freebsd-dev/usr.bin/mkstr/mkstr.1

.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1993
.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
.\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
.\"	This product includes software developed by the University of
.\"	California, Berkeley and its contributors.
.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
.\"    without specific prior written permission.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.\"     @(#)mkstr.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"
.Dd November 1, 2002
.Dt MKSTR 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm mkstr
.Nd create an error message file by massaging C source
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl
.Ar messagefile
.Ar prefix Ar
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility creates files containing error messages extracted from C source,
and restructures the same C source, to utilize the created error message
file.
The intent of
.Nm
was to reduce the size of large programs and
reduce swapping (see
.Sx BUGS
section below).
.Pp
The
.Nm
utility processes each of the specified
.Ar files ,
placing a restructured version of the input in a file whose name
consists of the specified
.Ar prefix
and the original name.
A typical usage of
.Nm
is
.Bd -literal -offset indent
mkstr pistrings xx *.c
.Ed
.Pp
This command causes all the error messages from the C source
files in the current directory to be placed in the file
.Ar pistrings
and restructured copies of the sources to be placed in
files whose names are prefixed with
.Ar \&xx .
.Pp
Options:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Fl
Error messages are placed at the end of the specified
message file for recompiling part of a large
.Nm Ns ed
program.
.El
.Pp
The
.Nm
utility finds error messages in the source by
searching for the string
.Li \&`error("'
in the input stream.
Each time it occurs, the C string starting at the
.Sq \&"\&
is stored
in the message file followed by a null character and a new-line character;
The new source is restructured with
.Xr lseek 2
pointers into the error message file for retrieval.
.Bd -literal -offset indent
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)
			err(1, "%s", efilname);
	}
	if (lseek(efil, (off_t)a1, SEEK_SET) < 0 ||
	    read(efil, buf, 256) <= 0)
		err(1, "%s", efilname);
	printf(buf, a2, a3, a4);
}
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr xstr 1 ,
.Xr lseek 2
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm
utility appeared in
.Bx 3.0 .
.Sh BUGS
The
.Nm
utility was intended for the limited architecture of the PDP 11 family.
Very few programs actually use it.
It is not an efficient method, the error messages
should be stored in the program text.