MKSTR(1)                    386BSD Reference Manual                   MKSTR(1)

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

SYNOPSIS
     mkstr [-] messagefile prefix file ...

DESCRIPTION
     Mkstr creates files containing error messages extracted from C source,
     and restructures the same C source, to utilize the created error message
     file.  The intent of mkstr was to reduce the size of large programs and
     reduce swapping (see BUGS section below).

     Mkstr processes each of the specified files, placing a restructured
     version of the input in a file whose name consists of the specified
     prefix and the original name.  A typical usage of mkstr 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 restructured
     copies of the sources to be placed in files whose names are prefixed with
     xx.

     Options:

     -       Error messages are placed at the end of the specified message
             file for recompiling part of a large mkstr ed program.

     mkstr finds error messages in the source by searching for the string
     `error("' in the input stream.  Each time it occurs, the C string
     starting at the `"' is stored in the message file followed by a null
     character and a new-line character; The new source is restructured with
     lseek(2) pointers into the error message file for retrieval.

           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);
           }

SEE ALSO
     lseek(2),  xstr(1)

HISTORY
     Mkstr appeared in 3.0BSD.

BUGS
     mkstr was intended for the limited architecture of the PDP 11 family.
     Very few programs actually use it. The pascal interpreter, pi(1) and the
     editor, ex(1) are two programs that are built this way.  It is not an
     efficient method, the error messages should be stored in the program
     text.

BSD Experimental                  May 9, 1991                                2