8. Unix Specific Services

The modules described in this chapter provide interfaces to features that are unique to the Unix operating system, or in some cases to some or many variants of it. Here's an overview:

posix The most common POSIX system calls (normally used via module os).

pwd The password database (getpwnam() and friends).

grp The group database (getgrnam() and friends).

crypt The crypt() function used to check Unix passwords.

dbm The standard ``database'' interface, based on ndbm.

gdbm GNU's reinterpretation of dbm.

termios POSIX style tty control.

TERMIOS Symbolic constants required to use the termios module.

fcntl The fcntl() and ioctl() system calls.

posixfile A file-like object with support for locking.

resource An interface to provide resource usage information on the current process.

syslog An interface to the Unix syslog library routines.

popen2 Subprocesses with accessible standard I/O streams.

commands Utility functions for running external commands.

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`posix`	The most common POSIX system calls (normally used via module `os`).
`pwd`	The password database (`getpwnam()` and friends).
`grp`	The group database (`getgrnam()` and friends).
`crypt`	The `crypt()` function used to check Unix passwords.
`dbm`	The standard ``database'' interface, based on ndbm.
`gdbm`	GNU's reinterpretation of dbm.
`termios`	POSIX style tty control.
`TERMIOS`	Symbolic constants required to use the `termios` module.
`fcntl`	The `fcntl()` and `ioctl()` system calls.
`posixfile`	A file-like object with support for locking.
`resource`	An interface to provide resource usage information on the current process.
`syslog`	An interface to the Unix syslog library routines.
`popen2`	Subprocesses with accessible standard I/O streams.
`commands`	Utility functions for running external commands.