FOR function template block
IF Template Block
WHILE Template Block
CASE Template Block
AutoGen is a tool designed for generating program files that contain repetitive text with varied substitutions. Its goal is to simplify the maintenance of programs that contain large amounts of repetitious text. This is especially valuable if there are several blocks of such text that must be kept synchronized.
One common example is the problem of maintaining the code required for processing program options. Processing options requires a minimum of four different constructs be kept in proper order in different places in your program. You need at least:
You will need more things besides this if you choose to implement long option names, rc/ini file processing, environment variables and so on. All of this can be done mechanically; with the proper templates and this program. In fact, it has already been done and AutoGen itself uses it See section Automated Option Processing. For a simple example of Automated Option processing, See section Quick Start. For a full list of the Automated Option features, See section AutoOpts Features.
The idea of this program is to have a text file, a template if you will, that contains the general text of the desired output file. That file includes substitution expressions and sections of text that are replicated under the control of separate definition files.
AutoGen was designed with the following features:
${VAR} construct in a shell here
doc. These markers are not fixed strings. They are specified at the
start of each template. Template designers know best what fits into their
syntax and can avoid marker conflicts.
We did this because it is burdensome and difficult to avoid conflicts
using either M4 tokenizaion or C preprocessor substitution rules. It
also makes it easier to specify expressions that transform the value.
Of course, our expressions are less cryptic than the shell methods.
This is just one simple example that shows a few basic features.
If you are interested, you also may run "make check" with the
VERBOSE enviornment variable set and see a number of other
examples in the `agen5/test/testdir' directory.
Assume you have an enumeration of names and you wish to associate some string with each name. Assume also, for the sake of this example, that it is either too complex or too large to maintain easily by hand. We will start by writing an abbreviated version of what the result is supposed to be. We will use that to construct our output templates.
In a header file, `list.h', you define the enumeration and the global array containing the associated strings:
typedef enum {
IDX_ALPHA,
IDX_BETA,
IDX_OMEGA } list_enum;
extern const char* az_name_list[ 3 ];
Then you also have `list.c' that defines the actual strings:
#include "list.h"
const char* az_name_list[] = {
"some alpha stuff",
"more beta stuff",
"final omega stuff" };
First, we will define the information that is unique for each enumeration name/string pair.
autogen definitions list;
list = { list_element = alpha;
list_info = "some alpha stuff"; };
list = { list_info = "more beta stuff";
list_element = beta; };
list = { list_element = omega;
list_info = "final omega stuff"; };
The autogen definitions list; entry defines the file as an
AutoGen definition file that uses a template named list. That is
followed by three list entries that define the associations
between the enumeration names and the strings. The order of the
differently named elements inside of list is unimportant. They are
reversed inside of the beta entry and the output is unaffected.
Now, to actually create the output, we need a template or two that can be expanded into the files you want. In this program, we use a single template that is capable of multiple output files.
It looks something like this. (For a full description, See section AutoGen Template.)
[+ AutoGen5 template h c +]
[+ CASE (suffix) +][+
== h +]
typedef enum {[+
FOR list "," +]
IDX_[+ (string-upcase! (get "list_element")) +][+
ENDFOR list +] } list_enum;
extern const char* az_name_list[ [+ (count "list") +] ];
[+
== c +]
#include "list.h"
const char* az_name_list[] = {[+
FOR list "," +]
"[+list_info+]"[+
ENDFOR list +] };[+
ESAC +]
The [+ AutoGen5 template h c +] text tells AutoGen that this is
an AutoGen version 5 template file; that it is to be processed twice;
that the start macro marker is [+; and the end marker is
+]. The template will be processed first with a suffix value of
h and then with c. Normally, the suffix values are
appended to the `base-name' to create the output file name.
The [+ == h +] and [+ == c +] CASE selection clauses
select different text for the two different passes. In this example,
the output is nearly disjoint and could have been put in two separate
templates. However, sometimes there are common sections and this is
just an example.
The [+FOR list "," +] and [+ ENDFOR list +] clauses delimit
a block of text that will be repeated for every definition of list.
Inside of that block, the definition name-value pairs that
are members of each list are available for substitutions.
The remainder of the macros are expressions. Some of these contain
special expression functions that are dependent on AutoGen named values;
others are simply Scheme expressions, the result of which will be
inserted into the output text. Other expressions are names of AutoGen
values. These values will be inserted into the output text. For example,
[+list_info+] will result in the value associated with
the name list_info being inserted between the double quotes and
(string-upcase! (get "list_element")) will first "get" the value
associated with the name list_element, then change the case of
all the letters to upper case. The result will be inserted into the
output document.
If you have compiled AutoGen, you can copy out the template and definitions, run `autogen' and produce exactly the hypothesized desired output.
One more point, too. Lets say you decided it was too much trouble to figure out how to use AutoGen, so you created this enumeration and string list with thousands of entries. Now, requirements have changed and it has become necessary to map a string containing the enumeration name into the enumeration number. With AutoGen, you just alter the template to emit the table of names. It will be guaranteed to be in the correct order, missing none of the entries. If you want to do that by hand, well, good luck.
AutoGen tries to use your normal shell so that you can supply shell code in a manner you are accustomed to using. If, however, you use csh or zsh, you cannot do this. Csh is sufficiently difficult to program that it is unsupported. Zsh, though largely programmable, also has some anomolies that make it incompatible with AutoGen usage. Therefore, when invoking AutoGen from these environments, you must be certain to set the SHELL environment variable to a Bourne-derived shell. e.g., sh, ksh or bash.
Any shell you choose for your own scripts need to follow these basic requirements:
trap $sig ":" without output to standard out.
This is done when the server shell is first started.
If your shell does not handle this, then it may be able to by
loading functions from its start up files.
\\cd $PWD
is inserted. This ensures that cd is not aliased to something
peculiar and each scriptlet starts life in the execution directory.
echo mumble is
appended. The program you use as a shell must emit the single
argument mumble on a line by itself.
Alexandre wrote: > > I'd appreciate opinions from others about advantages/disadvantages of > each of these macro packages.
I am using AutoGen in my pet project, and find one of its best points to be that it separates the operational data from the implementation.
Indulge me for a few paragraphs, and all will be revealed: In the manual, Bruce cites the example of maintaining command line flags inside the source code; traditionally spreading usage information, flag names, letters and processing across several functions (if not files). Investing the time in writing a sort of boiler plate (a template in AutoGen terminology) pays by moving all of the option details (usage, flags names etc.) into a well structured table (a definition file if you will), so that adding a new command line option becomes a simple matter of adding a set of details to the table.
So far so good! Of course, now that there is a template, writing all of that tedious optargs processing and usage functions is no longer an issue. Creating a table of the options needed for the new project and running AutoGen generates all of the option processing code in C automatically from just the tabular data. AutoGen in fact already ships with such a template... AutoOpts.
One final consequence of the good separation in the design of AutoGen is that it is retargetable to a greater extent. The egcs/gcc/fixinc/inclhack.def can equally be used (with different templates) to create a shell script (inclhack.sh) or a c program (fixincl.c).
This is just the tip of the iceberg. AutoGen is far more powerful than these examples might indicate, and has many other varied uses. I am certain Bruce or I could supply you with many and varied examples, and I would heartily recommend that you try it for your project and see for yourself how it compares to m4.
As an aside, I would be interested to see whether someone might be persuaded to rationalise autoconf with AutoGen in place of m4... Ben, are you listening? autoconf-3.0! `kay? =)O|
Sincerely,
Gary V. Vaughan
This chapter describes the syntax and semantics of the AutoGen definition file. In order to instantiate a template, you normally must provide a definitions file that identifies itself and contains some value definitions. Consequently, we keep it very simple. For "advanced" users, there are preprocessing directives and comments that may be used as well.
The definitions file is used to associate values with names. When multiple values are associated with a single name, an implicit array of values is formed. Values may be either simple strings or compound collections of name-value pairs. An array may not contain both simple and compound members. Fundamentally, it is as simple as:
prog_name = "autogen";
flag = {
name = templ_dirs;
value = L;
descrip = "Template search directory list";
};
For purposes of commenting and controlling the processing of the
definitions, C-style comments and most C preprocessing directives are
honored. The major exception is that the #if directive is
ignored, along with all following text through the matching
#endif directive. The C preprocessor is not actually invoked, so
C macro substitution is not performed.
The first definition in this file is used to identify it as a
AutoGen file. It consists of the two keywords,
`autogen' and `definitions' followed by the default
template name and a terminating semi-colon (;). That is:
AutoGen Definitions template-name;
Note that, other than the name template-name, the words `AutoGen' and `Definitions' are searched for without case sensitivity. Most lookups in this program are case insensitive.
Also, if the input contains more identification definitions, they will be ignored. This is done so that you may include (see section Controlling What Gets Processed) other definition files without an identification conflict.
AutoGen uses the name of the template to find the corresponding template file. It searches for the file in the following way, stopping when it finds the file:
If AutoGen fails to find the template file in one of these places, it prints an error message and exits.
Any name may have multiple values associated with it in the definition file. If there is more than one instance, the only way to expand all of the copies of it is by using the FOR (see section FOR - Emit a template block multiple times) text function on it, as described in the next chapter.
There are two kinds of definitions, `simple' and `compound'. They are defined thus (see section YACC Language Grammar):
compound_name '=' '{' definition-list '}' ';'
simple_name '=' string ';'
no_text_name ';'
No_text_name is a simple definition with a shorthand empty string
value. The string values for definitions may be specified in any of
several formation rules.
The names may be a simple name taking the next available index, or may specify an index by name or number. For example:
txt_name txt_name[2] txt_name[ DEF_NAME ]
DEF_NAME must be defined to have a numeric value.
If you do specify an index, you must take care not to cause conflicts.
definition-list is a list of definitions that may or may not
contain nested compound definitions. Any such definitions may
only be expanded within a FOR block iterating over the
containing compound definition. See section FOR - Emit a template block multiple times.
Here is, again, the example definitions from the previous chapter, with three additional name value pairs. Two with an empty value assigned (first and last), and a "global" group_name.
autogen definitions list;
group_name = example;
list = { list_element = alpha; first;
list_info = "some alpha stuff"; };
list = { list_info = "more beta stuff";
list_element = beta; };
list = { list_element = omega; last;
list_info = "final omega stuff"; };
The string follows the C-style escaping (\, \n, \f,
\v, etc.), plus octal character numbers specified as \ooo.
The difference from "C" is that the string may span multiple lines.
Like ANSI "C", a series of these strings, possibly intermixed with
single quote strings, will be concatenated together.
