1 .\" DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE! It was generated by help2man 1.48.3.
2 .TH M4 "1" "May 2021" "GNU M4 1.4.19" "User Commands"
7 [\fI\,OPTION\/\fR]... [\fI\,FILE\/\fR]...
9 Process macros in FILEs. If no FILE or if FILE is `\-', standard input
12 Mandatory or optional arguments to long options are mandatory or optional
13 for short options too.
14 .SS "Operation modes:"
17 display this help and exit
20 output version information and exit
22 \fB\-E\fR, \fB\-\-fatal\-warnings\fR
23 once: warnings become errors, twice: stop
24 execution at first error
26 \fB\-i\fR, \fB\-\-interactive\fR
27 unbuffer output, ignore interrupts
29 \fB\-P\fR, \fB\-\-prefix\-builtins\fR
30 force a `m4_' prefix to all builtins
32 \fB\-Q\fR, \fB\-\-quiet\fR, \fB\-\-silent\fR
33 suppress some warnings for builtins
35 \fB\-\-warn\-macro\-sequence\fR[=\fI\,REGEXP\/\fR]
36 warn if macro definition matches REGEXP,
38 default \e$\e({[^}]*}\e|[0\-9][0\-9]+\e)
40 \fB\-W\fR, \fB\-\-word\-regexp\fR=\fI\,REGEXP\/\fR
41 use REGEXP for macro name syntax
42 .SS "Preprocessor features:"
44 \fB\-D\fR, \fB\-\-define=NAME\fR[=\fI\,VALUE\/\fR]
45 define NAME as having VALUE, or empty
47 \fB\-I\fR, \fB\-\-include\fR=\fI\,DIRECTORY\/\fR
48 append DIRECTORY to include path
50 \fB\-s\fR, \fB\-\-synclines\fR
51 generate `#line NUM "FILE"' lines
53 \fB\-U\fR, \fB\-\-undefine\fR=\fI\,NAME\/\fR
57 \fB\-g\fR, \fB\-\-gnu\fR
58 override \fB\-G\fR to re\-enable GNU extensions
60 \fB\-G\fR, \fB\-\-traditional\fR
61 suppress all GNU extensions
63 \fB\-H\fR, \fB\-\-hashsize\fR=\fI\,PRIME\/\fR
64 set symbol lookup hash table size [509]
66 \fB\-L\fR, \fB\-\-nesting\-limit\fR=\fI\,NUMBER\/\fR
67 change nesting limit, 0 for unlimited [0]
68 .SS "Frozen state files:"
70 \fB\-F\fR, \fB\-\-freeze\-state\fR=\fI\,FILE\/\fR
71 produce a frozen state on FILE at end
73 \fB\-R\fR, \fB\-\-reload\-state\fR=\fI\,FILE\/\fR
74 reload a frozen state from FILE at start
77 \fB\-d\fR, \fB\-\-debug\fR[=\fI\,FLAGS\/\fR]
78 set debug level (no FLAGS implies `aeq')
80 \fB\-\-debugfile\fR[=\fI\,FILE\/\fR]
81 redirect debug and trace output to FILE
82 (default stderr, discard if empty string)
84 \fB\-l\fR, \fB\-\-arglength\fR=\fI\,NUM\/\fR
85 restrict macro tracing size
87 \fB\-t\fR, \fB\-\-trace\fR=\fI\,NAME\/\fR
88 trace NAME when it is defined
89 .SS "FLAGS is any of:"
95 show before collect, after collect and after call
101 say current input file name
104 show changes in input files
107 say current input line number
110 show results of path searches
113 quote values as necessary, with a or e flag
116 trace for all macro calls, not only traceon'ed
119 add a unique macro call id, useful with c flag
122 shorthand for all of the above flags
124 If defined, the environment variable `M4PATH' is a colon\-separated list
125 of directories included after any specified by `\-I'.
127 Exit status is 0 for success, 1 for failure, 63 for frozen file version
128 mismatch, or whatever value was passed to the m4exit macro.
130 Written by Rene' Seindal.
132 Report bugs to: bug\-m4@gnu.org
134 GNU M4 home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/m4/>
136 General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
138 Copyright \(co 2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
139 License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
141 This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
142 There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
144 The full documentation for
146 is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the
150 programs are properly installed at your site, the command
154 should give you access to the complete manual.