1 This is autogen.info, produced by makeinfo version 6.5 from
4 This manual is for GNU AutoGen version 5.18, updated August 2018.
6 Copyright (C) 1992-2018 by Bruce Korb.
8 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
9 document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
10 Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software
11 Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and
13 INFO-DIR-SECTION GNU programming tools
15 * AutoGen: (autogen). The Automated Program Generator
18 This file documents GNU AutoGen Version 5.18.
20 AutoGen copyright (C) 1992-2018 Bruce Korb AutoOpts copyright (C)
21 1992-2018 Bruce Korb snprintfv copyright (C) 1999-2000 Gary V. Vaughan
23 AutoGen is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it
24 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
25 Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your
26 option) any later version.
28 AutoGen is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
29 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
30 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General
31 Public License for more details.
33 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
34 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
37 File: autogen.info, Node: Top, Next: Introduction, Up: (dir)
39 The Automated Program Generator
40 *******************************
42 This file documents AutoGen version 5.18. It is a tool designed for
43 generating program files that contain repetitive text with varied
44 substitutions. This document is very long because it is intended as a
45 reference document. For a quick start example, *Note Example Usage::.
47 The AutoGen distribution includes the basic generator engine and
48 several add-on libraries and programs. Of the most general interest
49 would be Automated Option processing, *Note AutoOpts::, which also
50 includes stand-alone support for configuration file parsing, *Note
51 Features::. *Note Add-on packages for AutoGen: Add-Ons, section for
52 additional programs and libraries associated with AutoGen.
54 This edition documents version 5.18, August 2018.
58 * Introduction:: AutoGen's Purpose
59 * Definitions File:: AutoGen Definitions File
60 * Template File:: AutoGen Template
61 * Augmenting AutoGen:: Augmenting AutoGen Features
62 * autogen Invocation:: Invoking AutoGen
63 * Installation:: Configuring and Installing
64 * AutoOpts:: Automated Option Processing
65 * Add-Ons:: Add-on packages for AutoGen
66 * Future:: Some ideas for the future.
67 * Copying This Manual:: Copying This Manual
68 * Concept Index:: General index
69 * Function Index:: Function index
72 File: autogen.info, Node: Introduction, Next: Definitions File, Up: Top
77 AutoGen is a tool designed for generating program files that contain
78 repetitive text with varied substitutions. Its goal is to simplify the
79 maintenance of programs that contain large amounts of repetitious text.
80 This is especially valuable if there are several blocks of such text
81 that must be kept synchronized in parallel tables.
83 An obvious example is the problem of maintaining the code required
84 for processing program options and configuration settings. Processing
85 options requires a minimum of four different constructs be kept in
86 proper order in different places in your program. You need at least:
88 1. The flag character in the flag string,
89 2. code to process the flag when it is encountered,
90 3. a global state variable or two, and
91 4. a line in the usage text.
93 You will need more things besides this if you choose to implement long
94 option names, configuration (rc/ini) file processing, environment
95 variable settings and keep all the documentation for these up to date.
96 This can be done mechanically; with the proper templates and this
97 program. In fact, it has already been done and AutoGen itself uses it
98 *Note AutoOpts::. For a simple example of Automated Option processing,
99 *Note Quick Start::. For a full list of the Automated Option features,
100 *Note Features::. Be forewarned, though, the feature list is
101 ridiculously extensive.
105 * Generalities:: The Purpose of AutoGen
106 * Example Usage:: A Simple Example
107 * csh/zsh caveat:: csh/zsh caveat
108 * Testimonial:: A User's Perspective
111 File: autogen.info, Node: Generalities, Next: Example Usage, Up: Introduction
113 1.1 The Purpose of AutoGen
114 ==========================
116 The idea of this program is to have a text file, a template if you will,
117 that contains the general text of the desired output file. That file
118 includes substitution expressions and sections of text that are
119 replicated under the control of separate definition files.
121 AutoGen was designed with the following features:
123 1. The definitions are completely separate from the template. By
124 completely isolating the definitions from the template it greatly
125 increases the flexibility of the template implementation. A
126 secondary goal is that a template user only needs to specify those
127 data that are necessary to describe his application of a template.
129 2. Each datum in the definitions is named. Thus, the definitions can
130 be rearranged, augmented and become obsolete without it being
131 necessary to go back and clean up older definition files. Reduce
134 3. Every definition name defines an array of values, even when there
135 is only one entry. These arrays of values are used to control the
136 replication of sections of the template.
138 4. There are named collections of definitions. They form a nested
139 hierarchy. Associated values are collected and associated with a
140 group name. These associated data are used collectively in sets of
143 5. The template has special markers to indicate where substitutions
144 are required, much like the '${VAR}' construct in a shell 'here
145 doc'. These markers are not fixed strings. They are specified at
146 the start of each template. Template designers know best what fits
147 into their syntax and can avoid marker conflicts.
149 We did this because it is burdensome and difficult to avoid
150 conflicts using either M4 tokenization or C preprocessor
151 substitution rules. It also makes it easier to specify expressions
152 that transform the value. Of course, our expressions are less
153 cryptic than the shell methods.
155 6. These same markers are used, in conjunction with enclosed keywords,
156 to indicate sections of text that are to be skipped and for
157 sections of text that are to be repeated. This is a major
158 improvement over using C preprocessing macros. With the C
159 preprocessor, you have no way of selecting output text because it
160 is an unvarying, mechanical substitution process.
162 7. Finally, we supply methods for carefully controlling the output.
163 Sometimes, it is just simply easier and clearer to compute some
164 text or a value in one context when its application needs to be
165 later. So, functions are available for saving text or values for
169 File: autogen.info, Node: Example Usage, Next: csh/zsh caveat, Prev: Generalities, Up: Introduction
174 This is just one simple example that shows a few basic features. If you
175 are interested, you also may run "make check" with the 'VERBOSE'
176 environment variable set and see a number of other examples in the
177 'agen5/test' directory.
179 Assume you have an enumeration of names and you wish to associate
180 some string with each name. Assume also, for the sake of this example,
181 that it is either too complex or too large to maintain easily by hand.
182 We will start by writing an abbreviated version of what the result is
183 supposed to be. We will use that to construct our output templates.
185 In a header file, 'list.h', you define the enumeration and the global
186 array containing the associated strings:
191 IDX_OMEGA } list_enum;
193 extern char const* az_name_list[ 3 ];
195 Then you also have 'list.c' that defines the actual strings:
198 char const* az_name_list[] = {
201 "final omega stuff" };
203 First, we will define the information that is unique for each
204 enumeration name/string pair. This would be placed in a file named,
205 'list.def', for example.
207 autogen definitions list;
208 list = { list_element = alpha;
209 list_info = "some alpha stuff"; };
210 list = { list_info = "more beta stuff";
211 list_element = beta; };
212 list = { list_element = omega;
213 list_info = "final omega stuff"; };
215 The 'autogen definitions list;' entry defines the file as an AutoGen
216 definition file that uses a template named 'list'. That is followed by
217 three 'list' entries that define the associations between the
218 enumeration names and the strings. The order of the differently named
219 elements inside of list is unimportant. They are reversed inside of the
220 'beta' entry and the output is unaffected.
222 Now, to actually create the output, we need a template or two that
223 can be expanded into the files you want. In this program, we use a
224 single template that is capable of multiple output files. The
225 definitions above refer to a 'list' template, so it would normally be
228 It looks something like this. (For a full description, *Note
231 [+ AutoGen5 template h c +]
232 [+ CASE (suffix) +][+
236 IDX_[+ (string-upcase! (get "list_element")) +][+
237 ENDFOR list +] } list_enum;
239 extern char const* az_name_list[ [+ (count "list") +] ];
244 char const* az_name_list[] = {[+
251 The '[+ AutoGen5 template h c +]' text tells AutoGen that this is an
252 AutoGen version 5 template file; that it is to be processed twice; that
253 the start macro marker is '[+'; and the end marker is '+]'. The
254 template will be processed first with a suffix value of 'h' and then
255 with 'c'. Normally, the suffix values are appended to the 'base-name'
256 to create the output file name.
258 The '[+ == h +]' and '[+ == c +]' 'CASE' selection clauses select
259 different text for the two different passes. In this example, the
260 output is nearly disjoint and could have been put in two separate
261 templates. However, sometimes there are common sections and this is
264 The '[+FOR list "," +]' and '[+ ENDFOR list +]' clauses delimit a
265 block of text that will be repeated for every definition of 'list'.
266 Inside of that block, the definition name-value pairs that are members
267 of each 'list' are available for substitutions.
269 The remainder of the macros are expressions. Some of these contain
270 special expression functions that are dependent on AutoGen named values;
271 others are simply Scheme expressions, the result of which will be
272 inserted into the output text. Other expressions are names of AutoGen
273 values. These values will be inserted into the output text. For
274 example, '[+list_info+]' will result in the value associated with the
275 name 'list_info' being inserted between the double quotes and
276 '(string-upcase! (get "list_element"))' will first "get" the value
277 associated with the name 'list_element', then change the case of all the
278 letters to upper case. The result will be inserted into the output
281 If you have compiled AutoGen, you can copy out the template and
282 definitions as described above and run 'autogen list.def'. This will
283 produce exactly the hypothesized desired output.
285 One more point, too. Lets say you decided it was too much trouble to
286 figure out how to use AutoGen, so you created this enumeration and
287 string list with thousands of entries. Now, requirements have changed
288 and it has become necessary to map a string containing the enumeration
289 name into the enumeration number. With AutoGen, you just alter the
290 template to emit the table of names. It will be guaranteed to be in the
291 correct order, missing none of the entries. If you want to do that by
292 hand, well, good luck.
295 File: autogen.info, Node: csh/zsh caveat, Next: Testimonial, Prev: Example Usage, Up: Introduction
300 AutoGen tries to use your normal shell so that you can supply shell code
301 in a manner you are accustomed to using. If, however, you use csh or
302 zsh, you cannot do this. Csh is sufficiently difficult to program that
303 it is unsupported. Zsh, though largely programmable, also has some
304 anomalies that make it incompatible with AutoGen usage. Therefore, when
305 invoking AutoGen from these environments, you must be certain to set the
306 SHELL environment variable to a Bourne-derived shell, e.g., sh, ksh or
309 Any shell you choose for your own scripts need to follow these basic
312 1. It handles 'trap ":" $sig' without output to standard out. This is
313 done when the server shell is first started. If your shell does
314 not handle this, then it may be able to by loading functions from
316 2. At the beginning of each scriptlet, the command '\\cd $PWD' is
317 inserted. This ensures that 'cd' is not aliased to something
318 peculiar and each scriptlet starts life in the execution directory.
319 3. At the end of each scriptlet, the command 'echo mumble' is
320 appended. The program you use as a shell must emit the single
321 argument 'mumble' on a line by itself.
324 File: autogen.info, Node: Testimonial, Prev: csh/zsh caveat, Up: Introduction
326 1.4 A User's Perspective
327 ========================
331 > I'd appreciate opinions from others about advantages/disadvantages of
332 > each of these macro packages.
334 I am using AutoGen in my pet project, and find one of its best points
335 to be that it separates the operational data from the implementation.
337 Indulge me for a few paragraphs, and all will be revealed: In the
338 manual, Bruce cites the example of maintaining command line flags inside
339 the source code; traditionally spreading usage information, flag names,
340 letters and processing across several functions (if not files).
341 Investing the time in writing a sort of boiler plate (a template in
342 AutoGen terminology) pays by moving all of the option details (usage,
343 flags names etc.) into a well structured table (a definition file if
344 you will), so that adding a new command line option becomes a simple
345 matter of adding a set of details to the table.
347 So far so good! Of course, now that there is a template, writing all
348 of that tedious optargs processing and usage functions is no longer an
349 issue. Creating a table of the options needed for the new project and
350 running AutoGen generates all of the option processing code in C
351 automatically from just the tabular data. AutoGen in fact already ships
352 with such a template... AutoOpts.
354 One final consequence of the good separation in the design of AutoGen
355 is that it is retargetable to a greater extent. The
356 egcs/gcc/fixinc/inclhack.def can equally be used (with different
357 templates) to create a shell script (inclhack.sh) or a c program
360 This is just the tip of the iceberg. AutoGen is far more powerful
361 than these examples might indicate, and has many other varied uses. I
362 am certain Bruce or I could supply you with many and varied examples,
363 and I would heartily recommend that you try it for your project and see
364 for yourself how it compares to m4.
366 As an aside, I would be interested to see whether someone might be
367 persuaded to rationalise autoconf with AutoGen in place of m4... Ben,
368 are you listening? autoconf-3.0! 'kay? =)O|
374 File: autogen.info, Node: Definitions File, Next: Template File, Prev: Introduction, Up: Top
379 This chapter describes the syntax and semantics of the AutoGen
380 definition file. In order to instantiate a template, you normally must
381 provide a definitions file that identifies itself and contains some
382 value definitions. Consequently, we keep it very simple. For
383 "advanced" users, there are preprocessing directives, sparse arrays,
384 named indexes and comments that may be used as well.
386 The definitions file is used to associate values with names. Every
387 value is implicitly an array of values, even if there is only one value.
388 Values may be either simple strings or compound collections of
389 name-value pairs. An array may not contain both simple and compound
390 members. Fundamentally, it is as simple as:
392 prog-name = "autogen";
396 descrip = "Template search directory list";
399 For purposes of commenting and controlling the processing of the
400 definitions, C-style comments and most C preprocessing directives are
401 honored. The major exception is that the '#if' directive is ignored,
402 along with all following text through the matching '#endif' directive.
403 The C preprocessor is not actually invoked, so C macro substitution is
408 * Identification:: The Identification Definition
409 * Definitions:: Named Definitions
410 * Index Assignments:: Assigning an Index to a Definition
411 * Dynamic Text:: Dynamic Text
412 * Directives:: Controlling What Gets Processed
413 * Predefines:: Pre-defined Names
414 * Comments:: Commenting Your Definitions
415 * Example:: What it all looks like.
416 * Full Syntax:: Finite State Machine Grammar
417 * Alternate Definition:: Alternate Definition Forms
420 File: autogen.info, Node: Identification, Next: Definitions, Up: Definitions File
422 2.1 The Identification Definition
423 =================================
425 The first definition in this file is used to identify it as a AutoGen
426 file. It consists of the two keywords, 'autogen' and 'definitions'
427 followed by the default template name and a terminating semi-colon
430 AutoGen Definitions TEMPLATE-NAME;
432 Note that, other than the name TEMPLATE-NAME, the words 'AutoGen' and
433 'Definitions' are searched for without case sensitivity. Most lookups
434 in this program are case insensitive.
436 Also, if the input contains more identification definitions, they will
437 be ignored. This is done so that you may include (*note Directives::)
438 other definition files without an identification conflict.
440 AutoGen uses the name of the template to find the corresponding template
441 file. It searches for the file in the following way, stopping when it
444 1. It tries to open './TEMPLATE-NAME'. If it fails,
445 2. it tries './TEMPLATE-NAME.tpl'.
446 3. It searches for either of these files in the directories listed in
447 the templ-dirs command line option.
449 If AutoGen fails to find the template file in one of these places, it
450 prints an error message and exits.
453 File: autogen.info, Node: Definitions, Next: Index Assignments, Prev: Identification, Up: Definitions File
455 2.2 Named Definitions
456 =====================
458 A name is a sequence of characters beginning with an alphabetic
459 character ('a' through 'z') followed by zero or more alpha-numeric
460 characters and/or separator characters: hyphen ('-'), underscore ('_')
461 or carat ('^'). Names are case insensitive.
463 Any name may have multiple values associated with it. Every name may
464 be considered a sparse array of one or more elements. If there is more
465 than one value, the values my be accessed by indexing the value with
466 '[index]' or by iterating over them using the FOR (*note FOR::) AutoGen
467 macro on it, as described in the next chapter. Sparse arrays are
468 specified by specifying an index when defining an entry (*note Assigning
469 an Index to a Definition: Index Assignments.).
471 There are two kinds of definitions, 'simple' and 'compound'. They
472 are defined thus (*note Full Syntax::):
474 compound_name '=' '{' definition-list '}' ';'
476 simple-name[2] '=' string ';'
480 'simple-name' has the third index (index number 2) defined here.
481 'No^text^name' is a simple definition with a shorthand empty string
482 value. The string values for definitions may be specified in any of
483 several formation rules.
487 * def-list:: Definition List
488 * double-quote-string:: Double Quote String
489 * single-quote-string:: Single Quote String
490 * simple-string:: An Unquoted String
491 * shell-generated:: Shell Output String
492 * scheme-generated:: Scheme Result String
493 * here-string:: A Here String
494 * concat-string:: Concatenated Strings
497 File: autogen.info, Node: def-list, Next: double-quote-string, Up: Definitions
499 2.2.1 Definition List
500 ---------------------
502 'definition-list' is a list of definitions that may or may not contain
503 nested compound definitions. Any such definitions may *only* be
504 expanded within a 'FOR' block iterating over the containing compound
505 definition. *Note FOR::.
507 Here is, again, the example definitions from the previous chapter,
508 with three additional name value pairs. Two with an empty value
509 assigned (FIRST and LAST), and a "global" GROUP_NAME.
511 autogen definitions list;
512 group_name = example;
513 list = { list_element = alpha; first;
514 list_info = "some alpha stuff"; };
515 list = { list_info = "more beta stuff";
516 list_element = beta; };
517 list = { list_element = omega; last;
518 list_info = "final omega stuff"; };
521 File: autogen.info, Node: double-quote-string, Next: single-quote-string, Prev: def-list, Up: Definitions
523 2.2.2 Double Quote String
524 -------------------------
526 The string follows the C-style escaping, using the backslash to quote
527 (escape) the following character(s). Certain letters are translated to
528 various control codes (e.g. '\n', '\f', '\t', etc.). 'x' introduces a
529 two character hex code. '0' (the digit zero) introduces a one to three
530 character octal code (note: an octal byte followed by a digit must be
531 represented with three octal digits, thus: '"\0001"' yielding a NUL byte
532 followed by the ASCII digit 1). Any other character following the
533 backslash escape is simply inserted, without error, into the string
536 Like ANSI "C", a series of these strings, possibly intermixed with
537 single quote strings, will be concatenated together.
540 File: autogen.info, Node: single-quote-string, Next: simple-string, Prev: double-quote-string, Up: Definitions
542 2.2.3 Single Quote String
543 -------------------------
545 This is similar to the shell single-quote string. However, escapes '\'
546 are honored before another escape, single quotes ''' and hash characters
547 '#'. This latter is done specifically to disambiguate lines starting
548 with a hash character inside of a quoted string. In other words,
554 could be misinterpreted by the definitions scanner, whereas this
562 As with the double quote string, a series of these, even intermixed
563 with double quote strings, will be concatenated together.
566 File: autogen.info, Node: simple-string, Next: shell-generated, Prev: single-quote-string, Up: Definitions
568 2.2.4 An Unquoted String
569 ------------------------
571 A simple string that does not contain white space may be left unquoted.
572 The string must not contain any of the characters special to the
573 definition text (i.e., '"', '#', ''', '(', ')', ',', ';', '<', '=', '>',
574 '[', ']', '`', '{', or '}'). This list is subject to change, but it
575 will never contain underscore ('_'), period ('.'), slash ('/'), colon
576 (':'), hyphen ('-') or backslash ('\\'). Basically, if the string looks
577 like it is a normal DOS or UNIX file or variable name, and it is not one
578 of two keywords ('autogen' or 'definitions') then it is OK to not quote
579 it, otherwise you should.
582 File: autogen.info, Node: shell-generated, Next: scheme-generated, Prev: simple-string, Up: Definitions
584 2.2.5 Shell Output String
585 -------------------------
587 This is assembled according to the same rules as the double quote
588 string, except that there is no concatenation of strings and the
589 resulting string is written to a shell server process. The definition
590 takes on the value of the output string.
592 NB The text is interpreted by a server shell. There may be left over
593 state from previous server shell processing. This scriptlet may also
594 leave state for subsequent processing. However, a 'cd' to the original
595 directory is always issued before the new command is issued.
598 File: autogen.info, Node: scheme-generated, Next: here-string, Prev: shell-generated, Up: Definitions
600 2.2.6 Scheme Result String
601 --------------------------
603 A scheme result string must begin with an open parenthesis '('. The
604 scheme expression will be evaluated by Guile and the value will be the
605 result. The AutoGen expression functions are *dis*abled at this stage,
609 File: autogen.info, Node: here-string, Next: concat-string, Prev: scheme-generated, Up: Definitions
614 A 'here string' is formed in much the same way as a shell here doc. It
615 is denoted with two less than characters('<<') and, optionally, a
616 hyphen. This is followed by optional horizontal white space and an
617 ending marker-identifier. This marker must follow the syntax rules for
618 identifiers. Unlike the shell version, however, you must not quote this
621 The resulting string will start with the first character on the next
622 line and continue up to but not including the newline that precedes the
623 line that begins with the marker token. The characters are copied
624 directly into the result string. Mostly.
626 If a hyphen follows the less than characters, then leading tabs will
627 be stripped and the terminating marker will be recognized even if
628 preceded by tabs. Also, if the first character on the line (after
629 removing tabs) is a backslash and the next character is a tab or space,
630 then the backslash will be removed as well. No other kind of processing
631 is done on this string.
633 Here are three examples:
646 The first string contains no new line characters. The first
647 character is the dollar sign, the last the back quote.
649 The second string contains one new line character. The first
650 character is the tab character preceding the dollar sign. The last
651 character is the semicolon after the 'STR_END'. That 'STR_END' does not
652 end the string because it is not at the beginning of the line. In the
653 preceding case, the leading tab was stripped.
655 The third string is almost identical to the first, except that the
656 first character is a tab. That is, it exactly matches the first line of
660 File: autogen.info, Node: concat-string, Prev: here-string, Up: Definitions
662 2.2.8 Concatenated Strings
663 --------------------------
665 If single or double quote characters are used, then you also have the
666 option, a la ANSI-C syntax, of implicitly concatenating a series of them
667 together, with intervening white space ignored.
669 NB You *cannot* use directives to alter the string content. That is,
677 will result in a syntax error. The preprocessing directives are not
678 carried out by the C preprocessor. However,
686 *Will* work. It will enclose the '#ifdef LATER' and '#endif' in the
687 string. But it may also wreak havoc with the definition processing
688 directives. The hash characters in the first column should be
689 disambiguated with an escape '\' or join them with previous lines:
690 '"fumble\n#ifdef LATER...'.
693 File: autogen.info, Node: Index Assignments, Next: Dynamic Text, Prev: Definitions, Up: Definitions File
695 2.3 Assigning an Index to a Definition
696 ======================================
698 In AutoGen, every name is implicitly an array of values. When assigning
699 values, they are usually implicitly assigned to the next highest slot.
700 They can also be specified explicitly:
705 If, subsequently, you assign a value to 'mumble' without an index, its
706 index will be '10', not '1'. If indexes are specified, they must not
709 '#define'-d names may also be used for index values. This is
710 equivalent to the above:
714 mumble[LAST] = stumble;
715 mumble[FIRST] = grumble;
717 All values in a range do *not* have to be filled in. If you leave
718 gaps, then you will have a sparse array. This is fine (*note FOR::).
719 You have your choice of iterating over all the defined values, or
720 iterating over a range of slots. This:
722 [+ FOR mumble +][+ ENDFOR +]
724 iterates over all and only the defined entries, whereas this:
726 [+ FOR mumble (for-by 1) +][+ ENDFOR +]
728 will iterate over all 10 "slots". Your template will likely have to
729 contain something like this:
731 [+ IF (exist? (sprintf "mumble[%d]" (for-index))) +]
733 or else "mumble" will have to be a compound value that, say, always
734 contains a "grumble" value:
736 [+ IF (exist? "grumble") +]
739 File: autogen.info, Node: Dynamic Text, Next: Directives, Prev: Index Assignments, Up: Definitions File
744 There are several methods for including dynamic content inside a
745 definitions file. Three of them are mentioned above (*note
746 shell-generated:: and *note scheme-generated::) in the discussion of
747 string formation rules. Another method uses the '#shell' processing
748 directive. It will be discussed in the next section (*note
749 Directives::). Guile/Scheme may also be used to yield to create
752 When the Scheme expression is preceded by a backslash and single
753 quote, then the expression is expected to be an alist of names and
754 values that will be used to create AutoGen definitions.
756 This method can be be used as follows:
758 \'( (name (value-expression))
759 (name2 (another-expr)) )
761 This is entirely equivalent to:
763 name = (value-expression);
764 name2 = (another-expr);
766 Under the covers, the expression gets handed off to a Guile function
767 named 'alist->autogen-def' in an expression that looks like this:
770 ( (name (value-expression)) (name2 (another-expr)) ) )
773 File: autogen.info, Node: Directives, Next: Predefines, Prev: Dynamic Text, Up: Definitions File
775 2.5 Controlling What Gets Processed
776 ===================================
778 Definition processing directives can *only* be processed if the '#'
779 character is the first character on a line. Also, if you want a '#' as
780 the first character of a line in one of your string assignments, you
781 should either escape it by preceding it with a backslash '\', or by
782 embedding it in the string as in '"\n#"'.
784 All of the normal C preprocessing directives are recognized, though
785 several are ignored. There is also an additional '#shell' - '#endshell'
786 pair. Another minor difference is that AutoGen directives must have the
787 hash character ('#') in column 1. Unrecognized directives produce an
790 The final tweak is that '#!' is treated as a comment line. Using
791 this feature, you can use: '#! /usr/local/bin/autogen' as the first line
792 of a definitions file, set the mode to executable and "run" the
793 definitions file as if it were a direct invocation of AutoGen. This was
794 done for its hack value.
796 The AutoGen recognized directives are:
798 This directive is processed, but only if the expression begins with
799 either a back quote ('`') or an open parenthesis ('('). Text
800 within the back quotes are handed off to the shell for processing
801 and parenthesized text is handed off to Guile. Multiple line
802 expressions must be joined with backslashes.
804 If the 'shell-script' or 'scheme-expr' do not yield 'true' valued
805 results, autogen will be aborted. If '<anything else>' or nothing
806 at all is provided, then this directive is ignored.
808 The result is 'false' (and fails) if the result is empty, the
809 number zero, or a string that starts with the letters 'n' or 'f'
813 Will add the name to the define list as if it were a DEFINE program
814 argument. Its value will be the first non-whitespace token
815 following the name. Quotes are *not* processed.
817 After the definitions file has been processed, any remaining
818 entries in the define list will be added to the environment.
821 Marks a transition in the #if directive. Error when out of
822 context. #if blocks are always ignored.
825 This must follow an '#if', '#ifdef' or '#ifndef'. If it follows
826 the '#if', then it will be ignored. Otherwise, it will change the
827 processing state to the reverse of what it was.
830 This must follow an '#if', '#ifdef' or '#ifndef'. In all cases,
831 this will resume normal processing of text.
834 Marks the end of the #macdef directive. Error when out of context.
837 Marks the end of the #shell directive. Error when out of context.
840 This directive will cause AutoGen to stop processing and exit with
841 a status of EXIT_FAILURE.
847 '#if' expressions are not analyzed. *Everything* from here to the
848 matching '#endif' is skipped.
851 The definitions that follow, up to the matching '#endif' will be
852 processed only if there is a corresponding '-Dname' command line
853 option or if a '#define' of that name has been previously
857 The definitions that follow, up to the matching '#endif' will be
858 processed only if the named value has *not* been defined.
861 This directive will insert definitions from another file into the
862 current collection. If the file name is adorned with double quotes
863 or angle brackets (as in a C program), then the include is ignored.
869 Alters the current line number and/or file name. You may wish to
870 use this directive if you extract definition source from other
871 files. 'getdefs' uses this mechanism so AutoGen will report the
872 correct file and approximate line number of any errors found in
873 extracted definitions.
876 This is a new AT&T research preprocessing directive. Basically, it
877 is a multi-line #define that may include other preprocessing
878 directives. Text between this line and a #endmac directive are
882 This directive will pass the option name and associated text to the
883 AutoOpts optionLoadLine routine (*note libopts-optionLoadLine::).
884 The option text may span multiple lines by continuing them with a
885 backslash. The backslash/newline pair will be replaced with two
886 space characters. This directive may be used to set a search path
887 for locating template files For example, this:
889 #option templ-dirs $ENVVAR/dirname
890 will direct autogen to use the 'ENVVAR' environment variable to
891 find a directory named 'dirname' that (may) contain templates.
892 Since these directories are searched in most recently supplied
893 first order, search directories supplied in this way will be
894 searched before any supplied on the command line.
900 Invokes '$SHELL' or '/bin/sh' on a script that should generate
901 AutoGen definitions. It does this using the same server process
902 that handles the back-quoted '`' text. The block of text handed to
903 the shell is terminated with the #endshell directive.
905 *CAUTION* let not your '$SHELL' be 'csh'.
908 Will remove any entries from the define list that match the undef
912 File: autogen.info, Node: Predefines, Next: Comments, Prev: Directives, Up: Definitions File
914 2.6 Pre-defined Names
915 =====================
917 When AutoGen starts, it tries to determine several names from the
918 operating environment and put them into environment variables for use in
919 both '#ifdef' tests in the definitions files and in shell scripts with
920 environment variable tests. '__autogen__' is always defined. For other
921 names, AutoGen will first try to use the POSIX version of the
922 'sysinfo(2)' system call. Failing that, it will try for the POSIX
923 'uname(2)' call. If neither is available, then only "'__autogen__'"
924 will be inserted into the environment. In all cases, the associated
925 names are converted to lower case, surrounded by doubled underscores and
926 non-symbol characters are replaced with underscores.
928 With Solaris on a sparc platform, 'sysinfo(2)' is available. The
929 following strings are used:
931 * 'SI_SYSNAME' (e.g., "__sunos__")
932 * 'SI_HOSTNAME' (e.g., "__ellen__")
933 * 'SI_ARCHITECTURE' (e.g., "__sparc__")
934 * 'SI_HW_PROVIDER' (e.g., "__sun_microsystems__")
935 * 'SI_PLATFORM' (e.g., "__sun_ultra_5_10__")
936 * 'SI_MACHINE' (e.g., "__sun4u__")
938 For Linux and other operating systems that only support the
939 'uname(2)' call, AutoGen will use these values:
941 * 'sysname' (e.g., "__linux__")
942 * 'machine' (e.g., "__i586__")
943 * 'nodename' (e.g., "__bach__")
945 By testing these pre-defines in my definitions, you can select pieces
946 of the definitions without resorting to writing shell scripts that parse
947 the output of 'uname(1)'. You can also segregate real C code from
948 autogen definitions by testing for "'__autogen__'".
957 File: autogen.info, Node: Comments, Next: Example, Prev: Predefines, Up: Definitions File
959 2.7 Commenting Your Definitions
960 ===============================
962 The definitions file may contain C and C++ style comments.
965 * This is a comment. It continues for several lines and closes
966 * when the characters '*' and '/' appear together.
968 // this comment is a single line comment
971 File: autogen.info, Node: Example, Next: Full Syntax, Prev: Comments, Up: Definitions File
973 2.8 What it all looks like.
974 ===========================
976 This is an extended example:
978 autogen definitions 'template-name';
980 * This is a comment that describes what these
981 * definitions are all about.
983 global = "value for a global text definition.";
986 * Include a standard set of definitions
988 #include standards.def
994 sub_field = "sub value.";
1006 File: autogen.info, Node: Full Syntax, Next: Alternate Definition, Prev: Example, Up: Definitions File
1008 2.9 Finite State Machine Grammar
1009 ================================
1011 The preprocessing directives and comments are not part of the grammar.
1012 They are handled by the scanner/lexer. The following was extracted
1013 directly from the generated defParse-fsm.c source file. The "EVT:" is
1014 the token seen, the "STATE:" is the current state and the entries in
1015 this table describe the next state and the action to take. Invalid
1016 transitions were removed from the table.