This is similar to the shell single-quote string. However, escapes
\ are honored before another escape, single quotes '
and hash characters #. This latter is done specifically
to disambiguate lines starting with a hash character inside
of a quoted string. In other words,
foo = ' #endif ';
could be misinterpreted by the definitions scanner, whereas this would not:
foo = ' \#endif ';
As with the double quote string, a series of these, even intermixed
with double quote strings, will be concatenated together.
This is assembled according to the same rules as the double quote string, except that there is no concatenation of strings and the resulting string is written to a shell server process. The definition takes on the value of the output string.
NB The text is interpreted by a server shell. There may be
left over state from previous ` processing and it may
leave state for subsequent processing. However, a cd
to the original directory is always issued before the new
command is issued.
A simple string that does not contain white space may be left
unquoted. The string must not contain any of the characters special to
the definition text (i.e. ", #, ', (,
), ,, ;, <, =, >, [,
], `, {, or }). This list is subject to
change, but it will never contain underscore (_), period
(.), slash (/), colon (:), hyphen (-) or
backslash (\\). Basically, if the string looks like it is a
normal DOS or UNIX file or variable name, and it is not one of two
keywords (`autogen' or `definitions') then it is OK to not
quote it, otherwise you should.
A scheme result string must begin with an open parenthesis (.
The scheme expression will be evaluated by Guile and the
value will be the result. The AutoGen expression functions
are disabled at this stage, so do not use them.
A `here string' is formed in much the same way as a shell here doc. It is denoted with a doubled less than character and, optionally, a hyphen. This is followed by optional horizontal white space and an ending marker-identifier. This marker must follow the syntax rules for identifiers. Unlike the shell version, however, you must not quote this marker. The resulting string will start with the first character on the next line and continue up to but not including the newline that precedes the line that begins with the marker token. No backslash or any other kind of processing is done on this string. The characters are copied directly into the result string.
Here are two examples:
str1 = <<- STR_END
$quotes = " ' `
STR_END;
str2 = << STR_END
$quotes = " ' `
STR_END;
STR_END;
The first string contains no new line characters. The first character is the dollar sign, the last the back quote.
The second string contains one new line character. The first character
is the tab character preceeding the dollar sign. The last character is
the semicolon after the STR_END. That STR_END does not
end the string because it is not at the beginning of the line. In the
preceeding case, the leading tab was stripped.
If single or double quote characters are used, then you also have the option, a la ANSI-C syntax, of implicitly concatenating a series of them together, with intervening white space ignored.
NB You cannot use directives to alter the string content. That is,
str = "foo"
#ifdef LATER
"bar"
#endif
;
will result in a syntax error. The preprocessing directives are not carried out by the C preprocessor. However,
str = '"foo\n" #ifdef LATER " bar\n" #endif ';
Will work. It will enclose the `#ifdef LATER'
and `#endif' in the string. But it may also wreak
havoc with the definition processing directives. The hash
characters in the first column should be disambiguated with
an escape \ or join them with previous lines:
"foo\n#ifdef LATER....
There are several methods for including dynamic content inside a definitions
file. Three of them are mentioned above (section Shell Output String and
see section Scheme Result String) in the discussion of string formation rules.
Another method uses the #shell processing directive.
It will be discussed in the next section (see section Controlling What Gets Processed).
Guile/Scheme may also be used to yield to create definitions.
When the Scheme expression is preceeded by a backslash and single quote, then the expression is expected to be an alist of names and values that will be used to create AutoGen definitions.
This method can be be used as follows:
\'( (name (value-expression))
(name2 (another-expr)) )
This is entirely equivalent to:
name = (value-expression); name2 = (another-expr);
Under the covers, the expression gets handed off to a Guile function
named alist->autogen-def in an expression that looks like this:
(alist->autogen-def
( (name (value-expression)) (name2 (another-expr)) ) )
Definition processing directives can only be processed
if the '#' character is the first character on a line. Also, if you
want a '#' as the first character of a line in one of your string
assignments, you should either escape it by preceding it with a
backslash `\', or by embedding it in the string as in "\n#".
All of the normal C preprocessing directives are recognized, though
several are ignored. There is also an additional #shell -
#endshell pair. Another minor difference is that AutoGen
directives must have the hash character (#) in column 1.
The ignored directives are:
`#assert', `#ident', `#pragma', and `#if'.
Note that when ignoring the #if directive, all intervening
text through its matching #endif is also ignored,
including the #else clause.
The AutoGen directives that affect the processing of definitions are:
#define name [ <text> ]
#elif
#if
otherwise it will generate an error.
It will be ignored.
#else
#if, #ifdef or #ifndef.
If it follows the #if, then it will be ignored. Otherwise,
it will change the processing state to the reverse of what it was.
#endif
#if, #ifdef or #ifndef.
In all cases, this will resume normal processing of text.
#endshell
#error [ <descriptive text> ]
#if [ <ignored conditional expression> ]
#if expressions are not analyzed. Everything from here
to the matching #endif is skipped.
#ifdef name-to-test
#endif will be
processed only if there is a corresponding -Dname command line
option.
#ifndef name-to-test
#endif will be
processed only if there is not a corresponding -Dname
command line option or there was a canceling -Uname option.
#include unadorned-file-name
#line
#shell
$SHELL or `/bin/sh' on a script that should
generate AutoGen definitions. It does this using the same server
process that handles the back-quoted ` text.
CAUTION let not your $SHELL be csh.
#undef name-to-undefine
When AutoGen starts, it tries to determine several names from the
operating environment and put them into environment variables for use in
both #ifdef tests in the definitions files and in shell scripts
with environment variable tests. __autogen__ is always defined.
For other names, AutoGen will first try to use the POSIX version of the
sysinfo(2) system call. Failing that, it will try for the POSIX
uname(2) call. If neither is available, then only
"__autogen__" will be inserted into the environment.
If sysinfo(2) is available, the strings associated with
SI_SYSNAME (e.g., "__sunos__")
SI_HOSTNAME (e.g., "__ellen__")
SI_ARCHITECTURE (e.g., "__sparc__")
SI_HW_PROVIDER (e.g., "__sun_microsystems__")
SI_PLATFORM (e.g., "__sun_ultra_5_10__")
SI_MACHINE (e.g., "__sun4u__")
are used. The associated names are converted to lower case, surrounded by doubled underscores and non-symbol characters are replaced with underscores. For example, for Solaris on a sparc platform, you would get these definitions:
For Linux and other operating systems that only support the
uname(2) call, AutoGen will use these values:
sysname (e.g., "__linux__")
machine (e.g., "__i586__")
nodename (e.g., "__bach__")
By testing these pre-defines in my definitions, you can select
pieces of the definitions without resorting to writing shell
scripts that parse the output of uname(1). You can also
segregate real C code from autogen definitions by testing for
"__autogen__".
#ifdef __bach__ location = home; #else location = work; #endif
The definitions file may contain C and C++ style comments.
/* * This is a comment. It continues for several lines and closes * when the characters '*' and '/' appear together. */ // this comment is a single line comment
This is an extended example:
autogen definitions `template-name';
/*
* This is a comment that describes what these
* definitions are all about.
*/
global = "value for a global text definition.";
/*
* Include a standard set of definitions
*/
#include standards.def
a_block = {
a_field;
a_subblock = {
sub_name = first;
sub_field = "sub value.";
};
#ifdef FEATURE
a_subblock = {
sub_name = second;
};
#endif
};
The processing directives and comments are not part of the grammar. They are handled by the scanner/lexer. The following was extracted directly from the defParse.y source file:
definitions : identity def_list TK_END
{ $$ = (YYSTYPE)(rootDefCtx.pDefs = (tDefEntry*)$2); } ;
def_list : definition { $$ = $1; }
| definition def_list { $$ = addSibMacro( $1, $2 ); }
| identity def_list { $$ = $2; }
;
identity : TK_AUTOGEN TK_DEFINITIONS anyname ';'
{ $$ = identify( $3 ); }
;
definition : value_name ';'
{ $$ = makeMacro( $1, (YYSTYPE)"", VALTYP_TEXT ); }
| value_name '=' text_list ';'
{ $$ = makeMacroList( $1, $3, VALTYP_TEXT ); }
| value_name '=' block_list ';'
{ $$ = makeMacroList( $1, $3, VALTYP_BLOCK ); }
;
text_list : anystring { $$ = startList( $1 ); }
| anystring ',' text_list { $$ = appendList( $1, $3 ); }
;
block_list : def_block { $$ = startList( $1 ); }
| def_block ',' block_list { $$ = appendList( $1, $3 ); }
;
def_block : '{' def_list '}' { $$ = $2; } ;
anystring : anyname { $$ = $1; }
| TK_STRING { $$ = $1; }
| TK_NUMBER { $$ = $1; } ;
anyname : TK_OTHER_NAME { $$ = $1; }
| TK_VAR_NAME { $$ = $1; } ;
value_name : TK_VAR_NAME
{ $$ = findPlace( $1, (YYSTYPE)NULL ); }
| TK_VAR_NAME '[' TK_NUMBER ']'
{ $$ = findPlace( $1, $3 ); }
| TK_VAR_NAME '[' TK_VAR_NAME ']'
{ $$ = findPlace( $1, $3 ); }
;
It is entirely possible to write a template that does not depend upon
external definitions. Such a template would likely have an unvarying
output, but be convenient nonetheless because of an external library
of either AutoGen or Scheme functions, or both. This can be accommodated
by providing the --override-tpl and --no-definitions
options on the command line. See section Invoking autogen.
The AutoGen template file defines the content of the output text. It is composed of two parts. The first part consists of a pseudo macro invocation and commentary. It is followed by the template proper.
This pseudo macro is special. It is used to identify the file as a AutoGen template file, fixing the starting and ending marks for the macro invocations in the rest of the file, specifying the list of suffixes to be generated by the template and, optionally, the shell to use for processing shell commands embedded in the template.
AutoGen-ing a file consists of copying text from the template to the output file until a start macro marker is found. The text from the start marker to the end marker constitutes the macro text. AutoGen macros may cause sections of the template to be skipped or processed several times. The process continues until the end of the template is reached. The process is repeated once for each suffix specified in the pseudo macro.
This chapter describes the format of the AutoGen template macros and the usage of the AutoGen native macros. Users may augment these by defining their own macros. See section DEFINE - Define a user AutoGen macro.
The pseudo-macro starts with up to seven (7) punctuation characters used
for the template start-macro marker, followed by the autogen magic
marker (autogen5), the template marker (template), zero or
more suffix specifications, scheme expressions and the end-macro marker.
