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1130b656e5
This will make a number of things easier in the future, as well as (finally!) avoiding the Id-smashing problem which has plagued developers for so long. Boy, I'm glad we're not using sup anymore. This update would have been insane otherwise.
182 lines
6.7 KiB
Groff
182 lines
6.7 KiB
Groff
.\"
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.\" @(#) $FreeBSD$
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.\"
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.Dd January 26, 1993
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.Dt m4 1
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.Os
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.Sh NAME
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.Nm m4
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.Nd macro language processor
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.Sh SYNOPSIS
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.Nm m4
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.Oo
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.Fl D Ns Ar name Ns Op Ar =value
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.Oc
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.Op Fl U Ns Ar name
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.Op Ar filename
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\|.\|.\|.
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.Sh DESCRIPTION
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The
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.Nm m4
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utility is a macro processor that can be used as a front end to any
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language (e.g., C, ratfor, fortran, lex, and yacc).
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Each of the argument files is processed in order.
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If there are no files, or if a filename is \`-\', the standard input is read.
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The processed text is sent to the standard output.
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.Pp
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Macro calls have the form name(argument1[, argument2, ...,] argumentN).
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.Pp
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There cannot be any space following the macro name and the open
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parentheses '('. If the macro name is not followed by an open
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parentheses it is processed with no arguments.
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.Pp
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Macro names consist of a leading alphabetic or underscore
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possibly followed by alphanumeric or underscore characters, therefore
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valid macro names match this pattern [a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*.
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.Pp
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In arguments to macros, leading unquoted space, tab and newline
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characters are ignored. To quote strings use left and right single
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quotes (e.g., ` this is a string with a leading space'). You can change
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the quote characters with the changequote built-in macro.
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.Pp
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The options are as follows:
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.Bl -tag -width "-Dname[=value]xxx"
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.It Fl D Ns Ar name Ns Oo
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.Ar =value
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.Oc
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Define the symbol
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.Ar name
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to have some value (or NULL).
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.It Fl "U" Ns Ar "name"
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Undefine the symbol
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.Ar name .
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.El
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.Sh SYNTAX
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.Nm m4
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provides the following built-in macros. They may be
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redefined, loosing their original meaning.
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Return values are NULL unless otherwise stated.
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.Bl -tag -width changequotexxx
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.It changecom
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Change the start and end comment sequences. The default is
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the pound sign `#' and the newline character. With no arguments
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comments are turned off. The maximum length for a comment marker is
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five characters.
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.It changequote
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Defines the quote symbols to be the first and second arguments.
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The symbols may be up to five characters long. If no arguments are
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given it restores the default open and close single quotes.
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.It decr
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Decrements the argument by 1. The argument must be a valid numeric string.
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.It define
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Define a new macro named by the first argument to have the
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value of the second argument. Each occurrence of $n (where n
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is 0 through 9) is replaced by the n'th argument. $0 is the name
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of the calling macro. Undefined arguments are replaced by a
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NULL string. $# is replaced by the number of arguments; $*
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is replaced by all arguments comma separated; $@ is the same
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as $* but all arguments are quoted against further expansion.
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.It defn
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Returns the quoted definition for each argument. This can be used to rename
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macro definitions (even for built-in macros).
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.It divert
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There are 10 output queues (numbered 0-9).
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At the end of processing
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.Nm m4
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concatenates all the queues in numerical order to produce the
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final output. Initially the output queue is 0. The divert
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macro allows you to select a new output queue (an invalid argument
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passed to divert causes output to be discarded).
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.It divnum
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Returns the current output queue number.
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.It dnl
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Discard input characters up to and including the next newline.
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.It dumpdef
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Prints the names and definitions for the named items, or for everything
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if no arguments are passed.
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.It errprint
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Prints the first argument on the standard error output stream.
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.It eval
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Computes the first argument as an arithmetic expression using 32-bit
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arithmetic. Operators are the standard C ternary, arithmetic, logical,
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shift, relational, bitwise, and parentheses operators. You can specify
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octal, decimal, and hexadecimal numbers as in C. The second argument (if
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any) specifies the radix for the result and the third argument (if
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any) specifies the minimum number of digits in the result.
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.It expr
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This is an alias for eval.
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.It ifdef
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If the macro named by the first argument is defined then return the second
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argument, otherwise the third. If there is no third argument,
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the value is NULL. The word `unix' is predefined.
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.It ifelse
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If the first argument matches the second argument then ifelse returns
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the third argument. If the match fails the three arguments are
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discarded and the next three arguments are used until there is
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zero or one arguments left, either this last argument or NULL is
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returned if no other matches were found.
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.It include
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Returns the contents of the file specified in the first argument.
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Include aborts with an error message if the file cannot be included.
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.It incr
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Increments the argument by 1. The argument must be a valid numeric string.
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.It index
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Returns the index of the second argument in the first argument (e.g.,
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index(the quick brown fox jumped, fox) returns 16). If the second
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argument is not found index returns -1.
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.It len
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Returns the number of characters in the first argument. Extra arguments
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are ignored.
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.It m4exit
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Immediately exits with the return value specified by the first argument,
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0 if none.
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.It m4wrap
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Allows you to define what happens at the final EOF, usually for cleanup
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purposes (e.g., m4wrap("cleanup(tempfile)") causes the macro cleanup to
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invoked after all other processing is done.)
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.It maketemp
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Translates the string XXXXX in the first argument with the current process
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ID leaving other characters alone. This can be used to create unique
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temporary file names.
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.It paste
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Includes the contents of the file specified by the first argument without
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any macro processing. Aborts with an error message if the file cannot be
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included.
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.It popdef
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Restores the pushdef'ed definition for each argument.
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.It pushdef
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Takes the same arguments as define, but it saves the definition on a
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stack for later retrieval by popdef.
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.It shift
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Returns all but the first argument, the remaining arguments are
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quoted and pushed back with commas in between. The quoting
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nullifies the effect of the extra scan that will subsequently be
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performed.
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.It sinclude
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Similar to include, except it ignores any errors.
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.It spaste
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Similar to spaste, except it ignores any errors.
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.It substr
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Returns a substring of the first argument starting at the offset specified
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by the second argument and the length specified by the third argument.
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If no third argument is present it returns the rest of the string.
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.It syscmd
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Passes the first argument to the shell. Nothing is returned.
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.It sysval
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Returns the return value from the last syscmd.
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.It translit
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Transliterate the characters in the first argument from the set
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given by the second argument to the set given by the third. You cannot
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use
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.Xr tr 1
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style abbreviations.
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.It undefine
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Removes the definition for the macro specified by the first argument.
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.It undivert
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Flushes the named output queues (or all queues if no arguments).
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.It unix
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A pre-defined macro for testing the OS platform.
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.El
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.Sh AUTHOR
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Ozan Yigit <oz@sis.yorku.ca> and Richard A. O'Keefe (ok@goanna.cs.rmit.OZ.AU)
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