MKSTR(1) MachTen 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 ver-
sion 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 start-
ing 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 ef-
ficient method, the error messages should be stored in the program text.

4.4BSD June 6, 1993 2