>
-
- In Plan 9, a program&#8217;s exit status is an arbitrary text string,
- while on Unix it is an integer. Section (1) of this manual describes
- commands as though they exit with string statuses. In fact, exiting
- with an empty status corresponds to exiting with status 0, and
- exiting with any non-empty string corresponds to exiting with
- status 1. See <a href="../man3/exits.html"><i>exits</i>(3)</a>.<br>
-
-</table>
-
-<td width=20>
-<tr height=20><td>
-</table>
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