mcs(1)                                                        mcs(1)


       NAME
             mcs - manipulate the comment section of an object file

       SYNOPSIS
             mcs [-a string] [-c] [-d] [-n name] [-p] [-V] file . . .

       DESCRIPTION
             The mcs command is used to manipulate a section, by default
             the .comment section, in an ELF object file.  It is used to
             add to, delete, print, and compress the contents of a section
             in an ELF object file, and only print the contents of a
             section in a COFF object file.  mcs must be given one or more
             of the options described below.  It applies each of the
             options in order to each file.

             The following options are available.

            -a string
                    Append string to the comment section of the ELF object
                    files.  If string contains embedded blanks, it must be
                    enclosed in quotation marks.

            -c     Compress the contents of the comment section of the ELF
                    object files.  All duplicate entries are removed.  The
                    ordering of the remaining entries is not disturbed.

            -d     Delete the contents of the comment section from the ELF
                    object files.  The section header for the comment
                    section is also removed.

            -n name
                    Specify the name of the comment section to access if
                    other than .comment.  By default, mcs deals with the
                    section named .comment.  This option can be used to
                    specify another section.

            -p     Print the contents of the comment section on the
                    standard output.  Each section printed is tagged by the
                    name of the file from which it was extracted, using the
                    format filename[member_name]: for archive files; and
                    filename: for other files.

            -V     Print, on standard error, the version number of mcs.





                           Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc.               Page 1

      mcs(1)                                                        mcs(1)


            If the input file is an archive [see ar(4)], the archive is
            treated as a set of individual files.  For example, if the -a
            option is specified, the string is appended to the comment
            section of each ELF object file in the archive; if the archive
            member is not an ELF object file, then it is left unchanged.

            If mcs is executed on an archive file the archive symbol table
            will be removed, unless only the -p option has been specified.
            The archive symbol table must be restored by executing the ar
            command with the -s option before the archive can be linked by
            the ld command.  mcs will produce appropriate warning messages
            when this situation arises.

         International Functions
            Characters from supplementary code sets can be used in
            object-files.  Comments using characters from supplementary
            code sets can be specified with the -a option.

      EXAMPLES
            mcs -p file              # Print file's comment section
            mcs -a string file       # Append string to file's comment section

      FILES
            TMPDIR/mcs*           temporary files

            TMPDIR                usually /var/tmp but can be redefined by
                                  setting the environment variable TMPDIR
                                  [see tempnam in tmpnam(3S)].

      REFERENCES
            a.out(4), ar(1), ar(4), as(1), cc(1), ld(1), tmpnam(3S)

      NOTICES
            mcs cannot add to, delete or compress the contents of a
            section that is contained within a segment.

            The section name specified in name with the -n option must
            contain ASCII characters only.










                          Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc.               Page 2