It may also consist of up to seven (7) punctuation characters. Interspersed
may be comment lines (blank lines or lines starting with a hash mark
[#]) and edit mode markers (text between pairs of -*-
characters).
As an example, assume we want to use [+ and +] as the start
and end macro markers, and we wish to produce a `.c' and a `.h'
file, then the first macro invocation will look something like this:
[+ AutoGen5 template -*- Mode: emacs-mode-of-choice -*- h=chk-%s.h c # make sure we don't use csh: (setup "SHELL" "/bin/sh") +]
Note It is generally a good idea to use some sort of opening
bracket in the starting macro and closing bracket in the ending
macro (e.g. {, (, [, or even <
in the starting macro). It helps both visually and with editors
capable of finding a balancing parenthesis. The closing marker
may not begin with an open parenthesis, as that is used
to enclose a scheme expression.
It is also helpful to avoid using the comment marker (#);
the POSIXly acceptable file name characters period (.),
hyphen (-) and underscore (_); and finally, it is
advisable to avoid using any of the quote characters double,
single or back-quote. But there is no special check for any of
these advisories.
Detailed description:
The starting macro marker must be the first non-white space characters encountered in the file. The marker consists of all the contiguous ASCII punctuation characters found there. With optional intervening white space, this marker must be immediately followed by the keywords, "autogen5" and "template". Capitalization of these words is not important. This is followed by zero, one or more suffix specifications and, possibly, a scheme expression.
Suffix specifications consist of a sequence of POSIX compliant file name
characters and, optionally, an equal sign and a file name "printf"-style
formatting string. Two string arguments are allowed for that string:
the base name of the definition file and the current suffix (that being
the text to the left of the equal sign). (Note "POSIX compliant file
name characters" consist of alphanumerics plus the period (.),
hyphen (-) and underscore (_) characters.) If there are
no suffix specifications, then the generated file will be written to the
stdout file descriptor.
The scheme expression is intended to allow the template writer to specify the shell program that must be used to interpret the shell commands in the template. It can have no effect on any shell commands in the definitions file, as that file will have been processed by the time the pseudo macro is interpreted. You can specify the shell as follows:
(setenv "SHELL" "/bin/sh")
This works because AutoGen examines the value of the SHELL environment
variable in order to select the shell to run. If that shell is allowed
to be csh, AutoGen will break. If it is allowed to be zsh,
AutoGen may break. Your milage may vary.
The pseudo macro ends with an end macro marker. Like the starting macro marker, it consists of a contiguous sequence of arbitrary punctuation characters. However, additionally, it may not begin with any of the POSIX file name characters and it may not contain the start macro marker.
This pseudo macro may appear on one or several lines of text.
Intermixed may be comment lines (completely blank or starting with the
hash character # in column 1), and file content markers (text
between -*- pairs on a single line). This may be used to
establish editing "modes" for the file. These are ignored by
AutoGen.
The template proper starts after the pseudo-macro. The starting character is either the first non-whitespace character or the first character after the new-line that follows the end macro marker.
When an AutoGen value is specified in a template, it is specified by name. The name may be a simple name, or a compound name of several components. Since each named value in AutoGen is implicitly an array of one or more values, each component may have an index associated with it.
It looks like this:
comp-name-1 . comp-name-2 [ 2 ]
Note that if there are multiple components to a name, each component
name is separated by a dot (.). Indexes follow a component name,
enclosed in square brackets ([ and ]). The index may be
either an integer or an integer-valued define name. The first component
of the name is searched for in the current definition level. If not
found, higher levels will be searched until either a value is found,
or there are no more definition levels. Subsequent components of the
name must be found within the context of the newly-current definition
level. Also, if the named value is prefixed by a dot (.), then
the value search is started in the current context only. No higher
levels are searched.
If someone rewrites this, I'll incorporate it. :-)
The syntax of a full AutoGen expression is:
[[ <apply-code> ] <value-name> ] [ <simple-expr-1> [ <simple-expr-2> ]]
Where
-, ?, % or ?% (see below).
; or (;
a shell expression surrounded with `; or a string, quoted or
unquoted.
? or ?% apply-code has
been specified.
There are some places where only a simple expression (i.e. just the
<simple-expr-1> clause) is allowed. I hope I have clearly
marked which macros have those requirements. Otherwise, in the
macro descriptions that follow, a full expression refers to
what we are describing here.
The result of the expression evaluation will depend on what apply code has been provided, whether or not there is an associated value for the value name, and whether or not expressions are specified.
The syntax rules are:
? or ?%, then two
expressions must be provided, otherwise only one expression
may be provided.
The apply codes used are as follows:
-'
?'
%'
% character.
?%'
?and %, but for
obvious reasons, only the first expression will be used as a
format argument.
<value-name>. If there is an associated value, then the
expression result is the result of evaluating <expression-1>
(if present), otherwise it is the value associated with
<value-name>.
The simple expression clauses are interpreted differently, depending on the first character:
; (semi-colon)'
( (open parenthesis)'
' (single quote)'
'), the hash character (#) and
backslash (\).
" (double quote)'
` (back quote)'
AutoGen uses Guile to interpret Scheme expressions within AutoGen macros. All of the normal Guile functions are available, plus several extensions (see section Common Scheme Functions) have been added to augment the repertoire of string manipulation functions and manage the state of AutoGen processing.
This section describes those functions that are specific to AutoGen. Please take note that these AutoGen specific functions are not loaded and thus not made available until after the command line options have been processed and the AutoGen definitions have been loaded. They may, of course, be used in Scheme functions that get defined at those times, but they cannot be invoked.
Usage: (ag-function? ag-name)
return SCM_BOOL_T if a specified name is a user-defined AutoGen
macro, otherwise return SCM_BOOL_F.
Arguments:
ag-name - name of AutoGen macro
Usage: (base-name)
Returns a string containing the base name of the output file(s).
Generally, this is also the base name of the definitions file.
This Scheme function takes no arguments.
Usage: (count ag-name)
Count the number of entries for a definition.
The input argument must be a string containing the name
of the AutoGen values to be counted. If there is no
value associated with the name, the result is an SCM
immediate integer value of zero.
Arguments:
ag-name - name of AutoGen value
Usage: (def-file)
Get the name of the definitions file.
Returns the name of the source file containing the AutoGen
definitions.
This Scheme function takes no arguments.
Usage: (dne prefix [ first_prefix ])
Generate a "DO NOT EDIT" or "EDIT WITH CARE" warning string.
Which depends on whether or not the --writable command line
option was set. The argument is a per-line string prefix.
The optional second argument is a first-line prefix and,
in read-only mode, activates the editor hints:
-*- buffer-read-only: t -*- vi: set ro:
Arguments:
prefix - string for starting each output line
first_prefix - Optional - for the first output line
Usage: (error message)
The argument is a string that printed out as part of an error
message. The message is formed from the formatting string:
DEFINITIONS ERROR in %s line %d for %s: %s\n
The first three arguments to this format are provided by the routine and are: The name of the template file, the line within the template where the error was found, and the current output file name.
After displaying the message, the current output file is removed and autogen exits with the EXIT_FAILURE error code. IF, however, the argument begins with the number 0 (zero), or the string is the empty string, then processing continues with the next suffix.
Arguments:
message - message to display before exiting
Usage: (error-source-line)
This function is only invoked just before Guile displays
an error message. It displays the file name and line number
that triggered the evaluation error. You should not need to
invoke this routine directly. Guile will do it automatically.
This Scheme function takes no arguments.
Usage: (exist? ag-name)
return SCM_BOOL_T iff a specified name has an AutoGen value.
The name may include indexes and/or member names.
All but the last member name must be an aggregate definition.
For example:
(exist? "foo[3].bar.baz")
will yield true if all of the following is true:
There is a member value of either group or string type
named baz for some group value bar that
is a member of the foo group with index 3.
There may be multiple entries of bar within
foo, only one needs to contain a value for baz.
Arguments:
ag-name - name of AutoGen value
Usage: (first-for? [ for_var ])
Returns SCM_BOOL_T if the named FOR loop (or, if not named, the
current innermost loop) is on the first pass through the data.
Outside of any FOR loop, it returns SCM_UNDEFINED.
See section FOR - Emit a template block multiple times.
Arguments:
for_var - Optional - which for loop
Usage: (for-by by)
This function records the "step by" information
for an AutoGen FOR function.
Outside of the FOR macro itself, this function will emit an error.
See section FOR - Emit a template block multiple times.
Arguments:
by - the iteration increment for the AutoGen FOR macro
Usage: (for-from from)
This function records the initial index information
for an AutoGen FOR function.
Outside of the FOR macro itself, this function will emit an error.
See section FOR - Emit a template block multiple times.
Arguments:
from - the initial index for the AutoGen FOR macro
Usage: (for-index [ for_var ])
Returns the current index for the named FOR loop.
If not named, then the index for the innermost loop.
Outside of any FOR loop, it returns SCM_UNDEFINED.
See section FOR - Emit a template block multiple times.
Arguments:
for_var - Optional - which for loop
Usage: (for-sep separator)
This function records the separation string that is to be inserted
between each iteration of an AutoGen FOR function. This is often
nothing more than a comma.
Outside of the FOR macro itself, this function will emit an error.
Arguments:
separator - the text to insert between the output of
each FOR iteration
Usage: (for-to to)
This function records the terminating value information
for an AutoGen FOR function.
Outside of the FOR macro itself, this function will emit an error.
See section FOR - Emit a template block multiple times.
Arguments:
to - the final index for the AutoGen FOR macro
Usage: (get ag-name)
Get the first string value associated with the name.
It will always return either the associated string value, or
the empty string.
Arguments:
ag-name - name of AutoGen value
Usage: (high-lim ag-name)
Returns the highest index associated with an array of definitions.
This is generally, but not necessarily, one less than the
count value. (The indexes may be specified, rendering a
non-zero based or sparse array of values.)
This is very useful for specifying the size of a zero-based array of values where not all values are present. For example:
tMyStruct myVals[ [+ (+ 1 (high-lim "my-val-list")) +] ];
Arguments:
ag-name - name of AutoGen value
Usage: (last-for? [ for_var ])
Returns SCM_BOOL_T if the named FOR loop (or, if not named, the
current innermost loop) is on the last pass through the data.
Outside of any FOR loop, it returns SCM_UNDEFINED.
See section FOR - Emit a template block multiple times.
Arguments:
for_var - Optional - which for loop
Usage: (len ag-name)
If the named object is a group definition, then "len" is
the same as "count". Otherwise, if it is one or more text
definitions, then it is the sum of their string lengths.
If it is a single text definition, then it is equivalent to
(string-length (get "ag-name")).
