MKSTR(1B) BSD Compatibility Package Commands MKSTR(1B)

NAME

mkstr - create an error message file by massaging C source files

SYNOPSIS

/usr/ucb/mkstr [-] messagefile prefix filename...

DESCRIPTION

The mkstr utility creates files of error messages. You can use mkstr
to make programs with large numbers of error diagnostics much
smaller, and to reduce system overhead in running the program -- as
the error messages do not have to be constantly swapped in and out.


mkstr processes each of the specified filenames, placing a massaged
version of the input file in a file with a name consisting of the
specified prefix and the original source file name. A typical example
of using mkstr would be:

mkstr pistrings processed *.c


This command would cause all the error messages from the C source
files in the current directory to be placed in the file pistrings and
processed copies of the source for these files to be placed in files
whose names are prefixed with processed.


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

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

error(a1, a2, a3, a4)
{

char
buf[256];
if (efil < 0) {

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

OPTIONS

-
Place error messages at the end of the specified message file
for recompiling part of a large mkstred program.

SEE ALSO

xstr(1), attributes(7)

September 14, 1992 MKSTR(1B)