APPENDIX C

FUNCTIONAL BREAKDOWN OF SELECTED ACTIVE FUNCTIONS

Like the commands, Multics active functions can be categorized by their operational use. The categories here are similar to those used in other Multics documentation (MPM Commands and Multics Pocket Guide). Ten of the thirteen categories used in the other manuals are used here. And some active functions appear in more than one category just as they do in the functional groupings in other Multics manuals.

Each category includes a description of what the active functions in that group do. A complete description of the individual active functions is contained in the alphabetical listing of active functions in MPM Commands.

REFERENCE TO ACTIVE FUNCTION BY GROUPS

Arithmetic

This group of active functions perform some arithmetic operation and returns the character string representation of the result. This group includes:

ceil                                          divide

floor                                        max

min                                          minus

mod                                         plus

quotient                                   times trunc

Character String

This operational group returns the results of various operations on one or more character strings. This group includes:

after                                         copy_characters

index                                         length

low                                            lowercase

reverse                                      underline upper_case

Condition Handling

The on active function is the only one in this group. It executes a command line and returns true if any of a particular set of conditions is signalled during the execution. If none of the specific conditions are signalled, it returns false.

Date and Time

This group consists of active functions that return information about the date and time in various forms. This group includes:

date                                         date_time

day                                           day_name

hour                                          long date

minute                                        month

month_name                              time year

Logical

This group returns a character string value of either true or false. Active functions in this group are intended to be used with the &if control statement of the exec_com command or with the if command. This group includes:

and                                          equal

exists                                        greater

less                                           nequal

ngreater                                    nless

not                                           or

Miscellaneous

These active functions return miscellaneous information about the user's process or storage system entries. This group includes:

contents                                  default

Pathname Manipulation

Active functions in this group construct a pathname based on the specified path argument and return all or part of this name. This group includes:

directory                                 entry

equal_name                            path

strip                                        strip_entry suffix

Question Asking

This group returns a value based on the answer given by a user in response to a specified question. This group includes:

query                                       response

Storage System Names

These active functions return either pathnames or entrynames of existing entries. This group includes:

default_wdir                            directory

entries                                     files

home_dir                                links segments

User/Process Information

Active functions in this operational group return user information obtained from system data bases. This group includes:

have_mail                                last_message

last_message_time                  last_message_sender

severity                                   system user

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