Arguments:
ag-name - name of AutoGen value
Usage: (low-lim ag-name)
Returns the lowest index associated with an array of definitions.
Arguments:
ag-name - name of AutoGen value
Usage: (match-value? op ag-name test-str)
This function answers the question, "Is there an AutoGen value named
ag-name with a value that matches the pattern test-str
using the match function op?" Return SCM_BOOL_T iff at least
one occurrence of the specified name has such a value. The operator
can be any function that takes two string arguments and yields a
boolean. It is expected that you will use one of the string matching
functions provided by AutoGen.
The value name must follow the same rules as the
ag-name argument for exist? (see section `exist?' - test for value name).
Arguments:
op - boolean result operator
ag-name - name of AutoGen value
test-str - string to test against
Usage: (out-delete)
Remove the current output file. Cease processing the template for
the current suffix. It is an error if there are push-ed
output files. Use the (error "0") scheme function instead.
See section Redirecting Output.
This Scheme function takes no arguments.
Usage: (out-depth)
Returns the depth of the output file stack.
See section Redirecting Output.
This Scheme function takes no arguments.
Usage: (out-move new-name)
Rename current output file. See section Redirecting Output.
Please note: changing the name will not save a temporary
file from being deleted. It may, however, be used on the
root output file.
Arguments:
new-name - new name for the current output file
Usage: (out-name)
Returns the name of the current output file. If the current file
is a temporary, unnamed file, then it will scan up the chain until
a real output file name is found.
See section Redirecting Output.
This Scheme function takes no arguments.
Usage: (out-pop [ disp ])
If there has been a push on the output, then close that
file and go back to the previously open file. It is an error
if there has not been a push. See section Redirecting Output.
If there is no argument, no further action is taken. Otherwise,
the argument should be #t and the contents of the file
are returned by the function.
Arguments:
disp - Optional - return contents of the file
Usage: (out-push-add file-name)
Identical to push-new, except the contents are not
purged, but appended to. See section Redirecting Output.
Arguments:
file-name - name of the file to append text to
Usage: (out-push-new [ file-name ])
Leave the current output file open, but purge and create
a new file that will remain open until a pop delete
or switch closes it. The file name is optional and, if omitted,
the output will be sent to a temporary file that will be deleted when
it is closed.
See section Redirecting Output.
Arguments:
file-name - Optional - name of the file to create
Usage: (out-resume suspName)
If there has been a suspended output, then make that output descriptor
current again. That output must have been suspended with the same tag
name given to this routine as its argument.
Arguments:
suspName - A name tag for reactivating
Usage: (out-suspend suspName)
If there has been a push on the output, then set aside the
output descriptor for later reactiviation with (out-resume "xxx").
The tag name need not reflect the name of the output file. In fact,
the output file may be an anonymous temporary file. You may also
change the tag every time you suspend output to a file, because the
tag names are forgotten as soon as the file has been "resumed".
Arguments:
suspName - A name tag for reactivating
Usage: (out-switch file-name)
Switch output files - close current file and make the current
file pointer refer to the new file. This is equivalent to
out-pop followed by out-push-new, except that
you may not pop the base level output file, but you may
switch it. See section Redirecting Output.
Arguments:
file-name - name of the file to create
Usage: (set-writable [ set? ])
This function will set the current output file to be writable
(or not). This is only effective if neither the --writable
nor --not-writable have been specified. This state
is reset when the current suffix's output is complete.
Arguments:
set? - Optional - boolean arg, false to make output non-writable
Usage: (stack ag-name)
Create a scheme list of all the strings that are associated
with a name. They must all be text values or we choke.
Arguments:
ag-name - AutoGen value name
Usage: (suffix)
Returns the current active suffix. See generate in the
Declarations Input section above.
This Scheme function takes no arguments.
Usage: (tpl-file)
Returns the name of the current template file.
This Scheme function takes no arguments.
Usage: (tpl-file-line [ msg-fmt ])
Returns the file and line number of the current template macro
using either the default format, "from %s line %d", or else
the format you supply. For example, if you want only the line
number, you would supply the format "%2$d".
Arguments:
msg-fmt - Optional - formatting for line message
This section describes a number of general purpose functions that make the kind of string processing that AutoGen does a little easier. Unlike the AutoGen specific functions (see section AutoGen Scheme Functions), these functions are available for direct use during definition load time.
Usage: (bsd prog_name owner prefix)
Emit a string that contains the Free BSD Public License.
It takes three arguments:
prefix contains the string to start each output line.
owner contains the copyright owner.
prog_name contains the name of the program the copyright is about.
Arguments:
prog_name - name of the program under the BSD
owner - Grantor of the BSD License
prefix - String for starting each output line
Usage: (c-string string)
Reform a string so that, when printed, the C compiler will be able to
compile the data and construct a string that contains exactly what the
current string contains. Many non-printing characters are replaced with
escape sequences. Newlines are replaced with a backslash, an n, a
closing quote, a newline, seven spaces and another re-opening quote. The
compiler will implicitly concatenate them. The reader will see line
breaks.
A K&R compiler will choke. Use kr-string for that compiler.
Arguments:
string - string to reformat
Usage: (extract file-name marker-fmt [ caveat ] [ default ])
This function is used to help construct output files that may contain
text that is carried from one version of the output to the next.
file-name argument is used to name the file that
contains the demarcated text.
marker-fmt is a formatting string that is used to construct
the starting and ending demarcation strings. The sprintf function is
given the marker-fmt with two arguments. The first is either
"START" or "END". The second is either "DO NOT CHANGE THIS COMMENT"
or the optional caveat argument.
caveat is presumed to be absent if it is the empty string
(""). If absent, "DO NOT CHANGE THIS COMMENT" is used
as the second string argument to the marker-fmt.
default argument is supplied and no pre-existing text
is found, then this text will be inserted between the START and END
markers.
The resulting strings are presumed to be unique within the subject file. As a simplified example:
[+ (extract "fname" "// %s - SOMETHING - %s" "" "example default") +]
will result in the following text being inserted into the output:
// START - SOMETHING - DO NOT CHANGE THIS COMMENT example default // END - SOMETHING - DO NOT CHANGE THIS COMMENT
The "example default" string can then be carried forward to
the next generation of the output, provided the output
is not named "fname" and the old output is renamed to
"fname" before AutoGen-eration begins.
Arguments:
file-name - name of file with text
marker-fmt - format for marker text
caveat - Optional - warn about changing marker
default - Optional - default initial text
Usage: (fprintf port format [ format-arg ... ])
Format a string using arguments from the alist.
Write to a specified port. The result will NOT appear in your
output. Use this to print information messages to a template user.
Arguments:
port - Guile-scheme output port
format - formatting string
format-arg - Optional - list of arguments to formatting string
Usage: (gperf name str)
Perform the perfect hash on the input string. This is only useful if
you have previously created a gperf program with the make-gperf
function See section `make-gperf' - build a perfect hash function program. The name you supply here must
match the name used to create the program and the string to hash must
be one of the strings supplied in the make-gperf string list.
The result will be a perfect hash index.
See the documentation for @command{gperf(1GNU)} for more details.
Arguments:
name - name of hash list
str - string to hash
Usage: (gpl prog-name prefix)
Emit a string that contains the GNU Public License.
It takes two arguments:
prefix contains the string to start each output line, and
prog_name contains the name of the program the copyright is
about.
Arguments:
prog-name - name of the program under the GPL
prefix - String for starting each output line
Usage: (in? test-string string-list ...)
Return SCM_BOOL_T if the first argument string is found
in one of the entries in the second (list-of-strings) argument.
Arguments:
test-string - string to look for
string-list - list of strings to check
Usage: (join separator list ...)
With the first argument as the separator string,
joins together an a-list of strings into one long string.
The list may contain nested lists, partly because you
cannot always control that.
Arguments:
separator - string to insert between entries
list - list of strings to join
Usage: (kr-string string)
Reform a string so that, when printed, a K&R C compiler will be able
to compile the data and construct a string that contains exactly
what the current string contains. Many non-printing characters are
replaced with escape sequences. New-lines are replaced with a
backslash-n-backslash and newline sequence,
Arguments:
string - string to reformat
Usage: (lgpl prog_name owner prefix)
Emit a string that contains the GNU Library Public License. It takes
three arguments: prefix contains the string to start each output
line. owner contains the copyright owner. prog_name
contains the name of the program the copyright is about.
Arguments:
prog_name - name of the program under the LGPL
owner - Grantor of the LGPL (obsolete)
prefix - String for starting each output line
Usage: (license lic_name prog_name owner prefix)
Emit a string that contains the named license. The license text
is read from a file named, lic_name.lic, searching the standard
directories. The file contents are used as a format argument
to printf(3), with prog_name and owner as
the two string formatting arguments. Each output line is automatically
prefixed with the string prefix.
Arguments:
lic_name - file name of the license
prog_name - name of the licensed program or library
owner - Grantor of the License
prefix - String for starting each output line
Usage: (make-gperf name strings ...)
Build a program to perform perfect hashes of a known list of input
strings. This function produces no output, but prepares a program
named, `gperf_<name>' for use by the gperf function
See section `gperf' - perform a perfect hash function.
This program will be obliterated within a few seconds after AutoGen exits.
Arguments:
name - name of hash list
strings - list of strings to hash
Usage: (max list ...)
Return the maximum value in the list
Arguments:
list - list of values. Strings are converted to numbers
Usage: (min list ...)
Return the minimum value in the list
Arguments:
list - list of values. Strings are converted to numbers
Usage: (prefix prefix text)
Prefix every line in the second string with the first string.
For example, if the first string is "# " and the second contains:
two lines
The result string will contain:
# two # lines
Arguments:
prefix - string to insert at start of each line
text - multi-line block of text
Usage: (printf format [ format-arg ... ])
Format a string using arguments from the alist.
Write to the default output port. The result will NOT appear in your
output. Use this to print information messages to a template user.
Arguments:
format - formatting string
format-arg - Optional - list of arguments to formatting string
Usage: (raw-shell-str string)
Convert the text of the string into a singly quoted string
that a normal shell will process into the original string.
(It will not do macro expansion later, either.)
Contained single quotes become tripled, with the middle quote
escaped with a backslash. Normal shells will reconstitute the
original string.
NOTE: some shells will not correctly handle unusual non-printing characters. This routine works for most reasonably conventional ASCII strings.
Arguments:
string - string to transform
Usage: (shell command)
Generate a string by writing the value to
a server shell and reading the output back in. The template
programmer is responsible for ensuring that it completes
within 10 seconds. If it does not, the server will be killed,
the output tossed and a new server started.
