mkstr(1)                                                 mkstr(1)



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

     SYNOPSIS
          mkstr [-] messagefile prefix file ...

     DESCRIPTION
          mkstr is used to create files of error messages.  Using it
          can make programs with large numbers of error diagnostics
          much smaller, and reduce system overhead in running the pro-
          gram as the error messages do not have to be constantly
          swapped in and out.

          mkstr will process each of the specified files, placing a
          massaged version of the input file in a file whose name con-
          sists of the specified prefix and the original name.

          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 newline character
          and a null character; the null character terminates the mes-
          sage so it can be easily used when retrieved, the newline
          character makes it possible to sensibly cat the error mes-
          sage file to see its contents.  The massaged copy of the in-
          put file then contains a lseek pointer into the file which
          can be used to retrieve the message, i.e.:

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

          You have to write the error-handling function yourself.  The
          following is an example:

             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) < 0L
                     || read(efil, buf, 256) <= 0)
                             goto oops;
                     printf(buf, a2, a3, a4);
             }

          The optional - causes the error messages to be placed at the



     April, 1990                                                     1

     mkstr(1)                                                 mkstr(1)



          end of the specified message file for recompiling part of a
          large mkstred program.

     EXAMPLES
          If the current directory has files a.c and b.c, then

             mkstr exs x *.c

          would create a new file exs which holds all the error mes-
          sages extracted from the source files a.c and b.c, as well
          as two new source files xa.c and xb.c which no longer con-
          tain the extracted error messages.

     FILES
          /bin/mkstr

     SEE ALSO
          cc(1), xstr(1), lseek(2).

     BUGS
          All the arguments except the name of the file to be pro-
          cessed are unnecessary.

































     2                                                     April, 1990