Void is a built-in type with no operations.  Null is a built-in constant
of this type.  FS is a built-in variable of type Void.  FS (and any Void
variable) is intended to represent the state of everything.
They have signatures:

    Void: type {};
    Null: func [] val Void;
    FS: var Void;

The identifier "impure" is implicitly declared as

    impure === var Void;

Thus "impure" can be used as a synonym for "var Void".

The dependence of an expression on the outside world (in particular the
UNIX file system) is indicated by forcing it to mention a var Void
variable.  This ensures that such an expression can never be mistaken
as "pure" and embedded in a type expression.  All non-Russell external
functions are forced to have such a parameter, since the compiler cannot
tell what their value may depend on.  The same holds for the Out function
of reference types.  (FS is essentially the only such variable, since Void
does not have a New operation.  Thus there is no such thing as a local Void
variable. The name "FS" is a bit of a misnomer in conjunction with references.)

A var Void parameter should always appear in the last parameter position.
The type inference algorithm should insure that the corresponding
actual argument never needs to be explicitly present.  If the -L flag is
given to the compiler, any function whose last parameter signature is
"impure" (or "var Void") may import global variables.  (The informal
reason is that any function parametrized with respect to the entire
state of the computation should certainly be allowed to access any component
of the state.)

A val Void signature can be interpreted to mean that no result of
interest is returned.  Signature checking rules are somewhat relaxed
to accomodate this view.  In particular, if a function result signature
is val Void, the body may have any signature, and a conditional
appearing at the end of such a body is not forced to have guarded
commands with matching signatures.

A function to increment a global variable x could be written as:

	func[impure] val Void { x += 1 }

See also: import_rule