Arguments:
command - shell command - the result value is stdout
Usage: (shell-str string)
Convert the text of the string into a double quoted string that a normal
shell will process into the original string, almost. It will add the
escape character \\ before two special characters to accomplish
Arguments:
string - string to transform
Usage: (shellf format [ format-arg ... ])
Format a string using arguments from the alist,
then send the result to the shell for interpretation.
Arguments:
format - formatting string
format-arg - Optional - list of arguments to formatting string
Usage: (sprintf format [ format-arg ... ])
Format a string using arguments from the alist.
Arguments:
format - formatting string
format-arg - Optional - list of arguments to formatting string
Usage: (string-capitalize str)
Create a new SCM string containing the same text as the original,
only all the first letter of each word is upper cased and all
other letters are made lower case.
Arguments:
str - input string
Usage: (string-capitalize! str)
capitalize all the words in an SCM string.
Arguments:
str - input/output string
Usage: (*=* text match)
string-contains-eqv?: Test to see if a string contains an equivalent string.
`equivalent' means the strings match, but without regard
to character case and certain characters are considered `equivalent'.
Viz., '-', '_' and '^' are equivalent.
Arguments:
text - text to test for pattern
match - pattern/substring to search for
Usage: (*==* text match)
string-contains?: Test to see if a string contains a substring. "strstr(3)"
will find an address.
Arguments:
text - text to test for pattern
match - pattern/substring to search for
Usage: (string-downcase str)
Create a new SCM string containing the same text as the original,
only all the upper case letters are changed to lower case.
Arguments:
str - input string
Usage: (string-downcase! str)
Change to lower case all the characters in an SCM string.
Arguments:
str - input/output string
Usage: (*~ text match)
string-end-eqv-match?: Test to see if a string ends with a pattern.
Case is not significant.
Arguments:
text - text to test for pattern
match - pattern/substring to search for
Usage: (*~~ text match)
string-end-match?: Test to see if a string ends with a pattern.
Case is significant.
Arguments:
text - text to test for pattern
match - pattern/substring to search for
Usage: (*= text match)
string-ends-eqv?: Test to see if a string ends with an equivalent string.
Arguments:
text - text to test for pattern
match - pattern/substring to search for
Usage: (*== text match)
string-ends-with?: Test to see if a string ends with a substring.
strcmp(3) returns zero for comparing the string ends.
Arguments:
text - text to test for pattern
match - pattern/substring to search for
Usage: (== text match)
string-equals?: Test to see if two strings exactly match.
Arguments:
text - text to test for pattern
match - pattern/substring to search for
Usage: (~ text match)
string-eqv-match?: Test to see if a string fully matches a pattern.
Case is not significant, but any character equivalences
must be expressed in your regular expression.
Arguments:
text - text to test for pattern
match - pattern/substring to search for
Usage: (= text match)
string-eqv?: Test to see if two strings are equivalent. `equivalent' means the
strings match, but without regard to character case and certain
characters are considered `equivalent'. Viz., '-', '_' and '^' are
equivalent. If the arguments are not strings, then the result of the
numeric comparison is returned.
This is an overloaded operation. If the arguments are not both
strings, then the query is passed through to scm_num_eq_p().
Arguments:
text - text to test for pattern
match - pattern/substring to search for
Usage: (*~* text match)
string-has-eqv-match?: Test to see if a string contains a pattern.
Case is not significant.
Arguments:
text - text to test for pattern
match - pattern/substring to search for
Usage: (*~~* text match)
string-has-match?: Test to see if a string contains a pattern.
Case is significant.
Arguments:
text - text to test for pattern
match - pattern/substring to search for
Usage: (~~ text match)
string-match?: Test to see if a string fully matches a pattern.
Case is significant.
Arguments:
text - text to test for pattern
match - pattern/substring to search for
Usage: (~* text match)
string-start-eqv-match?: Test to see if a string starts with a pattern.
Case is not significant.
Arguments:
text - text to test for pattern
match - pattern/substring to search for
Usage: (~~* text match)
string-start-match?: Test to see if a string starts with a pattern.
Case is significant.
Arguments:
text - text to test for pattern
match - pattern/substring to search for
Usage: (=* text match)
string-starts-eqv?: Test to see if a string starts with an equivalent string.
Arguments:
text - text to test for pattern
match - pattern/substring to search for
Usage: (==* text match)
string-starts-with?: Test to see if a string starts with a substring.
Arguments:
text - text to test for pattern
match - pattern/substring to search for
Usage: (string->c-name! str)
Change all the graphic characters that are invalid in a C name token
into underscores. Whitespace characters are ignored. Any other
character type (i.e. non-graphic and non-white) will cause a failure.
Arguments:
str - input/output string
Usage: (string-tr! source match translation)
This is the same as the tr(1) program, except the
string to transform is the first argument. The second and
third arguments are used to construct mapping arrays for the
transformation of the first argument.
It is too bad this little program has so many different and incompatible implementations!
Arguments:
source - string to transform
match - characters to be converted
translation - conversion list
Usage: (string-upcase str)
Create a new SCM string containing the same text as the original,
only all the lower case letters are changed to upper case.
Arguments:
str - input string
Usage: (string-upcase! str)
Change to upper case all the characters in an SCM string.
Arguments:
str - input/output string
Usage: (sum list ...)
Compute the sum of the list of expressions.
Arguments:
list - list of values. Strings are converted to numbers
This section describes the various AutoGen natively defined macros. Unlike the Scheme functions, some of these macros are "block macros" with a scope that extends through a terminating macro. Block macros must not overlap. That is to say, a block macro started within the scope of an encompassing block macro must have its matching end macro appear before the encompassing block macro is either ended or subdivided.
The block macros are these:
CASE
ESAC macro.
The scope is subdivided by SELECT macros.
You must have at least one SELECT macro.
DEFINE
ENDDEF macro.
The defined user macro can never be a block macro.
FOR
ENDFOR macro.
IF
ENDIF macro.
The scope may be subdivided by ELIF and ELSE
macros. Obviously, there may be only one ELSE macro
and it must be the last of these subdivisions.
INCLUDE
WHILE
ENDWHILE macro.
The general syntax is:
[ { <native-macro-name> | <user-defined-name> } ] [ <arg> ... ]
The syntax for <arg> depends on the particular macro,
but is generally a full expression (see section Macro Expression Syntax).
Here are the exceptions to that general rule:
INVOKE macros, implicit or explicit, must be followed by
a list of name/string value pairs. The string values are
simple expressions, as described above.
That is, the INVOKE syntax is either:
<user-macro-name> [ <name> [ = <expression> ] ... ]or
INVOKE <name-expression> [ <name> [ = <expression> ] ... ]
FOR <name> [ <separator-string> ]or
FOR <name> (...Scheme expression list)where
<name> must be a simple name and the Scheme expression list
is expected to contain one or more of the for-from,
for-to, for-by, and for-sep functions.
(See section FOR - Emit a template block multiple times, and section AutoGen Scheme Functions)
DEFINE macros must be followed by a simple name.
Anything after that is ignored. See section DEFINE - Define a user AutoGen macro.
COMMENT, ELSE, ESAC and the END*
macros take no arguments and ignore everything after the macro name
(e.g. see section COMMENT - A block of comment to be ignored)
The arguments are evaluated and converted to a string, if necessary. (see section EXPR - Evaluate and emit an Expression) The scope of the macro is up to the matching ESAC function. Within the scope of a CASE, this string is matched against case selection macros. There are sixteen match macros that are derived from four different ways the test may be performed, plus an "always true" match. The code for each selection expression is formed as follows:
*).
*).
=).
If a pattern match, use a tilde (~).
*).
For example:
[+ CASE <full-expression> +] [+ ~~* "[Tt]est" +]reg exp must match at start, not at end [+ == "TeSt" +]a full-string, case sensitive compare [+ = "TEST" +]a full-string, case insensitive compare [+ * +]always match - no testing [+ ESAC +]
<full-expression> (see section Macro Expression Syntax) may be any expression,
including the use of apply-codes and value-names. If the expression yields
a number, it is converted to a decimal string.
These case selection codes have also been implemented as Scheme expression functions using the same codes (see section Common Scheme Functions).
If the native macro name code is #, then the
entire macro function is treated as a comment and ignored.
This function will define a new macro. You must provide a name for the macro. You do not specify any arguments, though the invocation may specify a set of name/value pairs that are to be active during the processing of the macro.
[+ define foo +] ... macro body with macro functions ... [+ enddef +] ... [+ foo bar='raw text' baz=<<text expression>> +]
Once the macro has been defined, this new macro can be invoked by
specifying the macro name as the first token after the start macro
marker. Alternatively, you may make the invocation explicitly invoke a
defined macro by specifying INVOKE in the macro invocation. If
you do that, the macro name can be computed with an expression that gets
evaluated every time the INVOKE macro is encountered. See section INVOKE - Invoke a User Defined Macro.
Any remaining text in the macro invocation will be used to create new name/value pairs that only persist for the duration of the processing of the macro. The expressions are evaluated the same way simple expressions are evaluated. See section Macro Expression Syntax.
The resulting definitions are handled much like regular definitions, except:
This macro must only appear after an IF function, and
before any associated ELSE or ENDIF functions.
It denotes the start of an alternate template block for the
IF function. Its expression argument is evaluated as are
the arguments to IF. For a complete description See section IF - Conditionally Emit a Template Block.
This macro must only appear after an IF function,
and before the associated ENDIF function.
It denotes the start of an alternate template block for
the IF function. For a complete description See section IF - Conditionally Emit a Template Block.
This macro ends the DEFINE function template block.
For a complete description See section DEFINE - Define a user AutoGen macro.
FOR function template block
This macro ends the FOR function template block.
For a complete description See section FOR - Emit a template block multiple times.
IF Template Block
This macro ends the IF function template block.
For a complete description See section IF - Conditionally Emit a Template Block.
WHILE Template Block
This macro ends the WHILE function template block.
For a complete description See section WHILE - Conditionally loop over a Template Block.
CASE Template Block
This macro ends the CASE function template block.
For a complete description, See section CASE - Select one of several template blocks.
This macro does not have a name to cause it to be invoked explicitly, though if a macro starts with one of the apply codes or one of the simple expression markers, then an expression macro is inferred. The result of the expression evaluation (see section Macro Expression Syntax) is written to the current output.
This macro has a slight variation on the standard syntax:
FOR <value-name> [ <separator-string> ]
or
FOR <value-name> (...Scheme expression list
The first argument must be the name of an AutoGen value. If there is
no value associated with the name, the FOR loop block is skipped
entirely. The scope of the FOR function extends to the
corresponding ENDFOR macro.
