MKSTR(1)							      MKSTR(1)

NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     mkstr - create an error message file by massaging C source

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     mkstr [ - ] messagefile prefix file ...

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     Mkstr is used to create files of error messages.  Its use can make
     programs with large numbers of error diagnostics much smaller, and	reduce
     system overhead in	running	the program as the error messages do not have
     to	be constantly swapped in and out.

     Mkstr will	process	each of	the specified files, placing a massaged
     version of	the input file in a file whose name consists of	the specified
     prefix and	the original name.

     To	process	the error messages in the source to the	message	file mkstr
     keys on the string	`error("' in the input stream.	Each time it occurs,
     the C string starting at the " is placed in the message file followed by
     a new-line	character and a	null character;	the null character terminates
     the message so it can be easily used when retrieved, the new-line
     character makes it	possible to sensibly cat the error message file	to see
     its contents.  The	massaged copy of the input file	then contains an
     lseek(2) pointer into the file which can be used to retrieve the message,
     i.e.:

	  char	efilname[] =  "/usr/lib/pi_strings";
	  int	efil = -1;

	  error(a1, a2,	a3, a4)
	  {
		char buf[256];

		if (efil < 0) {
			 efil =	open(efilname, 0);
			 if (efil < 0) {
	  oops:
				  perror(efilname);
				  exit(1);
			 }
		}
		if (lseek(efil,	(long) a1, 0) || read(efil, buf, 256) <= 0)
			 goto oops;
		printf(buf, a2,	a3, a4);
	  }

     The optional - causes the error messages to be placed at the end of the
     specified message file for	recompiling part of a large mkstred program.







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MKSTR(1)							      MKSTR(1)



EXAMPLE
     If	the current directory has files	"a.c" and "b.c", then

	  mkstr	exs x *.c

     would create a new	file "exs" which holds all the error messages
     extracted from the	source files "a.c" and "b.c", as well as two new
     source files "xa.c" and "xb.c" which no longer contains the extracted
     error messages.

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

     lseek(2).

BUGS    [Toc]    [Back]

     All the arguments except the name of the file to be processed are
     unnecessary.

AUTHORS    [Toc]    [Back]

     Bill Joy and Charles Haley.


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