1018 dp_trans_table[ DP_STATE_CT ][ DP_EVENT_CT ] = {
1020 /* STATE 0: DP_ST_INIT */
1021 { { DP_ST_NEED_DEF, NULL }, /* EVT: AUTOGEN */
1022 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: DEFINITIONS */
1023 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: End-Of-File */
1024 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: VAR_NAME */
1025 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: OTHER_NAME */
1026 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: STRING */
1027 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: HERE_STRING */
1028 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: DELETE_ENT */
1029 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: NUMBER */
1030 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: ; */
1031 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: = */
1032 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: , */
1033 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: { */
1034 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: } */
1035 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: [ */
1036 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid } /* EVT: ] */
1038 /* STATE 1: DP_ST_NEED_DEF */
1039 { { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: AUTOGEN */
1040 { DP_ST_NEED_TPL, NULL }, /* EVT: DEFINITIONS */
1041 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: End-Of-File */
1042 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: VAR_NAME */
1043 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: OTHER_NAME */
1044 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: STRING */
1045 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: HERE_STRING */
1046 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: DELETE_ENT */
1047 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: NUMBER */
1048 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: ; */
1049 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: = */
1050 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: , */
1051 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: { */
1052 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: } */
1053 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: [ */
1054 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid } /* EVT: ] */
1056 /* STATE 2: DP_ST_NEED_TPL */
1057 { { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: AUTOGEN */
1058 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: DEFINITIONS */
1059 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: End-Of-File */
1060 { DP_ST_NEED_SEMI, dp_do_tpl_name }, /* EVT: VAR_NAME */
1061 { DP_ST_NEED_SEMI, dp_do_tpl_name }, /* EVT: OTHER_NAME */
1062 { DP_ST_NEED_SEMI, dp_do_tpl_name }, /* EVT: STRING */
1063 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: HERE_STRING */
1064 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: DELETE_ENT */
1065 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: NUMBER */
1066 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: ; */
1067 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: = */
1068 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: , */
1069 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: { */
1070 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: } */
1071 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: [ */
1072 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid } /* EVT: ] */
1074 /* STATE 3: DP_ST_NEED_SEMI */
1075 { { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: AUTOGEN */
1076 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: DEFINITIONS */
1077 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: End-Of-File */
1078 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: VAR_NAME */
1079 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: OTHER_NAME */
1080 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: STRING */
1081 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: HERE_STRING */
1082 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: DELETE_ENT */
1083 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: NUMBER */
1084 { DP_ST_NEED_NAME, NULL }, /* EVT: ; */
1085 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: = */
1086 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: , */
1087 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: { */
1088 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: } */
1089 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: [ */
1090 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid } /* EVT: ] */
1092 /* STATE 4: DP_ST_NEED_NAME */
1093 { { DP_ST_NEED_DEF, NULL }, /* EVT: AUTOGEN */
1094 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: DEFINITIONS */
1095 { DP_ST_DONE, dp_do_need_name_end }, /* EVT: End-Of-File */
1096 { DP_ST_HAVE_NAME, dp_do_need_name_var_name }, /* EVT: VAR_NAME */
1097 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: OTHER_NAME */
1098 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: STRING */
1099 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: HERE_STRING */
1100 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: DELETE_ENT */
1101 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: NUMBER */
1102 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: ; */
1103 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: = */
1104 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: , */
1105 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: { */
1106 { DP_ST_HAVE_VALUE, dp_do_end_block }, /* EVT: } */
1107 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: [ */
1108 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid } /* EVT: ] */
1110 /* STATE 5: DP_ST_HAVE_NAME */
1111 { { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: AUTOGEN */
1112 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: DEFINITIONS */
1113 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: End-Of-File */
1114 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: VAR_NAME */
1115 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: OTHER_NAME */
1116 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: STRING */
1117 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: HERE_STRING */
1118 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: DELETE_ENT */
1119 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: NUMBER */
1120 { DP_ST_NEED_NAME, dp_do_empty_val }, /* EVT: ; */
1121 { DP_ST_NEED_VALUE, dp_do_have_name_lit_eq }, /* EVT: = */
1122 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: , */
1123 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: { */
1124 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: } */
1125 { DP_ST_NEED_IDX, NULL }, /* EVT: [ */
1126 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid } /* EVT: ] */
1128 /* STATE 6: DP_ST_NEED_VALUE */
1129 { { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: AUTOGEN */
1130 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: DEFINITIONS */
1131 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: End-Of-File */
1132 { DP_ST_HAVE_VALUE, dp_do_str_value }, /* EVT: VAR_NAME */
1133 { DP_ST_HAVE_VALUE, dp_do_str_value }, /* EVT: OTHER_NAME */
1134 { DP_ST_HAVE_VALUE, dp_do_str_value }, /* EVT: STRING */
1135 { DP_ST_HAVE_VALUE, dp_do_str_value }, /* EVT: HERE_STRING */
1136 { DP_ST_NEED_NAME, dp_do_need_value_delete_ent }, /* EVT: DELETE_ENT */
1137 { DP_ST_HAVE_VALUE, dp_do_str_value }, /* EVT: NUMBER */
1138 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: ; */
1139 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: = */
1140 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: , */
1141 { DP_ST_NEED_NAME, dp_do_start_block }, /* EVT: { */
1142 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: } */
1143 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: [ */
1144 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid } /* EVT: ] */
1146 /* STATE 7: DP_ST_NEED_IDX */
1147 { { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: AUTOGEN */
1148 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: DEFINITIONS */
1149 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: End-Of-File */
1150 { DP_ST_NEED_CBKT, dp_do_indexed_name }, /* EVT: VAR_NAME */
1151 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: OTHER_NAME */
1152 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: STRING */
1153 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: HERE_STRING */
1154 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: DELETE_ENT */
1155 { DP_ST_NEED_CBKT, dp_do_indexed_name }, /* EVT: NUMBER */
1156 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: ; */
1157 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: = */
1158 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: , */
1159 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: { */
1160 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: } */
1161 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: [ */
1162 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid } /* EVT: ] */
1164 /* STATE 8: DP_ST_NEED_CBKT */
1165 { { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: AUTOGEN */
1166 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: DEFINITIONS */
1167 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: End-Of-File */
1168 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: VAR_NAME */
1169 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: OTHER_NAME */
1170 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: STRING */
1171 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: HERE_STRING */
1172 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: DELETE_ENT */
1173 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: NUMBER */
1174 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: ; */
1175 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: = */
1176 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: , */
1177 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: { */
1178 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: } */
1179 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: [ */
1180 { DP_ST_INDX_NAME, NULL } /* EVT: ] */
1182 /* STATE 9: DP_ST_INDX_NAME */
1183 { { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: AUTOGEN */
1184 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: DEFINITIONS */
1185 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: End-Of-File */
1186 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: VAR_NAME */
1187 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: OTHER_NAME */
1188 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: STRING */
1189 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: HERE_STRING */
1190 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: DELETE_ENT */
1191 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: NUMBER */
1192 { DP_ST_NEED_NAME, dp_do_empty_val }, /* EVT: ; */
1193 { DP_ST_NEED_VALUE, NULL }, /* EVT: = */
1194 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: , */
1195 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: { */
1196 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: } */
1197 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: [ */
1198 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid } /* EVT: ] */
1200 /* STATE 10: DP_ST_HAVE_VALUE */
1201 { { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: AUTOGEN */
1202 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: DEFINITIONS */
1203 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: End-Of-File */
1204 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: VAR_NAME */
1205 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: OTHER_NAME */
1206 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: STRING */
1207 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: HERE_STRING */
1208 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: DELETE_ENT */
1209 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: NUMBER */
1210 { DP_ST_NEED_NAME, NULL }, /* EVT: ; */
1211 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: = */
1212 { DP_ST_NEED_VALUE, dp_do_next_val }, /* EVT: , */
1213 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: { */
1214 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: } */
1215 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid }, /* EVT: [ */
1216 { DP_ST_INVALID, dp_do_invalid } /* EVT: ] */
1219 File: autogen.info, Node: Alternate Definition, Prev: Full Syntax, Up: Definitions File
1221 2.10 Alternate Definition Forms
1222 ===============================
1224 There are several methods for supplying data values for templates.
1227 It is entirely possible to write a template that does not depend
1228 upon external definitions. Such a template would likely have an
1229 unvarying output, but be convenient nonetheless because of an
1230 external library of either AutoGen or Scheme functions, or both.
1231 This can be accommodated by providing the '--override-tpl' and
1232 '--no-definitions' options on the command line. *Note autogen
1236 AutoGen behaves as a CGI server if the definitions input is from
1237 stdin and the environment variable 'REQUEST_METHOD' is defined and
1238 set to either "GET" or "POST", *Note AutoGen CGI::. Obviously, all
1239 the values are constrained to strings because there is no way to
1240 represent nested values.
1243 AutoGen comes with a program named, 'xml2ag'. Its output can
1244 either be redirected to a file for later use, or the program can be
1245 used as an AutoGen wrapper. *Note xml2ag Invocation::.
1247 The introductory template example (*note Example Usage::) can be
1248 rewritten in XML as follows:
1250 <EXAMPLE template="list.tpl">
1251 <LIST list_element="alpha"
1252 list_info="some alpha stuff"/>
1253 <LIST list_info="more beta stuff"
1254 list_element="beta"/>
1255 <LIST list_element="omega"
1256 list_info="final omega stuff"/>
1259 A more XML-normal form might look like this:
1260 <EXAMPLE template="list.tpl">
1261 <LIST list_element="alpha">some alpha stuff</LIST>
1262 <LIST list_element="beta" >more beta stuff</LIST>
1263 <LIST list_element="omega">final omega stuff</LIST>
1265 but you would have to change the template 'list-info' references
1266 into 'text' references.
1268 'standard AutoGen definitions'
1272 File: autogen.info, Node: Template File, Next: Augmenting AutoGen, Prev: Definitions File, Up: Top
1277 The AutoGen template file defines the content of the output text. It is
1278 composed of two parts. The first part consists of a pseudo macro
1279 invocation and commentary. It is followed by the template proper.
1281 This pseudo macro is special. It is used to identify the file as a
1282 AutoGen template file, fixing the starting and ending marks for the
1283 macro invocations in the rest of the file, specifying the list of
1284 suffixes to be generated by the template and, optionally, the shell to
1285 use for processing shell commands embedded in the template.
1287 AutoGen-ing a file consists of copying text from the template to the
1288 output file until a start macro marker is found. The text from the
1289 start marker to the end marker constitutes the macro text. AutoGen
1290 macros may cause sections of the template to be skipped or processed
1291 several times. The process continues until the end of the template is
1292 reached. The process is repeated once for each suffix specified in the
1295 This chapter describes the format of the AutoGen template macros and
1296 the usage of the AutoGen native macros. Users may augment these by
1297 defining their own macros, *Note DEFINE::.
1301 * pseudo macro:: Format of the Pseudo Macro
1302 * naming values:: Naming a value
1303 * expression syntax:: Macro Expression Syntax
1304 * AutoGen Functions:: AutoGen Scheme Functions
1305 * Common Functions:: Common Scheme Functions
1306 * native macros:: AutoGen Native Macros
1307 * output controls:: Redirecting Output
1310 File: autogen.info, Node: pseudo macro, Next: naming values, Up: Template File
1312 3.1 Format of the Pseudo Macro
1313 ==============================
1315 The pseudo macro is used to tell AutoGen how to process a template. It
1318 1. The start macro marker. It consists of punctuation characters used
1319 to demarcate the start of a macro. It may be up to seven
1320 characters long and must be the first non-whitespace characters in
1323 It is generally a good idea to use some sort of opening bracket in
1324 the starting macro and closing bracket in the ending macro (e.g.
1325 '{', '(', '[', or even '<' in the starting macro). It helps both
1326 visually and with editors capable of finding a balancing
1329 2. That start marker must be immediately followed by the identifier
1330 strings "AutoGen5" and then "template", though capitalization is
1333 The next several components may be intermingled:
1335 3. Zero, one or more suffix specifications tell AutoGen how many times
1336 to process the template file. No suffix specifications mean that
1337 it is to be processed once and that the generated text is to be
1338 written to 'stdout'. The current suffix for each pass can be
1339 determined with the '(suffix)' scheme function (*note SCM
1342 The suffix specification consists of a sequence of POSIX compliant
1343 file name characters and, optionally, an equal sign and a file name
1344 formatting specification. That specification may be either an
1345 ordinary sequence of file name characters with zero, one or two
1346 "%s" formatting sequences in it, or else it may be a Scheme
1347 expression that, when evaluated, produces such a string. The
1348 Scheme result may not be empty. The two string arguments allowed
1349 for that string are the base name of the definition file, and the
1350 current suffix (that being the text to the left of the equal sign).
1351 (Note: "POSIX compliant file name characters" consist of
1352 alphanumerics plus the period ('.'), hyphen ('-') and underscore
1355 If the suffix begins with one of these three latter characters and
1356 a formatting string is not specified, then that character is
1357 presumed to be the suffix separator. Otherwise, without a
1358 specified format string, a single period will separate the suffix
1359 from the base name in constructing the output file name.
1361 4. Shell specification: to specify that the template was written
1362 expecting a particular shell to run the shell commands. By
1363 default, the shell used is the autoconf-ed 'CONFIG_SHELL'. This
1364 will usually be '/bin/sh'. The shell is specified by a hash mark
1365 ('#') followed by an exclamation mark ('!') followed by a full-path
1366 file name (e.g. '/usr/xpg4/bin/sh' on Solaris):
1367 [= Autogen5 Template c
1371 5. Comments: blank lines, lines starting with a hash mark ('#') and
1372 not specifying a shell, and edit mode markers (text between pairs
1373 of '-*-' strings) are all treated as comments.
1375 6. Some scheme expressions may be inserted in order to make
1376 configuration changes before template processing begins. before
1377 template processing begins means that there is no current output
1378 file, no current suffix and, basically, none of the AutoGen
1379 specific functions (*note AutoGen Functions::) may be invoked.
1381 The scheme expression can also be used, for example, to save a
1382 pre-existing output file for later text extraction (*note SCM
1385 (shellf "mv -f %1$s.c %1$s.sav" (base-name))
1387 After these must come the end macro marker:
1389 6. The punctuation characters used to demarcate the end of a macro.
1390 Like the start marker, it must consist of seven or fewer
1391 punctuation characters.
1393 The ending macro marker has a few constraints on its content. Some
1394 of them are just advisory, though. There is no special check for
1395 advisory restrictions.
1397 * It must not begin with a POSIX file name character (hyphen '-',
1398 underscore '_' or period '.'), the backslash ('\') or open
1399 parenthesis ('('). These are used to identify a suffix
1400 specification, indicate Scheme code and trim white space.
1402 * If it begins with an equal sign, then it must be separated from any
1403 suffix specification by white space.
1405 * The closing marker may not begin with an open parenthesis, as that
1406 is used to enclose a scheme expression.
1408 * It cannot begin with a backslash, as that is used to indicate white
1409 space trimming after the end macro mark. If, in the body of the
1410 template, you put the backslash character ('\') before the end
1411 macro mark, then any white space characters after the mark and
1412 through the newline character are trimmed.
1414 * It is also helpful to avoid using the comment marker ('#'). It
1415 might be seen as a comment within the pseudo macro.
1417 * You should avoid using any of the quote characters double, single
1418 or back-quote. It won't confuse AutoGen, but it might well confuse
1419 you and/or your editor.
1421 As an example, assume we want to use '[+' and '+]' as the start and
1422 end macro markers, and we wish to produce a '.c' and a '.h' file, then
1423 the pseudo macro might look something like this:
1425 [+ AutoGen5 template -*- Mode: emacs-mode-of-choice -*-
1428 # make sure we don't use csh:
1429 (setenv "SHELL" "/bin/sh") +]
1431 The template proper starts after the pseudo-macro. The starting
1432 character is either the first non-whitespace character or the first
1433 character after the newline that follows the end macro marker.
1436 File: autogen.info, Node: naming values, Next: expression syntax, Prev: pseudo macro, Up: Template File
1441 When an AutoGen value is specified in a template, it is specified by
1442 name. The name may be a simple name, or a compound name of several
1443 components. Since each named value in AutoGen is implicitly an array of
1444 one or more values, each component may have an index associated with it.
1448 comp-name-1 . comp-name-2 [ 2 ]
1450 Note that if there are multiple components to a name, each component
1451 name is separated by a dot ('.'). Indexes follow a component name,
1452 enclosed in square brackets ('[' and ']'). The index may be either an
1453 integer or an integer-valued define name. The first component of the
1454 name is searched for in the current definition level. If not found,
1455 higher levels will be searched until either a value is found, or there
1456 are no more definition levels. Subsequent components of the name must
1457 be found within the context of the newly-current definition level.
1458 Also, if the named value is prefixed by a dot ('.'), then the value
1459 search is started in the current context only. Backtracking into other
1460 definition levels is prevented.
1462 If someone rewrites this, I'll incorporate it. :-)
1465 File: autogen.info, Node: expression syntax, Next: AutoGen Functions, Prev: naming values, Up: Template File
1467 3.3 Macro Expression Syntax
1468 ===========================
1470 AutoGen has two types of expressions: full expressions and basic ones.
1471 A full AutoGen expression can appear by itself, or as the argument to
1472 certain AutoGen built-in macros: CASE, IF, ELIF, INCLUDE, INVOKE
1473 (explicit invocation, *note INVOKE::), and WHILE. If it appears by
1474 itself, the result is inserted into the output. If it is an argument to
1475 one of these macros, the macro code will act on it sensibly.
1477 You are constrained to basic expressions only when passing arguments
1478 to user defined macros, *Note DEFINE::.
1480 The syntax of a full AutoGen expression is:
1482 [[ <apply-code> ] <value-name> ] [ <basic-expr-1> [ <basic-expr-2> ]]
1484 How the expression is evaluated depends upon the presence or absence
1485 of the apply code and value name. The "value name" is the name of an
1486 AutoGen defined value, or not. If it does not name such a value, the
1487 expression result is generally the empty string. All expressions must
1488 contain either a VALUE-NAME or a BASIC-EXPR.
1492 * apply code:: Apply Code
1493 * basic expression:: Basic Expression
1496 File: autogen.info, Node: apply code, Next: basic expression, Up: expression syntax
1501 The "apply code" selected determines the method of evaluating the
1502 expression. There are five apply codes, including the non-use of an
1506 This is the most common expression type. Expressions of this sort
1507 come in three flavors:
1510 The result is the value of VALUE-NAME, if defined. Otherwise
1511 it is the empty string.
1514 The result of the basic expression is the result of the full
1515 expression, *Note basic expression::.
1517 '<value-name> <basic-expr>'
1518 If there is a defined value for VALUE-NAME, then the
1519 BASIC-EXPR is evaluated. Otherwise, the result is the empty
1522 '% <value-name> <basic-expr>'
1523 If VALUE-NAME is defined, use BASIC-EXPR as a format string for
1524 sprintf. Then, if the BASIC-EXPR is either a back-quoted string or
1525 a parenthesized expression, then hand the result to the appropriate
1526 interpreter for further evaluation. Otherwise, for single and
1527 double quote strings, the result is the result of the sprintf
1528 operation. Naturally, if VALUE-NAME is not defined, the result is
1531 For example, assume that 'fumble' had the string value, 'stumble':
1532 [+ % fumble `printf '%%x\\n' $%s` +]
1533 This would cause the shell to evaluate "'printf '%x\n' $stumble'".
1534 Assuming that the shell variable 'stumble' had a numeric value, the
1535 expression result would be that number, in hex. Note the need for
1536 doubled percent characters and backslashes.
1538 '? <value-name> <basic-expr-1> <basic-expr-2>'
1539 Two BASIC-EXPR-s are required. If the VALUE-NAME is defined, then
1540 the first BASIC-EXPR-1 is evaluated, otherwise BASIC-EXPR-2 is.
1542 '- <value-name> <basic-expr>'
1543 Evaluate BASIC-EXPR only if VALUE-NAME is not defined.
1545 '?% <value-name> <basic-expr-1> <basic-expr-2>'
1546 This combines the functions of '?' and '%'. If VALUE-NAME is
1547 defined, it behaves exactly like '%', above, using BASIC-EXPR-1.
1548 If not defined, then BASIC-EXPR-2 is evaluated.
1550 For example, assume again that 'fumble' had the string value,
1552 [+ ?% fumble `cat $%s` `pwd` +]
1553 This would cause the shell to evaluate "'cat $stumble'". If
1554 'fumble' were not defined, then the result would be the name of our
1558 File: autogen.info, Node: basic expression, Prev: apply code, Up: expression syntax
1560 3.3.2 Basic Expression
1561 ----------------------
1563 A basic expression can have one of the following forms:
1566 A single quoted string. Backslashes can be used to protect single
1567 quotes ('''), hash characters ('#'), or backslashes ('\') in the
1568 string. All other characters of STRING are output as-is when the
1569 single quoted string is evaluated. Backslashes are processed
1570 before the hash character for consistency with the definition
1571 syntax. It is needed there to avoid preprocessing conflicts.
1574 A double quoted string. This is a cooked text string as in C,
1575 except that they are not concatenated with adjacent strings.
1576 Evaluating "'STRING'" will output STRING with all backslash
1577 sequences interpreted.
1580 A back quoted string. When this expression is evaluated, STRING is
1581 first interpreted as a cooked string (as in '"STRING"') and
1582 evaluated as a shell expression by the AutoGen server shell. This
1583 expression is replaced by the 'stdout' output of the shell.
1586 A parenthesized expression. It will be passed to the Guile
1587 interpreter for evaluation and replaced by the resulting value. If
1588 there is a Scheme error in this expression, Guile 1.4 and Guile 1.6
1589 will report the template line number where the error occurs. Guile
1590 1.7 has lost this capability.
1592 Guile has the capability of creating and manipulating variables
1593 that can be referenced later on in the template processing. If you
1594 define such a variable, it is invisible to AutoGen. To reference
1595 its value, you must use a Guile expression. For example,
1596 [+ (define my-var "some-string-value") +]
1597 can have that string inserted later, but only as in:
1600 Additionally, other than in the '%' and '?%' expressions, the Guile
1601 expressions may be introduced with the Guile comment character
1602 (';') and you may put a series of Guile expressions within a single
1603 macro. They will be implicitly evaluated as if they were arguments
1604 to the '(begin ...)' expression. The result will be the result of
1605 the last Guile expression evaluated.
1608 File: autogen.info, Node: AutoGen Functions, Next: Common Functions, Prev: expression syntax, Up: Template File
1610 3.4 AutoGen Scheme Functions
1611 ============================
1613 AutoGen uses Guile to interpret Scheme expressions within AutoGen
1614 macros. All of the normal Guile functions are available, plus several
1615 extensions (*note Common Functions::) have been added to augment the
1616 repertoire of string manipulation functions and manage the state of
1619 This section describes those functions that are specific to AutoGen.
1620 Please take note that these AutoGen specific functions are not loaded
1621 and thus not made available until after the command line options have
1622 been processed and the AutoGen definitions have been loaded. They may,
1623 of course, be used in Scheme functions that get defined at those times,
1624 but they cannot be invoked.
1628 * SCM ag-fprintf:: 'ag-fprintf' - format to autogen stream
1629 * SCM ag-function?:: 'ag-function?' - test for function
1630 * SCM base-name:: 'base-name' - base output name
1631 * SCM chdir:: 'chdir' - Change current directory
1632 * SCM count:: 'count' - definition count
1633 * SCM def-file:: 'def-file' - definitions file name
1634 * SCM def-file-line:: 'def-file-line' - get a definition file+line number
1635 * SCM dne:: 'dne' - "Do Not Edit" warning
1636 * SCM emit:: 'emit' - emit the text for each argument
1637 * SCM emit-string-table:: 'emit-string-table' - output a string table
1638 * SCM error:: 'error' - display message and exit
1639 * SCM exist?:: 'exist?' - test for value name
1640 * SCM find-file:: 'find-file' - locate a file in the search path
1641 * SCM first-for?:: 'first-for?' - detect first iteration
1642 * SCM for-by:: 'for-by' - set iteration step
1643 * SCM for-from:: 'for-from' - set initial index
1644 * SCM for-index:: 'for-index' - get current loop index
1645 * SCM for-sep:: 'for-sep' - set loop separation string
1646 * SCM for-to:: 'for-to' - set ending index
1647 * SCM found-for?:: 'found-for?' - is current index in list?
1648 * SCM get:: 'get' - get named value
1649 * SCM get-c-name:: 'get-c-name' - get named value, mapped to C name syntax
1650 * SCM get-down-name:: 'get-down-name' - get lower cased named value, mapped to C name syntax
1651 * SCM get-up-name:: 'get-up-name' - get upper cased named value, mapped to C name syntax
1652 * SCM high-lim:: 'high-lim' - get highest value index
1653 * SCM insert-file:: 'insert-file' - insert the contents of a (list of) files.
1654 * SCM insert-suspended:: 'insert-suspended' - insert a named suspension in current output
1655 * SCM last-for?:: 'last-for?' - detect last iteration
1656 * SCM len:: 'len' - get count of values
1657 * SCM low-lim:: 'low-lim' - get lowest value index
1658 * SCM make-header-guard:: 'make-header-guard' - make self-inclusion guard
1659 * SCM make-tmp-dir:: 'make-tmp-dir' - create a temporary directory
1660 * SCM match-value?:: 'match-value?' - test for matching value
1661 * SCM max-file-time:: 'max-file-time' - get the maximum input file modification time
1662 * SCM mk-gettextable:: 'mk-gettextable' - print a string in a gettext-able format
1663 * SCM out-delete:: 'out-delete' - delete current output file
1664 * SCM out-depth:: 'out-depth' - output file stack depth
1665 * SCM out-emit-suspended:: 'out-emit-suspended' - emit the text of suspended output
1666 * SCM out-line:: 'out-line' - output file line number
1667 * SCM out-move:: 'out-move' - change name of output file
1668 * SCM out-name:: 'out-name' - current output file name
1669 * SCM out-pop:: 'out-pop' - close current output file
1670 * SCM out-push-add:: 'out-push-add' - append output to file
1671 * SCM out-push-new:: 'out-push-new' - purge and create output file
1672 * SCM out-resume:: 'out-resume' - resume suspended output file
1673 * SCM out-suspend:: 'out-suspend' - suspend current output file
1674 * SCM out-switch:: 'out-switch' - close and create new output
1675 * SCM output-file-next-line:: 'output-file-next-line' - print the file name and next line number
1676 * SCM set-option:: 'set-option' - Set a command line option
1677 * SCM set-writable:: 'set-writable' - Make the output file be writable
1678 * SCM stack:: 'stack' - make list of AutoGen values
1679 * SCM stack-join:: 'stack-join' - stack values then join them
1680 * SCM suffix:: 'suffix' - get the current suffix
1681 * SCM tpl-file:: 'tpl-file' - get the template file name
1682 * SCM tpl-file-line:: 'tpl-file-line' - get the template file+line number
1683 * SCM tpl-file-next-line:: 'tpl-file-next-line' - get the template file plus next line number
1684 * SCM warn:: 'warn' - display warning message and continue
1685 * SCM autogen-version:: 'autogen-version' - "5.18.16"
1686 * SCM c-file-line-fmt:: format file info as, "'#line nn "file"'"
1689 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM ag-fprintf, Next: SCM ag-function?, Up: AutoGen Functions
1691 3.4.1 'ag-fprintf' - format to autogen stream
1692 ---------------------------------------------
1694 Usage: (ag-fprintf ag-diversion format [ format-arg ... ])
1695 Format a string using arguments from the alist. Write to a specified
1696 AutoGen diversion. That may be either a specified suspended output
1697 stream (*note SCM out-suspend::) or an index into the output stack
1698 (*note SCM out-push-new::). '(ag-fprintf 0 ...)' is equivalent to
1699 '(emit (sprintf ...))', and '(ag-fprintf 1 ...)' sends output to the
1700 most recently suspended output stream.
1703 ag-diversion - AutoGen diversion name or number
1704 format - formatting string
1705 format-arg - Optional - list of arguments to formatting string
1708 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM ag-function?, Next: SCM base-name, Prev: SCM ag-fprintf, Up: AutoGen Functions
1710 3.4.2 'ag-function?' - test for function
1711 ----------------------------------------
1713 Usage: (ag-function? ag-name)
1714 return SCM_BOOL_T if a specified name is a user-defined AutoGen macro,
1715 otherwise return SCM_BOOL_F.
1718 ag-name - name of AutoGen macro
1721 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM base-name, Next: SCM chdir, Prev: SCM ag-function?, Up: AutoGen Functions
1723 3.4.3 'base-name' - base output name
1724 ------------------------------------
1727 Returns a string containing the base name of the output file(s).
1728 Generally, this is also the base name of the definitions file.
1730 This Scheme function takes no arguments.
1733 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM chdir, Next: SCM count, Prev: SCM base-name, Up: AutoGen Functions
1735 3.4.4 'chdir' - Change current directory
1736 ----------------------------------------
1739 Sets the current directory for AutoGen. Shell commands will run from
1740 this directory as well. This is a wrapper around the Guile native
1741 function. It returns its directory name argument and fails the program
1745 dir - new directory name
1748 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM count, Next: SCM def-file, Prev: SCM chdir, Up: AutoGen Functions
1750 3.4.5 'count' - definition count
1751 --------------------------------
1753 Usage: (count ag-name)
1754 Count the number of entries for a definition. The input argument must
1755 be a string containing the name of the AutoGen values to be counted. If
1756 there is no value associated with the name, the result is an SCM
1757 immediate integer value of zero.
1760 ag-name - name of AutoGen value
1763 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM def-file, Next: SCM def-file-line, Prev: SCM count, Up: AutoGen Functions
1765 3.4.6 'def-file' - definitions file name
1766 ----------------------------------------
1769 Get the name of the definitions file. Returns the name of the source
1770 file containing the AutoGen definitions.
1772 This Scheme function takes no arguments.
1775 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM def-file-line, Next: SCM dne, Prev: SCM def-file, Up: AutoGen Functions
1777 3.4.7 'def-file-line' - get a definition file+line number
1778 ---------------------------------------------------------
1780 Usage: (def-file-line ag-name [ msg-fmt ])
1781 Returns the file and line number of a AutoGen defined value, using
1782 either the default format, "from %s line %d", or else the format you
1783 supply. For example, if you want to insert a "C" language file-line
1784 directive, you would supply the format "# %2$d \"%1$s\"", but that is
1785 also already supplied with the scheme variable *Note SCM
1786 c-file-line-fmt::. You may use it thus:
1788 (def-file-line "ag-def-name" c-file-line-fmt)
1790 It is also safe to use the formatting string, "%2$d". AutoGen uses
1791 an argument vector version of printf: *Note snprintfv::.
1794 ag-name - name of AutoGen value
1795 msg-fmt - Optional - formatting for line message
1798 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM dne, Next: SCM emit, Prev: SCM def-file-line, Up: AutoGen Functions
1800 3.4.8 'dne' - "Do Not Edit" warning
1801 -----------------------------------
1803 Usage: (dne prefix [ first_prefix ] [ optpfx ])
1804 Generate a "DO NOT EDIT" or "EDIT WITH CARE" warning string. Which
1805 depends on whether or not the '--writable' command line option was set.
1807 The first argument may be an option: '-D' or '-d', causing the second
1808 and (potentially) third arguments to be interpreted as the first and
1809 second arguments. The only useful option is '-D':
1812 will add date, timestamp and version information.
1814 is ignored, but still accepted for compatibility with older
1815 versions of the "dne" function where emitting the date was the
1818 If one of these options is specified, then the "prefix" and "first"
1819 arguments are obtained from the following arguments. The presence (or
1820 absence) of this option can be overridden with the environment variable,
1821 'AUTOGEN_DNE_DATE'. The date is disabled if the value is empty or
1822 starts with one of the characters, '0nNfF' - zero or the first letter of
1825 The 'prefix' argument is a per-line string prefix. The optional
1826 second argument is a prefix for the first line only and, in read-only
1827 mode, activates editor hints.
1829 -*- buffer-read-only: t -*- vi: set ro:
1831 The warning string also includes information about the template used to
1832 construct the file and the definitions used in its instantiation.