If there are any further arguments, if the first character is either
a semi-colon (;) or an opening parenthesis ((), then
it is presumed to be a Scheme expression containing the FOR macro
specific functions for-from, for-by, for-to,
and/or for-sep. See section AutoGen Scheme Functions. Otherwise, the
remaining text is presumed to be a string for inserting between
each iteration of the loop. This string will be emitted one time
less than the number of iterations of the loop. That is, it is
emitted after each loop, excepting for the last iteration.
If the from/by/to functions are invoked, they will specify which
copies of the named value are to be processed. If there is no
copy of the named value associated with a particular index,
the FOR template block will be instantiated anyway.
The template must use methods for detecting missing definitions and
emitting default text. In this fashion, you can insert entries
from a sparse or non-zero based array into a dense, zero based array.
NB: the for-from, for-to, for-by and
for-sep functions are disabled outside of the context of the
FOR macro. Likewise, the first-for, last-for
and for-index functions are disabled outside of the range
of a FOR block.
[+FOR var (for-from 0) (for-to <number>) (for-sep ",") +]
... text with various substitutions ...[+
ENDFOR var+]
this will repeat the ... text with <number>+1 times. Each repetition,
except for the last, will have a comma various
substitutions ..., after it.
[+FOR var ",\n" +]
... text with various substitutions ...[+
ENDFOR var +]
This will do the same thing, but only for the index
values of var that have actually been defined.
Conditional block. Its arguments are evaluated (see section EXPR - Evaluate and emit an Expression) and
if the result is non-zero or a string with one or more bytes,
then the condition is true and the text from that point
until a matched ELIF, ELSE or ENDIF is emitted.
ELIF introduces a conditional alternative if the IF
clause evaluated FALSE and ELSE introduces an unconditional
alternative.
[+IF <full-expression> +] emit things that are for the true condition[+ ELIF <full-expression-2> +] emit things that are true maybe[+ ELSE "This may be a comment" +] emit this if all but else fails[+ ENDIF "This may *also* be a comment" +]
<full-expression> may be any expression described in the
EXPR expression function, including the use of apply-codes
and value-names. If the expression yields an empty string, it
is interpreted as false.
The entire contents of the named file is inserted at this point. The contents of the file are processed for macro expansion. The arguments are eval-ed, so you may compute the name of the file to be included. The included file must not contain any incomplete function blocks. Function blocks are template text beginning with any of the macro functions `IF', `FOR', `WHILE', and `CASE' and extending through the respective terminating macro functions.
User defined macros may be invoked explicitly or implicitly.
If you invoke one implicitly, the macro must begin with the
name of the defined macro. Consequently, this may not
be a computed value. If you explicitly invoke a user defined macro,
the macro begins with the macro name INVOKE followed by
a simple expression that must yield a known user defined macro.
A macro name _must_ be found, or AutoGen will issue a diagnostic
and exit.
Arguments are passed to the invoked macro by name.
The text following the macro name must consist of a series of
names each of which is followed by an equal sign (=) and
a simple expression that yields a string.
The string values may contain template macros that are parsed the first time the macro is processed and evaluated again every time the macro is evaluated.
This macro selects a block of text by matching an expression
against the sample text expression evaluated in the CASE
macro. See section CASE - Select one of several template blocks.
You do not specify a SELECT macro with the word "select".
Instead, you must use one of the 17 match operators described in
the CASE macro description.
The macro text has started with a name not known to AutoGen. If, at run time, it turns out to be the name of a defined macro, then that macro is invoked. If it is not, then it is a conditional expression that is evaluated only if the name is defined at the time the macro is invoked.
You may not specify UNKNOWN explicitly.
Conditionally repeated block. Its arguments are evaluated (see section EXPR - Evaluate and emit an Expression)
and as long as the result is non-zero or a string with one or more bytes,
then the condition is true and the text from that point
until a matched ENDWHILE is emitted.
[+WHILE <full-expression> +] emit things that are for the true condition[+ ENDWHILE +]
<full-expression> may be any expression described in the
EXPR expression function, including the use of apply-codes
and value-names. If the expression yields an empty string, it
is interpreted as false.
AutoGen provides a means for redirecting the template output
to different files. It is accomplished by providing a set of
Scheme functions named out-* (see section AutoGen Scheme Functions).
These functions allow you to logically "push" output files onto a stack and return to previous files by "pop"ing them back off. At the end of processing the template for a particular suffix (see section Format of the Pseudo Macro), all the files in the output stack are closed and popped off. Consequently, at the start of the processing of a template, there is only one output file on the stack. That file cannot be popped off.
There are also several functions for determining the output status. See section AutoGen Scheme Functions.
AutoGen was designed to be simple to enhance. You can do it by providing shell commands, Guile/Scheme macros or callout functions that can be invoked as a Guile macro. Here is how you do these.
Shell commands are run inside of a server process. This means that, unlike `make', context is kept from one command to the next. Consequently, you can define a shell function in one place inside of your template and invoke it in another. You may also store values in shell variables for later reference. If you load functions from a file containing shell functions, they will remain until AutoGen exits.
If your shell script should determine that AutoGen should stop processing, the recommended method for stopping AutoGen is:
echo "some error text" >&2
kill -2 ${AG_pid}
Guile also maintains context from one command to the next. This means
you may define functions and variables in one place and reference them
elsewhere. You also may load Guile macro definitions from a Scheme
file by using the --load-scheme command line option
(see section load-scheme option (-S)). Beware,
however, that the AutoGen specific scheme functions have not been loaded
at this time, so though you may define functions that reference them,
do not invoke the AutoGen functions at this time.
If your Scheme script should determine that AutoGen should stop processing, the recommended method for stopping AutoGen is:
(error "some error text")
Callout functions must be registered with Guile to work. This can
be accomplished either by putting your routines into a shared library
that contains a void scm_init( void ) routine that registers
these routines, or by building them into AutoGen.
To build them into AutoGen, you must place your routines in the source directory and name the files `exp*.c'. You also must have a stylized comment that `getdefs' can find that conforms to the following:
/*=gfunc <function-name>
*
* what: <short one-liner>
* general_use:
* string: <invocation-name-string>
* exparg: <name>, <description> [, ['optional'] [, 'list']]
* doc: A long description telling people how to use
* this function.
=*/
SCM
ag_scm_<function-name>( SCM arg_name[, ...] )
{ <code> }
function-name string will be transformed into
a reasonable invocation name. However, that is not always true.
If the result does not suit your needs, then supply an alternate string.
exparg.
See the Guile documentation for more details. More information is also available in a large comment at the beginning of the `agen5/snarf.tpl' template file.
There are two kinds those you define yourself and AutoGen native.
The user-defined macros may be defined in your templates or loaded
with the --lib-template option
(See section DEFINE - Define a user AutoGen macro and section lib-template option (-l)).
As for AutoGen native macros, do not add any. It is easy to do, but I won't like it. The basic functions needed to accomplish looping over and selecting blocks of text have proven to be sufficient over a period of several years. New text transformations can be easily added via any of the AutoGen extension methods, as discussed above.
This chapter was generated by AutoGen, the aginfo template and the option descriptions for the autogen program. It documents the autogen usage text and option meanings.
This software is released under the GNU General Public License.
This is the automatically generated usage text for autogen:
@exampleindent 0
autogen - The Automated Program Generator - Ver. 5.2.11
USAGE: autogen [ -<flag> [<val>] | --<name>[{=| }<val>] ]... [ <def-file> ]
Flg Arg Option-Name Description
-L YES templ-dirs Template search directory list
- may appear multiple times
-T YES override-tpl Override template file
- may not be preset
-l YES lib-template Library template file
- may appear multiple times
-b YES base-name Base name for output file(s)
- may not be preset
YES definitions Definitions input file
- disabled as --no-definitions
- enabled by default
- may not be preset
-S YES load-scheme Scheme code file to load
-F YES load-functions Load scheme callout library
-s YES skip-suffix Omit the file with this suffix
- may not be preset
- may appear multiple times
-o opt select-suffix specify this output suffix
- may not be preset
- may appear multiple times
no source-time set mod times to latest source
- disabled as --no-source-time
YES equate characters considered equivalent
no writable Allow output files to be writable
- disabled as --not-writable
- may not be preset
The following options are often useful while debugging new templates:
Flg Arg Option-Name Description
Num loop-limit Limit on increment loops
-t Num timeout Time limit for servers
- must lie within the range:
0 to 3600
KWd trace tracing level of detail
YES trace-out tracing output file or filter
These options can be used to control what gets processed
in the definitions files and template files.
Flg Arg Option-Name Description
-D YES define name to add to definition list
- may appear multiple times
-U YES undefine definition list removal pattern
- an alternate for define
Auto-supported Options:
Flg Arg Option-Name Description
-v opt version Output version information and exit
-? no help Display usage information and exit
-! no more-help Extended usage information passed thru pager
-> opt save-opts Save the option state to an rc file
-< YES load-opts Load options from an rc file
- disabled as --no-load-opts
- may appear multiple times
Options may be specified by doubled hyphens and their name
or by a single hyphen and the flag character (option value).
AutoGen creates text files from templates using external definitions.
The following option preset mechanisms are supported:
- reading file $HOME/.autogenrc
- reading file ./.autogenrc
- examining environment variables named AUTOGEN_*
The valid trace option keywords are:
nothing
templates
block-macros
expressions
everything
The definitions file (`<def-file>') can be specified with the
`definitions' option or as the command argument, but not both.
Omitting it or specifying `-' will result in reading definitions from
standard input.
The output file names are based on the template, but generally use the
base name of the definition file. If standard in is read for the
definitions, then `stdin' will be used for that base name. The
suffixes to the base name are gotten from the template. However, the
template file may specify the entire output file name. The generated
files are always created in the current directory. If you need to
place output in an alternate directory, `cd' to that directory and use
the `--templ_dirs' option to search the original directory.
`loop-limit' is used in debugging to stop runaway expansions.
@exampleindent 4
This is the "template search directory list" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
Add a directory to the list of directories to search when opening a template, either as the primary template or an included one. The last entry has the highest priority in the search list. That is to say, they are searched in reverse order.
This is the "override template file" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
Definition files specify the standard template that is to be expanded. This option will override that name and expand a different template.
This is the "library template file" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
DEFINE macros are saved from this template file for use in processing the main macro file. Template text aside from the DEFINE macros is is ignored.
This is the "base name for output file(s)" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
A template may specify the exact name of the output file. Normally, it does not. Instead, the name is composed of the base name of the definitions file with suffixes appended. This option will override the base name derived from the definitions file name. This is required if there is no definitions file and advisable if definitions are being read from stdin. If the definitions are being read from standard in, the base name defaults to `stdin'.
