


      MKSTR(1)                    (bsd 4.2)                    MKSTR(1)



      NAME
           mkstr - create an error message file by massaging 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
           paged in and out.

           Mkstr will process each of the specified files, placing a
           massaged version of the input file in a file whose name
           consists of the specified prefix and the original name.  A
           typical usage of mkstr would be

                mkstr pistrings xx *.c

           This command would cause 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 searches for 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 new-line character; the null character
           terminates the message so it can be easily used when
           retrieved.  The new-line 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, i.e.:


                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);



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      MKSTR(1)                    (bsd 4.2)                    MKSTR(1)



                          }
                     }
                     if (lseek(efil, (long) a1, 0) || read(efil, buf, 256) <= 0)
                          goto oops;
                     printf(buf, a2, a3, a4);
                }

           The optional - causes the error messages to be placed at the
           end of the specified message file for recompiling part of a
           large mkstred program.

      SEE ALSO
           lseek(2), xstr(1)










































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