Aside: RTFM --- Read The Man Pages
Many times in this book, when referring to a particular system call or library call, we will
tell you to read the mannual pages, or man pages for short. Man pages are the original form
of documantation that exist on UNIX systems; realize that they are created before the thing
called the web existed. Spending some time reading man pages is a key step in the growth of
a systems programmers; there are tons of useful tidbits hidden in those pages. Some particularly
useful pages to read are the man pages for whichever shell you are using and certainly for any
system calls your program makes (in order to see what return values and error conditions exist).
Finnay, reading the man pages can save you some embarrassment when you ask colleagues
about some intricacy of fork(), they may simply reply: "RTFM". This is your colleagues' way of
gently urging you to Read The Man Pages. The F in RTFM just adds a little color to the phrase......