This is the "definitions input file" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
Use this argument to specify the input definitions file with a
command line option. If you do not specify this option, then
there must be a command line argument that specifies the file,
even if only to specify stdin with a hyphen (-).
Specify, --no-definitions when you wish to process
a template without any active AutoGen definitions.
This is the "scheme code file to load" option. Use this option to pre-load Scheme scripts into the Guile interpreter before template processing begins. Please note that the AutoGen specific functions are not loaded until after argument processing. So, though they may be specified in lambda functions you define, they may not be invoked until after option processing is complete.
This is the "load scheme callout library" option.
This option is used to load Guile-scheme callout functions. The
automatically called initialization routine scm_init
must be used to register these routines or data. This routine
can be generated by using the following command and the
`snarf.tpl' template. Read the introductory comment in
`snarf.tpl' to see what the `getdefs(1AG)' comment must contain.
GRP_NAME=whateveryoulike
eopt="subblock=exparg=arg_name,arg_desc,arg_optional,arg_list"
eopt="$eopt defs=gfunc templ=snarf srcfile"
eopt="assign=group=${GRP_NAME} assign=init=_init $eopt"
eopt="$eopt autogen=${AG} base-name=expr"
getdefs $eopt <<source-file-list>>
Note, however, that your functions must be named:
whateveryoulike_scm_<<function_name>>(...)
so you may wish to use a shorter group name.
This is the "omit the file with this suffix" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
Occasionally, it may not be desirable to produce all of the output
files specified in the template. (For example, only the `.h'
header file, but not the `.c' program text.) To do this
specify --skip-suffix=c on the command line.
This is the "specify this output suffix" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
If you wish to override the suffix specifications in the template, you can use one or more copies of this option. See the suffix specification in the section Format of the Pseudo Macro section of the info doc.
This is the "set mod times to latest source" option. If you stamp your output files with the `DNE' macro output, then your output files will always be different, even if the content has not really changed. If you use this option, then the modification time of the output files will change only if the input files change. This will help reduce unneeded builds.
This is the "characters considered equivalent" option. This option will alter the list of characters considered equivalent. The default are the three characters, "_-^". (The latter is conventional on a Tandem, and I do a lot of work on the Tandem.)
This is the "allow output files to be writable" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
This option will leave output files writable.Normally, output files are read-only.
This is the "limit on increment loops" option. This option prevents runaway loops. For example, if you accidentally specify, "FOR x (for-from 1) (for-to -1) (for-by 1)", it will take a long time to finish. If you do have more than 256 entries in tables, you will need to specify a new limit with this option.
This is the "time limit for servers" option. AutoGen works with a shell server process. Most normal commands will complete in less than 10 seconds. If, however, your commands need more time than this, use this option.
The valid range is 0 to 3600 seconds (1 hour). Zero will disable the server time limit.
This is the "tracing level of detail" option. This option will cause AutoGen to display a trace of its template processing. There are five levels:
DEFINEd macros and INCLUDEs
IF, FOR,
CASE and WHILE.
TEXT macros.
This is the "tracing output file or filter" option.
The output specified may be either a file name, or, if the option
argument begins with the pipe operator (|),
a command that will receive the tracing output as standard in.
For example, --traceout='| less' will run the trace output
through the less program.
This is the "show the definition tree" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
DEBUG during the compilation.
This will print out the complete definition tree before processing the template.
This is the "show shell commands" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
DEBUG during the compilation.
This will cause set -x to be executed in the shell, with
the resultant output printed to /dev/tty.
This is the "name to add to definition list" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
The AutoGen define names are used for the following purposes:
$NAME.
That part of the name string will be replaced with
the define-d value for NAME.
This is the "definition list removal pattern" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
Just like 'C', AutoGen uses #ifdef/#ifndef preprocessing
directives. This option will cause the matching names to be
removed from the list of defined values.
There are several files that get installed. The number depend
whether or not both shared and archive libraries are to be
installed. The following assumes that everything is installed
relative to $prefix. You can, of course, use
configure to place these files where you wish.
NB AutoGen does not contain any compiled-in path names.
All support directories are located via option processing
and the environment variable HOME.
The installed files are:
This program, library and supporting files can be installed with three commands:
However, you may wish to insert make check
before the make install command.
If you do perform a make check and there are any failures, you
will find the results in tests/FAILURES. Needless to say, I
would be interested in seeing the contents of those files and any
associated messages. If you choose to go on and analyze one of these
failures, you will need to invoke the test scripts individually. You
may do so by specifying the test (or list of test) in the TESTS make
variable, thus:
gmake TESTS=test-name.test check
I specify gmake because most makes will not let you override
internal definitions with command line arguments. gmake does.
All of the AutoGen tests are written to honor the contents of the VERBOSE environment variable. Normally, any commentary generated during a test run is discarded unless the VERBOSE environment variable is set. So, to see what is happening during the test, you might invoke the following with bash or ksh:
VERBOSE=1 gmake TESTS="for.test forcomma.test" check
Or equivalently with csh:
env VERBOSE=1 gmake TESTS="for.test forcomma.test" check
AutoOpts 11.0 is bundled with AutoGen. It is a tool that virtually eliminates the hassle of processing options and keeping man pages, info docs and usage text up to date. This package allows you to specify several program attributes, up to a hundred option types and many option attributes. From this, it then produces all the code necessary to parse and handle the command line and initialization file options, and the documentation that should go with your program as well.
AutoOpts is distributed under The GNU General Public License with the Library extentions (LGPL). It is in no way a "lesser" license. You have greater license with it.
AutoOpts supports option processing; option state saving; and program documentation with innumerable features. Here, we list a few obvious ones and some important ones, but the full list is really defined by all the attributes defined in the section Option Definitions section.
dis-abled with a disablement prefix.
Such options may default to either an enabled or a disabled state. You
may also provide an enablement prifix, too, e.g., --allow-mumble
and --prevent-mumble.
--help and --version are automatically supported.
--more-help will page the generated help.
main() routines can take advantage of all of AutoOpts' functionality.
test-main is defined, the output `.c' file will contain a
main routine that will be compiled when TEST_<prog-name>_OPTS is
defined. See section AutoOpts for Shell Scripts. If you choose to compile this program,
it is currently capable of producing one of three results:
test-main may specify a routine that will be called with a
pointer to the option descriptions as the single argument. You must
supply this routine and, obviously, you can cause it to do whatever you
wish it to do.
Explanatory details:
Initialization files are enabled by specifying the program attribute
homerc (see section Program Description Attributes). The initialization values
are identified by the long option name followed by white space and any
associated value. The value, if any, will continue through the end of
the last line not continued with a backslash. Leading and trailing
white space is stripped.
Initialization files are selected both by the homerc entries and,
optionally, via an automatically supplied command line option. The
first component of the homerc entry may be an environment
variable such as $HOME, or it may also be $$ (two
dollar sign characters) to specify the directory of the executable.
For example:
homerc = "$$/../share/autogen";
The initialization files are processed in the order they are specified
by the homerc attribute, so that each new file will normally
override the settings of the previous files. A few options may be
marked for immediate action (see section Immediate Action Attributes). Any such
options are acted upon in reverse order. The disabled
load-opts (--no-load-opts) option, for example, is an
immediate action option. Its presence in the last homerc file
will prevent the processing of any prior homerc files.
Further initialization file processing can be suppressed by
specifying --no-load-opts on the command line, or
PROGRAM_LOAD_OPTS=no in the environment, or no-load-opts
in any of the specified homerc files.
will cause the AutoOpts library to look in the normal autogen datadir for an initialization file.
When initialization files are enabled for an application, the user is
also provided with an automatically supplied --save-opts option.
All of the known option state will be written to either the specified
output file or, if it is not specified, then to the last specified
homerc file.
The optionLoadLine takes two arguments:
Leading and trailing white space is trimmed from the value, but otherwise new lines are not discarded. The caller is expected to have NUL terminated the string at the correct point.
Here is a feature comparison of AutoOpts and five other command line parser generators. They all share a number of similarities:
The 6 parsers compared are:
getopts_long()
to parse the command line options.
Comparative Analysis of Differentiating Features
If a feature is present (or absent) in only one or two implementations,
then the "yes" or "no" is upper cased for emphasis.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
|
| YES | no | no | no | no | no
|
| YES | no | no | no | no | no
|
| yes | no | no | yes | no | yes
|
| YES | no | no | no | no | no
|
| YES | no | no | no | no | no
|
| yes | NO | yes | yes | yes | NO
|
| YES | YES | no | no | no | no
|
| [1] | 4 | 5 | 5 | 11 | 4
|
| YES | no | no | no | no | no
|
| YES | YES | no | no | no | no
|
| yes | yes | yes | yes | NO | yes
|
| yes | yes | yes | no | no | no
|
| YES | no | no | no | no | no
|
| YES | no | no | no | no | no
|
| YES | YES | no | no | no | no
|
| YES | no | no | no | no | no
|
| Guile | tcl | none | none | none | bison,flex
|
| [2] | none | none | none | none | none |
The Guile library is now generally pre-installed on all
GNU/Linux systems.
-- James R. Van Zandt
-- Bruce Korb
Since it is generally easier to start with a simple example than it is to look at the options that AutoGen uses itself, here is a very simple AutoOpts example. You can copy this example out of the Info file and into a source file to try it. You can then embellish it into what you really need.
Assume you have a program named check that takes
two options:
check does.
You want this option available as a POSIX-style flag option
and a GNU long option. You want to allow as many of these
as the user wishes.
First, specify your program attributes and its options to AutoOpts, as with the following example.
AutoGen Definitions options;
prog-name = check;
prog-title = "Checkout Automated Options";
long-opts;
test_main;
flag = {
name = check_dirs;
value = L; /* flag style option character */
arg_type = string; /* option argument indication */
max = NOLIMIT; /* occurrence limit (none) */
stack_arg; /* save opt args in a stack */
descrip = "Checkout directory list";
};
flag = {
name = show_defs;
descrip = "Show the definition tree";
disable = dont; /* mark as enable/disable type */
/* option. Disable as `dont-' */
};
Then perform the following steps:
autogen -L $prefix/share/autogen checkopt.def
cc -o check -DTEST_CHECK_OPTS -g checkopt.c -L $prefix/lib -lopts
And now, ./check --help yields:
check - Checkout Automated Options
USAGE: check [-<flag> [<val>]]... [--<name>[{=| }<val>]]...
Flg Arg Option-Name Description
-L YES check-dirs Checkout directory list
- may appear without limit
no show-defs Show the definition tree
- disabled as --dont-show-defs
-? no help Display usage information and exit
-! no more-help Extended usage information passed thru pager
Options may be specified by doubled markers and their name
or by a single marker and the flag character/option value.
