plumbing

n 1: the apparatus of pipes and fixtures for the distribution of

water or gas in a building and for the disposal of

sewage [syn: {plumbing system}]

2: the occupation of a plumber (installing and repairing pipes

and fixtures for water or gas or sewage in a building)

[syn: {plumbery}]

3: measuring the depths of the oceans [syn: {bathymetry}]

plumbing

(Unix) Term used for {shell} code, so called because of the

prevalence of "{pipeline}s" that feed the output of one

program to the input of another. Under {Unix}, user utilities

can often be implemented or at least prototyped by a suitable

collection of pipelines and temporary file {grind}ing

encapsulated in a {shell script}. This is much less effort

than writing {C} every time, and the capability is considered

one of Unix's major winning features. A few other {operating

system}s such as {IBM}'s {VM/CMS} support similar facilities.

The {tee} utility is specifically designed for plumbing.

[{Jargon File}]

(1995-02-23)