1835 prefix - string for starting each output line
1836 first_prefix - Optional - for the first output line
1837 optpfx - Optional - shifted prefix
1840 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM emit, Next: SCM emit-string-table, Prev: SCM dne, Up: AutoGen Functions
1842 3.4.9 'emit' - emit the text for each argument
1843 ----------------------------------------------
1845 Usage: (emit alist ...)
1846 Walk the tree of arguments, displaying the values of displayable SCM
1847 types. EXCEPTION: if the first argument is a number, then that number
1848 is used to index the output stack. "0" is the default, the current
1852 alist - list of arguments to stringify and emit
1855 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM emit-string-table, Next: SCM error, Prev: SCM emit, Up: AutoGen Functions
1857 3.4.10 'emit-string-table' - output a string table
1858 --------------------------------------------------
1860 Usage: (emit-string-table st-name)
1861 Emit into the current output stream a 'static char const' array named
1862 'st-name' that will have 'NUL' bytes between each inserted string.
1865 st-name - the name of the array of characters
1868 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM error, Next: SCM exist?, Prev: SCM emit-string-table, Up: AutoGen Functions
1870 3.4.11 'error' - display message and exit
1871 -----------------------------------------
1873 Usage: (error message)
1874 The argument is a string that printed out as part of an error message.
1875 The message is formed from the formatting string:
1877 DEFINITIONS ERROR in %s line %d for %s: %s\n
1879 The first three arguments to this format are provided by the routine
1880 and are: The name of the template file, the line within the template
1881 where the error was found, and the current output file name.
1883 After displaying the message, the current output file is removed and
1884 autogen exits with the EXIT_FAILURE error code. IF, however, the
1885 argument begins with the number 0 (zero), or the string is the empty
1886 string, then processing continues with the next suffix.
1889 message - message to display before exiting
1892 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM exist?, Next: SCM find-file, Prev: SCM error, Up: AutoGen Functions
1894 3.4.12 'exist?' - test for value name
1895 -------------------------------------
1897 Usage: (exist? ag-name)
1898 return SCM_BOOL_T iff a specified name has an AutoGen value. The name
1899 may include indexes and/or member names. All but the last member name
1900 must be an aggregate definition. For example:
1901 (exist? "foo[3].bar.baz")
1902 will yield true if all of the following is true:
1903 There is a member value of either group or string type named 'baz' for
1904 some group value 'bar' that is a member of the 'foo' group with index
1905 '3'. There may be multiple entries of 'bar' within 'foo', only one
1906 needs to contain a value for 'baz'.
1909 ag-name - name of AutoGen value
1912 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM find-file, Next: SCM first-for?, Prev: SCM exist?, Up: AutoGen Functions
1914 3.4.13 'find-file' - locate a file in the search path
1915 -----------------------------------------------------
1917 Usage: (find-file file-name [ suffix ])
1918 AutoGen has a search path that it uses to locate template and definition
1919 files. This function will search the same list for 'file-name', both
1920 with and without the '.suffix', if provided.
1923 file-name - name of file with text
1924 suffix - Optional - file suffix to try, too
1927 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM first-for?, Next: SCM for-by, Prev: SCM find-file, Up: AutoGen Functions
1929 3.4.14 'first-for?' - detect first iteration
1930 --------------------------------------------
1932 Usage: (first-for? [ for_var ])
1933 Returns 'SCM_BOOL_T' if the named FOR loop (or, if not named, the
1934 current innermost loop) is on the first pass through the data. Outside
1935 of any 'FOR' loop, it returns 'SCM_UNDEFINED', *note FOR::.
1938 for_var - Optional - which for loop
1941 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM for-by, Next: SCM for-from, Prev: SCM first-for?, Up: AutoGen Functions
1943 3.4.15 'for-by' - set iteration step
1944 ------------------------------------
1947 This function records the "step by" information for an AutoGen FOR
1948 function. Outside of the FOR macro itself, this function will emit an
1952 by - the iteration increment for the AutoGen FOR macro
1955 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM for-from, Next: SCM for-index, Prev: SCM for-by, Up: AutoGen Functions
1957 3.4.16 'for-from' - set initial index
1958 -------------------------------------
1960 Usage: (for-from from)
1961 This function records the initial index information for an AutoGen FOR
1962 function. Outside of the FOR macro itself, this function will emit an
1966 from - the initial index for the AutoGen FOR macro
1969 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM for-index, Next: SCM for-sep, Prev: SCM for-from, Up: AutoGen Functions
1971 3.4.17 'for-index' - get current loop index
1972 -------------------------------------------
1974 Usage: (for-index [ for_var ])
1975 Returns the current index for the named 'FOR' loop. If not named, then
1976 the index for the innermost loop. Outside of any FOR loop, it returns
1977 'SCM_UNDEFINED', *Note FOR::.
1980 for_var - Optional - which for loop
1983 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM for-sep, Next: SCM for-to, Prev: SCM for-index, Up: AutoGen Functions
1985 3.4.18 'for-sep' - set loop separation string
1986 ---------------------------------------------
1988 Usage: (for-sep separator)
1989 This function records the separation string that is to be inserted
1990 between each iteration of an AutoGen FOR function. This is often
1991 nothing more than a comma. Outside of the FOR macro itself, this
1992 function will emit an error.
1995 separator - the text to insert between the output of each FOR iteration
1998 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM for-to, Next: SCM found-for?, Prev: SCM for-sep, Up: AutoGen Functions
2000 3.4.19 'for-to' - set ending index
2001 ----------------------------------
2004 This function records the terminating value information for an AutoGen
2005 FOR function. Outside of the FOR macro itself, this function will emit
2006 an error. *Note FOR::.
2009 to - the final index for the AutoGen FOR macro
2012 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM found-for?, Next: SCM get, Prev: SCM for-to, Up: AutoGen Functions
2014 3.4.20 'found-for?' - is current index in list?
2015 -----------------------------------------------
2017 Usage: (found-for? [ for_var ])
2018 Returns SCM_BOOL_T if the currently indexed value is present, otherwise
2019 SCM_BOOL_F. Outside of any FOR loop, it returns SCM_UNDEFINED. *Note
2023 for_var - Optional - which for loop
2026 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM get, Next: SCM get-c-name, Prev: SCM found-for?, Up: AutoGen Functions
2028 3.4.21 'get' - get named value
2029 ------------------------------
2031 Usage: (get ag-name [ alt-val ])
2032 Get the first string value associated with the name. It will either
2033 return the associated string value (if the name resolves), the alternate
2034 value (if one is provided), or else the empty string.
2037 ag-name - name of AutoGen value
2038 alt-val - Optional - value if not present
2041 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM get-c-name, Next: SCM get-down-name, Prev: SCM get, Up: AutoGen Functions
2043 3.4.22 'get-c-name' - get named value, mapped to C name syntax
2044 --------------------------------------------------------------
2046 Usage: (get-c-name ag-name)
2047 Get the first string value associated with the name. It will either
2048 return the associated string value (if the name resolves), the alternate
2049 value (if one is provided), or else the empty string. The result is
2050 passed through "string->c-name!".
2053 ag-name - name of AutoGen value
2056 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM get-down-name, Next: SCM get-up-name, Prev: SCM get-c-name, Up: AutoGen Functions
2058 3.4.23 'get-down-name' - get lower cased named value, mapped to C name syntax
2059 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2061 Usage: (get-down-name ag-name)
2062 Get the first string value associated with the name. It will either
2063 return the associated string value (if the name resolves), the alternate
2064 value (if one is provided), or else the empty string. The result is
2065 passed through "string->c-name!" and "string->down-case!".
2068 ag-name - name of AutoGen value
2071 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM get-up-name, Next: SCM high-lim, Prev: SCM get-down-name, Up: AutoGen Functions
2073 3.4.24 'get-up-name' - get upper cased named value, mapped to C name syntax
2074 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
2076 Usage: (get-up-name ag-name)
2077 Get the first string value associated with the name. It will either
2078 return the associated string value (if the name resolves), the alternate
2079 value (if one is provided), or else the empty string. The result is
2080 passed through "string->c-name!" and "string->up-case!".
2083 ag-name - name of AutoGen value
2086 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM high-lim, Next: SCM insert-file, Prev: SCM get-up-name, Up: AutoGen Functions
2088 3.4.25 'high-lim' - get highest value index
2089 -------------------------------------------
2091 Usage: (high-lim ag-name)
2092 Returns the highest index associated with an array of definitions. This
2093 is generally, but not necessarily, one less than the 'count' value.
2094 (The indexes may be specified, rendering a non-zero based or sparse
2097 This is very useful for specifying the size of a zero-based array of
2098 values where not all values are present. For example:
2100 tMyStruct myVals[ [+ (+ 1 (high-lim "my-val-list")) +] ];
2103 ag-name - name of AutoGen value
2106 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM insert-file, Next: SCM insert-suspended, Prev: SCM high-lim, Up: AutoGen Functions
2108 3.4.26 'insert-file' - insert the contents of a (list of) files.
2109 ----------------------------------------------------------------
2111 Usage: (insert-file alist ...)
2112 Insert the contents of one or more files.
2115 alist - list of files to emit
2118 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM insert-suspended, Next: SCM last-for?, Prev: SCM insert-file, Up: AutoGen Functions
2120 3.4.27 'insert-suspended' - insert a named suspension in current output
2121 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
2123 Usage: (insert-suspended susp-name)
2124 Emit into the current output the output suspended under a given
2128 susp-name - the name of the suspended output
2131 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM last-for?, Next: SCM len, Prev: SCM insert-suspended, Up: AutoGen Functions
2133 3.4.28 'last-for?' - detect last iteration
2134 ------------------------------------------
2136 Usage: (last-for? [ for_var ])
2137 Returns SCM_BOOL_T if the named FOR loop (or, if not named, the current
2138 innermost loop) is on the last pass through the data. Outside of any
2139 FOR loop, it returns SCM_UNDEFINED. *Note FOR::.
2142 for_var - Optional - which for loop
2145 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM len, Next: SCM low-lim, Prev: SCM last-for?, Up: AutoGen Functions
2147 3.4.29 'len' - get count of values
2148 ----------------------------------
2150 Usage: (len ag-name)
2151 If the named object is a group definition, then "len" is the same as
2152 "count". Otherwise, if it is one or more text definitions, then it is
2153 the sum of their string lengths. If it is a single text definition,
2154 then it is equivalent to '(string-length (get "ag-name"))'.
2157 ag-name - name of AutoGen value
2160 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM low-lim, Next: SCM make-header-guard, Prev: SCM len, Up: AutoGen Functions
2162 3.4.30 'low-lim' - get lowest value index
2163 -----------------------------------------
2165 Usage: (low-lim ag-name)
2166 Returns the lowest index associated with an array of definitions.
2169 ag-name - name of AutoGen value
2172 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM make-header-guard, Next: SCM make-tmp-dir, Prev: SCM low-lim, Up: AutoGen Functions
2174 3.4.31 'make-header-guard' - make self-inclusion guard
2175 ------------------------------------------------------
2177 Usage: (make-header-guard name)
2178 This function will create a '#ifndef'/'#define' sequence for protecting
2179 a header from multiple evaluation. It will also set the Scheme variable
2180 'header-file' to the name of the file being protected and it will set
2181 'header-guard' to the name of the '#define' being used to protect it.
2182 It is expected that this will be used as follows:
2183 [+ (make-header-guard "group_name") +]
2185 #endif /* [+ (. header-guard) +] */
2187 #include "[+ (. header-file) +]"
2188 The '#define' name is composed as follows:
2190 1. The first element is the string argument and a separating
2192 2. That is followed by the name of the header file with illegal
2193 characters mapped to underscores.
2194 3. The end of the name is always, "'_GUARD'".
2195 4. Finally, the entire string is mapped to upper case.
2197 The final '#define' name is stored in an SCM symbol named
2198 'header-guard'. Consequently, the concluding '#endif' for the file
2199 should read something like:
2201 #endif /* [+ (. header-guard) +] */
2203 The name of the header file (the current output file) is also stored
2204 in an SCM symbol, 'header-file'. Therefore, if you are also generating
2205 a C file that uses the previously generated header file, you can put
2206 this into that generated file:
2208 #include "[+ (. header-file) +]"
2210 Obviously, if you are going to produce more than one header file from
2211 a particular template, you will need to be careful how these SCM symbols
2215 name - header group name
2218 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM make-tmp-dir, Next: SCM match-value?, Prev: SCM make-header-guard, Up: AutoGen Functions
2220 3.4.32 'make-tmp-dir' - create a temporary directory
2221 ----------------------------------------------------
2223 Usage: (make-tmp-dir)
2224 Create a directory that will be cleaned up upon exit.
2226 This Scheme function takes no arguments.
2229 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM match-value?, Next: SCM max-file-time, Prev: SCM make-tmp-dir, Up: AutoGen Functions
2231 3.4.33 'match-value?' - test for matching value
2232 -----------------------------------------------
2234 Usage: (match-value? op ag-name test-str)
2235 This function answers the question, "Is there an AutoGen value named
2236 'ag-name' with a value that matches the pattern 'test-str' using the
2237 match function 'op'?" Return SCM_BOOL_T iff at least one occurrence of
2238 the specified name has such a value. The operator can be any function
2239 that takes two string arguments and yields a boolean. It is expected
2240 that you will use one of the string matching functions provided by
2242 The value name must follow the same rules as the 'ag-name' argument for
2243 'exist?' (*note SCM exist?::).
2246 op - boolean result operator
2247 ag-name - name of AutoGen value
2248 test-str - string to test against
2251 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM max-file-time, Next: SCM mk-gettextable, Prev: SCM match-value?, Up: AutoGen Functions
2253 3.4.34 'max-file-time' - get the maximum input file modification time
2254 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
2256 Usage: (max-file-time)
2257 returns the time stamp of the most recently modified sourc file as the
2258 number of seconds since the epoch. If any input is dynamic (a shell
2259 command), then it will be the current time.
2261 This Scheme function takes no arguments.
2264 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM mk-gettextable, Next: SCM out-delete, Prev: SCM max-file-time, Up: AutoGen Functions
2266 3.4.35 'mk-gettextable' - print a string in a gettext-able format
2267 -----------------------------------------------------------------
2269 Usage: (mk-gettextable string)
2270 Returns SCM_UNDEFINED. The input text string is printed to the current
2271 output as one puts() call per paragraph.
2274 string - a multi-paragraph string
2277 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM out-delete, Next: SCM out-depth, Prev: SCM mk-gettextable, Up: AutoGen Functions
2279 3.4.36 'out-delete' - delete current output file
2280 ------------------------------------------------
2283 Remove the current output file. Cease processing the template for the
2284 current suffix. It is an error if there are 'push'-ed output files.
2285 Use the '(error "0")' scheme function instead. *Note output controls::.
2287 This Scheme function takes no arguments.
2290 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM out-depth, Next: SCM out-emit-suspended, Prev: SCM out-delete, Up: AutoGen Functions
2292 3.4.37 'out-depth' - output file stack depth
2293 --------------------------------------------
2296 Returns the depth of the output file stack. *Note output controls::.
2298 This Scheme function takes no arguments.
2301 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM out-emit-suspended, Next: SCM out-line, Prev: SCM out-depth, Up: AutoGen Functions
2303 3.4.38 'out-emit-suspended' - emit the text of suspended output
2304 ---------------------------------------------------------------
2306 Usage: (out-emit-suspended susp_nm)
2307 This function is equivalent to '(begin (out-resume <name>) (out-pop
2311 susp_nm - A name tag of suspended output
2314 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM out-line, Next: SCM out-move, Prev: SCM out-emit-suspended, Up: AutoGen Functions
2316 3.4.39 'out-line' - output file line number
2317 -------------------------------------------
2320 Returns the current line number of the output file. It rewinds and
2321 reads the file to count newlines.
2323 This Scheme function takes no arguments.
2326 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM out-move, Next: SCM out-name, Prev: SCM out-line, Up: AutoGen Functions
2328 3.4.40 'out-move' - change name of output file
2329 ----------------------------------------------
2331 Usage: (out-move new-name)
2332 Rename current output file. *Note output controls::. Please note:
2333 changing the name will not save a temporary file from being deleted. It
2334 may, however, be used on the root output file.
2337 new-name - new name for the current output file
2340 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM out-name, Next: SCM out-pop, Prev: SCM out-move, Up: AutoGen Functions
2342 3.4.41 'out-name' - current output file name
2343 --------------------------------------------
2346 Returns the name of the current output file. If the current file is a
2347 temporary, unnamed file, then it will scan up the chain until a real
2348 output file name is found. *Note output controls::.
2350 This Scheme function takes no arguments.
2353 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM out-pop, Next: SCM out-push-add, Prev: SCM out-name, Up: AutoGen Functions
2355 3.4.42 'out-pop' - close current output file
2356 --------------------------------------------
2358 Usage: (out-pop [ disp ])
2359 If there has been a 'push' on the output, then close that file and go
2360 back to the previously open file. It is an error if there has not been
2361 a 'push'. *Note output controls::.
2363 If there is no argument, no further action is taken. Otherwise, the
2364 argument should be '#t' and the contents of the file are returned by the
2368 disp - Optional - return contents of the file
2371 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM out-push-add, Next: SCM out-push-new, Prev: SCM out-pop, Up: AutoGen Functions
2373 3.4.43 'out-push-add' - append output to file
2374 ---------------------------------------------
2376 Usage: (out-push-add file-name)
2377 Identical to 'push-new', except the contents are *not* purged, but
2378 appended to. *Note output controls::.
2381 file-name - name of the file to append text to
2384 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM out-push-new, Next: SCM out-resume, Prev: SCM out-push-add, Up: AutoGen Functions
2386 3.4.44 'out-push-new' - purge and create output file
2387 ----------------------------------------------------
2389 Usage: (out-push-new [ file-name ])
2390 Leave the current output file open, but purge and create a new file that
2391 will remain open until a 'pop' 'delete' or 'switch' closes it. The file
2392 name is optional and, if omitted, the output will be sent to a temporary
2393 file that will be deleted when it is closed. *Note output controls::.
2396 file-name - Optional - name of the file to create
2399 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM out-resume, Next: SCM out-suspend, Prev: SCM out-push-new, Up: AutoGen Functions
2401 3.4.45 'out-resume' - resume suspended output file
2402 --------------------------------------------------
2404 Usage: (out-resume susp_nm)
2405 If there has been a suspended output, then make that output descriptor
2406 current again. That output must have been suspended with the same tag
2407 name given to this routine as its argument.
2410 susp_nm - A name tag for reactivating
2413 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM out-suspend, Next: SCM out-switch, Prev: SCM out-resume, Up: AutoGen Functions
2415 3.4.46 'out-suspend' - suspend current output file
2416 --------------------------------------------------
2418 Usage: (out-suspend suspName)
2419 If there has been a 'push' on the output, then set aside the output
2420 descriptor for later reactiviation with '(out-resume "xxx")'. The tag
2421 name need not reflect the name of the output file. In fact, the output
2422 file may be an anonymous temporary file. You may also change the tag
2423 every time you suspend output to a file, because the tag names are
2424 forgotten as soon as the file has been "resumed".
2427 suspName - A name tag for reactivating
2430 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM out-switch, Next: SCM output-file-next-line, Prev: SCM out-suspend, Up: AutoGen Functions
2432 3.4.47 'out-switch' - close and create new output
2433 -------------------------------------------------
2435 Usage: (out-switch file-name)
2436 Switch output files - close current file and make the current file
2437 pointer refer to the new file. This is equivalent to 'out-pop' followed
2438 by 'out-push-new', except that you may not pop the base level output
2439 file, but you may 'switch' it. *Note output controls::.
2442 file-name - name of the file to create
2445 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM output-file-next-line, Next: SCM set-option, Prev: SCM out-switch, Up: AutoGen Functions
2447 3.4.48 'output-file-next-line' - print the file name and next line number
2448 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
2450 Usage: (output-file-next-line [ line_off ] [ alt_fmt ])
2451 Returns a string with the current output file name and line number. The
2452 default format is: # <line+1> "<output-file-name>" The argument may be
2453 either a number indicating an offset from the current output line number
2454 or an alternate formatting string. If both are provided, then the first
2455 must be a numeric offset.
2457 Be careful that you are directing output to the final output file.
2458 Otherwise, you will get the file name and line number of the temporary
2459 file. That won't be what you want.
2462 line_off - Optional - offset to line number
2463 alt_fmt - Optional - alternate format string
2466 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM set-option, Next: SCM set-writable, Prev: SCM output-file-next-line, Up: AutoGen Functions
2468 3.4.49 'set-option' - Set a command line option
2469 -----------------------------------------------
2471 Usage: (set-option opt)
2472 The text argument must be an option name followed by any needed option
2473 argument. Returns SCM_UNDEFINED.
2476 opt - AutoGen option name + its argument
2479 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM set-writable, Next: SCM stack, Prev: SCM set-option, Up: AutoGen Functions
2481 3.4.50 'set-writable' - Make the output file be writable
2482 --------------------------------------------------------
2484 Usage: (set-writable [ set? ])
2485 This function will set the current output file to be writable (or not).
2486 This is only effective if neither the '--writable' nor '--not-writable'
2487 have been specified. This state is reset when the current suffix's
2491 set? - Optional - boolean arg, false to make output non-writable
2494 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM stack, Next: SCM stack-join, Prev: SCM set-writable, Up: AutoGen Functions
2496 3.4.51 'stack' - make list of AutoGen values
2497 --------------------------------------------
2499 Usage: (stack ag-name)
2500 Create a scheme list of all the strings that are associated with a name.
2501 They must all be text values or we choke.
2504 ag-name - AutoGen value name
2507 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM stack-join, Next: SCM suffix, Prev: SCM stack, Up: AutoGen Functions
2509 3.4.52 'stack-join' - stack values then join them
2510 -------------------------------------------------
2512 Usage: (stack-join join ag-name)
2513 This function will collect all the values named 'ag-name' (see the *note
2514 stack function: SCM stack.) and join them separated by the 'join' string
2515 (see the *note join function: SCM join.).
2518 join - string between each element
2519 ag-name - name of autogen values to stack
2522 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM suffix, Next: SCM tpl-file, Prev: SCM stack-join, Up: AutoGen Functions
2524 3.4.53 'suffix' - get the current suffix
2525 ----------------------------------------
2528 Returns the current active suffix (*note pseudo macro::).
2530 This Scheme function takes no arguments.
2533 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM tpl-file, Next: SCM tpl-file-line, Prev: SCM suffix, Up: AutoGen Functions
2535 3.4.54 'tpl-file' - get the template file name
2536 ----------------------------------------------
2538 Usage: (tpl-file [ full_path ])
2539 Returns the name of the current template file. If '#t' is passed in as
2540 an argument, then the template file is hunted for in the template search
2541 path. Otherwise, just the unadorned name.
2544 full_path - Optional - include full path to file
2547 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM tpl-file-line, Next: SCM tpl-file-next-line, Prev: SCM tpl-file, Up: AutoGen Functions
2549 3.4.55 'tpl-file-line' - get the template file+line number
2550 ----------------------------------------------------------
2552 Usage: (tpl-file-line [ msg-fmt ])
2553 Returns the file and line number of the current template macro using
2554 either the default format, "from %s line %d", or else the format you
2555 supply. For example, if you want to insert a "C" language file-line
2556 directive, you would supply the format "# %2$d \"%1$s\"", but that is
2557 also already supplied with the scheme variable *Note SCM
2558 c-file-line-fmt::. You may use it thus:
2559 (tpl-file-line c-file-line-fmt)
2561 It is also safe to use the formatting string, "%2$d". AutoGen uses
2562 an argument vector version of printf: *Note snprintfv::, and it does not
2563 need to know the types of each argument in order to skip forward to the
2567 msg-fmt - Optional - formatting for line message
2570 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM tpl-file-next-line, Next: SCM warn, Prev: SCM tpl-file-line, Up: AutoGen Functions
2572 3.4.56 'tpl-file-next-line' - get the template file plus next line number
2573 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
2575 Usage: (tpl-file-next-line [ msg-fmt ])
2576 This is almost the same as *Note SCM tpl-file-line::, except that the
2577 line referenced is the next line, per C compiler conventions, and
2578 consequently defaults to the format: # <line-no+1> "<file-name>"
2581 msg-fmt - Optional - formatting for line message
2584 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM warn, Next: SCM autogen-version, Prev: SCM tpl-file-next-line, Up: AutoGen Functions
2586 3.4.57 'warn' - display warning message and continue
2587 ----------------------------------------------------
2589 Usage: (warn message)
2590 The argument is a string that printed out to stderr. The message is
2591 formed from the formatting string:
2595 The template processing resumes after printing the message.
2598 message - message to display
2601 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM autogen-version, Next: SCM c-file-line-fmt, Prev: SCM warn, Up: AutoGen Functions
2603 3.4.58 'autogen-version' - autogen version number
2604 -------------------------------------------------
2606 This is a symbol defining the current AutoGen version number string. It
2607 was first defined in AutoGen-5.2.14. It is currently "5.18.16".
2610 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM c-file-line-fmt, Prev: SCM autogen-version, Up: AutoGen Functions
2612 3.4.59 format file info as, "'#line nn "file"'"
2613 -----------------------------------------------
2615 This is a symbol that can easily be used with the functions *Note SCM
2616 tpl-file-line::, and *Note SCM def-file-line::. These will emit C
2617 program '#line' directives pointing to template and definitions text,
2621 File: autogen.info, Node: Common Functions, Next: native macros, Prev: AutoGen Functions, Up: Template File
2623 3.5 Common Scheme Functions
2624 ===========================
2626 This section describes a number of general purpose functions that make
2627 the kind of string processing that AutoGen does a little easier. Unlike
2628 the AutoGen specific functions (*note AutoGen Functions::), these
2629 functions are available for direct use during definition load time. The
2630 equality test (*note SCM =::) is "overloaded" to do string equivalence
2631 comparisons. If you are looking for inequality, the Scheme/Lisp way of
2632 spelling that is, "(not (= ...))".
2636 * SCM agpl:: 'agpl' - GNU Affero General Public License
2637 * SCM bsd:: 'bsd' - BSD Public License
2638 * SCM c-string:: 'c-string' - emit string for ANSI C
2639 * SCM error-source-line:: 'error-source-line' - display of file & line
2640 * SCM extract:: 'extract' - extract text from another file
2641 * SCM format-arg-count:: 'format-arg-count' - count the args to a format
2642 * SCM fprintf:: 'fprintf' - format to a file
2643 * SCM gperf:: 'gperf' - perform a perfect hash function
2644 * SCM gperf-code:: 'gperf-code' - emit the source of the generated gperf program
2645 * SCM gpl:: 'gpl' - GNU General Public License
2646 * SCM hide-email:: 'hide-email' - convert eaddr to javascript
2647 * SCM html-escape-encode:: 'html-escape-encode' - encode html special characters
2648 * SCM in?:: 'in?' - test for string in list
2649 * SCM join:: 'join' - join string list with separator
2650 * SCM kr-string:: 'kr-string' - emit string for K&R C
2651 * SCM lgpl:: 'lgpl' - GNU Library General Public License
2652 * SCM license:: 'license' - an arbitrary license
2653 * SCM license-description:: 'license-description' - Emit a license description
2654 * SCM license-full:: 'license-full' - Emit the licensing information and description
2655 * SCM license-info:: 'license-info' - Emit the licensing information and copyright years
2656 * SCM license-name:: 'license-name' - Emit the name of the license
2657 * SCM make-gperf:: 'make-gperf' - build a perfect hash function program
2658 * SCM makefile-script:: 'makefile-script' - create makefile script
2659 * SCM max:: 'max' - maximum value in list
2660 * SCM min:: 'min' - minimum value in list
2661 * SCM prefix:: 'prefix' - prefix lines with a string
2662 * SCM printf:: 'printf' - format to stdout
2663 * SCM raw-shell-str:: 'raw-shell-str' - single quote shell string
2664 * SCM shell:: 'shell' - invoke a shell script
2665 * SCM shell-str:: 'shell-str' - double quote shell string
2666 * SCM shellf:: 'shellf' - format a string, run shell
2667 * SCM sprintf:: 'sprintf' - format a string
2668 * SCM string-capitalize:: 'string-capitalize' - capitalize a new string
2669 * SCM string-capitalize!:: 'string-capitalize!' - capitalize a string
2670 * SCM *=*:: 'string-contains-eqv?' - caseless substring
2671 * SCM *==*:: 'string-contains?' - substring match
2672 * SCM string-downcase:: 'string-downcase' - lower case a new string
2673 * SCM string-downcase!:: 'string-downcase!' - make a string be lower case
2674 * SCM *~:: 'string-end-eqv-match?' - caseless regex ending
2675 * SCM *~~:: 'string-end-match?' - regex match end
2676 * SCM *=:: 'string-ends-eqv?' - caseless string ending
2677 * SCM *==:: 'string-ends-with?' - string ending
2678 * SCM ==:: 'string-equals?' - string matching
2679 * SCM ~:: 'string-eqv-match?' - caseless regex match
2680 * SCM =:: 'string-eqv?' - caseless match
2681 * SCM *~*:: 'string-has-eqv-match?' - caseless regex contains
2682 * SCM *~~*:: 'string-has-match?' - contained regex match
2683 * SCM ~~:: 'string-match?' - regex match
2684 * SCM ~*:: 'string-start-eqv-match?' - caseless regex start
2685 * SCM ~~*:: 'string-start-match?' - regex match start
2686 * SCM =*:: 'string-starts-eqv?' - caseless string start
2687 * SCM ==*:: 'string-starts-with?' - string starting
2688 * SCM string-substitute:: 'string-substitute' - multiple global replacements
2689 * SCM string-table-add:: 'string-table-add' - Add an entry to a string table
2690 * SCM string-table-add-ref:: 'string-table-add-ref' - Add an entry to a string table, get reference
2691 * SCM string-table-new:: 'string-table-new' - create a string table
2692 * SCM string-table-size:: 'string-table-size' - print the current size of a string table
2693 * SCM string->c-name!:: 'string->c-name!' - map non-name chars to underscore
2694 * SCM string->camelcase:: 'string->camelcase' - make a string be CamelCase
2695 * SCM string-tr:: 'string-tr' - convert characters with new result
2696 * SCM string-tr!:: 'string-tr!' - convert characters
2697 * SCM string-upcase:: 'string-upcase' - upper case a new string
2698 * SCM string-upcase!:: 'string-upcase!' - make a string be upper case
2699 * SCM sub-shell-str:: 'sub-shell-str' - back quoted (sub-)shell string
2700 * SCM sum:: 'sum' - sum of values in list
2701 * SCM time-string->number:: 'time-string->number' - duration string to seconds
2702 * SCM version-compare:: 'version-compare' - compare two version numbers
2705 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM agpl, Next: SCM bsd, Up: Common Functions
2707 3.5.1 'agpl' - GNU Affero General Public License
2708 ------------------------------------------------
2710 Usage: (agpl prog-name prefix)
2711 Emit a string that contains the GNU Affero General Public License. This
2712 function is now deprecated. Please *Note SCM license-description::.
2715 prog-name - name of the program under the GPL
2716 prefix - String for starting each output line
2719 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM bsd, Next: SCM c-string, Prev: SCM agpl, Up: Common Functions
2721 3.5.2 'bsd' - BSD Public License
2722 --------------------------------
2724 Usage: (bsd prog_name owner prefix)
2725 Emit a string that contains the Free BSD Public License. This function
2726 is now deprecated. Please *Note SCM license-description::.
2729 prog_name - name of the program under the BSD
2730 owner - Grantor of the BSD License
2731 prefix - String for starting each output line
2734 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM c-string, Next: SCM error-source-line, Prev: SCM bsd, Up: Common Functions
2736 3.5.3 'c-string' - emit string for ANSI C
2737 -----------------------------------------
2739 Usage: (c-string string)
2740 Reform a string so that, when printed, the C compiler will be able to
2741 compile the data and construct a string that contains exactly what the
2742 current string contains. Many non-printing characters are replaced with
2743 escape sequences. Newlines are replaced with a backslash, an 'n', a
2744 closing quote, a newline, seven spaces and another re-opening quote.
