MKSTR(CP) UNIX System V MKSTR(CP)
Name
mkstr - creates an error message file from C source
Syntax
mkstr [-] messagefile prefix file ...
Description
mkstr is used to create files of error messages. Its use
can make programs with large numbers of error diagnostics
much smaller, and reduce system overhead in running the
program as the error messages do not have to be constantly
swapped in and out.
mkstr will process each specified file, placing a massaged
version of the input file in a file whose name consists of
the specified prefix and the original name. The optional
dash (-) causes the error messages to be placed at the end
of the specified message file for recompiling part of a
large mkstred program.
A typical mkstr command line is
mkstr pistrings xx *.c
This command causes 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 xx.
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. For example, the command changes
error(``Error on reading'', a2, a3, a4);
into
error(m, a2, a3, a4);
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MKSTR(CP) UNIX System V MKSTR(CP)
where m is the seek position of the string in the resulting
error message file. The programmer must create a routine
error which opens the message file, reads the string, and
prints it out. The following example illustrates such a
routine.
Example
char efilname[] = "/usr/lib/pi_strings";
int efil = -1;
error(a1, a2, a3, a4)
int a1, a2, a3, a4;
{
char buf[256];
if (efil < 0) {
efil = open(efilname, 0);
if (efil < 0) {
perror(efilname);
exit(1);
}
}
if (lseek(efil, (long) a1, 0) ||
read(efil, buf, 256) <= 0) {
printf("Unable to find error msg ");
printf("at seek address %d\n",a1);
exit(1);
}
printf(buf, a2, a3, a4);
}
See Also
lseek(S), xstr(CP)
Credit
This utility was developed at the University of California
at
Berkeley and is used with permission.
Notes
All the arguments except the name of the file to be
processed are unnecessary.
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