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HP-UX Reference > Llif(4)HP-UX 11i Version 2: December 2007 Update |
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NAMElif — logical interchange format description DESCRIPTIONLIF (Logical Interchange Format) is a Hewlett-Packard standard mass-storage format that can be used for interchange of files among various HP computer systems. A LIF volume contains a header (identifying it as a LIF volume) and a directory that defines the contents (i.e. files) of the volume. The size of the directory is fixed when the volume is initialized (see lifinit(1)) and sets an upper bound on the number of files that can be created on the volume. HP-UX contains a set of utilities (referred to as lif*(1)) that can be used to:
The lif*(1) utilities are the only utilities within HP-UX where the internal structure of a LIF volume is known. To the rest of HP-UX, a LIF volume is simply a file containing some unspecified data. The term LIF volume should in no way be confused with the HP-UX notion of a file system volume or mountable volume. LIF utilities on HP-UX currently support three file types, ASCII (1), BINARY (-2) and BIN (-23951). Three copying modes are associated with these file types:
A LIF volume can be created on any HP-UX file (either regular disk file or device special file) that supports random access via lseek() (see lseek(2)). Do not mount the special file before using lif*(1) utilities. See lifinit(1) for details. Within a LIF volume, individual files are identified by 1- to 10-character file names. File names can consist of uppercase alphanumeric characters (A through Z, 0 through 9) and the underscore character (_). The first character of a LIF file name must be a letter (A through Z). The lif*(1) utilities accept any file name (including illegal file names generated on other systems), but can only create legal names. This means that files whose names contain lowercase letters can be read but not created. LIF file names are specified to the lif*(1) utilities by concatenating the HP-UX path name for the LIF volume followed by the LIF file name, separating the two with a colon (:). For example:
Note that this file-naming convention is applicable only for use as arguments to the lif*(1) utilities, and does not constitute valid path naming for any other use within the HP-UX operating system. Do not mount the special file while using lif*(1) utilities. |
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