2745 The compiler will implicitly concatenate them. The reader will see line
2748 A K&R compiler will choke. Use 'kr-string' for that compiler.
2751 string - string to reformat
2754 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM error-source-line, Next: SCM extract, Prev: SCM c-string, Up: Common Functions
2756 3.5.4 'error-source-line' - display of file & line
2757 --------------------------------------------------
2759 Usage: (error-source-line)
2760 This function is only invoked just before Guile displays an error
2761 message. It displays the file name and line number that triggered the
2762 evaluation error. You should not need to invoke this routine directly.
2763 Guile will do it automatically.
2765 This Scheme function takes no arguments.
2768 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM extract, Next: SCM format-arg-count, Prev: SCM error-source-line, Up: Common Functions
2770 3.5.5 'extract' - extract text from another file
2771 ------------------------------------------------
2773 Usage: (extract file-name marker-fmt [ caveat ] [ default ])
2774 This function is used to help construct output files that may contain
2775 text that is carried from one version of the output to the next.
2777 The first two arguments are required, the second are optional:
2779 * The 'file-name' argument is used to name the file that contains the
2781 * The 'marker-fmt' is a formatting string that is used to construct
2782 the starting and ending demarcation strings. The sprintf function
2783 is given the 'marker-fmt' with two arguments. The first is either
2784 "START" or "END". The second is either "DO NOT CHANGE THIS COMMENT"
2785 or the optional 'caveat' argument.
2786 * 'caveat' is presumed to be absent if it is the empty string ('""').
2787 If absent, "DO NOT CHANGE THIS COMMENT" is used as the second
2788 string argument to the 'marker-fmt'.
2789 * When a 'default' argument is supplied and no pre-existing text is
2790 found, then this text will be inserted between the START and END
2793 The resulting strings are presumed to be unique within the subject file.
2794 As a simplified example:
2796 [+ (extract "fname" "// %s - SOMETHING - %s" ""
2797 "example default") +]
2798 will result in the following text being inserted into the output:
2800 // START - SOMETHING - DO NOT CHANGE THIS COMMENT
2802 // END - SOMETHING - DO NOT CHANGE THIS COMMENT
2804 The "'example default'" string can then be carried forward to the next
2805 generation of the output, *provided* the output is not named "'fname'"
2806 and the old output is renamed to "'fname'" before AutoGen-eration
2810 You can set aside previously generated source files inside the
2811 pseudo macro with a Guile/scheme function, extract the text you
2812 want to keep with this extract function. Just remember you should
2813 delete it at the end, too. Here is an example from my Finite State
2816 [+ AutoGen5 Template -*- Mode: text -*-
2817 h=%s-fsm.h c=%s-fsm.c
2819 "test -f %1$s-fsm.h && mv -f %1$s-fsm.h .fsm.head
2820 test -f %1$s-fsm.c && mv -f %1$s-fsm.c .fsm.code" (base-name))
2823 This code will move the two previously produced output files to
2824 files named ".fsm.head" and ".fsm.code". At the end of the 'c'
2825 output processing, I delete them.
2828 This function presumes that the output file ought to be editable so
2829 that the code between the 'START' and 'END' marks can be edited by
2830 the template user. Consequently, when the '(extract ...)' function
2831 is invoked, if the 'writable' option has not been specified, then
2832 it will be set at that point. If this is not the desired behavior,
2833 the '--not-writable' command line option will override this. Also,
2834 you may use the guile function '(chmod "file" mode-value)' to
2835 override whatever AutoGen is using for the result mode.
2838 file-name - name of file with text
2839 marker-fmt - format for marker text
2840 caveat - Optional - warn about changing marker
2841 default - Optional - default initial text
2844 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM format-arg-count, Next: SCM fprintf, Prev: SCM extract, Up: Common Functions
2846 3.5.6 'format-arg-count' - count the args to a format
2847 -----------------------------------------------------
2849 Usage: (format-arg-count format)
2850 Sometimes, it is useful to simply be able to figure out how many
2851 arguments are required by a format string. For example, if you are
2852 extracting a format string for the purpose of generating a macro to
2853 invoke a printf-like function, you can run the formatting string through
2854 this function to determine how many arguments to provide for in the
2855 macro. e.g. for this extraction text:
2858 * fmt: 'stumble %s: %d\n'
2861 You may wish to generate a macro:
2863 #define BUMBLE(a1,a2) printf_like(something,(a1),(a2))
2865 You can do this by knowing that the format needs two arguments.
2868 format - formatting string
2871 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM fprintf, Next: SCM gperf, Prev: SCM format-arg-count, Up: Common Functions
2873 3.5.7 'fprintf' - format to a file
2874 ----------------------------------
2876 Usage: (fprintf port format [ format-arg ... ])
2877 Format a string using arguments from the alist. Write to a specified
2878 port. The result will NOT appear in your output. Use this to print
2879 information messages to a template user.
2882 port - Guile-scheme output port
2883 format - formatting string
2884 format-arg - Optional - list of arguments to formatting string
2887 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM gperf, Next: SCM gperf-code, Prev: SCM fprintf, Up: Common Functions
2889 3.5.8 'gperf' - perform a perfect hash function
2890 -----------------------------------------------
2892 Usage: (gperf name str)
2893 Perform the perfect hash on the input string. This is only useful if
2894 you have previously created a gperf program with the 'make-gperf'
2895 function *Note SCM make-gperf::. The 'name' you supply here must match
2896 the name used to create the program and the string to hash must be one
2897 of the strings supplied in the 'make-gperf' string list. The result
2898 will be a perfect hash index.
2900 See the documentation for 'gperf(1GNU)' for more details.
2903 name - name of hash list
2904 str - string to hash
2907 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM gperf-code, Next: SCM gpl, Prev: SCM gperf, Up: Common Functions
2909 3.5.9 'gperf-code' - emit the source of the generated gperf program
2910 -------------------------------------------------------------------
2912 Usage: (gperf-code st-name)
2913 Returns the contents of the emitted code, suitable for inclusion in
2914 another program. The interface contains the following elements:
2916 'struct <st-name>_index'
2917 containg the fields: '{char const * name, int const id; };'
2920 This is the hashing function with local only scope (static).
2923 This is the searching and validation function. The first argument
2924 is the string to look up, the second is its length. It returns a
2925 pointer to the corresponding '<st-name>_index' entry.
2927 Use this in your template as follows where "<st-name>" was set to be
2930 [+ (make-gperf "lookup" (join "\n" (stack "name_list")))
2931 (gperf-code "lookup") +]
2932 void my_fun(char * str) {
2933 struct lookup_index * li = lookup_find(str, strlen(str));
2934 if (li != NULL) printf("%s yields %d\n", str, li->idx);
2937 st-name - the name of the gperf hash list
2940 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM gpl, Next: SCM hide-email, Prev: SCM gperf-code, Up: Common Functions
2942 3.5.10 'gpl' - GNU General Public License
2943 -----------------------------------------
2945 Usage: (gpl prog-name prefix)
2946 Emit a string that contains the GNU General Public License. This
2947 function is now deprecated. Please *Note SCM license-description::.
2950 prog-name - name of the program under the GPL
2951 prefix - String for starting each output line
2954 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM hide-email, Next: SCM html-escape-encode, Prev: SCM gpl, Up: Common Functions
2956 3.5.11 'hide-email' - convert eaddr to javascript
2957 -------------------------------------------------
2959 Usage: (hide-email display eaddr)
2960 Hides an email address as a java scriptlett. The 'mailto:' tag and the
2961 email address are coded bytes rather than plain text. They are also
2965 display - display text
2966 eaddr - email address
2969 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM html-escape-encode, Next: SCM in?, Prev: SCM hide-email, Up: Common Functions
2971 3.5.12 'html-escape-encode' - encode html special characters
2972 ------------------------------------------------------------
2974 Usage: (html-escape-encode str)
2975 This function will replace replace the characters ''&'', ''<'' and ''>''
2976 characters with the HTML/XML escape-encoded strings ('"&"',
2977 '"<"', and '">"', respectively).
2980 str - string to make substitutions in
2983 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM in?, Next: SCM join, Prev: SCM html-escape-encode, Up: Common Functions
2985 3.5.13 'in?' - test for string in list
2986 --------------------------------------
2988 Usage: (in? test-string string-list ...)
2989 Return SCM_BOOL_T if the first argument string is found in one of the
2990 entries in the second (list-of-strings) argument.
2993 test-string - string to look for
2994 string-list - list of strings to check
2997 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM join, Next: SCM kr-string, Prev: SCM in?, Up: Common Functions
2999 3.5.14 'join' - join string list with separator
3000 -----------------------------------------------
3002 Usage: (join separator list ...)
3003 With the first argument as the separator string, joins together an
3004 a-list of strings into one long string. The list may contain nested
3005 lists, partly because you cannot always control that.
3008 separator - string to insert between entries
3009 list - list of strings to join
3012 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM kr-string, Next: SCM lgpl, Prev: SCM join, Up: Common Functions
3014 3.5.15 'kr-string' - emit string for K&R C
3015 ------------------------------------------
3017 Usage: (kr-string string)
3018 Reform a string so that, when printed, a K&R C compiler will be able to
3019 compile the data and construct a string that contains exactly what the
3020 current string contains. Many non-printing characters are replaced with
3021 escape sequences. New-lines are replaced with a backslash-n-backslash
3022 and newline sequence,
3025 string - string to reformat
3028 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM lgpl, Next: SCM license, Prev: SCM kr-string, Up: Common Functions
3030 3.5.16 'lgpl' - GNU Library General Public License
3031 --------------------------------------------------
3033 Usage: (lgpl prog_name owner prefix)
3034 Emit a string that contains the GNU Library General Public License.
3035 This function is now deprecated. Please *Note SCM
3036 license-description::.
3039 prog_name - name of the program under the LGPL
3040 owner - Grantor of the LGPL
3041 prefix - String for starting each output line
3044 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM license, Next: SCM license-description, Prev: SCM lgpl, Up: Common Functions
3046 3.5.17 'license' - an arbitrary license
3047 ---------------------------------------
3049 Usage: (license lic_name prog_name owner prefix)
3050 Emit a string that contains the named license. This function is now
3051 deprecated. Please *Note SCM license-description::.
3054 lic_name - file name of the license
3055 prog_name - name of the licensed program or library
3056 owner - Grantor of the License
3057 prefix - String for starting each output line
3060 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM license-description, Next: SCM license-full, Prev: SCM license, Up: Common Functions
3062 3.5.18 'license-description' - Emit a license description
3063 ---------------------------------------------------------
3065 Usage: (license-description license prog-name prefix [ owner ])
3066 Emit a string that contains a detailed license description, with
3067 substitutions for program name, copyright holder and a per-line prefix.
3068 This is the text typically used as part of a source file header. For
3069 more details, *Note the license-full command: SCM license-full.
3072 license - name of license type
3073 prog-name - name of the program under the GPL
3074 prefix - String for starting each output line
3075 owner - Optional - owner of the program
3078 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM license-full, Next: SCM license-info, Prev: SCM license-description, Up: Common Functions
3080 3.5.19 'license-full' - Emit the licensing information and description
3081 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
3083 Usage: (license-full license prog-name prefix [ owner ] [ years ])
3084 Emit all the text that 'license-info' and 'license-description' would
3085 emit (*note 'license-info': SCM license-info, and *note
3086 'license-description': SCM license-description.), with all the same
3089 All of these depend upon the existence of a license file named after
3090 the 'license' argument with a '.lic' suffix. That file should contain
3091 three blocks of text, each separated by two or more consecutive newline
3092 characters (at least one completely blank line).
3094 The first section describes copyright attribution and the name of the
3095 usage licence. For GNU software, this should be the text that is to be
3096 displayed with the program version. Four text markers can be replaced:
3097 <PFX>, <program>, <years> and <owner>.
3099 The second section is a short description of the terms of the
3100 license. This is typically the kind of text that gets displayed in the
3101 header of source files. Only the <PFX>, <owner> and <program> markers
3104 The third section is strictly the name of the license. No marker
3105 substitutions are performed.
3107 <PFX>Copyright (C) <years> <owner>, all rights reserved.
3109 <PFX>This is free software. It is licensed for use,
3110 <PFX>modification and redistribution under the terms
3111 <PFX>of the GNU General Public License, version 3 or later
3112 <PFX> <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
3114 <PFX><program> is free software: you can redistribute it
3115 <PFX>and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
3116 <PFX>Public License as published by the Free Software ...
3118 the GNU General Public License, version 3 or later
3121 license - name of license type
3122 prog-name - name of the program under the GPL
3123 prefix - String for starting each output line
3124 owner - Optional - owner of the program
3125 years - Optional - copyright years
3128 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM license-info, Next: SCM license-name, Prev: SCM license-full, Up: Common Functions
3130 3.5.20 'license-info' - Emit the licensing information and copyright years
3131 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
3133 Usage: (license-info license prog-name prefix [ owner ] [ years ])
3134 Emit a string that contains the licensing description, with some
3135 substitutions for program name, copyright holder, a list of years when
3136 the source was modified, and a per-line prefix. This text typically
3137 includes a brief license description and is often printed out when a
3138 program starts running or as part of the '--version' output. For more
3139 details, *Note the license-full command: SCM license-full.
3142 license - name of license type
3143 prog-name - name of the program under the GPL
3144 prefix - String for starting each output line
3145 owner - Optional - owner of the program
3146 years - Optional - copyright years
3149 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM license-name, Next: SCM make-gperf, Prev: SCM license-info, Up: Common Functions
3151 3.5.21 'license-name' - Emit the name of the license
3152 ----------------------------------------------------
3154 Usage: (license-name license)
3155 Emit a string that contains the full name of the license.
3158 license - name of license type
3161 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM make-gperf, Next: SCM makefile-script, Prev: SCM license-name, Up: Common Functions
3163 3.5.22 'make-gperf' - build a perfect hash function program
3164 -----------------------------------------------------------
3166 Usage: (make-gperf name strings ...)
3167 Build a program to perform perfect hashes of a known list of input
3168 strings. This function produces no output, but prepares a program
3169 named, 'gperf_<name>' for use by the gperf function *Note SCM gperf::.
3171 This program will be obliterated as AutoGen exits. However, you may
3172 incorporate the generated hashing function into your C program with
3173 commands something like the following:
3175 [+ (shellf "sed '/^int main(/,$d;/^#line/d' ${gpdir}/%s.c"
3178 where 'name' matches the name provided to this 'make-perf' function.
3179 'gpdir' is the variable used to store the name of the temporary
3180 directory used to stash all the files.
3183 name - name of hash list
3184 strings - list of strings to hash
3187 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM makefile-script, Next: SCM max, Prev: SCM make-gperf, Up: Common Functions
3189 3.5.23 'makefile-script' - create makefile script
3190 -------------------------------------------------
3192 Usage: (makefile-script text)
3193 This function will take ordinary shell script text and reformat it so
3194 that it will work properly inside of a makefile shell script. Not every
3195 shell construct can be supported; the intent is to have most ordinary
3196 scripts work without much, if any, alteration.
3198 The following transformations are performed on the source text:
3200 1. Trailing whitespace on each line is stripped.
3202 2. Except for the last line, the string, " ; \\" is appended to the
3203 end of every line that does not end with certain special characters
3204 or keywords. Note that this will mutilate multi-line quoted
3205 strings, but 'make' renders it impossible to use multi-line
3208 3. If the line ends with a backslash, it is left alone.
3210 4. If the line ends with a semi-colon, conjunction operator, pipe
3211 (vertical bar) or one of the keywords "then", "else" or "in", then
3212 a space and a backslash is added, but no semi-colon.
3214 5. The dollar sign character is doubled, unless it immediately
3215 precedes an opening parenthesis or the single character make macros
3216 '*', '<', '@', '?' or '%'. Other single character make macros
3217 that do not have enclosing parentheses will fail. For shell usage
3218 of the "$@", "$?" and "$*" macros, you must enclose them with
3219 curly braces, e.g., "${?}". The ksh construct '$(<command>)' will
3220 not work. Though some 'make's accept '${var}' constructs, this
3221 function will assume it is for shell interpretation and double the
3222 dollar character. You must use '$(var)' for all 'make'
3225 6. Double dollar signs are replaced by four before the next character
3228 7. Every line is prefixed with a tab, unless the first line already
3231 8. The newline character on the last line, if present, is suppressed.
3233 9. Blank lines are stripped.
3235 10. Lines starting with "@ifdef", "@ifndef", "@else" and "@endif" are
3236 presumed to be autoconf "sed" expression tags. These lines will be
3237 emitted as-is, with no tab prefix and no line splicing backslash.
3238 These lines can then be processed at configure time with
3239 'AC_CONFIG_FILES' sed expressions, similar to:
3241 sed "/^@ifdef foo/d;/^@endif foo/d;/^@ifndef foo/,/^@endif foo/d"
3243 This function is intended to be used approximately as follows:
3245 $(TARGET) : $(DEPENDENCIES)
3246 <+ (out-push-new) +>
3247 ....mostly arbitrary shell script text....
3248 <+ (makefile-script (out-pop #t)) +>
3251 text - the text of the script
3254 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM max, Next: SCM min, Prev: SCM makefile-script, Up: Common Functions
3256 3.5.24 'max' - maximum value in list
3257 ------------------------------------
3259 Usage: (max list ...)
3260 Return the maximum value in the list
3263 list - list of values. Strings are converted to numbers
3266 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM min, Next: SCM prefix, Prev: SCM max, Up: Common Functions
3268 3.5.25 'min' - minimum value in list
3269 ------------------------------------
3271 Usage: (min list ...)
3272 Return the minimum value in the list
3275 list - list of values. Strings are converted to numbers
3278 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM prefix, Next: SCM printf, Prev: SCM min, Up: Common Functions
3280 3.5.26 'prefix' - prefix lines with a string
3281 --------------------------------------------
3283 Usage: (prefix prefix text)
3284 Prefix every line in the second string with the first string. This
3285 includes empty lines. Trailing white space will be removed so if the
3286 prefix is all horizontal white space, then it will be removed from
3287 otherwise blank lines. Also, if the last character is a newline, then
3288 *two* prefixes will be inserted into the result text.
3290 For example, if the first string is "# " and the second contains:
3292 The result string will contain:
3297 The last line will be incomplete: no newline and no space after the
3298 hash character, either.
3301 prefix - string to insert at start of each line
3302 text - multi-line block of text
3305 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM printf, Next: SCM raw-shell-str, Prev: SCM prefix, Up: Common Functions
3307 3.5.27 'printf' - format to stdout
3308 ----------------------------------
3310 Usage: (printf format [ format-arg ... ])
3311 Format a string using arguments from the alist. Write to the standard
3312 out port. The result will NOT appear in your output. Use this to print
3313 information messages to a template user. Use "(sprintf ...)" to add
3314 text to your document.
3317 format - formatting string
3318 format-arg - Optional - list of arguments to formatting string
3321 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM raw-shell-str, Next: SCM shell, Prev: SCM printf, Up: Common Functions
3323 3.5.28 'raw-shell-str' - single quote shell string
3324 --------------------------------------------------
3326 Usage: (raw-shell-str string)
3327 Convert the text of the string into a singly quoted string that a normal
3328 shell will process into the original string. (It will not do macro
3329 expansion later, either.) Contained single quotes become tripled, with
3330 the middle quote escaped with a backslash. Normal shells will
3331 reconstitute the original string.
3333 *Notice*: some shells will not correctly handle unusual non-printing
3334 characters. This routine works for most reasonably conventional ASCII
3338 string - string to transform
3341 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM shell, Next: SCM shell-str, Prev: SCM raw-shell-str, Up: Common Functions
3343 3.5.29 'shell' - invoke a shell script
3344 --------------------------------------
3346 Usage: (shell command ...)
3347 Generate a string by writing the value to a server shell and reading the
3348 output back in. The template programmer is responsible for ensuring
3349 that it completes within 10 seconds. If it does not, the server will be
3350 killed, the output tossed and a new server started.
3352 Please note: This is the same server process used by the '#shell'
3353 definitions directive and backquoted '`' definitions. There may be left
3354 over state from previous shell expressions and the '`' processing in the
3355 declarations. However, a 'cd' to the original directory is always
3356 issued before the new command is issued.
3358 Also note: When initializing, autogen will set the environment
3359 variable "AGexe" to the full path of the autogen executable.
3362 command - shell command - the result is from stdout
3365 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM shell-str, Next: SCM shellf, Prev: SCM shell, Up: Common Functions
3367 3.5.30 'shell-str' - double quote shell string
3368 ----------------------------------------------
3370 Usage: (shell-str string)
3371 Convert the text of the string into a double quoted string that a normal
3372 shell will process into the original string, almost. It will add the
3373 escape character '\\' before two special characters to accomplish this:
3374 the backslash '\\' and double quote '"'.
3376 *Notice*: some shells will not correctly handle unusual non-printing
3377 characters. This routine works for most reasonably conventional ASCII
3381 This function omits the extra backslash in front of a backslash,
3382 however, if it is followed by either a backquote or a dollar sign. It
3383 must do this because otherwise it would be impossible to protect the
3384 dollar sign or backquote from shell evaluation. Consequently, it is not
3385 possible to render the strings "\\$" or "\\'". The lesser of two evils.
3387 All others characters are copied directly into the output.
3389 The 'sub-shell-str' variation of this routine behaves identically,
3390 except that the extra backslash is omitted in front of '"' instead of
3391 '`'. You have to think about it. I'm open to suggestions.
3393 Meanwhile, the best way to document is with a detailed output
3394 example. If the backslashes make it through the text processing
3395 correctly, below you will see what happens with three example strings.
3396 The first example string contains a list of quoted 'foo's, the second is
3397 the same with a single backslash before the quote characters and the
3398 last is with two backslash escapes. Below each is the result of the
3399 'raw-shell-str', 'shell-str' and 'sub-shell-str' functions.
3401 foo[0] ''foo'' 'foo' "foo" `foo` $foo
3402 raw-shell-str -> \'\''foo'\'\'' '\''foo'\'' "foo" `foo` $foo'
3403 shell-str -> "''foo'' 'foo' \"foo\" `foo` $foo"
3404 sub-shell-str -> `''foo'' 'foo' "foo" \`foo\` $foo`
3406 foo[1] \'bar\' \"bar\" \`bar\` \$bar
3407 raw-shell-str -> '\'\''bar\'\'' \"bar\" \`bar\` \$bar'
3408 shell-str -> "\\'bar\\' \\\"bar\\\" \`bar\` \$bar"
3409 sub-shell-str -> `\\'bar\\' \"bar\" \\\`bar\\\` \$bar`
3411 foo[2] \\'BAZ\\' \\"BAZ\\" \\`BAZ\\` \\$BAZ
3412 raw-shell-str -> '\\'\''BAZ\\'\'' \\"BAZ\\" \\`BAZ\\` \\$BAZ'
3413 shell-str -> "\\\\'BAZ\\\\' \\\\\"BAZ\\\\\" \\\`BAZ\\\` \\\$BAZ"
3414 sub-shell-str -> `\\\\'BAZ\\\\' \\\"BAZ\\\" \\\\\`BAZ\\\\\` \\\$BAZ`
3416 There should be four, three, five and three backslashes for the four
3417 examples on the last line, respectively. The next to last line should
3418 have four, five, three and three backslashes. If this was not
3419 accurately reproduced, take a look at the agen5/test/shell.test test.
3420 Notice the backslashes in front of the dollar signs. It goes from zero
3421 to one to three for the "cooked" string examples.
3424 string - string to transform
3427 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM shellf, Next: SCM sprintf, Prev: SCM shell-str, Up: Common Functions
3429 3.5.31 'shellf' - format a string, run shell
3430 --------------------------------------------
3432 Usage: (shellf format [ format-arg ... ])
3433 Format a string using arguments from the alist, then send the result to
3434 the shell for interpretation.
3437 format - formatting string
3438 format-arg - Optional - list of arguments to formatting string
3441 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM sprintf, Next: SCM string-capitalize, Prev: SCM shellf, Up: Common Functions
3443 3.5.32 'sprintf' - format a string
3444 ----------------------------------
3446 Usage: (sprintf format [ format-arg ... ])
3447 Format a string using arguments from the alist.
3450 format - formatting string
3451 format-arg - Optional - list of arguments to formatting string
3454 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM string-capitalize, Next: SCM string-capitalize!, Prev: SCM sprintf, Up: Common Functions
3456 3.5.33 'string-capitalize' - capitalize a new string
3457 ----------------------------------------------------
3459 Usage: (string-capitalize str)
3460 Create a new SCM string containing the same text as the original, only
3461 all the first letter of each word is upper cased and all other letters
3462 are made lower case.
3468 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM string-capitalize!, Next: SCM *=*, Prev: SCM string-capitalize, Up: Common Functions
3470 3.5.34 'string-capitalize!' - capitalize a string
3471 -------------------------------------------------
3473 Usage: (string-capitalize! str)
3474 capitalize all the words in an SCM string.
3477 str - input/output string
3480 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM *=*, Next: SCM *==*, Prev: SCM string-capitalize!, Up: Common Functions
3482 3.5.35 'string-contains-eqv?' - caseless substring
3483 --------------------------------------------------
3485 Usage: (*=* text match)
3486 string-contains-eqv?: Test to see if a string contains an equivalent
3487 string. 'equivalent' means the strings match, but without regard to
3488 character case and certain characters are considered 'equivalent'.
3489 Viz., '-', '_' and '^' are equivalent.
3492 text - text to test for pattern
3493 match - pattern/substring to search for
3496 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM *==*, Next: SCM string-downcase, Prev: SCM *=*, Up: Common Functions
3498 3.5.36 'string-contains?' - substring match
3499 -------------------------------------------
3501 Usage: (*==* text match)
3502 string-contains?: Test to see if a string contains a substring.
3503 "strstr(3)" will find an address.
3506 text - text to test for pattern
3507 match - pattern/substring to search for
3510 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM string-downcase, Next: SCM string-downcase!, Prev: SCM *==*, Up: Common Functions
3512 3.5.37 'string-downcase' - lower case a new string
3513 --------------------------------------------------
3515 Usage: (string-downcase str)
3516 Create a new SCM string containing the same text as the original, only
3517 all the upper case letters are changed to lower case.
3523 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM string-downcase!, Next: SCM *~, Prev: SCM string-downcase, Up: Common Functions
3525 3.5.38 'string-downcase!' - make a string be lower case
3526 -------------------------------------------------------
3528 Usage: (string-downcase! str)
3529 Change to lower case all the characters in an SCM string.
3532 str - input/output string
3535 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM *~, Next: SCM *~~, Prev: SCM string-downcase!, Up: Common Functions
3537 3.5.39 'string-end-eqv-match?' - caseless regex ending
3538 ------------------------------------------------------
3540 Usage: (*~ text match)
3541 string-end-eqv-match?: Test to see if a string ends with a pattern.
3542 Case is not significant.
3545 text - text to test for pattern
3546 match - pattern/substring to search for
3549 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM *~~, Next: SCM *=, Prev: SCM *~, Up: Common Functions
3551 3.5.40 'string-end-match?' - regex match end
3552 --------------------------------------------
3554 Usage: (*~~ text match)
3555 string-end-match?: Test to see if a string ends with a pattern. Case is
3559 text - text to test for pattern
3560 match - pattern/substring to search for
3563 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM *=, Next: SCM *==, Prev: SCM *~~, Up: Common Functions
3565 3.5.41 'string-ends-eqv?' - caseless string ending
3566 --------------------------------------------------
3568 Usage: (*= text match)
3569 string-ends-eqv?: Test to see if a string ends with an equivalent
3573 text - text to test for pattern
3574 match - pattern/substring to search for
3577 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM *==, Next: SCM ==, Prev: SCM *=, Up: Common Functions
3579 3.5.42 'string-ends-with?' - string ending
3580 ------------------------------------------
3582 Usage: (*== text match)
3583 string-ends-with?: Test to see if a string ends with a substring.
3584 strcmp(3) returns zero for comparing the string ends.
3587 text - text to test for pattern
3588 match - pattern/substring to search for
3591 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM ==, Next: SCM ~, Prev: SCM *==, Up: Common Functions
3593 3.5.43 'string-equals?' - string matching
3594 -----------------------------------------
3596 Usage: (== text match)
3597 string-equals?: Test to see if two strings exactly match.
3600 text - text to test for pattern
3601 match - pattern/substring to search for
3604 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM ~, Next: SCM =, Prev: SCM ==, Up: Common Functions
3606 3.5.44 'string-eqv-match?' - caseless regex match
3607 -------------------------------------------------
3609 Usage: (~ text match)
3610 string-eqv-match?: Test to see if a string fully matches a pattern.
3611 Case is not significant, but any character equivalences must be
3612 expressed in your regular expression.
3615 text - text to test for pattern
3616 match - pattern/substring to search for
3619 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM =, Next: SCM *~*, Prev: SCM ~, Up: Common Functions
3621 3.5.45 'string-eqv?' - caseless match
3622 -------------------------------------
3624 Usage: (= text match)
3625 string-eqv?: Test to see if two strings are equivalent. 'equivalent'
3626 means the strings match, but without regard to character case and
3627 certain characters are considered 'equivalent'. Viz., '-', '_' and '^'
3628 are equivalent. If the arguments are not strings, then the result of
3629 the numeric comparison is returned.
3631 This is an overloaded operation. If the arguments are both numbers,
3632 then the query is passed through to 'scm_num_eq_p()', otherwise the
3633 result depends on the SCMs being strictly equal.
3636 text - text to test for pattern
3637 match - pattern/substring to search for
3640 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM *~*, Next: SCM *~~*, Prev: SCM =, Up: Common Functions
3642 3.5.46 'string-has-eqv-match?' - caseless regex contains
3643 --------------------------------------------------------
3645 Usage: (*~* text match)
3646 string-has-eqv-match?: Test to see if a string contains a pattern. Case
3650 text - text to test for pattern
3651 match - pattern/substring to search for
3654 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM *~~*, Next: SCM ~~, Prev: SCM *~*, Up: Common Functions
3656 3.5.47 'string-has-match?' - contained regex match
3657 --------------------------------------------------
3659 Usage: (*~~* text match)
3660 string-has-match?: Test to see if a string contains a pattern. Case is
3664 text - text to test for pattern
3665 match - pattern/substring to search for
3668 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM ~~, Next: SCM ~*, Prev: SCM *~~*, Up: Common Functions
3670 3.5.48 'string-match?' - regex match
3671 ------------------------------------
3673 Usage: (~~ text match)
3674 string-match?: Test to see if a string fully matches a pattern. Case is
3678 text - text to test for pattern
3679 match - pattern/substring to search for
3682 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM ~*, Next: SCM ~~*, Prev: SCM ~~, Up: Common Functions
3684 3.5.49 'string-start-eqv-match?' - caseless regex start
3685 -------------------------------------------------------
3687 Usage: (~* text match)
3688 string-start-eqv-match?: Test to see if a string starts with a pattern.
3689 Case is not significant.
3692 text - text to test for pattern
3693 match - pattern/substring to search for
3696 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM ~~*, Next: SCM =*, Prev: SCM ~*, Up: Common Functions
3698 3.5.50 'string-start-match?' - regex match start
3699 ------------------------------------------------
3701 Usage: (~~* text match)
3702 string-start-match?: Test to see if a string starts with a pattern.
3703 Case is significant.
3706 text - text to test for pattern
3707 match - pattern/substring to search for
3710 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM =*, Next: SCM ==*, Prev: SCM ~~*, Up: Common Functions
3712 3.5.51 'string-starts-eqv?' - caseless string start
3713 ---------------------------------------------------
3715 Usage: (=* text match)
3716 string-starts-eqv?: Test to see if a string starts with an equivalent
3720 text - text to test for pattern
3721 match - pattern/substring to search for
3724 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM ==*, Next: SCM string-substitute, Prev: SCM =*, Up: Common Functions
3726 3.5.52 'string-starts-with?' - string starting
3727 ----------------------------------------------
3729 Usage: (==* text match)
3730 string-starts-with?: Test to see if a string starts with a substring.
3733 text - text to test for pattern
3734 match - pattern/substring to search for
3737 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM string-substitute, Next: SCM string-table-add, Prev: SCM ==*, Up: Common Functions
3739 3.5.53 'string-substitute' - multiple global replacements
3740 ---------------------------------------------------------
3742 Usage: (string-substitute source match repl)
3743 'match' and 'repl' may be either a single string or a list of strings.
