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Diffstat (limited to 'Doc/library/posix.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Doc/library/posix.rst | 29 |
1 files changed, 9 insertions, 20 deletions
diff --git a/Doc/library/posix.rst b/Doc/library/posix.rst index a845e35..c33d9e5 100644 --- a/Doc/library/posix.rst +++ b/Doc/library/posix.rst @@ -1,4 +1,3 @@ - :mod:`posix` --- The most common POSIX system calls =================================================== @@ -22,13 +21,8 @@ available through the :mod:`os` interface. Once :mod:`os` is imported, there is :mod:`os` provides some additional functionality, such as automatically calling :func:`putenv` when an entry in ``os.environ`` is changed. -The descriptions below are very terse; refer to the corresponding Unix manual -(or POSIX documentation) entry for more information. Arguments called *path* -refer to a pathname given as a string. - Errors are reported as exceptions; the usual exceptions are given for type -errors, while errors reported by the system calls raise :exc:`error` (a synonym -for the standard exception :exc:`OSError`), described below. +errors, while errors reported by the system calls raise :exc:`OSError`. .. _posix-large-files: @@ -42,9 +36,8 @@ Large File Support .. sectionauthor:: Steve Clift <clift@mail.anacapa.net> - -Several operating systems (including AIX, HPUX, Irix and Solaris) provide -support for files that are larger than 2 Gb from a C programming model where +Several operating systems (including AIX, HP-UX, Irix and Solaris) provide +support for files that are larger than 2 GB from a C programming model where :ctype:`int` and :ctype:`long` are 32-bit values. This is typically accomplished by defining the relevant size and offset types as 64-bit values. Such files are sometimes referred to as :dfn:`large files`. @@ -67,16 +60,16 @@ On large-file-capable Linux systems, this might work:: .. _posix-contents: -Module Contents ---------------- - -Module :mod:`posix` defines the following data item: +Notable Module Contents +----------------------- +In addition to many functions described in the :mod:`os` module documentation, +:mod:`posix` defines the following data item: .. data:: environ - A dictionary representing the string environment at the time the interpreter was - started. For example, ``environ['HOME']`` is the pathname of your home + A dictionary representing the string environment at the time the interpreter + was started. For example, ``environ['HOME']`` is the pathname of your home directory, equivalent to ``getenv("HOME")`` in C. Modifying this dictionary does not affect the string environment passed on by @@ -90,7 +83,3 @@ Module :mod:`posix` defines the following data item: updates the environment on modification. Note also that updating ``os.environ`` will render this dictionary obsolete. Use of the :mod:`os` module version of this is recommended over direct access to the :mod:`posix` module. - -Additional contents of this module should only be accessed via the :mod:`os` -module; refer to the documentation for that module for further information. - |