3744 Either way, they must have the same structure and number of elements.
3745 For example, to replace all amphersands, less than and greater than
3746 characters, do something like this:
3748 (string-substitute source
3750 (list "&" "<" ">"))
3753 source - string to transform
3754 match - substring or substring list to be replaced
3755 repl - replacement strings or substrings
3758 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM string-table-add, Next: SCM string-table-add-ref, Prev: SCM string-substitute, Up: Common Functions
3760 3.5.54 'string-table-add' - Add an entry to a string table
3761 ----------------------------------------------------------
3763 Usage: (string-table-add st-name str-val)
3764 Check for a duplicate string and, if none, then insert a new string into
3765 the string table. In all cases, returns the character index of the
3766 beginning of the string in the table.
3768 The returned index can be used in expressions like:
3769 string_array + <returned-value>
3770 that will yield the address of the first byte of the inserted string.
3771 See the 'strtable.test' AutoGen test for a usage example.
3774 st-name - the name of the array of characters
3775 str-val - the (possibly) new value to add
3778 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM string-table-add-ref, Next: SCM string-table-new, Prev: SCM string-table-add, Up: Common Functions
3780 3.5.55 'string-table-add-ref' - Add an entry to a string table, get reference
3781 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3783 Usage: (string-table-add-ref st-name str-val)
3784 Identical to string-table-add, except the value returned is the string
3785 "st-name" '+' and the index returned by string-table-add.
3788 st-name - the name of the array of characters
3789 str-val - the (possibly) new value to add
3792 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM string-table-new, Next: SCM string-table-size, Prev: SCM string-table-add-ref, Up: Common Functions
3794 3.5.56 'string-table-new' - create a string table
3795 -------------------------------------------------
3797 Usage: (string-table-new st-name)
3798 This function will create an array of characters. The companion
3799 functions, (*Note SCM string-table-add::, *Note SCM
3800 string-table-add-ref::, and *note SCM emit-string-table::) will insert
3801 text and emit the populated table.
3803 With these functions, it should be much easier to construct
3804 structures containing string offsets instead of string pointers. That
3805 can be very useful when transmitting, storing or sharing data with
3806 different address spaces.
3808 Here is a brief example copied from the strtable.test test:
3810 [+ (string-table-new "scribble")
3811 (out-push-new) ;; redirect output to temporary
3814 FOR str IN that was the week that was +][+
3817 [+ (string-table-add-ref "scribble" (get "str")) +],[+
3819 [+ (out-suspend "main")
3820 (emit-string-table "scribble")
3821 (ag-fprintf 0 "\nchar const *ap[%d] = {" ct)
3823 (out-pop #t) ;; now dump out the redirected output +]
3828 I added the '(out-push-new)' because the string table text is diverted
3829 into an output stream named, "scribble" and I want to have the string
3830 table emitted before the string table references. The string table
3831 references are also emitted inside the 'FOR' loop. So, when the loop is
3832 done, the current output is suspended under the name, "main" and the
3833 "scribble" table is then emitted into the primary output.
3834 ('emit-string-table' inserts its output directly into the current output
3835 stream. It does not need to be the last function in an AutoGen macro
3836 block.) Next I 'ag-fprintf' the array-of-pointer declaration directly
3837 into the current output. Finally I restore the "main" output stream and
3838 '(out-pop #t)'-it into the main output stream.
3840 Here is the result. Note that duplicate strings are not repeated in
3843 static char const scribble[18] =
3844 "that\0" "was\0" "the\0" "week\0";
3846 char const *ap[7] = {
3855 These functions use the global name space 'stt-*' in addition to the
3858 If you utilize this in your programming, it is recommended that you
3859 prevent printf format usage warnings with the GCC option
3860 '-Wno-format-contains-nul'
3863 st-name - the name of the array of characters
3866 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM string-table-size, Next: SCM string->c-name!, Prev: SCM string-table-new, Up: Common Functions
3868 3.5.57 'string-table-size' - print the current size of a string table
3869 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
3871 Usage: (string-table-size st-name)
3872 Returns the current byte count of the string table.
3875 st-name - the name of the array of characters
3878 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM string->c-name!, Next: SCM string->camelcase, Prev: SCM string-table-size, Up: Common Functions
3880 3.5.58 'string->c-name!' - map non-name chars to underscore
3881 -----------------------------------------------------------
3883 Usage: (string->c-name! str)
3884 Change all the graphic characters that are invalid in a C name token
3885 into underscores. Whitespace characters are ignored. Any other
3886 character type (i.e. non-graphic and non-white) will cause a failure.
3889 str - input/output string
3892 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM string->camelcase, Next: SCM string-tr, Prev: SCM string->c-name!, Up: Common Functions
3894 3.5.59 'string->camelcase' - make a string be CamelCase
3895 -------------------------------------------------------
3897 Usage: (string->camelcase str)
3898 Capitalize the first letter of each block of letters and numbers, and
3899 stripping out characters that are not alphanumerics. For example,
3900 "alpha-beta0gamma" becomes "AlphaBeta0gamma".
3903 str - input/output string
3906 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM string-tr, Next: SCM string-tr!, Prev: SCM string->camelcase, Up: Common Functions
3908 3.5.60 'string-tr' - convert characters with new result
3909 -------------------------------------------------------
3911 Usage: (string-tr source match translation)
3912 This is identical to 'string-tr!', except that it does not over-write
3916 source - string to transform
3917 match - characters to be converted
3918 translation - conversion list
3921 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM string-tr!, Next: SCM string-upcase, Prev: SCM string-tr, Up: Common Functions
3923 3.5.61 'string-tr!' - convert characters
3924 ----------------------------------------
3926 Usage: (string-tr! source match translation)
3927 This is the same as the 'tr(1)' program, except the string to transform
3928 is the first argument. The second and third arguments are used to
3929 construct mapping arrays for the transformation of the first argument.
3931 It is too bad this little program has so many different and
3932 incompatible implementations!
3935 source - string to transform
3936 match - characters to be converted
3937 translation - conversion list
3940 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM string-upcase, Next: SCM string-upcase!, Prev: SCM string-tr!, Up: Common Functions
3942 3.5.62 'string-upcase' - upper case a new string
3943 ------------------------------------------------
3945 Usage: (string-upcase str)
3946 Create a new SCM string containing the same text as the original, only
3947 all the lower case letters are changed to upper case.
3953 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM string-upcase!, Next: SCM sub-shell-str, Prev: SCM string-upcase, Up: Common Functions
3955 3.5.63 'string-upcase!' - make a string be upper case
3956 -----------------------------------------------------
3958 Usage: (string-upcase! str)
3959 Change to upper case all the characters in an SCM string.
3962 str - input/output string
3965 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM sub-shell-str, Next: SCM sum, Prev: SCM string-upcase!, Up: Common Functions
3967 3.5.64 'sub-shell-str' - back quoted (sub-)shell string
3968 -------------------------------------------------------
3970 Usage: (sub-shell-str string)
3971 This function is substantially identical to 'shell-str', except that the
3972 quoting character is '`' and the "leave the escape alone" character is
3976 string - string to transform
3979 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM sum, Next: SCM time-string->number, Prev: SCM sub-shell-str, Up: Common Functions
3981 3.5.65 'sum' - sum of values in list
3982 ------------------------------------
3984 Usage: (sum list ...)
3985 Compute the sum of the list of expressions.
3988 list - list of values. Strings are converted to numbers
3991 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM time-string->number, Next: SCM version-compare, Prev: SCM sum, Up: Common Functions
3993 3.5.66 'time-string->number' - duration string to seconds
3994 ---------------------------------------------------------
3996 Usage: (time-string->number time_spec)
3997 Convert the argument string to a time period in seconds. The string may
3998 use multiple parts consisting of days, hours minutes and seconds. These
3999 are indicated with a suffix of 'd', 'h', 'm' and 's' respectively.
4000 Hours, minutes and seconds may also be represented with 'HH:MM:SS' or,
4001 without hours, as 'MM:SS'.
4004 time_spec - string to parse
4007 File: autogen.info, Node: SCM version-compare, Prev: SCM time-string->number, Up: Common Functions
4009 3.5.67 'version-compare' - compare two version numbers
4010 ------------------------------------------------------
4012 Usage: (version-compare op v1 v2)
4013 Converts v1 and v2 strings into 64 bit values and returns the result of
4014 running 'op' on those values. It assumes that the version is a 1 to 4
4015 part dot-separated series of numbers. Suffixes like, "5pre4" or
4016 "5-pre4" will be interpreted as two numbers. The first number ("5" in
4017 this case) will be decremented and the number after the "pre" will be
4018 added to 0xC000. (Unless your platform is unable to support 64 bit
4019 integer arithmetic. Then it will be added to 0xC0.) Consequently,
4021 (version-compare > "5.8.5" "5.8.5-pre4")
4022 (version-compare > "5.8.5-pre10" "5.8.5-pre4")
4025 op - comparison operator
4027 v2 - compared-to version
4030 File: autogen.info, Node: native macros, Next: output controls, Prev: Common Functions, Up: Template File
4032 3.6 AutoGen Native Macros
4033 =========================
4035 This section describes the various AutoGen natively defined macros.
4036 Unlike the Scheme functions, some of these macros are "block macros"
4037 with a scope that extends through a terminating macro. Block macros
4038 must not overlap. That is to say, a block macro started within the
4039 scope of an encompassing block macro must have its matching end macro
4040 appear before the encompassing block macro is either ended or
4043 The block macros are these:
4046 This macro has scope through the 'ESAC' macro. The scope is
4047 subdivided by 'SELECT' macros. You must have at least one 'SELECT'
4051 This macro has scope through the 'ENDDEF' macro. The defined user
4052 macro can never be a block macro. This macro is extracted from the
4053 template before the template is processed. Consequently, you
4054 cannot select a definition based on context. You can, however,
4055 place them all at the end of the file.
4058 This macro has scope through the 'ENDFOR' macro.
4061 This macro has scope through the 'ENDIF' macro. The scope may be
4062 subdivided by 'ELIF' and 'ELSE' macros. Obviously, there may be
4063 only one 'ELSE' macro and it must be the last of these
4067 This macro has the scope of the included file. It is a block macro
4068 in the sense that the included file must not contain any incomplete
4072 This macro has scope through the 'ENDWHILE' macro.
4075 * AGMacro syntax:: AutoGen Macro Syntax
4076 * BREAK:: BREAK - Leave a FOR or WHILE macro
4077 * CASE:: CASE - Select one of several template blocks
4078 * COMMENT:: COMMENT - A block of comment to be ignored
4079 * CONTINUE:: CONTINUE - Skip to end of a FOR or WHILE macro.
4080 * DEBUG:: DEBUG - Print debug message to trace output
4081 * DEFINE:: DEFINE - Define a user AutoGen macro
4082 * ELIF:: ELIF - Alternate Conditional Template Block
4083 * ELSE:: ELSE - Alternate Template Block
4084 * ENDDEF:: ENDDEF - Ends a macro definition.
4085 * ENDFOR:: ENDFOR - Terminates the 'FOR' function template block
4086 * ENDIF:: ENDIF - Terminate the 'IF' Template Block
4087 * ENDWHILE:: ENDWHILE - Terminate the 'WHILE' Template Block
4088 * ESAC:: ESAC - Terminate the 'CASE' Template Block
4089 * EXPR:: EXPR - Evaluate and emit an Expression
4090 * FOR:: FOR - Emit a template block multiple times
4091 * IF:: IF - Conditionally Emit a Template Block
4092 * INCLUDE:: INCLUDE - Read in and emit a template block
4093 * INVOKE:: INVOKE - Invoke a User Defined Macro
4094 * RETURN:: RETURN - Leave an INVOKE-d (DEFINE) macro
4095 * SELECT:: SELECT - Selection block for CASE function
4096 * UNKNOWN:: UNKNOWN - Either a user macro or a value name.
4097 * WHILE:: WHILE - Conditionally loop over a Template Block
4098 * shell command:: Inserting text from a shell script
4099 * guile command:: Inserting text from a scheme script
4102 File: autogen.info, Node: AGMacro syntax, Next: BREAK, Up: native macros
4104 3.6.1 AutoGen Macro Syntax
4105 --------------------------
4107 The general syntax is:
4109 [ { <native-macro-name> | <user-defined-name> } ] [ <arg> ... ]
4111 The syntax for '<arg>' depends on the particular macro, but is generally
4112 a full expression (*note expression syntax::). Here are the exceptions
4113 to that general rule:
4115 1. 'INVOKE' macros, implicit or explicit, must be followed by a list
4116 of name/string value pairs. The string values are simple
4117 expressions, as described above.
4119 That is, the 'INVOKE' syntax is one of these two:
4120 <user-macro-name> [ <name> [ = <expression> ] ... ]
4122 INVOKE <name-expression> [ <name> [ = <expression> ] ... ]
4124 2. AutoGen FOR macros must be in one of three forms:
4126 FOR <name> [ <separator-string> ]
4128 FOR <name> (...Scheme expression list)
4130 FOR <name> IN <string-entry> [ ... ]
4133 must be a simple name.
4134 '<separator-string>'
4135 is inserted between copies of the enclosed block. Do not try
4136 to use "IN" as your separator string. It won't work.
4138 is an entry in a list of strings. "'<name>'" is assigned each
4139 value from the "'IN'" list before expanding the 'FOR' block.
4140 '(...Scheme expression list)'
4141 is expected to contain one or more of the 'for-from',
4142 'for-to', 'for-by', and 'for-sep' functions. (*Note FOR::,
4143 and *note AutoGen Functions::)
4145 The first two forms iterate over the 'FOR' block if '<name>' is
4146 found in the AutoGen values. The last form will create the AutoGen
4147 value named '<name>'.
4149 3. AutoGen 'DEFINE' macros must be followed by a simple name.
4150 Anything after that is ignored. Consequently, that "comment space"
4151 may be used to document any named values the macro expects to have
4152 set up as arguments. *Note DEFINE::.
4154 4. The AutoGen 'COMMENT', 'ELSE', 'ESAC' and the 'END*' macros take no
4155 arguments and ignore everything after the macro name (e.g. see
4159 File: autogen.info, Node: BREAK, Next: CASE, Prev: AGMacro syntax, Up: native macros
4161 3.6.2 BREAK - Leave a FOR or WHILE macro
4162 ----------------------------------------
4164 This will unwind the loop context and resume after ENDFOR/ENDWHILE. Note
4165 that unless this happens to be the last iteration anyway, the
4166 (last-for?) function will never yield "#t".
4169 File: autogen.info, Node: CASE, Next: COMMENT, Prev: BREAK, Up: native macros
4171 3.6.3 CASE - Select one of several template blocks
4172 --------------------------------------------------
4174 The arguments are evaluated and converted to a string, if necessary. A
4175 simple name will be interpreted as an AutoGen value name and its value
4176 will be used by the 'SELECT' macros (see the example below and the
4177 expression evaluation function, *note EXPR::). The scope of the macro
4178 is up to the matching 'ESAC' macro. Within the scope of a 'CASE', this
4179 string is matched against case selection macros. There are sixteen
4180 match macros that are derived from four different ways matches may be
4181 performed, plus an "always true", "true if the AutoGen value was found",
4182 and "true if no AutoGen value was found" matches. The codes for the
4183 nineteen match macros are formed as follows:
4185 1. Must the match start matching from the beginning of the string? If
4186 not, then the match macro code starts with an asterisk ('*').
4187 2. Must the match finish matching at the end of the string? If not,
4188 then the match macro code ends with an asterisk ('*').
4189 3. Is the match a pattern match or a string comparison? If a
4190 comparison, use an equal sign ('='). If a pattern match, use a
4192 4. Is the match case sensitive? If alphabetic case is important,
4193 double the tilde or equal sign.
4194 5. Do you need a default match when none of the others match? Use a
4195 single asterisk ('*').
4196 6. Do you need to distinguish between an empty string value and a
4197 value that was not found? Use the non-existence test ('!E') before
4198 testing a full match against an empty string ('== '''). There is
4199 also an existence test ('+E'), more for symmetry than for practical
4204 [+ CASE <full-expression> +]
4205 [+ ~~* "[Tt]est" +]reg exp must match at start, not at end
4206 [+ == "TeSt" +]a full-string, case sensitive compare
4207 [+ = "TEST" +]a full-string, case insensitive compare
4208 [+ !E +]not exists - matches if no AutoGen value found
4209 [+ == "" +]expression yielded a zero-length string
4210 [+ +E +]exists - matches if there is any value result
4211 [+ * +]always match - no testing
4214 '<full-expression>' (*note expression syntax::) may be any
4215 expression, including the use of apply-codes and value-names. If the
4216 expression yields a number, it is converted to a decimal string.
4218 These case selection codes have also been implemented as Scheme
4219 expression functions using the same codes. They are documented in this
4220 texi doc as "string-*?" predicates (*note Common Functions::).
4223 File: autogen.info, Node: COMMENT, Next: CONTINUE, Prev: CASE, Up: native macros
4225 3.6.4 COMMENT - A block of comment to be ignored
4226 ------------------------------------------------
4228 This function can be specified by the user, but there will never be a
4229 situation where it will be invoked at emit time. The macro is actually
4230 removed from the internal representation.
4232 If the native macro name code is '#', then the entire macro function
4233 is treated as a comment and ignored.
4235 [+ # say what you want, but no '+' before any ']' chars +]
4238 File: autogen.info, Node: CONTINUE, Next: DEBUG, Prev: COMMENT, Up: native macros
4240 3.6.5 CONTINUE - Skip to end of a FOR or WHILE macro.
4241 -----------------------------------------------------
4243 This will skip the remainder of the loop and start the next.
4246 File: autogen.info, Node: DEBUG, Next: DEFINE, Prev: CONTINUE, Up: native macros
4248 3.6.6 DEBUG - Print debug message to trace output
4249 -------------------------------------------------
4251 If the tracing level is at "debug-message" or above (*note autogen
4252 trace::), this macro prints a debug message to trace output. This
4253 message is not evaluated. This macro can also be used to set useful
4254 debugger breakpoints. By inserting [+DEBUG n+] into your template, you
4255 can set a debugger breakpoint on the #n case element below (in the
4256 AutoGen source) and step through the processing of interesting parts of
4259 To be useful, you have to have access to the source tree where
4260 autogen was built and the template being processed. The definitions are
4261 also helpful, but not crucial. Please contact the author if you think
4262 you might actually want to use this.
4265 File: autogen.info, Node: DEFINE, Next: ELIF, Prev: DEBUG, Up: native macros
4267 3.6.7 DEFINE - Define a user AutoGen macro
4268 ------------------------------------------
4270 This function will define a new macro. You must provide a name for the
4271 macro. You do not specify any arguments, though the invocation may
4272 specify a set of name/value pairs that are to be active during the
4273 processing of the macro.
4276 ... macro body with macro functions ...
4278 ... [+ foo bar='raw text' baz=<<text expression>> +]
4280 Once the macro has been defined, this new macro can be invoked by
4281 specifying the macro name as the first token after the start macro
4282 marker. Alternatively, you may make the invocation explicitly invoke a
4283 defined macro by specifying 'INVOKE' (*note INVOKE::) in the macro
4284 invocation. If you do that, the macro name can be computed with an
4285 expression that gets evaluated every time the INVOKE macro is
4288 Any remaining text in the macro invocation will be used to create new
4289 name/value pairs that only persist for the duration of the processing of
4290 the macro. The expressions are evaluated the same way basic expressions
4291 are evaluated. *Note expression syntax::.
4293 The resulting definitions are handled much like regular definitions,
4296 1. The values may not be compound. That is, they may not contain
4297 nested name/value pairs.
4298 2. The bindings go away when the macro is complete.
4299 3. The name/value pairs are separated by whitespace instead of
4301 4. Sequences of strings are not concatenated.
4303 *NB:* The macro is extracted from the template as the template is
4304 scanned. You cannot conditionally define a macro by enclosing it
4305 in an 'IF'/'ENDIF' (*note IF::) macro pair. If you need to
4306 dynamically select the format of a 'DEFINE'd macro, then put the
4307 flavors into separate template files that simply define macros.
4308 'INCLUDE' (*note INCLUDE::) the appropriate template when you have
4309 computed which you need.
4311 Due to this, it is acceptable and even a good idea to place all the
4312 'DEFINE' macros at the end of the template. That puts the main body of
4313 the template at the beginning of the file.
4316 File: autogen.info, Node: ELIF, Next: ELSE, Prev: DEFINE, Up: native macros
4318 3.6.8 ELIF - Alternate Conditional Template Block
4319 -------------------------------------------------
4321 This macro must only appear after an 'IF' function, and before any
4322 associated 'ELSE' or 'ENDIF' functions. It denotes the start of an
4323 alternate template block for the 'IF' function. Its expression argument
4324 is evaluated as are the arguments to 'IF'. For a complete description
4328 File: autogen.info, Node: ELSE, Next: ENDDEF, Prev: ELIF, Up: native macros
4330 3.6.9 ELSE - Alternate Template Block
4331 -------------------------------------
4333 This macro must only appear after an 'IF' function, and before the
4334 associated 'ENDIF' function. It denotes the start of an alternate
4335 template block for the 'IF' function. For a complete description *Note
4339 File: autogen.info, Node: ENDDEF, Next: ENDFOR, Prev: ELSE, Up: native macros
4341 3.6.10 ENDDEF - Ends a macro definition.
4342 ----------------------------------------
4344 This macro ends the 'DEFINE' function template block. For a complete
4345 description *Note DEFINE::.
4348 File: autogen.info, Node: ENDFOR, Next: ENDIF, Prev: ENDDEF, Up: native macros
4350 3.6.11 ENDFOR - Terminates the 'FOR' function template block
4351 ------------------------------------------------------------
4353 This macro ends the 'FOR' function template block. For a complete
4354 description *Note FOR::.
4357 File: autogen.info, Node: ENDIF, Next: ENDWHILE, Prev: ENDFOR, Up: native macros
4359 3.6.12 ENDIF - Terminate the 'IF' Template Block
4360 ------------------------------------------------
4362 This macro ends the 'IF' function template block. For a complete
4363 description *Note IF::.
4366 File: autogen.info, Node: ENDWHILE, Next: ESAC, Prev: ENDIF, Up: native macros
4368 3.6.13 ENDWHILE - Terminate the 'WHILE' Template Block
4369 ------------------------------------------------------
4371 This macro ends the 'WHILE' function template block. For a complete
4372 description *Note WHILE::.
4375 File: autogen.info, Node: ESAC, Next: EXPR, Prev: ENDWHILE, Up: native macros
4377 3.6.14 ESAC - Terminate the 'CASE' Template Block
4378 -------------------------------------------------
4380 This macro ends the 'CASE' function template block. For a complete
4381 description, *Note CASE::.
4384 File: autogen.info, Node: EXPR, Next: FOR, Prev: ESAC, Up: native macros
4386 3.6.15 EXPR - Evaluate and emit an Expression
4387 ---------------------------------------------
4389 This macro does not have a name to cause it to be invoked explicitly,
4390 though if a macro starts with one of the apply codes or one of the
4391 simple expression markers, then an expression macro is inferred. The
4392 result of the expression evaluation (*note expression syntax::) is
4393 written to the current output.
4396 File: autogen.info, Node: FOR, Next: IF, Prev: EXPR, Up: native macros
4398 3.6.16 FOR - Emit a template block multiple times
4399 -------------------------------------------------
4401 This macro has a slight variation on the standard syntax:
4402 FOR <value-name> [ <separator-string> ]
4404 FOR <value-name> (...Scheme expression list)
4406 FOR <value-name> IN "string" [ ... ]
4408 Other than for the last form, the first macro argument must be the
4409 name of an AutoGen value. If there is no value associated with the
4410 name, the 'FOR' template block is skipped entirely. The scope of the
4411 'FOR' macro extends to the corresponding 'ENDFOR' macro. The last form
4412 will create an array of string values named '<value-name>' that only
4413 exists within the context of this 'FOR' loop. With this form, in order
4414 to use a 'separator-string', you must code it into the end of the
4415 template block using the '(last-for?)' predicate function (*note SCM
4418 If there are any arguments after the 'value-name', the initial
4419 characters are used to determine the form. If the first character is
4420 either a semi-colon (';') or an opening parenthesis ('('), then it is
4421 presumed to be a Scheme expression containing the FOR macro specific
4422 functions 'for-from', 'for-by', 'for-to', and/or 'for-sep'. *Note
4423 AutoGen Functions::. If it consists of an ''i'' an ''n'' and separated
4424 by white space from more text, then the 'FOR x IN' form is processed.
4425 Otherwise, the remaining text is presumed to be a string for inserting
4426 between each iteration of the loop. This string will be emitted one
4427 time less than the number of iterations of the loop. That is, it is
4428 emitted after each loop, excepting for the last iteration.
4430 If the from/by/to functions are invoked, they will specify which
4431 copies of the named value are to be processed. If there is no copy of
4432 the named value associated with a particular index, the 'FOR' template
4433 block will be instantiated anyway. The template must use 'found-for?'
4434 (*note SCM found-for?::) or other methods for detecting missing
4435 definitions and emitting default text. In this fashion, you can insert
4436 entries from a sparse or non-zero based array into a dense, zero based
4439 *NB:* the 'for-from', 'for-to', 'for-by' and 'for-sep' functions are
4440 disabled outside of the context of the 'FOR' macro. Likewise, the
4441 'first-for?', 'last-for?' 'for-index', and 'found-for?' functions are
4442 disabled outside of the range of a 'FOR' block.
4444 *Also:* the '<value-name>' must be a single level name, not a
4445 compound name (*note naming values::).
4447 [+FOR var (for-from 0) (for-to <number>) (for-sep ",") +]
4448 ... text with various substitutions ...[+
4451 this will repeat the '... text with various substitutions ...'
4452 <number>+1 times. Each repetition, except for the last, will have a
4456 ... text with various substitutions ...[+
4459 This will do the same thing, but only for the index values of 'var' that
4460 have actually been defined.
4463 File: autogen.info, Node: IF, Next: INCLUDE, Prev: FOR, Up: native macros
4465 3.6.17 IF - Conditionally Emit a Template Block
4466 -----------------------------------------------
4468 Conditional block. Its arguments are evaluated (*note EXPR::) and if
4469 the result is non-zero or a string with one or more bytes, then the
4470 condition is true and the text from that point until a matched 'ELIF',
4471 'ELSE' or 'ENDIF' is emitted. 'ELIF' introduces a conditional
4472 alternative if the 'IF' clause evaluated FALSE and 'ELSE' introduces an
4473 unconditional alternative.
4475 [+IF <full-expression> +]
4476 emit things that are for the true condition[+
4478 ELIF <full-expression-2> +]
4479 emit things that are true maybe[+
4481 ELSE "This may be a comment" +]
4482 emit this if all but else fails[+
4484 ENDIF "This may *also* be a comment" +]
4486 '<full-expression>' may be any expression described in the 'EXPR'
4487 expression function, including the use of apply-codes and value-names.
4488 If the expression yields an empty string, it is interpreted as false.
4491 File: autogen.info, Node: INCLUDE, Next: INVOKE, Prev: IF, Up: native macros
4493 3.6.18 INCLUDE - Read in and emit a template block
4494 --------------------------------------------------
4496 The entire contents of the named file is inserted at this point. The
4497 contents of the file are processed for macro expansion. The arguments
4498 are eval-ed, so you may compute the name of the file to be included.
4499 The included file must not contain any incomplete function blocks.
4500 Function blocks are template text beginning with any of the macro
4501 functions 'CASE', 'DEFINE', 'FOR', 'IF' and 'WHILE'; extending through
4502 their respective terminating macro functions.
4505 File: autogen.info, Node: INVOKE, Next: RETURN, Prev: INCLUDE, Up: native macros
4507 3.6.19 INVOKE - Invoke a User Defined Macro
4508 -------------------------------------------
4510 User defined macros may be invoked explicitly or implicitly. If you
4511 invoke one implicitly, the macro must begin with the name of the defined
4512 macro. Consequently, this may *not* be a computed value. If you
4513 explicitly invoke a user defined macro, the macro begins with the macro
4514 name 'INVOKE' followed by a basic expression that must yield a known
4515 user defined macro. A macro name _must_ be found, or AutoGen will issue
4516 a diagnostic and exit.
4518 Arguments are passed to the invoked macro by name. The text
4519 following the macro name must consist of a series of names each of which
4520 is followed by an equal sign ('=') and a basic expression that yields a
4523 The string values may contain template macros that are parsed the
4524 first time the macro is processed and evaluated again every time the
4528 File: autogen.info, Node: RETURN, Next: SELECT, Prev: INVOKE, Up: native macros
4530 3.6.20 RETURN - Leave an INVOKE-d (DEFINE) macro
4531 ------------------------------------------------
4533 This will unwind looping constructs inside of a DEFINE-d macro and
4534 return to the invocation point. The output files and diversions are
4535 left alone. This means it is unwise to start diversions in a DEFINEd
4536 macro and RETURN from it before you have handled the diversion. Unless
4537 you are careful. Here is some rope for you. Please be careful using
4541 File: autogen.info, Node: SELECT, Next: UNKNOWN, Prev: RETURN, Up: native macros
4543 3.6.21 SELECT - Selection block for CASE function
4544 -------------------------------------------------
4546 This macro selects a block of text by matching an expression against the
4547 sample text expression evaluated in the 'CASE' macro. *Note CASE::.
4549 You do not specify a 'SELECT' macro with the word "select". Instead,
4550 you must use one of the 19 match operators described in the 'CASE' macro
4554 File: autogen.info, Node: UNKNOWN, Next: WHILE, Prev: SELECT, Up: native macros
4556 3.6.22 UNKNOWN - Either a user macro or a value name.
4557 -----------------------------------------------------
4559 The macro text has started with a name not known to AutoGen. If, at run
4560 time, it turns out to be the name of a defined macro, then that macro is
4561 invoked. If it is not, then it is a conditional expression that is
4562 evaluated only if the name is defined at the time the macro is invoked.
4564 You may not specify 'UNKNOWN' explicitly.
4567 File: autogen.info, Node: WHILE, Next: shell command, Prev: UNKNOWN, Up: native macros
4569 3.6.23 WHILE - Conditionally loop over a Template Block
4570 -------------------------------------------------------
4572 Conditionally repeated block. Its arguments are evaluated (*note
4573 EXPR::) and as long as the result is non-zero or a string with one or
4574 more bytes, then the condition is true and the text from that point
4575 until a matched 'ENDWHILE' is emitted.
4577 [+WHILE <full-expression> +]
4578 emit things that are for the true condition[+
4582 '<full-expression>' may be any expression described in the 'EXPR'
4583 expression function, including the use of apply-codes and value-names.
4584 If the expression yields an empty string, it is interpreted as false.
4587 File: autogen.info, Node: shell command, Next: guile command, Prev: WHILE, Up: native macros
4589 3.6.24 Inserting text from a shell script
4590 -----------------------------------------
4592 If the text between the start and end macro markers starts with an
4593 opening curly brace (''{'') or is surrounded by back quotes (''`''),
4594 then the text is handed off to the server shell for evaluation. The
4595 output to standard out is inserted into the document. If the text
4596 starts with the curly brace, all the text is passed off as is to the
4597 shell. If surrounded by back quotes, then the string is "cooked" before
4598 being handed off to the shell.
4601 File: autogen.info, Node: guile command, Prev: shell command, Up: native macros
4603 3.6.25 Inserting text from a scheme script
4604 ------------------------------------------
4606 If the text between the start and end macro markers starts with a
4607 semi-colon or an opening parenthesis, all the text is handed off to the
4608 Guile/scheme processor. If the last result is text or a number, it is
4609 added (as text) to the output document.
4612 File: autogen.info, Node: output controls, Prev: native macros, Up: Template File
4614 3.7 Redirecting Output
4615 ======================
4617 AutoGen provides a means for redirecting the template output to
4618 different files or, in 'M4' parlance, to various diversions. It is
4619 accomplished by providing a set of Scheme functions named 'out-*' (*note
4620 AutoGen Functions::).
4622 'out-push-new (*note SCM out-push-new::)'
4623 This allows you to logically "push" output files onto a stack. If
4624 you supply a string name, then a file by that name is created to
4625 hold the output. If you do not supply a name, then the text is
4626 written to a scratch pad and retrieved by passing a '#t' argument
4627 to the 'out-pop' (*note SCM out-pop::) function.
4629 'out-pop (*note SCM out-pop::)'
4630 This function closes the current output file and resumes output to
4631 the next one in the stack. At least one output must have been
4632 pushed onto the output stack with the 'out-push-new' (*note SCM
4633 out-push-new::) function. If '#t' is passed in as an argument,
4634 then the entire contents of the diversion (or file) is returned.
4636 'out-suspend (*note SCM out-suspend::)'
4637 This function does not close the current output, but instead sets
4638 it aside for resumption by the given name with 'out-resume'. The
4639 current output must have been pushed on the output queue with
4640 'out-push-new' (*note SCM out-push-new::).
4642 'out-resume (*note SCM out-resume::)'
4643 This will put a named file descriptor back onto the top of stack so
4644 that it becomes the current output again.
4646 'out-switch (*note SCM out-switch::)'
4647 This closes the current output and creates a new file, purging any
4648 preexisting one. This is a shortcut for "pop" followed by "push",
4649 but this can also be done at the base level.
4651 'out-move (*note SCM out-move::)'
4652 Renames the current output file without closing it.
4654 There are also several functions for determining the output status.
4655 *Note AutoGen Functions::.
4658 File: autogen.info, Node: Augmenting AutoGen, Next: autogen Invocation, Prev: Template File, Up: Top
4660 4 Augmenting AutoGen Features
4661 *****************************
4663 AutoGen was designed to be simple to enhance. You can do it by
4664 providing shell commands, Guile/Scheme macros or callout functions that
4665 can be invoked as a Guile macro. Here is how you do these.
4669 * shell commands:: Shell Output Commands
4670 * guile macros:: Guile Macros
4671 * guile callouts:: Guile Callout Functions
4672 * AutoGen macros:: AutoGen Macros
4675 File: autogen.info, Node: shell commands, Next: guile macros, Up: Augmenting AutoGen
4677 4.1 Shell Output Commands
4678 =========================
4680 Shell commands are run inside of a server process. This means that,
4681 unlike 'make', context is kept from one command to the next.
4682 Consequently, you can define a shell function in one place inside of
4683 your template and invoke it in another. You may also store values in
4684 shell variables for later reference. If you load functions from a file
4685 containing shell functions, they will remain until AutoGen exits.
4687 If your shell script should determine that AutoGen should stop
4688 processing, the recommended method for stopping AutoGen is:
4689 die "some error text"
4691 That is a shell function added by AutoGen. It will send a SIGTERM to
4692 autogen and exit from the "persistent" shell.
4695 File: autogen.info, Node: guile macros, Next: guile callouts, Prev: shell commands, Up: Augmenting AutoGen
4700 Guile also maintains context from one command to the next. This means
4701 you may define functions and variables in one place and reference them
4702 elsewhere. If your Scheme script should determine that AutoGen should
4703 stop processing, the recommended method for stopping AutoGen is:
4704 (error "some error text")
4707 File: autogen.info, Node: guile callouts, Next: AutoGen macros, Prev: guile macros, Up: Augmenting AutoGen
4709 4.3 Guile Callout Functions
4710 ===========================
4712 Callout functions must be registered with Guile to work. This can be
4713 accomplished either by putting your routines into a shared library that
4714 contains a 'void scm_init(void)' routine that registers these routines,
4715 or by building them into AutoGen.
4717 To build them into AutoGen, you must place your routines in the
4718 source directory and name the files 'exp*.c'. You also must have a
4719 stylized comment that 'getdefs' can find that conforms to the following:
4721 /*=gfunc <function-name>
4723 * what: <short one-liner>
4725 * string: <invocation-name-string>
4726 * exparg: <name>, <description> [, ['optional'] [, 'list']]
4727 * doc: A long description telling people how to use
4731 ag_scm_<function-name>( SCM arg_name[, ...] )
4735 You must have this exactly thus.
4738 This must follow C syntax for variable names
4741 This should be about a half a line long. It is used as a
4742 subsection title in this document.
4745 You must supply this unless you are an AutoGen maintainer and are
4746 writing a function that queries or modifies the state of AutoGen.
4748 '<invocation-name-string>'
4749 Normally, the FUNCTION-NAME string will be transformed into a
4750 reasonable invocation name. However, that is not always true. If
4751 the result does not suit your needs, then supply an alternate
4755 You must supply one for each argument to your function. All
4756 optional arguments must be last. The last of the optional
4757 arguments may be a list, if you choose.
4760 Please say something meaningful.
4763 Do not actually specify an ANSI ellipsis here. You must provide
4764 for all the arguments you specified with EXPARG.
4766 See the Guile documentation for more details. More information is
4767 also available in a large comment at the beginning of the
4768 'agen5/snarf.tpl' template file.
4771 File: autogen.info, Node: AutoGen macros, Prev: guile callouts, Up: Augmenting AutoGen
4776 There are two kinds those you define yourself and AutoGen native. The
4777 user-defined macros may be defined in your templates, *Note DEFINE::.
4779 As for AutoGen native macros, do not add any. It is easy to do, but
4780 I won't like it. The basic functions needed to accomplish looping over
4781 and selecting blocks of text have proved to be sufficient over a period
4782 of several years. New text transformations can be easily added via any
4783 of the AutoGen extension methods, as discussed above.
4786 File: autogen.info, Node: autogen Invocation, Next: Installation, Prev: Augmenting AutoGen, Up: Top
4791 AutoGen creates text files from templates using external definitions.
4793 'AutoGen' is designed for generating program files that contain
4794 repetitive text with varied substitutions. The goal is to simplify the
4795 maintenance of programs that contain large amounts of repetitious text.
4796 This is especially valuable if there are several blocks of such text
4797 that must be kept synchronized.
4799 One common example is the problem of maintaining the code required
4800 for processing program options. Processing options requires a minimum
4801 of four different constructs be kept in proper order in different places
4802 in your program. You need at least: The flag character in the flag
4803 string, code to process the flag when it is encountered, a global state
4804 variable or two, and a line in the usage text. You will need more
4805 things besides this if you choose to implement long option names,
4806 configuration file processing, environment variables and so on.
4808 All of this can be done mechanically; with the proper templates and
4811 This chapter was generated by *AutoGen*, using the 'agtexi-cmd'
4812 template and the option descriptions for the 'autogen' program. This
4813 software is released under the GNU General Public License, version 3 or
4818 * autogen usage:: autogen help/usage ('--help')
4819 * autogen input-select:: input-select options
4820 * autogen out-handling:: out-handling options
4821 * autogen debug-tpl:: debug-tpl options
4822 * autogen processing:: processing options
4823 * autogen dep-track:: dep-track options
4824 * autogen autoopts-opts:: autoopts-opts options
4825 * autogen config:: presetting/configuring autogen
4826 * autogen exit status:: exit status
4827 * autogen Examples:: Examples
4830 File: autogen.info, Node: autogen usage, Next: autogen input-select, Up: autogen Invocation
4832 5.1 autogen help/usage ('--help')
4833 =================================
4835 This is the automatically generated usage text for autogen.
4837 The text printed is the same whether selected with the 'help' option
4838 ('--help') or the 'more-help' option ('--more-help'). 'more-help' will
4839 print the usage text by passing it through a pager program. 'more-help'
4840 is disabled on platforms without a working 'fork(2)' function. The
4841 'PAGER' environment variable is used to select the program, defaulting
4842 to 'more'. Both will exit with a status code of 0.
4844 autogen (GNU AutoGen) - The Automated Program Generator - Ver. 5.18.15.001
4845 Usage: autogen [ -<flag> [<val>] | --<name>[{=| }<val>] ]... [ <def-file> ]
4847 The following options select definitions, templates and scheme functions
4850 Flg Arg Option-Name Description
4851 -L Str templ-dirs Search for templates in DIR
4852 - may appear multiple times
4853 -T Str override-tpl Use TPL-FILE for the template
4855 Str definitions Read definitions from FILE
4856 - disabled as '--no-definitions'
4857 - enabled by default
4859 Str shell name or path name of shell to use
4860 -m no no-fmemopen Do not use in-mem streams
4861 Str equate characters considered equivalent
4863 The following options modify how output is handled:
4865 Flg Arg Option-Name Description
4866 -b Str base-name Specify NAME as the base name for output
4868 no source-time set mod times to latest source
4869 - disabled as '--no-source-time'
4870 no writable Allow output files to be writable
4871 - disabled as '--not-writable'
4873 The following options are often useful while debugging new templates:
4875 Flg Arg Option-Name Description
4876 Num loop-limit Limit on increment loops
4877 - is scalable with a suffix: k/K/m/M/g/G/t/T
4878 - it must lie in one of the ranges:
4881 -t Num timeout Limit server shell operations to SECONDS
4882 - it must be in the range:
4884 KWd trace tracing level of detail
4885 Str trace-out tracing output file or filter
4886 --- show-defs This option has been disabled
4887 no used-defines Show the definitions used
4889 -C no core Leave a core dump on a failure exit
4891 These options can be used to control what gets processed in the
4892 definitions files and template files:
4894 Flg Arg Option-Name Description
4895 -s Str skip-suffix Skip the file with this SUFFIX
4896 - prohibits the option 'select-suffix'
4898 - may appear multiple times
4899 -o Str select-suffix specify this output suffix
4901 - may appear multiple times
4902 -D Str define name to add to definition list
4903 - may appear multiple times
4904 -U Str undefine definition list removal pattern
4905 - an alternate for 'define'
4907 This option is used to automate dependency tracking:
4909 Flg Arg Option-Name Description
4910 -M opt make-dep emit make dependency file
4912 - may appear multiple times
4914 help, version, option and error handling:
4916 Flg Arg Option-Name Description
4917 no no-abort Do not abort on errors
4919 Version, usage and configuration options:
4921 Flg Arg Option-Name Description
4922 -R Str reset-option reset an option's state
4923 -v opt version output version information and exit
4924 -? no help display extended usage information and exit
4925 -! no more-help extended usage information passed thru pager
4926 -u no usage abbreviated usage to stdout
4927 -> opt save-opts save the option state to a config file
4928 -< Str load-opts load options from a config file
4929 - disabled as '--no-load-opts'
4930 - may appear multiple times
4932 Options are specified by doubled hyphens and their name or by a single
4933 hyphen and the flag character.
4934 AutoGen creates text files from templates using external definitions.
4936 The following option preset mechanisms are supported:
4937 - reading file $HOME
4938 - reading file ./.autogenrc
4939 - examining environment variables named AUTOGEN_*
4941 The valid "trace" option keywords are:
4942 nothing debug-message server-shell templates block-macros
4943 expressions everything
4944 or an integer from 0 through 6
4945 AutoGen is a tool designed for generating program files that contain
4946 repetitive text with varied substitutions.
4948 Please send bug reports to: <autogen-users@lists.sourceforge.net>
4951 File: autogen.info, Node: autogen input-select, Next: autogen out-handling, Prev: autogen usage, Up: autogen Invocation
4953 5.2 input-select options
4954 ========================
4956 The following options select definitions, templates and scheme functions
4959 templ-dirs option (-L).
4960 -----------------------
4962 This is the "search for templates in 'dir'" option. This option takes a
4963 string argument 'DIR'.
4965 This option has some usage constraints. It:
4966 * may appear an unlimited number of times.
4968 Add a directory to the list of directories 'autogen' searches when
4969 opening a template, either as the primary template or an included one.
4970 The last entry has the highest priority in the search list. That is to
4971 say, they are searched in reverse order.
4973 override-tpl option (-T).
4974 -------------------------
4976 This is the "use 'tpl-file' for the template" option. This option takes
4977 a string argument 'TPL-FILE'.
4979 This option has some usage constraints. It:
4980 * may not be preset with environment variables or configuration
4983 Definition files specify the standard template that is to be
4984 expanded. This option will override that name and expand a different
4990 This is the "read definitions from 'file'" option. This option takes a
4991 string argument 'FILE'.
4993 This option has some usage constraints. It:
4994 * can be disabled with -no-definitions.
4995 * It is enabled by default.
4996 * may not be preset with environment variables or configuration
4999 Use this argument to specify the input definitions file with a
5000 command line option. If you do not specify this option, then there must
5001 be a command line argument that specifies the file, even if only to
5002 specify stdin with a hyphen ('-'). Specify, '--no-definitions' when you
5003 wish to process a template without any active AutoGen definitions.
5008 This is the "name or path name of shell to use" option. This option
5009 takes a string argument 'shell'.
5011 This option has some usage constraints. It:
5012 * must be compiled in by defining 'SHELL_ENABLED' during the
5015 By default, when AutoGen is built, the configuration is probed for a
5016 reasonable Bourne-like shell to use for shell script processing. If a
5017 particular template needs an alternate shell, it must be specified with
5018 this option on the command line, with an environment variable ('SHELL')
5019 or in the configuration/initialization file.
5021 no-fmemopen option (-m).
5022 ------------------------
5024 This is the "do not use in-mem streams" option. If the local C library
5025 supports "'fopencookie(3GNU)'", or "'funopen(3BSD)'" then AutoGen
5026 prefers to use in-memory stream buffer opens instead of anonymous files.
5027 This may lead to problems if there is a shortage of virtual memory. If,
5028 for a particular application, you run out of memory, then specify this
5029 option. This is unlikely in a modern 64-bit virtual memory environment.
5031 On platforms without these functions, the option is accepted but
5032 ignored. 'fmemopen(POSIX)' is not adequate because its string buffer is
5033 not reallocatable. 'open_memstream(POSIX)' is also not adequate because
5034 the stream is only opened for output. AutoGen needs a reallocatable
5035 buffer available for both reading and writing.
5040 This is the "characters considered equivalent" option. This option
5041 takes a string argument 'char-list'. This option will alter the list of
5042 characters considered equivalent. The default are the three characters,
5043 "_-^". (The last is conventional on a Tandem/HP-NonStop, and I used to
5044 do a lot of work on Tandems.)
5047 File: autogen.info, Node: autogen out-handling, Next: autogen debug-tpl, Prev: autogen input-select, Up: autogen Invocation
5049 5.3 out-handling options
5050 ========================
5052 The following options modify how output is handled.
5054 base-name option (-b).
5055 ----------------------
5057 This is the "specify 'name' as the base name for output" option. This
5058 option takes a string argument 'NAME'.
5060 This option has some usage constraints. It:
5061 * may not be preset with environment variables or configuration
5064 A template may specify the exact name of the output file. Normally,
5065 it does not. Instead, the name is composed of the base name of the
5066 definitions file with suffixes appended. This option will override the
5067 base name derived from the definitions file name. This is required if
5068 there is no definitions file and advisable if definitions are being read
5069 from stdin. If the definitions are being read from standard in, the
5070 base name defaults to 'stdin'. Any leading directory components in the
5071 name will be silently removed. If you wish the output file to appear in
5072 a particular directory, it is recommended that you "cd" into that
5073 directory first, or use directory names in the format specification for
5074 the output suffix lists, *Note pseudo macro::.
5079 This is the "set mod times to latest source" option.
5081 This option has some usage constraints. It:
5082 * can be disabled with -no-source-time.
5084 If you stamp your output files with the 'DNE' macro output, then your
5085 output files will always be different, even if the content has not
5086 really changed. If you use this option, then the modification time of
5087 the output files will change only if the input files change. This will
5088 help reduce unneeded builds.
5093 This is the "allow output files to be writable" option.
5095 This option has some usage constraints. It:
5096 * can be disabled with -not-writable.
5098 This option will leave output files writable. Normally, output files
5102 File: autogen.info, Node: autogen debug-tpl, Next: autogen processing, Prev: autogen out-handling, Up: autogen Invocation
5104 5.4 debug-tpl options
5105 =====================
5107 The following options are often useful while debugging new templates.
5108 They specify limits that prevent the template from taking overly long or
5109 producing more output than expected.
5114 This is the "limit on increment loops" option. This option takes a
5115 number argument 'lim'. This option prevents runaway loops. For
5116 example, if you accidentally specify, "FOR x (for-from 1) (for-to -1)
5117 (for-by 1)", it will take a long time to finish. If you do have more
5118 than 256 entries in tables, you will need to specify a new limit with
5121 timeout option (-t).
5122 --------------------
5124 This is the "limit server shell operations to 'seconds'" option. This
5125 option takes a number argument 'SECONDS'.
5127 This option has some usage constraints. It:
5128 * must be compiled in by defining 'SHELL_ENABLED' during the
5131 AutoGen works with a shell server process. Most normal commands will
5132 complete in less than 10 seconds. If, however, your commands need more
5133 time than this, use this option.
5135 The valid range is 0 to 3600 seconds (1 hour). Zero will disable the
5141 This is the "tracing level of detail" option. This option takes a
5142 keyword argument 'level'.
5144 This option has some usage constraints. It:
5145 * This option takes a keyword as its argument. The argument sets an
5146 enumeration value that can be tested by comparing the option value
5147 macro (OPT_VALUE_TRACE). The available keywords are:
5148 nothing debug-message server-shell
5149 templates block-macros expressions
5152 or their numeric equivalent.
5154 This option will cause AutoGen to display a trace of its template
5155 processing. There are six levels, each level including messages from
5156 the previous levels:
5159 Does no tracing at all (default)
5162 Print messages from the "DEBUG" AutoGen macro (*note DEBUG::).
5165 Traces all input and output to the server shell. This includes a
5166 shell "independent" initialization script about 30 lines long. Its
5167 output is discarded and not inserted into any template.
5170 Traces the invocation of 'DEFINE'd macros and 'INCLUDE's
5173 Traces all block macros. The above, plus 'IF', 'FOR', 'CASE' and
5177 Displays the results of expression evaluations.
5180 Displays the invocation of every AutoGen macro, even 'TEXT' macros
5181 (i.e. the text outside of macro quotes). Additionally, if you
5182 rebuild the "expr.ini" file with debugging enabled, then all calls
5183 to AutoGen defined scheme functions will also get logged:
5184 cd ${top_builddir}/agen5
5185 DEBUG_ENABLED=true bash bootstrap.dir expr.ini
5186 make CFLAGS='-g -DDEBUG_ENABLED=1'
5188 Be aware that you cannot rebuild this source in this way without
5189 first having installed the 'autogen' executable in your search
5190 path. Because of this, "expr.ini" is in the distributed source
5191 list, and not in the dependencies.
5196 This is the "tracing output file or filter" option. This option takes a
5197 string argument 'file'. The output specified may be a file name, a file
5198 that is appended to, or, if the option argument begins with the 'pipe'
5199 operator ('|'), a command that will receive the tracing output as
5200 standard in. For example, '--traceout='| less'' will run the trace
5201 output through the 'less' program. Appending to a file is specified by
5202 preceding the file name with two greater-than characters ('>>').
5207 This is the "show the definition tree" option.
5209 This option has some usage constraints. It:
5210 * must be compiled in by defining 'DEBUG_ENABLED' during the
5212 * may not be preset with environment variables or configuration
5215 This will print out the complete definition tree before processing
5218 used-defines option.
5219 --------------------
5221 This is the "show the definitions used" option.
5223 This option has some usage constraints. It:
5224 * may not be preset with environment variables or configuration
5227 This will print out the names of definition values searched for
5228 during the processing of the template, whether actually found or not.
5229 There may be other referenced definitions in a template in portions of
5230 the template not evaluated. Some of the names listed may be computed
5231 names and others AutoGen macro arguments. This is not a means for
5232 producing a definitive, all-encompassing list of all and only the values
5233 used from a definition file. This is intended as an aid to template
5239 This is the "leave a core dump on a failure exit" option.
5241 This option has some usage constraints. It:
5242 * must be compiled in by defining 'HAVE_SYS_RESOURCE_H' during the
5245 Many systems default to a zero sized core limit. If the system has
5246 the sys/resource.h header and if this option is supplied, then in the
5247 failure exit path, autogen will attempt to set the soft core limit to
5248 whatever the hard core limit is. If that does not work, then an
5249 administrator must raise the hard core size limit.
5252 File: autogen.info, Node: autogen processing, Next: autogen dep-track, Prev: autogen debug-tpl, Up: autogen Invocation
5254 5.5 processing options
5255 ======================
5257 These options can be used to control what gets processed in the
5258 definitions files and template files. They specify which outputs and
5259 parts of outputs to produce.
5261 skip-suffix option (-s).
5262 ------------------------
5264 This is the "skip the file with this 'suffix'" option. This option
5265 takes a string argument 'SUFFIX'.
5267 This option has some usage constraints. It:
5268 * may appear an unlimited number of times.
5269 * may not be preset with environment variables or configuration
5271 * must not appear in combination with any of the following options:
5274 Occasionally, it may not be desirable to produce all of the output
5275 files specified in the template. (For example, only the '.h' header
5276 file, but not the '.c' program text.) To do this specify
5277 '--skip-suffix=c' on the command line.
5279 select-suffix option (-o).
5280 --------------------------
5282 This is the "specify this output suffix" option. This option takes a
5283 string argument 'SUFFIX'.
5285 This option has some usage constraints. It:
5286 * may appear an unlimited number of times.
5287 * may not be preset with environment variables or configuration
5290 If you wish to override the suffix specifications in the template,
5291 you can use one or more copies of this option. See the suffix
5292 specification in the *note pseudo macro:: section of the info doc.
5297 This is the "name to add to definition list" option. This option takes
5298 a string argument 'value'.
5300 This option has some usage constraints. It:
5301 * may appear an unlimited number of times.
5303 The AutoGen define names are used for the following purposes:
5305 1. Sections of the AutoGen definitions may be enabled or disabled by
5306 using C-style #ifdef and #ifndef directives.
5307 2. When defining a value for a name, you may specify the index for a
5308 particular value. That index may be a literal value, a define
5309 option or a value #define-d in the definitions themselves.
5310 3. The name of a file may be prefixed with '$NAME/'. The '$NAME' part
5311 of the name string will be replaced with the define-d value for
5313 4. When AutoGen is finished loading the definitions, the defined
5314 values are exported to the environment with, 'putenv(3)'. These
5315 values can then be used in shell scripts with '${NAME}' references
5316 and in templates with '(getenv "NAME")'.
5317 5. While processing a template, you may specify an index to retrieve a
5318 specific value. That index may also be a define-d value.
5320 It is entirely equivalent to place this name in the exported
5321 environment. Internally, that is what AutoGen actually does with this
5324 undefine option (-U).
5325 ---------------------
5327 This is the "definition list removal pattern" option. This option takes
5328 a string argument 'name-pat'.
5330 This option has some usage constraints. It:
5331 * may appear an unlimited number of times.
5332 * may not be preset with environment variables or configuration
5335 Similar to 'C', AutoGen uses '#ifdef/#ifndef' preprocessing
5336 directives. This option will cause the matching names to be removed
5337 from the list of defined values.
5340 File: autogen.info, Node: autogen dep-track, Next: autogen autoopts-opts, Prev: autogen processing, Up: autogen Invocation
5342 5.6 dep-track options
5343 =====================
5345 This option is used to automate dependency tracking.
5347 make-dep option (-M).
5348 ---------------------
5350 This is the "emit make dependency file" option. This option takes an
5351 optional string argument 'type'.
5353 This option has some usage constraints. It:
5354 * may appear an unlimited number of times.
5355 * may not be preset with environment variables or configuration
5358 This option behaves fairly closely to the way the '-M' series of
5359 options work with the gcc compiler, except that instead of just emitting
5360 the predecessor dependencies, this also emits the successor dependencies
5361 (output target files). By default, the output dependency information
5362 will be placed in '<base-name>.d', but may also be specified with
5363 '-MF<file>'. The time stamp on this file will be manipulated so that it
5364 will be one second older than the oldest primary output file.
5366 The target in this dependency file will normally be the dependency
5367 file name, but may also be overridden with '-MT<targ-name>'. AutoGen
5368 will not alter the contents of that file, but it may create it and it
5369 will adjust the modification time to match the start time.
5371 *NB:* these second letters are part of the option argument, so '-MF
5372 <file>' must have the space character quoted or omitted, and '-M "F
5373 <file>"' is acceptable because the 'F' is part of the option argument.
5375 '-M' may be followed by any of the letters M, F, P, T, Q, D, or G.
5376 However, only F, Q, T and P are meaningful. All but F have somewhat
5377 different meanings. '-MT<name>' is interpreted as meaning '<name>' is a
5378 sentinel file that will depend on all inputs (templates and definition
5379 files) and all the output files will depend on this sentinel file. It
5380 is suitable for use as a real make target. Q is treated identically to
5381 T, except dollar characters ('$') are doubled. P causes a special clean
5382 (clobber) phoney rule to be inserted into the make file fragment. An
5383 empty rule is always created for building the list of targets.
5385 This is the recommended usage:
5386 -MFwhatever-you-like.dep -MTyour-sentinel-file -MP
5387 and then in your 'Makefile', make the 'autogen' rule:
5388 -include whatever-you-like.dep
5389 clean_targets += clean-your-sentinel-file
5392 autogen -MT$@ -MF$*.d .....
5395 rm -f $(clean_targets)
5397 The modification time on the dependency file is adjusted to be one
5398 second before the earliest time stamp of any other output file.
5399 Consequently, it is suitable for use as the sentinel file testifying to
5400 the fact the program was successfully run. ('-include' is the GNU make
5401 way of specifying "include it if it exists". Your make must support
5402 that feature or your bootstrap process must create the file.)
5404 All of this may also be specified using the 'DEPENDENCIES_OUTPUT' or
5405 'AUTOGEN_MAKE_DEP' environment variables. If defined, dependency
5406 information will be output. If defined with white space free text that
5407 is something other than 'true', 'false', 'yes', 'no', '0' or '1', then
5408 the string is taken to be an output file name. If it contains a string
5409 of white space characters, the first token is as above and the second
5410 token is taken to be the target (sentinel) file as '-MT' in the
5411 paragraphs above. 'DEPENDENCIES_OUTPUT' will be ignored if there are
5412 multiple sequences of white space characters or if its contents are,
5413 specifically, 'false', 'no' or '0'.
5416 File: autogen.info, Node: autogen autoopts-opts, Next: autogen config, Prev: autogen dep-track, Up: autogen Invocation
5418 5.7 autoopts-opts options
5419 =========================
5421 help, version, option and error handling.
5426 This is the "do not abort on errors" option. By default, 'AutoGen' will
5427 abort on an error leaving behind a core image. That is sometimes
5428 inconvenient. If present on the command line or in the environment,
5429 AutoGen will call 'exit(1)' instead of 'abort()'.
5432 File: autogen.info, Node: autogen config, Next: autogen exit status, Prev: autogen autoopts-opts, Up: autogen Invocation
5434 5.8 presetting/configuring autogen
5435 ==================================
5437 Any option that is not marked as not presettable may be preset by
5438 loading values from configuration ("rc" or "ini") files, and values from
5439 environment variables named 'AUTOGEN' and 'AUTOGEN_<OPTION_NAME>'.
5440 '<OPTION_NAME>' must be one of the options listed above in upper case
5441 and segmented with underscores. The 'AUTOGEN' variable will be
5442 tokenized and parsed like the command line. The remaining variables are
5443 tested for existence and their values are treated like option arguments.
5445 'libopts' will search in 2 places for configuration files:
5448 The environment variables 'HOME', and 'PWD' are expanded and replaced
5449 when 'autogen' runs. For any of these that are plain files, they are
5450 simply processed. For any that are directories, then a file named
5451 '.autogenrc' is searched for within that directory and processed.
5453 Configuration files may be in a wide variety of formats. The basic
5454 format is an option name followed by a value (argument) on the same
5455 line. Values may be separated from the option name with a colon, equal
5456 sign or simply white space. Values may be continued across multiple
5457 lines by escaping the newline with a backslash.
5459 Multiple programs may also share the same initialization file.
5460 Common options are collected at the top, followed by program specific
5461 segments. The segments are separated by lines like:
5465 Do not mix these styles within one configuration file.
5467 Compound values and carefully constructed string values may also be
5468 specified using XML syntax:
5470 <sub-opt>...<...>...</sub-opt>
5472 yielding an 'option-name.sub-opt' string value of
5474 'AutoOpts' does not track suboptions. You simply note that it is a
5475 hierarchicly valued option. 'AutoOpts' does provide a means for
5476 searching the associated name/value pair list (see: optionFindValue).
5478 The command line options relating to configuration and/or usage help
5484 Print the program version to standard out, optionally with licensing
5485 information, then exit 0. The optional argument specifies how much
5486 licensing detail to provide. The default is to print just the version.
5487 The licensing information may be selected with an option argument. Only
5488 the first letter of the argument is examined:
5491 Only print the version. This is the default.
5493 Name the copyright usage licensing terms.
5495 Print the full copyright usage licensing terms.
5500 Print abbreviated usage to standard out, then exit 0.
5505 Resets the specified option to the compiled-in initial state. This will
5506 undo anything that may have been set by configuration files. The option
5507 argument may be either the option flag character or its long name.
5510 File: autogen.info, Node: autogen exit status, Next: autogen Examples, Prev: autogen config, Up: autogen Invocation
5512 5.9 autogen exit status
5513 =======================
5515 One of the following exit values will be returned:
5517 Successful program execution.
5518 '1 (EXIT_OPTION_ERROR)'
5519 The command options were misconfigured.
5520 '2 (EXIT_BAD_TEMPLATE)'
5521 An error was encountered processing the template.
5522 '3 (EXIT_BAD_DEFINITIONS)'
5523 The definitions could not be deciphered.
5524 '4 (EXIT_LOAD_ERROR)'
5525 An error was encountered during the load phase.
5527 a file system error stopped the program.
5529 Insufficient memory to operate.
5531 'autogen' exited due to catching a signal. If your template
5532 includes string formatting, a number argument to a "%s" formatting
5533 element will trigger a segmentation fault. Autogen will catch the
5534 seg fault signal and exit with 'AUTOGEN_EXIT_SIGNAL(5)'.
5535 Alternatively, AutoGen may have been interrupted with a 'kill(2)'
5538 Subtract 128 from the actual exit code to detect the signal number.
5540 A specified configuration file could not be loaded.
5542 libopts had an internal operational error. Please report it to
5543 autogen-users@lists.sourceforge.net. Thank you.
5546 File: autogen.info, Node: autogen Examples, Prev: autogen exit status, Up: autogen Invocation
5548 5.10 autogen Examples
5549 =====================
5551 Here is how the man page is produced:
5552 autogen -Tagman-cmd.tpl -MFman-dep -MTstamp-man opts.def
5554 This command produced this man page from the AutoGen option
5555 definition file. It overrides the template specified in 'opts.def'
5556 (normally 'options.tpl') and uses 'agman-cmd.tpl'. It also sets the
5557 make file dependency output to 'man-dep' and the sentinel file (time
5558 stamp file) to 'man-stamp'. The base of the file name is derived from
5559 the defined 'prog-name'.
5561 The texi invocation document is produced via:
5562 autogen -Tagtexi-cmd.tpl -MFtexi-dep -MTtexi-stamp opts.def
5565 File: autogen.info, Node: Installation, Next: AutoOpts, Prev: autogen Invocation, Up: Top
5567 6 Configuring and Installing
5568 ****************************
5572 * configuring:: Configuring AutoGen
5573 * AutoGen CGI:: AutoGen as a CGI server
5574 * signal names:: Signal Names
5575 * installing:: Installing AutoGen
5578 File: autogen.info, Node: configuring, Next: AutoGen CGI, Up: Installation
5580 6.1 Configuring AutoGen
5581 =======================
5583 AutoGen is configured and built using Libtool, Automake and Autoconf.
5584 Consequently, you can install it wherever you wish using the '--prefix'
5585 and other options. To the various configuration options supplied by
5586 these tools, AutoGen adds a few of its own:
5589 AutoGen is now capable of acting as a CGI forms server, *Note
5590 AutoGen CGI::. As such, it will gather its definitions using
5591 either 'GET' or 'POST' methods. All you need to do is have a
5592 template named 'cgi.tpl' handy or specify a different one with a
5593 command line option.
5595 However, doing this without disabling the server shell brings
5596 considerable risk. If you were to pass user input to a script that
5597 contained, say, the classic "'`rm -rf /`'", you might have a
5598 problem. This configuration option will cause shell template
5599 commands to simply return the command string as the result. No
5600 mistakes. Much safer. Strongly recommended. The default is to
5601 have server shell scripting enabled.
5603 Disabling the shell will have some build side effects, too.
5605 * Many of the make check tests will fail, since they assume a
5606 working server shell.
5607 * The getdefs and columns programs are not built. The options
5608 are distributed as definition files and they cannot be
5609 expanded with a shell-disabled AutoGen.
5610 * Similarly, the documentation cannot be regenerated because the
5611 documentation templates depend on subshell functionality.
5614 Turning on AutoGen debugging enables very detailed inspection of
5615 the input definitions and monitoring shell script processing.
5616 These options are not particularly useful to anyone not directly
5617 involved in maintaining AutoGen. If you do choose to enable
5618 AutoGen debugging, be aware that the usage page was generated
5619 without these options, so when the build process reaches the
5620 documentation rebuild, there will be a failure. 'cd' into the
5621 'agen5' build directory, 'make' the 'autogen.texi' file and all
5622 will be well thereafter.
5624 '--with-regex-header'
5625 '--with-header-path'
5627 These three work together to specify how to compile with and link
5628 to a particular POSIX regular expression library. The value for
5629 '--with-regex-header=value' must be the name of the relevant header
5630 file. The AutoGen sources will attempt to include that source with
5631 a '#include <value>' C preprocessing statement. The PATH from the
5632 '--with-header-path=path' will be added to 'CPPFLAGS' as '-Ipath'.
5633 The LIB-SPECS from '--with-regex-lib=lib-specs' will be added to
5634 'LDFLAGS' without any adornment.
5637 File: autogen.info, Node: AutoGen CGI, Next: signal names, Prev: configuring, Up: Installation
5639 6.2 AutoGen as a CGI server
5640 ===========================
5642 AutoGen is now capable of acting as a CGI forms server. It behaves as a
5643 CGI server if the definitions input is from stdin and the environment
5644 variable 'REQUEST_METHOD' is defined and set to either "GET" or "POST".
5645 If set to anything else, AutoGen will exit with a failure message. When
5646 set to one of those values, the CGI data will be converted to AutoGen
5647 definitions (*note Definitions File::) and the template named
5648 "'cgi.tpl'" will be processed.
5650 This works by including the name of the real template to process in
5651 the form data and having the "'cgi.tpl'" template include that template
5652 for processing. I do this for processing the form
5653 <http://autogen.sourceforge.net/conftest.html>. The "'cgi.tpl'" looks
5654 approximately like this:
5656 <? AutoGen5 Template ?>
5658 IF (not (exist? "template")) ?><?
5661 ELIF (=* (get "template") "/") ?><?
5664 ELIF (define tpl-file (string-append "cgi-tpl/"
5666 (access? tpl-file R_OK) ?><?
5667 INCLUDE (. tpl-file) ?><?
5669 ELIF (set! tpl-file (string-append tpl-file ".tpl"))
5670 (access? tpl-file R_OK) ?><?
5671 INCLUDE (. tpl-file) ?><?
5677 This forces the template to be found in the "'cgi-tpl/'" directory.
5678 Note also that there is no suffix specified in the pseudo macro (*note
5679 pseudo macro::). That tells AutoGen to emit the output to 'stdout'.
5681 The output is actually spooled until it is complete so that, in the
5682 case of an error, the output can be discarded and a proper error message
5683 can be written in its stead.
5685 *Please also note* that it is advisable, _especially_ for network
5686 accessible machines, to configure AutoGen (*note configuring::) with
5687 shell processing disabled ('--disable-shell'). That will make it
5688 impossible for any referenced template to hand data to a subshell for
5692 File: autogen.info, Node: signal names, Next: installing, Prev: AutoGen CGI, Up: Installation
5697 When AutoGen is first built, it tries to use 'psignal(3)',
5698 'sys_siglist', 'strsigno(3)' and 'strsignal(3)' from the host operating
5699 system. If your system does not supply these, the AutoGen distribution
5700 will. However, it will use the distributed mapping and this mapping is
5701 unlikely to match what your system uses. This can be fixed. Once you
5702 have installed autogen, the mapping can be rebuilt on the host operating
5703 system. To do so, you must perform the following steps:
5705 1. Build and install AutoGen in a place where it will be found in your
5707 2. 'cd ${top_srcdir}/compat'
5708 3. 'autogen strsignal.def'
5709 4. Verify the results by examining the 'strsignal.h' file produced.
5710 5. Re-build and re-install AutoGen.
5712 If you have any problems or peculiarities that cause this process to
5713 fail on your platform, please send me copies of the header files
5714 containing the signal names and numbers, along with the full path names
5715 of these files. I will endeavor to fix it. There is a shell script
5716 inside of 'strsignal.def' that tries to hunt down the information.
5719 File: autogen.info, Node: installing, Prev: signal names, Up: Installation
5721 6.4 Installing AutoGen
5722 ======================
5724 There are several files that get installed. The number depend whether
5725 or not both shared and archive libraries are to be installed. The
5726 following assumes that everything is installed relative to '$prefix'.
5727 You can, of course, use 'configure' to place these files where you wish.
5729 *NB* AutoGen does not contain any compiled-in path names. All
5730 support directories are located via option processing, the environment
5731 variable 'HOME' or finding the directory where the executable came from.
5733 The installed files are:
5735 1. The executables in 'bin' (autogen, getdefs and columns).
5737 2. The AutoOpts link libraries as 'lib/libopts.*'.
5739 3. An include file in 'include/options.h', needed for Automated Option
5740 Processing (see next chapter).
5742 4. Several template files and a scheme script in 'share/autogen',
5743 needed for Automated Option Processing (*note AutoOpts::), parsing
5744 definitions written with scheme syntax (*note Dynamic Text::), the
5745 templates for producing documentation for your program (*note
5746 documentation attributes::), autoconf test macros, and AutoFSM.
5748 5. Info-style help files as 'info/autogen.info*'. These files
5749 document AutoGen, the option processing library AutoOpts, and
5750 several add-on components.
5752 6. The three man pages for the three executables are installed in
5755 This program, library and supporting files can be installed with
5758 * <src-dir>/configure [ <configure-options> ]
5762 However, you may wish to insert 'make check' before the 'make
5765 If you do perform a 'make check' and there are any failures, you will
5766 find the results in '<module>/test/FAILURES'. Needless to say, I would
5767 be interested in seeing the contents of those files and any associated
5768 messages. If you choose to go on and analyze one of these failures, you
5769 will need to invoke the test scripts individually. You may do so by
5770 specifying the test (or list of test) in the TESTS make variable, thus:
5772 gmake TESTS=test-name.test check
5774 I specify 'gmake' because most makes will not let you override
5775 internal definitions with command line arguments. 'gmake' does.
5777 All of the AutoGen tests are written to honor the contents of the
5778 VERBOSE environment variable. Normally, any commentary generated during
5779 a test run is discarded unless the VERBOSE environment variable is set.
5780 So, to see what is happening during the test, you might invoke the
5781 following with bash or ksh:
5783 VERBOSE=1 gmake TESTS="for.test forcomma.test" check
5785 Or equivalently with csh:
5787 env VERBOSE=1 gmake TESTS="for.test forcomma.test" check
5790 File: autogen.info, Node: AutoOpts, Next: Add-Ons, Prev: Installation, Up: Top
5792 7 Automated Option Processing
5793 *****************************
5795 AutoOpts 42.1 is bundled with AutoGen. It is a tool that virtually
5796 eliminates the hassle of processing options and keeping man pages, info
5797 docs and usage text up to date. This package allows you to specify
5798 several program attributes, thousands of option types and many option
5799 attributes. From this, it then produces all the code necessary to parse
5800 and handle the command line and configuration file options, and the
5801 documentation that should go with your program as well.
5803 All the features notwithstanding, some applications simply have
5804 well-established command line interfaces. Even still, those programs
5805 may use the configuration file parsing portion of the library. See the
5806 "AutoOpts Features" and "Configuration File Format" sections.
5810 * Features:: AutoOpts Features
5811 * Licensing:: AutoOpts Licensing
5812 * Caveats:: Developer and User Notes
5813 * Quick Start:: Quick Start
5814 * Option Definitions:: Option Definitions
5815 * AutoOpts API:: Programmatic Interface
5816 * Multi-Threading:: Multi-Threading
5817 * option descriptor:: Option Descriptor File
5818 * Using AutoOpts:: Using AutoOpts
5819 * Presetting Options:: Configuring your program
5820 * Config File Format:: Configuration File Format
5821 * shell options:: AutoOpts for Shell Scripts
5822 * AutoInfo:: Automated Info Docs
5823 * AutoMan pages:: Automated Man Pages
5824 * getopt_long:: Using getopt(3C)
5825 * i18n:: Internationalizing AutoOpts
5826 * Naming Conflicts:: Naming Conflicts
5827 * All Attribute Names:: All Attribute Names
5828 * Option Define Names:: Option Definition Name Index
5831 File: autogen.info, Node: Features, Next: Licensing, Up: AutoOpts
5833 7.1 AutoOpts Features
5834 =====================
5836 AutoOpts supports option processing; option state saving; and program
5837 documentation with innumerable features. Here, we list a few obvious
5838 ones and some important ones, but the full list is really defined by all
5839 the attributes defined in the *note Option Definitions:: section.
5841 1. POSIX-compliant short (flag) option processing.
5843 2. GNU-style long options processing. Long options are recognized
5844 without case sensitivity, and they may be abbreviated.
5846 3. Environment variable initializations, *Note environrc::.
5848 4. Initialization from configuration files (aka RC or INI files), and
5849 saving the option state back into one, *Note loading rcfile::.
5851 5. Config files may be partitioned. One config file may be used by
5852 several programs by partitioning it with lines containing,
5853 '[PROGRAM_NAME]' or '<?program-name>', *Note loading rcfile::.
5855 6. Config files may contain AutoOpts directives. '<?auto-options
5856 [[option-text]]>' may be used to set 'AutoOpts' option processing
5857 options. Viz., GNU usage layout versus 'AutoOpts' conventional
5858 layout, and 'misuse-usage' versus 'no-misuse-usage', *Note usage
5861 7. Options may be marked as 'dis-abled' with a disablement prefix.
5862 Such options may default to either an enabled or a disabled state.
5863 You may also provide an enablement prefix, too, e.g.,
5864 '--allow-mumble' and '--prevent-mumble' (*note Common
5867 8. Verify that required options are present between the minimum and
5868 maximum number of times on the command line. Verify that
5869 conflicting options do not appear together. Verify that options
5870 requiring the presence of other options are, in fact, used in the
5871 presence of other options. See *Note Common Attributes::, and
5872 *Note Option Conflict Attributes::.
5874 9. There are several *note automatically supported options: automatic
5875 options. They will have short flags if any options have option
5876 flags and the flags are not suppressed. The associated flag may be
5877 altered or suppressed by specifying no value or an alternate
5878 character for 'xxx-value;' in the option definition file. 'xxx' is
5879 the name of the option below:
5883 These are always available. '--more-help' will pass the full
5884 usage text through a pager.
5886 This is added to the option list if 'usage-opt' is specified.
5887 It yields the abbreviated usage to 'stdout'.
5889 This is added to the option list if 'version = xxx;' is
5893 These are added to the option list if 'homerc' is specified.
5894 Mostly. If, 'disable-save' is specified, then '--save-opts'
5897 10. Various forms of main procedures can be added to the output, *Note
5898 Generated main::. There are four basic forms:
5900 a. A program that processes the arguments and writes to standard
5901 out portable shell commands containing the digested options.
5903 b. A program that will generate portable shell commands to parse
5904 the defined options. The expectation is that this result will
5905 be copied into a shell script and used there.
5907 c. A 'for-each' main that will invoke a named function once for
5908 either each non-option argument on the command line or, if
5909 there are none, then once for each non-blank, non-comment
5910 input line read from stdin.
5912 d. A main procedure of your own design. Its code can be supplied
5913 in the option description template or by incorporating another
5916 11. There are several methods for handling option arguments.
5917 * nothing (*note OPT_ARG::) option argument strings are globally
5919 * user supplied (*note Option Argument Handling::)
5920 * stack option arguments (*note Option Argument Handling::)
5921 * integer numbers (*note arg-type number::)
5922 * true or false valued (*note arg-type boolean::)
5923 * enumerated list of names (*note arg-type keyword::)
5924 * an enumeration (membership) set (*note arg-type set
5926 * a list of name/value pairs (option 'subopts') (*note arg-type
5928 * a time duration or a specific time and date
5929 * validated file name (*note arg-type file name::)
5930 * optional option argument (*note arg-optional::)
5932 12. The generated usage text can be emitted in either AutoOpts
5933 standard format (maximizing the information about each option), or
5934 GNU-ish normal form. The default form is selected by either
5935 specifying or not specifying the 'gnu-usage' attribute (*note
5936 information attributes::). This can be overridden by the user
5937 himself with the 'AUTOOPTS_USAGE' environment variable. If it
5938 exists and is set to the string 'gnu', it will force GNU-ish style
5939 format; if it is set to the string 'autoopts', it will force
5940 AutoOpts standard format; otherwise, it will have no effect.
5942 13. The usage text and many other strings are stored in a single
5943 character array (*note string table functions: SCM
5944 string-table-new.). This reduces fixup costs when loading the
5945 program or library. The downside is that if GCC detects that any
5946 of these strings are used in a printf format, you may get the
5947 warning, 'embedded '\0' in format'. To eliminate the warning, you
5948 must provide GCC with the '-Wno-format-contains-nul' option.
5950 14. If you compile with 'ENABLE_NLS' defined and '_()' defined to a
5951 localization function (e.g. 'gettext(3GNU)'), then the option
5952 processing code will be localizable (*note i18n::). Provided also
5953 that you do not define the 'no-xlate' attribute to _anything_
5954 (*note presentation attributes::).
5956 You should also ensure that the 'ATTRIBUTE_FORMAT_ARG()' gets
5957 '#define'-ed to something useful. There is an autoconf macro named
5958 'AG_COMPILE_FORMAT_ARG' in 'ag_macros.m4' that will set it
5959 appropriately for you. If you do not do this, then translated
5960 formatting strings may trigger GCC compiler warnings.
5962 15. Provides a callable routine to parse a text string as if it were
5963 from one of the rc/ini/config files, hereafter referred to as a
5966 16. By adding a 'doc' and 'arg-name' attributes to each option,
5967 AutoGen will also be able to produce a man page and the 'invoking'
5968 section of a texinfo document.
5970 17. Intermingled option processing. AutoOpts options may be
5971 intermingled with command line operands and options processed with
5972 other parsing techniques. This is accomplished by setting the
5973 'allow-errors' (*note program attributes::) attribute. When
5974 processing reaches a point where 'optionProcess' (*note
5975 libopts-optionProcess::) needs to be called again, the current
5976 option can be set with 'RESTART_OPT(n)' (*note RESTART_OPT::)
5977 before calling 'optionProcess'.
5979 See: *Note library attributes::.
5981 18. Library suppliers can specify command line options that their
5982 client programs will accept. They specify option definitions that
5983 get '#include'-d into the client option definitions and they
5984 specify an "anchor" option that has a callback and must be invoked.
5985 That will give the library access to the option state for their
5988 19. library options. An AutoOpt-ed library may export its options for
5989 use in an AutoOpt-ed program. This is done by providing an option
5990 definition file that client programs '#include' into their own
5991 option definitions. See "AutoOpt-ed Library for AutoOpt-ed
5992 Program" (*note lib and program::) for more details.
5995 File: autogen.info, Node: Licensing, Next: Caveats, Prev: Features, Up: AutoOpts
5997 7.2 AutoOpts Licensing
5998 ======================
6000 When AutoGen is installed, the AutoOpts project is installed with it.
6001 AutoOpts includes various AutoGen templates and a pair of shared
6002 libraries. These libraries may be used under the terms of version 3 of
6003 the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).
6005 One of these libraries ('libopts') is needed by programs that are
6006 built using AutoOpts generated code. This library is available as a
6007 separate "tear-off" source tarball. It is redistributable for use under
6008 either of two licenses: The above mentioned GNU Lesser General Public
6009 License, and the advertising-clause-free BSD license. Both of these
6010 license terms are incorporated into appropriate COPYING files included
6011 with the 'libopts' source tarball. This source may be incorporated into
6012 your package with the following simple commands:
6014 rm -rf libopts libopts-*
6015 gunzip -c `autoopts-config libsrc` | \
6017 mv libopts-*.*.* libopts
6019 View the 'libopts/README' file for further integration information.
6022 File: autogen.info, Node: Caveats, Next: Quick Start, Prev: Licensing, Up: AutoOpts
6024 7.3 Developer and User Notes
6025 ============================
6027 The formatting of the usage message can be controlled with the use of
6028 the 'AUTOOPTS_USAGE' environment variable. If it contains any of five
6029 possible comma separated values, it will affect 'libopts' behavior. Any
6030 extraneous or conflicting data will cause its value to be ignored.
6032 If the program attributes 'long-usage' and 'short-usage' have been
6033 specified (*note Usage and Version Info Display: usage attributes.),
6034 these strings are used for displaying full usage and abbreviated usage.
6035 "Full usage" is used when usage is requested, "abbreviated usage" when a
6036 usage error is detected. If these strings are not provided, the usage
6039 The 'AUTOOPTS_USAGE' environment variable may be set to the comma
6040 and/or white space separated list of the following strings:
6043 Ignore the provision of 'long-usage' and 'short-usage' attributes,
6044 and compute the usage strings. This is useful, for example, if you
6045 wish to regenerate the basic form of these strings and either tweak
6046 them or translate them. The methods used to compute the usage text
6047 are not suitable for translation.
6050 The format of the usage text will be displayed in GNU-normal form.
6051 The default display for '--version' will be to include a note on
6055 The format of the extended usage will be in AutoOpts' native
6056 layout. The default version display will be one line of text with
6057 the last token the version. 'gnu' and 'autoopts' conflict and may
6058 not be used together.
6061 When an option error is made on the command line, the abbreviated
6062 usage text will be suppressed. An error message and the method for
6063 getting full usage information will be displayed.
6066 When an option error is made on the command line, the abbreviated
6067 usage text will be shown. 'misuse-usage' and 'no-misuse-usage'
6068 conflict and may not be used together.
6070 'misuse-usage' and 'autoopts' are the defaults. These defaults may
6071 be flipped to 'no-misuse-usage' and 'gnu' by specifying 'gnu-usage' and
6072 'no-misuse-usage' program attributes, respectively, in the option
6075 Note for developers:
6077 The templates used to implement AutoOpts depend heavily upon token
6078 pasting. That mens that if you name an option, 'debug', for example,
6079 the generated header will expect to be able to emit '#define' macros
6081 #define DESC(n) (autogenOptions.pOptDesc[INDEX_OPT_## n])
6082 and expect 'DESC(DEBUG)' to expand correctly into
6083 '(autogenOptions.pOptDesc[INDEX_OPT_DEBUG])'. If 'DEBUG' is '#defined'
6084 to something else, then that something else will be in the above
6087 If you discover you are having strange problems like this, you may
6088 wish to use some variation of the 'guard-option-names' *Note program
6092 File: autogen.info, Node: Quick Start, Next: Option Definitions, Prev: Caveats, Up: AutoOpts
6097 Since it is generally easier to start with a simple example than it is
6098 to look at the options that AutoGen uses itself, here is a very simple
6099 AutoOpts example. You can copy this example out of the Info file and
6100 into a source file to try it. You can then embellish it into what you
6101 really need. For more extensive examples, you can also examine the help
6102 output and option definitions for the commands 'columns', 'getdefs' and
6105 If you are looking for a more extensive example, you may search the
6106 autogen sources for files named '*opts.def'. 'xml2ag' is ridiculous and
6107 'autogen' is very lengthy, but 'columns' and 'getdefs' are not too
6108 difficult. The 'sharutils' sources are fairly reasonable, too.
6112 * quick ao problem:: Example option requirements
6113 * quick ao def:: Example option definitions
6114 * quick ao build:: Build the example options
6115 * quick ao help:: Example option help text
6116 * quick ao usage:: Using the example options
6117 * quick ao docs:: Example option documentation
6120 File: autogen.info, Node: quick ao problem, Next: quick ao def, Up: Quick Start
6122 7.4.1 Example option requirements
6123 ---------------------------------
6125 For our simple example, assume you have a program named 'check' that
6128 1. A list of directories to check over for whatever it is 'check'
6129 does. You want this option available as a POSIX-style flag option
6130 and a GNU long option. You want to allow as many of these as the
6132 2. An option to show or not show the definition tree being used. Only
6133 one occurrence is to be allowed, specifying one or the other.
6136 File: autogen.info, Node: quick ao def, Next: quick ao build, Prev: quick ao problem, Up: Quick Start
6138 7.4.2 Example option definitions
6139 --------------------------------
6141 First, specify your program attributes and its options to AutoOpts, as
6142 with the following example.
6144 AutoGen Definitions options;
6146 prog-title = "Checkout Automated Options";
6148 gnu-usage; /* GNU style preferred to default */
6150 main = { main-type = shell-process; };
6154 value = L; /* flag style option character */
6155 arg-type = string; /* option argument indication */
6156 max = NOLIMIT; /* occurrence limit (none) */
6157 stack-arg; /* save opt args in a stack */
6158 descrip = "Checkout directory list";
6159 doc = 'name of each directory that is to be "checked out".';
6164 descrip = "Show the definition tree";
6165 disable = dont; /* mark as enable/disable type */
6166 /* option. Disable as `dont-' */
6167 doc = 'disable, if you do not want to see the tree.';
6171 File: autogen.info, Node: quick ao build, Next: quick ao help, Prev: quick ao def, Up: Quick Start
6173 7.4.3 Build the example options
6174 -------------------------------
6176 This program will produce a program that digests its options and writes
6177 the values as shell script code to stdout. Run the following short
6178 script to produce this program:
6180 BASE=`echo $base | tr '[a-z-]' '[A-Z_]'`
6181 cflags="-DTEST_${BASE} `autoopts-config cflags`"
6182 ldflags="`autoopts-config ldflags`"
6184 cc -o ${base} -g ${cflags} ${base}.c ${ldflags}
6188 File: autogen.info, Node: quick ao help, Next: quick ao usage, Prev: quick ao build, Up: Quick Start
6190 7.4.4 Example option help text
6191 ------------------------------
6193 Running the build commands yields:
6199 File: autogen.info, Node: quick ao usage, Next: quick ao docs, Prev: quick ao help, Up: Quick Start
6201 7.4.5 Using the example options
6202 -------------------------------
6204 Normally, however, you would not use the 'main' clause. Instead, the
6205 file would be named something like 'checkopt.def', you would compile
6206 'checkopt.c' the usual way, and link the object with the rest of your
6209 The options are processed by calling 'optionProcess' (*note
6210 libopts-optionProcess::):
6212 main( int argc, char** argv )
6215 int optct = optionProcess( &checkOptions, argc, argv );
6220 The options are tested and used as in the following fragment.
6221 'ENABLED_OPT' is used instead of 'HAVE_OPT' for the '--show-defs' option
6222 because it is an enabled/disabled option type:
6224 if ( ENABLED_OPT( SHOW_DEFS )
6225 && HAVE_OPT( CHECK_DIRS )) {
6226 int dirct = STACKCT_OPT( CHECK_DIRS );
6227 char** dirs = STACKLST_OPT( CHECK_DIRS );
6228 while (dirct-- > 0) {
6229 char* dir = *dirs++;
6233 File: autogen.info, Node: quick ao docs, Prev: quick ao usage, Up: Quick Start
6235 7.4.6 Example option documentation
6236 ----------------------------------
6238 The 'doc' clauses are used in the flag stanzas for man pages and texinfo
6239 invoking documentation. With the definition file described above, the
6240 two following commands will produce the two documentation files
6241 'check.1' and 'invoke-check.texi'. The latter file will be generated as
6242 a chapter, rather than a section or subsection.
6244 autogen -Tagman-cmd check.def
6245 autogen -DLEVEL=chapter -Tagtexi-cmd -binvoke-check.texi check.def
6247 The result of which is left as an exercise for the reader.
6249 A lot of magic happens to make this happen. The rest of this chapter
6250 will describe the myriad of option attributes supported by AutoOpts.
6251 However, keep in mind that, in general, you won't need much more than
6252 what was described in this "quick start" section.
6255 File: autogen.info, Node: Option Definitions, Next: AutoOpts API, Prev: Quick Start, Up: AutoOpts
6257 7.5 Option Definitions
6258 ======================
6260 AutoOpts uses an AutoGen definitions file for the definitions of the
6261 program options and overall configuration attributes. The complete list
6262 of program and option attributes is quite extensive, so if you are
6263 reading to understand how to use AutoOpts, I recommend reading the
6264 "Quick Start" section (*note Quick Start::) and paying attention to the
6267 1. 'prog-name', 'prog-title', and 'argument', program attributes,
6268 *Note program attributes::.
6269 2. 'name' and 'descrip' option attributes, *Note Required
6271 3. 'value' (flag character) and 'min' (occurrence counts) option
6272 attributes, *Note Common Attributes::.
6273 4. 'arg-type' from the option argument specification section, *Note
6275 5. Read the overall how to, *Note Using AutoOpts::.
6276 6. Highly recommended, but not required, are the several "man" and
6277 "info" documentation attributes, *Note documentation attributes::.
6279 Keep in mind that the majority are rarely used and can be safely
6280 ignored. However, when you have special option processing requirements,
6281 the flexibility is there.
6285 * program attributes:: Program Description Attributes
6286 * library attributes:: Options for Library Code
6287 * information attributes:: Program Information Attributes
6288 * Generated main:: Generating main procedures
6289 * option attributes:: Option Attributes
6290 * Option Arguments:: Option Argument Specification
6291 * Option Argument Handling:: Option Argument Handling
6292 * Internationalizing Options:: Internationalizing Options
6293 * documentation attributes:: Man and Info doc Attributes
6294 * automatic options:: Automatically Supported Options
6295 * standard options:: Library of Standard Options
6298 File: autogen.info, Node: program attributes, Next: library attributes, Up: Option Definitions
6300 7.5.1 Program Description Attributes
6301 ------------------------------------
6303 The following global definitions are used to define attributes of the
6304 entire program. These generally alter the configuration or global
6305 behavior of the AutoOpts option parser. The first two are required of
6306 every program. The third is required if there are to be any left over
6307 arguments (operands) after option processing. The rest have been
6308 grouped below. Except as noted, there may be only one copy of each of
6312 This attribute is required. Variable names derived from this name
6313 are derived using 'string->c_name!' (*note SCM string->c-name!::).
6316 This attribute is required and may be any descriptive text.
6319 This attribute is required if your program uses operand arguments.
6320 It specifies the syntax of the arguments that *follow* the options.
6321 It may not be empty, but if it is not supplied, then option
6322 processing must consume all the arguments. If it is supplied and
6323 starts with an open bracket ('['), then there is no requirement on
6324 the presence or absence of command line arguments following the
6325 options. Lastly, if it is supplied and does not start with an open
6326 bracket, then option processing must *not* consume all of the
6327 command line arguments.
6330 If your build has a configuration header, it must be included
6331 before anything else. Specifying the configuration header file
6332 name with this attribute will cause that to happen.
6336 * usage attributes:: Usage and Version Info Display
6337 * config attributes:: Program Configuration
6338 * programming attributes:: Programming Details
6339 * presentation attributes:: User Presentation Attributes
6342 File: autogen.info, Node: usage attributes, Next: config attributes, Up: program attributes
6344 7.5.1.1 Usage and Version Info Display
6345 ......................................
6347 These will affect the way usage is seen and whether or not version
6348 information gets displayed.
6351 If this attribute is provided, it may specify the full length usage
6352 text, or a variable name assignable to a 'char const *' pointer, or
6353 it may be empty. The meanings are determined by the length.
6354 * If not provided, the text will be computed as normal.
6355 * If the length is zero, then the usage text will be derived
6356 from the current settings and inserted as text into the
6358 * If the length is 1 to 32 bytes, then it is presumed to be a
6359 variable name that either points to or is an array of const
6361 * If it is longer than that, it is presumed to be the help text
6362 itself. This text will be inserted into the generated .c
6365 This string should be readily translatable. Provision will be made
6366 to translate it if this is provided, if the source code is compiled
6367 with 'ENABLE_NLS' defined, and 'no-xlate' has not been set to the
6368 value _anything_. The untranslated text will be handed to
6369 'dgettext("libopts", txt)' and then 'gettext(txt)' for translation,
6370 one paragraph at a time.
6372 To facilitate the creation and maintenance of this text, you can
6373 force the string to be ignored and recomputed by specifying
6374 AUTOOPTS_USAGE=compute
6375 in the environment and requesting help or usage information. See
6376 *Note Developer and User Notes: Caveats.
6379 If this attribute is provided, it is used to specify an abbreviated
6380 version of the usage text. This text is constructed in the same
6381 way as the 'full-usage', described above.
6384 AutoOpts normaly displays usage text in a format that provides more
6385 information than the standard GNU layout, but that also means it is
6386 not the standard GNU layout. This attribute changes the default to
6387 GNU layout, with the 'AUTOOPTS_USAGE' environment variable used to
6388 request 'autoopts' layout. See *Note Developer and User Notes:
6392 I apologize for too many confusing usages of usage. This attribute
6393 specifies that '--usage' and/or '-u' be supported. The help
6394 (usage) text displayed will be abbreviated when compared to the
6398 When there is a command line syntax error, by default AutoOpts will
6399 display the abbreviated usage text, rather than just a one line
6400 "you goofed it, ask for usage" message. You can change the default
6401 behavior for your program by supplying this attribute. The user
6402 may override this choice, again, with the 'AUTOOPTS_USAGE'
6403 environment variable. See *Note Developer and User Notes: Caveats.
6406 The version text in the 'getopt.tpl' template will include this
6407 text in parentheses after the program name, when this attribute is
6408 specified. For example:
6409 mumble (stumble) 1.0
6410 says that the 'mumble' program is version 1.0 and is part of the
6411 'stumble' group of programs.
6414 If your program has some cleanup work that must be done before
6415 exiting on usage mode issues, or if you have to customize the usage
6416 message in some way, specify this procedure and it will be called
6417 instead of the default 'optionUsage()' function. For example, if a
6418 program is using the curses library and needs to invoke the usage
6419 display, then you must arrange to call 'endwin()' before invoking
6420 the library function 'optionUsage()'. This can be handled by
6421 specifying your own usage function, thus:
6423 my_usage(tOptions * opts, int ex)
6425 if (curses_window_active)
6427 optionUsage(opts, ex);
6431 Specifies the program version and activates the VERSION option,
6432 *Note automatic options::.
6435 File: autogen.info, Node: config attributes, Next: programming attributes, Prev: usage attributes, Up: program attributes
6437 7.5.1.2 Program Configuration
6438 .............................
6440 Programs may be "pre-configured" before normal command line options are
6441 processed (See *note Immediate Action Attributes: Immediate Action.).
6442 How configuration files and environment variables are handled get
6443 specified with these attributes.
6447 Indicates that the command line usage of '--load-opts' and/or
6448 '--save-opts' are disallowed.
6451 Indicates looking in the environment for values of variables named,
6452 'PROGRAM_OPTNAME' or 'PROGRAM', where 'PROGRAM' is the upper cased
6453 C-NAME of the program and 'OPTNAME' is the upper cased C-NAME of a
6454 specific option. The contents of the 'PROGRAM' variable, if found,
6455 are tokenized and processed. The contents of 'PROGRAM_OPTNAME'
6456 environment variables are taken as the option argument to the
6457 option nameed '--optname'.
6460 Specifies that option settings may be loaded from and stored into
6461 configuration files. Each instance of this attribute is either a
6462 directory or a file using a specific path, a path based on an
6463 environment variable or a path relative to installation
6464 directories. The method used depends on the name. If the one
6465 entry is empty, it enables the loading and storing of settings, but
6466 no specific files are searched for. Otherwise, a series of
6467 configuration files are hunted down and, if found, loaded.
6469 If the first character of the 'homerc' value is not the dollar
6470 character ('$'), then it is presumed to be a path name based on the
6471 current directory. Otherwise, the method depends on the second
6475 The path is relative to the directory where the executable was
6478 The path is relative to the package data directory, e.g.
6479 '/usr/local/share/autogen'.
6481 The path is derived from the named environment variable.
6483 Use as many as you like. The presence of this attribute activates
6484 the '--save-opts' and '--load-opts' options. However, saving into
6485 a file may be disabled with the 'disable-save'. *Note loading
6486 rcfile::. See the 'optionMakePath(3AGEN)' man page for
6487 excruciating details.
6490 Specifies the configuration file name. This is only useful if you
6491 have provided at least one 'homerc' attribute.
6492 default: .<prog-name>rc
6495 This option implements the '-W' vendor option command line option.
6497 For POSIX specified utilities, the options are constrained to the
6498 options that are specified by POSIX. Extensions should be handled
6499 with '-W' command line options, the short flag form. Long option
6500 name processing must be disabled. In fact, the 'long-opts'
6501 attribute must not be provided, and some options must be specified
6502 without flag values.
6504 The '-W long-name' is processed by looking up the long option name
6505 that follows it. It cannot be a short flag because that would
6506 conflict with the POSIX flag name space. It will be processed as
6507 if long options were accepted and '--long-name' were found on the
6511 File: autogen.info, Node: programming attributes, Next: presentation attributes, Prev: config attributes, Up: program attributes
6513 7.5.1.3 Programming Details
6514 ...........................
6516 These attributes affect some of the ways that the option data are used
6517 and made available to the program.
6520 The contents of this attribute should be just the name of the
6521 configuration file. A "#include" naming this file will be inserted
6522 at the top of the generated header.
6526 These values should be defined as indexed values, thus:
6527 exit-name[0] = success;
6528 exit-desc[0] = 'Successful program execution.';
6529 exit-name[1] = failure;
6530 exit-desc[1] = 'The operation failed or command syntax was not valid.';
6531 By default, all programs have these effectively defined for them.
6532 They may be overridden by explicitly defining any or all of these
6533 values. Additional names and descriptions may be defined. They
6534 will cause an enumeration to be emitted, like this one for
6537 GETDEFS_EXIT_SUCCESS = 0,
6538 GETDEFS_EXIT_FAILURE = 1
6539 } getdefs_exit_code_t;
6540 which will be augmented by any 'exit-name' definitions beyond '1'.
6542 Some of the generated code will exit non-zero if there is an
6543 allocation error. This exit will always be code '1', unless there
6544 is an exit named 'no_mem' or 'nomem'. In that case, that value
6545 will be used. Additionally, if there is such a value, and if
6546 'die-code' is specified, then a function 'nomem_err(size_t len,
6547 char const * what)' will be emitted as an inline function for
6548 reporting out-of-memory conditions.
6551 This attribute will cause two procedures to be added to the code
6552 file: 'usage_message()' and 'vusage_message()', with any applicable
6553 prefix (see 'prefix', below). They are declared in the generated
6555 noreturn extern void vusage_message(char const * fmt, va_list ap);
6556 noreturn extern void usage_message(char const * fmt, ...);
6557 These functions print the message to 'stderr' and invoke the usage
6558 function with the exit code set to '1' ('EXIT_FAILURE').
6561 This tells AutoOpts templates to emit code for 'vdie()', 'die()',
6562 'fserr()', and, possibly the 'nomem_err()' functions. The latter
6563 is emitted if an exit name of 'no-mem' or 'nomem' is specified. If
6564 the 'die-code' is assigned a text value, then that code will be
6565 inserted in the 'vdie' function immediately before it prints the
6566 death rattle message.
6568 The profiles for these functions are:
6569 noreturn extern void vdie( int exit_code, char const * fmt, va_list);
6570 noreturn extern void die( int exit_code, char const * fmt, ...);
6571 noreturn extern void fserr(int exit_code, char const * op, char const * fname);
6572 noreturn static inline void
6573 nomem_err(size_t sz, char const * what) {...}
6576 This string is inserted into the .h interface file. Generally used
6577 for global variables or '#include' directives required by
6578 'flag-code' text and shared with other program text. Do not
6579 specify your configuration header ('config.h') in this attribute or
6580 the 'include' attribute. Instead, use 'config-header', above.
6582 'guard-option-names'
6583 AutoOpts generates macros that presume that there are no 'cpp'
6584 macros with the same name as the option name. For example, if you
6585 have an option named, '--debug', then you must not use '#ifdef
6586 DEBUG' in your code. If you specify this attribute, every option
6587 name will be guarded. If the name is '#define'-d, then a warning
6588 will be issued and the name undefined. If you do not specify this
6589 and there is a conflict, you will get strange error messages.
6591 This attribute may be set to any of four recognized states:
6593 * Not defined. AutoOpts will behave as described above.
6595 * Defined, but set to the empty string. Text will be emitted
6596 into the header to undefine ('#undef') any conflicting
6597 preprocessor macros. The code will include compiler warnings
6598 (via '#warning'). Some compilers are not ANSI-C-99 compliant
6599 yet and will error out on those warnings. You may compile
6600 with '-DNO_OPTION_NAME_WARNINGS' to silence or mostly silence
6603 * Defined and set to the string, 'no-warning'. All of the
6604 needed '#undef's will be emitted, without any conflict
6605 checking '#warning' directives emitted.
6607 * Defined and set to the string, 'full-enum'. The option
6608 manipulation preprocessor macros will not token paste the
6609 option names to the index enumeration prefix. e.g. you will
6610 need to use 'HAVE_OPT(INDEX_OPT_DEBUG)' instead of
6614 This string is inserted into the .c file. Generally used for
6615 global variables required only by 'flag-code' program text.
6618 If you are going to handle your option processing with the
6619 'getopt.tpl' template instead of using libopts, then specify this
6620 attribute. It will suppress mention of '--more-help' in the
6621 generated documentation. ('getopt_long' does not support
6625 This value is inserted into *all* global names. This will
6626 disambiguate them if more than one set of options are to be
6627 compiled into a single program.
6630 File: autogen.info, Node: presentation attributes, Prev: programming attributes, Up: program attributes
6632 7.5.1.4 User Presentation Attributes
6633 ....................................
6635 Attributes that affect the user's experience.
6638 The presence of this attribute indicates ignoring any command line
6639 option errors. This may also be turned on and off by invoking the
6640 macros 'ERRSKIP_OPTERR' and 'ERRSTOP_OPTERR' from the generated
6644 Presence indicates GNU-standard long option processing. Partial
6645 name matches are accepted, if they are at least two characters long
6646 and the partial match is unique. The matching is not case
6647 sensitive, and the underscore, hyphen and carat characters are all
6648 equivalent (they match).
6650 If any options do not have an option value (flag character)
6651 specified, and least one does specify such a value, then you must
6652 specify 'long-opts'. If none of your options specify an option
6653 value (flag character) and you do not specify 'long-opts', then
6654 command line arguments are processed in "named option mode". This
6657 * Every command line argument must be a long option.
6658 * The flag markers '-' and '--' are completely optional.
6659 * The 'argument' program attribute is disallowed.
6660 * One of the options may be specified as the default (as long as
6661 it has a required option argument).
6664 Modifies when or whether option names get translated. If provided,
6665 it must be assigned one of these values:
6667 to suppress option name translation for configuration file and
6668 and environment variable processing.
6670 to suppress option name translation completely. The usage
6671 text will always be translated if 'ENABLE_NLS' is defined and
6672 you have translations for that text.
6674 Specifies disabling all internationalization support for
6675 option code, completely.
6676 See also the various 'XLAT' interface entries in the AutoOpts
6677 Programmatic Interface section (*note AutoOpts API::).
6680 Normally, POSIX compliant commands do not allow for options to be
6681 interleaved with operands. If this is necessary for historical
6682 reasons, there are two approaches available:
6683 * Allow 'optionProcess' to return the index of the operand like
6684 it normally does and process the operand(s). When an operand
6685 is encountered that starts with a hyphen, then set the
6686 AutoOpts current index with the 'RESTART_OPT' macro (see *note
6687 RESTART_OPT::), and re-invoke 'optionProcess'. This will also
6688 allow you to process the operands in context.
6690 * Specify this attribute. AutoOpts will re-order the command
6691 arguments so that the operands appear (in the original order)
6692 at the end of the argument list. Differing configuration
6693 state is not possible to detect after all options have been
6697 Specifies that the '--reset-option' command line option is to be
6698 supported. This makes it possible to suppress any setting that
6699 might be found in a configuration file or environment variable.
6702 File: autogen.info, Node: library attributes, Next: information attributes, Prev: program attributes, Up: Option Definitions
6704 7.5.2 Options for Library Code
6705 ------------------------------
6707 Some libraries provide their own code for processing command line
6708 options, and this may be used by programs that utilize AutoOpts. You
6709 may also wish to write a library that gets configured with AutoOpts
6710 options and config files. Such a library may either supply its own
6711 configury routine and process its own options, or it may export its
6712 option descriptions to programs that also use AutoOpts. This section
6713 will describe how to do all of these different things.
6717 * lib and program:: AutoOpt-ed Library for AutoOpt-ed Program
6718 * lib called:: AutoOpt-ed Library for Regular Program
6719 * prog calls lib:: AutoOpt-ed Program Calls Regular Library
6722 File: autogen.info, Node: lib and program, Next: lib called, Up: library attributes
6724 7.5.2.1 AutoOpt-ed Library for AutoOpt-ed Program
6725 .................................................
6727 The library source code must provide an option definition file that
6728 consists of only the attribute 'library' and 'flag' entries. The
6729 'library' attribute does not need any associated value, so it will
6730 generally appeary by itself on a line folowed by a semi-colon. The
6731 first 'flag' entry must contain the following attributes:
6734 This name is used in the construction of a global pointer of type
6735 'tOptDesc const*'. It is always required.
6737 It tells 'AutoOpts' that this option serves no normal purpose. It
6738 will be used to add usage clarity and to locate option descriptors
6739 in the library code.
6741 This is a string that is inserted in the extended usage display
6742 before the options specific to the current library. It is always
6745 This should match the name of the library. This string is also
6746 used in the construction of the option descriptor pointer name. In
6747 the end, it looks like this:
6748 extern tOptDesc const* <<lib-name>>_<<name>>_optDesc_p;
6749 and is used in the macros generated for the library's '.h' file.
6751 In order to compile this 'AutoOpts' using library, you must create a
6752 special header that is not used by the client program. This is
6753 accomplished by creating an option definition file that contains
6754 essentially exactly the following:
6756 AutoGen definitions options;
6757 prog-name = does-not-matter; // but is always required
6758 prog-title = 'also does not matter'; // also required
6759 config-header = 'config.h'; // optional, but common
6761 #include library-options-only.def
6763 and nothing else. AutoGen will produce only the '.h' file. You may now
6764 compile your library, referencing just this '.h' file. The macros it
6765 creates will utilize a global variable that will be defined by the
6766 'AutoOpts'-using client program. That program will need to have the
6767 following '#include' in its option definition file:
6769 #include library-options-only.def
6771 All the right things will magically happen so that the global variables
6772 named <<LIB-NAME>>_<<NAME>>_OPTDESC_P are initialized correctly. For an
6773 example, please see the 'AutoOpts' test script:
6774 'autoopts/test/library.test'.
6777 File: autogen.info, Node: lib called, Next: prog calls lib, Prev: lib and program, Up: library attributes
6779 7.5.2.2 AutoOpt-ed Library for Regular Program
6780 ..............................................
6782 In this case, your library must provide an option processing function to
6783 a calling program. This is accomplished by setting the 'allow-errors'
6784 global option attribute. Each time your option handling function is
6785 called, you must determine where your scan is to resume and tell the
6786 AutoOpts library by invoking:
6788 RESTART_OPT(next_arg_index);
6790 and then invoke 'not_opt_index = optionProcess(...)'. The
6791 'not_opt_index' value can be used to set 'optind', if that is the global
6792 being used to scan the program argument array.
6794 In this method, do *NOT* utilize the global 'library' attribute.
6795 Your library must specify its options as if it were a complete program.
6796 You may choose to specify an alternate 'usage()' function so that usage
6797 for other parts of the option interface may be displayed as well. See
6798 "Program Information Attributes" (*note information attributes::).
6800 At the moment, there is no method for calling 'optionUsage()' telling
6801 it to produce just the information about the options and not the program
6802 as a whole. Some later revision after somebody asks.
6805 File: autogen.info, Node: prog calls lib, Prev: lib called, Up: library attributes
6807 7.5.2.3 AutoOpt-ed Program Calls Regular Library
6808 ................................................
6810 As with providing an 'AutoOpt'-ed library to a non-'AutoOpt'-ed program,
6811 you must write the option description file as if you were writing all
6812 the options for the program, but you should specify the 'allow-errors'
6813 global option attribute and you will likely want an alternate 'usage()'
6814 function (see "Program Information Attributes" *note information
6815 attributes::). In this case, though, when 'optionProcess()' returns,
6816 you need to test to see if there might be library options. If there
6817 might be, then call the library's exported routine for handling command
6818 line options, set the next-option-to-process with the 'RESTART_OPT()'
6819 macro, and recall 'optionProcess()'. Repeat until done.
6822 File: autogen.info, Node: information attributes, Next: Generated main, Prev: library attributes, Up: Option Definitions
6824 7.5.3 Program Information Attributes
6825 ------------------------------------
6827 These attributes are used to define how and what information is
6828 displayed to the user of the program.
6831 The 'copyright' is a structured value containing three to five
6832 values. If 'copyright' is used, then the first three are required.
6834 1. 'date' - the list of applicable dates for the copyright.
6835 2. 'owner' - the name of the copyright holder.
6836 3. 'type' - specifies the type of distribution license.
6837 AutoOpts/AutoGen supports the text of the GNU Public License
6838 ('gpl'), the GNU Lesser General Public License with Library
6839 extensions ('lgpl'), the Modified Free BSD license ('mbsd')
6840 and a few others. Other licenses may be specified, but you
6841 must provide your own license file. The list of license files
6842 provided by AutoOpts may be seen by typing:
6843 ls $(autoopts-config pkgdatadir)/*.lic
6844 4. 'text' - the text of the copyright notice. This must be
6845 provided if 'type' is set to 'NOTE'.
6846 5. 'author' - in case the author name is to appear in the
6847 documentation and is different from the copyright owner.
6848 6. 'eaddr' - email address for receiving praises and complaints.
6849 Typically that of the author or copyright holder.
6851 An example of this might be:
6854 owner = "Bruce Korb";
6855 eaddr = 'bkorb@gnu.org';
6860 This string is added to the usage output when the HELP option is
6864 Gives additional information whenever the usage routine is invoked.
6867 The name of the package the program belongs to. This will appear
6868 parenthetically after the program name in the version and usage
6869 output, e.g.: 'autogen (GNU autogen) - The Automated Program
6873 This attribute will not change anything except appearance.
6874 Normally, the option names are all documented in lower case.
6875 However, if you specify this attribute, then they will display in
6876 the case used in their specification. Command line options will
6877 still be matched without case sensitivity. This is useful for
6878 specifying option names in camel-case.
6882 These define global pointer variables that point to the program
6883 descriptor and the first option descriptor for a library option.
6884 This is intended for use by certain libraries that need command
6885 line and/or initialization file option processing. These
6886 definitions have no effect on the option template output, but are
6887 used for creating a library interface file. Normally, the first
6888 "option" for a library will be a documentation option that cannot
6889 be specified on the command line, but is marked as 'settable'. The
6890 library client program will invoke the 'SET_OPTION' macro which
6891 will invoke a handler function that will finally set these global
6895 Optionally names the usage procedure, if the library routine
6896 'optionUsage()' does not work for you. If you specify 'my_usage'
6897 as the value of this attribute, for example, you will use a
6898 procedure by that name for displaying usage. Of course, you will
6899 need to provide that procedure and it must conform to this profile:
6900 void my_usage( tOptions* pOptions, int exitCode )
6903 Normally, the default format produced by the 'optionUsage'
6904 procedure is AutoOpts Standard. By specifying this attribute, the
6905 default format will be GNU-ish style. Either default may be
6906 overridden by the user with the 'AUTOOPTS_USAGE' environment
6907 variable. If it is set to 'gnu' or 'autoopts', it will alter the
6908 style appropriately. This attribute will conflict with the 'usage'
6912 Some applications traditionally require that the command operands
6913 be intermixed with the command options. In order to handle that,
6914 the arguments must be reordered. If you are writing such an
6915 application, specify this global option. All of the options (and
6916 any associated option arguments) will be brought to the beginning
6917 of the argument list. New applications should not use this
6918 feature, if at all possible. This feature is disabled if
6919 'POSIXLY_CORRECT' is defined in the environment.
6922 File: autogen.info, Node: Generated main, Next: option attributes, Prev: information attributes, Up: Option Definitions
6924 7.5.4 Generating main procedures
6925 --------------------------------
6927 When AutoOpts generates the code to parse the command line options, it
6928 has the ability to produce any of several types of 'main()' procedures.
6929 This is done by specifying a global structured value for 'main'. The
6930 values that it contains are dependent on the value set for the one value
6931 it must have: 'main-type'.
6933 The recognized values for 'main-type' are 'guile', 'shell-process',
6934 'shell-parser', 'main', 'include', 'invoke', and 'for-each'.
6938 * main guile:: guile: main and inner_main procedures
6939 * main shell-process:: shell-process: emit Bourne shell results
6940 * main shell-parser:: shell-parser: emit Bourne shell script
6941 * main main:: main: user supplied main procedure
6942 * main include:: include: code emitted from included template
6943 * main invoke:: invoke: code emitted from AutoGen macro
6945 The 'for-each' main procedure has a number of attributes that
6948 * main for-each:: for-each: perform function on each operand
6949 * main-for-each-proc:: procedure to handle each argument
6950 * main-for-each-type:: handler procedure type
6951 * main-for-each-code:: code for handler procedure
6952 * main-for-each-opts:: for-each main procedure options
6955 File: autogen.info, Node: main guile, Next: main shell-process, Up: Generated main
6957 7.5.4.1 guile: main and inner_main procedures
6958 .............................................
6960 When the 'main-type' is specified to be 'guile', a 'main()' procedure is
6961 generated that calls 'gh_enter()', providing it with a generated
6962 'inner_main()' to invoke. If you must perform certain tasks before
6963 calling 'gh_enter()', you may specify such code in the value for the
6964 'before-guile-boot' attribute.
6966 The 'inner_main()' procedure itself will process the command line
6967 arguments (by calling 'optionProcess()', *note libopts-optionProcess::),
6968 and then either invoke the code specified with the 'guile-main'
6969 attribute, or else export the parsed options to Guile symbols and invoke
6970 the 'scm_shell()' function from the Guile library. This latter will
6971 render the program nearly identical to the stock 'guile(1)' program.
6974 File: autogen.info, Node: main shell-process, Next: main shell-parser, Prev: main guile, Up: Generated main
6976 7.5.4.2 shell-process: emit Bourne shell results
6977 ................................................
6979 This will produce a 'main()' procedure that parses the command line
6980 options and emits to 'stdout' Bourne shell commands that puts the option
6981 state into environment variables. This can be used within a shell
6985 eval "`opt_parser \"$@\"`"
6986 test ${OPTION_CT} -gt 0 && shift ${OPTION_CT}
6988 If the option parsing code detects an error or a request for usage or
6989 version, it will emit a command to exit with an appropriate exit code to
6990 'stdout'. This form of 'main' will cause all messages, including
6991 requested usage and version information, to be emitted to 'stderr'.
6992 Otherwise, a numeric value for 'OPTION_CT' is guaranteed to be emitted,
6993 along with assignments for all the options parsed, something along the
6994 lines of the following will be written to 'stdout' for evaluation:
6998 MYPROG_SECOND='first'
6999 export MYPROG_SECOND
7000 MYPROG_ANOTHER=1 # 0x1
7001 export MYPROG_ANOTHER
7003 If the arguments are to be reordered, however, then the resulting set of
7004 operands will be emitted and 'OPTION_CT' will be set to zero. For
7005 example, the following would be appended to the above:
7007 set -- 'operand1' 'operand2' 'operand3'
7010 'OPTION_CT' is set to zero since it is not necessary to shift off any
7014 File: autogen.info, Node: main shell-parser, Next: main main, Prev: main shell-process, Up: Generated main
7016 7.5.4.3 shell-parser: emit Bourne shell script
7017 ..............................................
7019 This will produce a 'main()' procedure that emits a shell script that
7020 will parse the command line options. That script can be emitted to
7021 'stdout' or inserted or substituted into a pre-existing shell script
7022 file. Improbable markers are used to identify previously inserted
7025 # # # # # # # # # # -- do not modify this marker --
7027 The program is also pretty insistent upon starting its parsing script on
7031 File: autogen.info, Node: main main, Next: main include, Prev: main shell-parser, Up: Generated main
7033 7.5.4.4 main: user supplied main procedure
7034 ..........................................
7036 You must supply a value for the 'main-text' attribute. You may also
7037 supply a value for 'option-code'. If you do, then the 'optionProcess'
7038 invocation will not be emitted into the code. AutoOpts will wrap the
7039 'main-text' inside of:
7042 main( int argc, char** argv )
7044 int res = <<success-exit-code>>;
7045 { // replaced by option-code, if that exists
7046 int ct = optionProcess( &<<prog-name>>Options, argc, argv);
7054 so you can most conveniently set the value with a 'here string' (*note
7057 code = <<- _EndOfMainProc_
7058 <<your text goes here>>
7062 File: autogen.info, Node: main include, Next: main invoke, Prev: main main, Up: Generated main
7064 7.5.4.5 include: code emitted from included template
7065 ....................................................
7067 You must write a template to produce your main procedure. You specify
7068 the name of the template with the 'tpl' attribute and it will be
7069 incorporated at the point where AutoOpts is ready to emit the 'main()'
7072 This can be very useful if, in your working environment, you have
7073 many programs with highly similar 'main()' procedures. All you need to
7074 do is parameterize the variations and specify which variant is needed
7075 within the 'main' AutoOpts specification. Since you are coding the
7076 template for this, the attributes needed for this variation would be
7077 dictated by your template.
7079 Here is an example of an 'include' variation:
7082 main-type = include;
7083 tpl = "main-template.tpl";
7087 File: autogen.info, Node: main invoke, Next: main for-each, Prev: main include, Up: Generated main
7089 7.5.4.6 invoke: code emitted from AutoGen macro
7090 ...............................................
7092 You must write a template to produce your main procedure. That template
7093 must contain a definition for the function specified with the 'func'
7094 attribute to this 'main()' procedure specification. This variation
7095 operates in much the same way as 'include' (*note main include::)
7099 File: autogen.info, Node: main for-each, Next: main-for-each-proc, Prev: main invoke, Up: Generated main
7101 7.5.4.7 for-each: perform function on each operand
7102 ..................................................
7104 This produces a main procedure that invokes a procedure once for each
7105 operand on the command line (non-option arguments), *OR* once for each
7106 non-blank, non-comment 'stdin' input line. Leading and trailing white
7107 space is trimmed from the input line and comment lines are lines that
7108 are empty or begin with a comment character, defaulting to a hash ('#')
7111 *NB*: The 'argument' program attribute (*note program attributes::)
7112 must begin with the '[' character, to indicate that there are command
7113 operands, but that they are optional.
7115 For an example of the produced main procedure, in the 'autoopts/test'
7116 build directory, type the following command and look at 'main.c':
7117 make verbose TESTS=main.test
7120 File: autogen.info, Node: main-for-each-proc, Next: main-for-each-type, Prev: main for-each, Up: Generated main
7122 procedure to handle each argument
7123 .................................
7125 The 'handler-proc' attribute is required. It is used to name the
7126 procedure to call. That procedure is presumed to be external, but if
7127 you provide the code for it, then the procedure is emitted as a static
7128 procedure in the generated code.
7130 This procedure should return 0 on success, a cumulative error code on
7131 warning and exit without returning on an unrecoverable error. As the
7132 cumulative warning codes are or-ed together, the codes should be some
7133 sort of bit mask in order to be ultimately decipherable (if you need to
7136 If the called procedure needs to cause a fail-exit, it is expected to
7137 call 'exit(3)' directly. If you want to cause a warning exit code, then
7138 this handler function should return a non-zero status. That value will
7139 be *OR*-ed into a result integer for computing the final exit code.
7140 E.g., here is part of the emitted code:
7145 res |= MY_HANDLER( *(argv++) );
7146 } while (--argc > 0);
7150 File: autogen.info, Node: main-for-each-type, Next: main-for-each-code, Prev: main-for-each-proc, Up: Generated main
7152 handler procedure type
7153 ......................
7155 If you do not supply the 'handler-type' attribute, your handler
7156 procedure must be the default type. The profile of the procedure must
7159 int MY_HANDLER(char const * pz_entry);
7161 However, if you do supply this attribute, you may set the value to any
7162 of four alternate flavors:
7165 This is essentially the same as the default handler type, except
7166 that before your procedure is invoked, the generated code has
7167 verified that the string names an existing file. The profile is
7171 Before calling your procedure, the file is f-opened according to
7172 the 'X', where 'X' may be any of the legal modes for 'fopen(3C)'.
7173 In this case, the profile for your procedure must be:
7175 int MY_HANDLER(char const * pz_fname, FILE * entry_fp);
7177 When processing inputs as file pointer stream files, there are
7178 several ways of treating standard input. It may be an ordinary
7179 input file, or it may contain a list of files to operate on.
7181 If the file handler type is more specifically set to 'file-r' and a
7182 command line operand consists of a single hyphen, then MY_HANDLER
7183 will be called with 'entry_fp' set to 'stdin' and the 'pz_fname'
7184 set to the translatable string, "standard input". Consequently, in
7185 this case, if the input list is being read from 'stdin', a line
7186 containing a hyphen by itself will be ignored.
7189 This attribute specifies that standard input is a data input file.
7190 By default, 'for-each' main procedures will read standard input for
7191 operands if no operands appear on the command line. If there are
7192 operands after the command line options, then standard input is
7193 typically ignored. It can always be processed as an input data
7194 file, however, if a single bare hyphen is put on the command line.
7198 Before calling your procedure, the contents of the file are read or
7199 mapped into memory. (Excessively large files may cause problems.)
7200 The 'some-text-of-file' disallows empty files. Both require
7201 regular files. In this case, the profile for your procedure must
7205 MY_HANDLER(char const * fname, char * file_text,
7208 Note that though the 'file_text' is not 'const', any changes made
7209 to it are not written back to the original file. It is merely a
7210 memory image of the file contents. Also, the memory allocated to
7211 hold the text is 'text_size + 1' bytes long and the final byte is
7212 always 'NUL'. The file contents need not be text, as the data are
7213 read with the 'read(2)' system call.
7215 'file_text' is automatically freed, unless you specify a
7216 'handler-frees' attribute. Then your code must 'free(3)' the text.
7218 If you select one of these file type handlers, then on access or
7219 usage errors the 'PROGRAM_EXIT_FAILURE' exit code will, by default, be
7220 or-ed into the final exit code. This can be changed by specifying the
7221 global 'file-fail-code' attribute and naming a different value. That
7222 is, something other than 'failure'. You may choose 'success', in which
7223 case file access issues will not affect the exit code and the error
7224 message will not be printed.
7227 File: autogen.info, Node: main-for-each-code, Next: main-for-each-opts, Prev: main-for-each-type, Up: Generated main
7229 code for handler procedure
7230 ..........................
7232 With the 'MYHANDLER-code' attribute, you provide the code for your
7233 handler procedure in the option definition file. Note that the spelling
7234 of this attribute depends on the name provided with the 'handler-proc'
7235 attribute, so we represent it here with 'MYHANDLER' as a place holder.
7236 As an example, your 'main()' procedure specification might look
7237 something like this:
7240 main-type = for-each;
7241 handler-proc = MYHANDLER;
7242 MYHANDLER-code = <<- EndOfMyCode
7243 /* whatever you want to do */
7247 and instead of an emitted external reference, a procedure will be
7248 emitted that looks like this:
7251 MYHANDLER( char const* pz_entry )
7254 <<MYHANDLER-code goes here>>
7259 File: autogen.info, Node: main-for-each-opts, Prev: main-for-each-code, Up: Generated main
7261 for-each main procedure options
7262 ...............................
7264 These attributes affect the main procedure and how it processes each
7265 argument or input line.
7268 If this attribute is specified, then options and operands may be
7269 interleaved. Arguments or input lines beginning with a hyphen will
7270 cause it to be passed through to an option processing function and
7271 will take effect for the remainder of the operands (or input lines)
7275 This is code that gets inserted after the options have been
7276 processed, but before the handler procs get invoked.
7279 This is code that gets inserted after all the entries have been
7280 processed, just before returning from 'main()'.
7283 When reading operands from standard input, if you wish comment
7284 lines to start with a character other than a hash ('#') character,
7285 then specify one character with this attribute. If string value is
7286 empty, then only blank lines will be considered comments.
7289 File: autogen.info, Node: option attributes, Next: Option Arguments, Prev: Generated main, Up: Option Definitions
7291 7.5.5 Option Attributes
7292 -----------------------
7294 For each option you wish to specify, you must have a block macro named
7295 'flag' defined. There are two required attributes: 'name' and
7296 'descrip'. If any options do not have a 'value' (traditional flag
7297 character) attribute, then the 'long-opts' program attribute must also
7298 be defined. As a special exception, if no options have a 'value' *and*
7299 'long-opts' is not defined *and* 'argument' is not defined, then all
7300 arguments to the program are named options. In this case, the '-' and
7301 '--' command line option markers are optional.
7305 * Required Attributes:: Required Attributes
7306 * Common Attributes:: Common Option Attributes
7307 * Immediate Action:: Immediate Action Attributes
7308 * Option Conflict Attributes:: Option Conflict Attributes
7310 These option attributes do not fit well with the above categories.
7312 * opt-attr settable:: Program may set option
7313 * opt-attr no-preset:: Option cannot be pre-configured
7314 * opt-attr equivalence:: Option Equivalence Class
7315 * opt-attr aliases:: Option Aliasing
7316 * opt-attr default option:: Default Option
7317 * opt-attr documentation:: Option Sectioning Comment
7318 * opt-attr translators:: Translator Notes
7321 File: autogen.info, Node: Required Attributes, Next: Common Attributes, Up: option attributes
7323 7.5.5.1 Required Attributes
7324 ...........................
7326 Every option must have exactly one copy of both of these attributes.
7329 Long name for the option. Even if you are not accepting long
7330 options and are only accepting flags, it must be provided.
7331 AutoOpts generates private, named storage that requires this name.
7332 This name also causes a '#define'-d name to be emitted. It must
7333 not conflict with any other names you may be using in your program.
7335 For example, if your option name is, 'debug' or 'munged-up', you
7336 must not use the '#define' names 'DEBUG' (or 'MUNGED_UP') in your
7337 program for non-AutoOpts related purposes. They are now used by
7340 Sometimes (most especially under Windows), you may get a surprise.
7341 For example, 'INTERFACE' is apparently a user space name that one
7342 should be free to use. Windows usurps this name. To solve this,
7343 you must do one of the following:
7345 1. Change the name of your option
7346 2. add the program attribute (*note program attributes::):
7348 export = '#undef INTERFACE';
7349 3. add the program attribute:
7354 Except for documentation options, a *very* brief description of the
7355 option. About 40 characters on one line, maximum, not counting any
7356 texinfo markups. Texinfo markups are stripped before printing in
7357 the usage text. It appears on the 'usage()' output next to the
7360 If, however, the option is a documentation option, it will appear
7361 on one or more lines by itself. It is thus used to visually
7362 separate and comment upon groups of options in the usage text.