Normally, however, you would compile `checkopt.c' as in:
cc -o checkopt.o -I$prefix/include -c checkopt.c
and link `checkopt.o' with the rest of your program.
The main program causes the options to be processed
by calling optionProcess:
main( int argc, char** argv )
{
{
int optct = optionProcess( &checkOptions, argc, argv );
argc -= optct;
argv += optct;
}
The options are tested and used as in the following fragment:
if (HAVE_OPT( SHOW_DEFS ) && HAVE_OPT( CHECK_DIRS )) {
int dirct = STACKCT_OPT( CHECK_DIRS );
char** dirs = STACKLST_OPT( CHECK_DIRS );
while (dirct-- > 0) {
char* dir = *dirs++;
...
A lot of magic happens to make this happen. The rest of this chapter will describe the myriad of option attributes supported by AutoOpts. However, keep in mind that, in general, you won't need much more than what was described in this "quick start" section.
AutoOpts uses an AutoGen definitions file for the definitions of the program options and overall configuration attributes. The complete list of program and option attributes is quite extensive, so if you are reading to understand how to use AutoOpts, I recommend reading the "Quick Start" section (see section Quick Start) and paying attention to the following:
prog-name, prog-title, and argument, program
attributes, See section Program Description Attributes.
name and descrip option attributes, See section Required Attributes.
value (flag character) and min (occurrence counts)
option attributes, See section Common Option Attributes.
arg-type from the option argument specification section,
See section Option Argument Specification.
Keep in mind that the majority are rarely used and can be safely ignored. However, when you have special option processing requirements, the flexibility is there.
The following global option definitions are used to define attributes of the entire program. The first two are required of every program. The rest have been alphabetized. Except as noted, there may be only one copy of each of these definitions:
string->c_name! (see section `string->c-name!' - map non-name chars to underscore).
settable. The library client program will invoke the
SET_OPTION macro which will invoke a handler function that will
finally set these global variables.
ERRSKIP_OPTERR and ERRSTOP_OPTERR from the
generated interface file.
[), then there is no requirement on the presence or
absence of command line argument following the options. Lastly, if it
is supplied and does not start with an open bracket, then option
processing must not consume all of the command line arguments.
guile-main has been specified and if this is specified
as well, then this code will be inserted into the actual main()
procedure before gh_enter() is called.
copyright is a structured value containing three to five
values. If copyright is used, then the first three are required.
copyright = {
date = "1992-2001";
owner = "Bruce Korb";
eaddr = 'bkorb@gnu.org';
type = GPL;
};
PROGRAM is the upper cased C-name of the program and
OPTNAME is the upper cased C-name of the option. The
C-names are the regular names with all special characters
converted to underscores (_).
If a particular option may be disabled, then its disabled state
is indicated by setting the value to the disablement prefix.
So, for example, if the disablement prefix were dont, then
you can disable the optname option by setting the
PROGRAM_OPTNAME environment variable to `dont'.
See section Common Option Attributes.
#include directives required by
flag_code text and shared with other program text.
optionProcess() and will
invoke any code specified by this attribute. If this attribute
does not specify any code, then calls to the AutoOpts library procedure
export_options_to_guile() and then scm_shell() will
be inserted into inner_main().
.
or `/usr/local/share/progname') or an environment variable (like
`$HOME/rc/' or `$PREFIX/share/progname') or the directory
where the executable was found (`$$[/...]') to use to try to find
the rcfile. Use as many as you like. The presence of this attribute
activates the --save-opts and --load-opts options.
See section loading rc files.
flag_code program text.
long-opts. If
none of your options specify an option value (flag character) and you do
not specify long-opts, then command line arguments are processed
in "named option mode". This means that:
- and -- are completely optional.
argument program attribute is disallowed.
homerc attribute.
default: .<prog-name>rc
[). All text before such a line is
always processed. Once such a line is found, the upper-cased
c-variable-syntax program name will be compared against the text
following that bracket. If there is a match and the next character
after that is a square close bracket (]), then the section is
processed and the file closed. Otherwise, the section is ignored and a
matching section is searched for.
For exampe, if the foo-bar options had a sectioned RC file,
then a line containing [FOO_BAR] would be searched for.
test-main is short (3 or fewer characters), the
generated main() will call putBourneShell. That routine will emit
Bourne shell commands that can be eval-ed by a Bourne-derived shell to
incorporate the digested options into the shell's environment,
See section AutoOpts for Shell Scripts. You would use it thus:
eval `./programopts $@`
if [ -z "${OPTION_CT}" ] ; then exit 1 ; fi
shift ${OPTION_CT}
test-main contains putShellParse, the
program will generate portable Bourne shell commands that will parse the
command line options. The expectation is that this result will be
copied into a shell script and used there, See section AutoOpts for Shell Scripts.
optionUsage() does not work for you. If you specify
gnu_usage as the value of this attribute, for example,
you will use a procedure by that name for displaying usage.
Of course, you will need to provide that procedure.
For each option you wish to specify, you must have a block macro named
flag defined. It MUST contain at least two defined text
values named name and descrip. If any options do not have a
value macro, then the long-opts global text macro must be
defined. As a special exception, if no options have a value
and long-opts is not defined and argument is
not defined, then all arguments to the program are named. In this case, the
- and -- command line option markers are optional.
There are four categories of option attributes. The fifth section below describes what data are available for writing option processing code.
Every option must have exactly one copy of both of these attributes.
usage() output next to the option name.
Documentation options appear on one or more lines by themselves,
visually separating the usage options.
These option attributes are optional. Any that do appear in the definition of a flag, may appear only once.
-L.
mumble that is indicated
with the compile time define, WITH_MUMBLING, then add:
ifdef = WITH_MUMBLING;Note that case and spelling must match whatever you are using. Do not confuse these attributes with the AutoGen directives of the same names, See section Controlling What Gets Processed. These cause C pre-processing directives to be inserted into the generated C text.
These option attributes do not fit well with other categories.
TEMPL_DIRS is a settable option for AutoGen, so a macro named
SET_OPT_TEMPL_DIRS(a) appears in the interface file. This
attribute interacts with the documentation attribute.
cpio(1) has three options -o, -i,
and -p that define the operational mode of the program
(create, extract and pass-through, respectively).
They form an equivalence class from which one and only one member must
appear on the command line. If cpio were an AutoOpt-ed program,
then each of these option definitions would contain:
equivalence = create;and the program would be able to determine the operating mode with code that worked something like this:
switch (WHICH_IDX_CREATE) {
case INDEX_OPT_CREATE: ...
case INDEX_OPT_EXTRACT: ...
case INDEX_OPT_PASS_THROUGH: ...
default: /* cannot happen */
}
settable, call_proc and flag_code. settable
must be and is only specified if call_proc or flag_code
has been specified. When present, the descrip attribute will be
displayed only when the --help option has been specified. It
will be displayed flush to the left hand margin and may consist of one
or more lines of text. The name of the option will not be printed.
Certain options may need to be processed early. For example, in order
to suppress the processing of RC files, it is necessary to process the
command line option --no-load-opts before the RC files
are processed. To accommodate this, certain options may have their
enabled or disabled forms marked for immediate processing. The
consequence of this is that they are processed ahead of all other
options in the reverse of normal order.
Normally, the first options processed are the options specified in the
first homerc file, followed by then next homerc file
through to the end of RC file processing. Next, environment variables
are processed and finally, the command line options. The later
options override settings processed earlier. That actually gives them
higher priority. Command line immediate action options actually have
the lowest priority of all. They would be used only if they are to have
an effect on the processing of subsequent options.
help and more-help
options are so specified. They will also call exit() upon
completion, so they do have an effect on the processing
of the remaining options :-).
load-opts option is so
specified so that the --no-load-opts command line option will
suppress the processing of RC files and environment variables.
These attributes may be used as many times as you need. They are used at the end of the option processing to verify that the context within which each option is found does not conflict with the presence or absence of other options.
This is not a complete cover of all possible conflicts and requirements, but it simple to implement and covers the more common situations.
Several attributes relate to the handling of arguments to options.
Each may appear only once, except for the arg-range attribute.
It may appear as often as may be needed.
arg-range section below for some considerations.
AutoOpts contains a library procedure to convert the string to a number.
If you specify range checking with arg-range, then AutoOpts
produces a special purpose procedure for this option.
f, F, n or N
(representing False or No). Anything else will be interpreted as True.
opt-name,
the strings will be converted into an enumeration of type te_Opt_Name
with the values OPT_NAME_KEYWORD. If you have not
specified a default value, the value OPT_NAME_UNDEFINED will be
inserted with the value zero. The option will be initialized to that
value. You may now use this in your code as follows:
te_Opt_Name opt = OPT_VALUE_OPT_NAME;
switch (opt) {
case OPT_NAME_UNDEFINED: /* undefined things */ break;
case OPT_NAME_KEYWORD: /* `keyword' things */ break;
default: /* utterly impossible */ ;
}
AutoOpts produces a special purpose procedure for this option.
arg-type is keyword, then you must specify the
list of keywords by a series of keyword entries. The interface
file will contain an enumeration of <OPT_NAME>_<KEYWORD> for
each keyword entry.
string or keyword. If it is keyword, then
this attribute may also specify the default keyword to assume when
the argument is not supplied. Without such a specification, the
default keyword will be the zero-valued keyword.
arg-type
specified, but not the arg-optional attribute. That is to say,
the option argument must be required.
If you have done this, then any arguments that do not match an option
name and do not contain an equal sign (=) will be interpreted as
an option argument to the default option.
arg-type is number, then arg-ranges may be
specified, too. If you specify one or more of these option attributes,
then AutoOpts will create a callback procedure for handling it. The
argument value supplied for the option must match one of the range
entries. Each arg-range should consist of either an integer by itself
or an integer range. The integer range is specified by one or two
integers separated by the two character sequence, ->.
The generated procedure imposes some constraints:
INT_MIN,
both for obvious reasons and because
that value is used to indicate a single-valued match.
pOptDesc pointer set to NULL. Therefore,
all callback procedures designed to handle options with numeric
arguments must be prepared to handle a call with that
pointer set NULL.
AutoOpts will automatically generate a callback procedure for options with enumerated keyword arguments and numeric arguments with range checking. If you have specified such an option, you may not specify any of the attributes listed here.
Otherwise, you may pick zero or one of the following attributes.
The first two attributes interact with the documentation and
settable attributes, See section Special Option Handling.
static void
doOpt<name>( tOptions* pOptions, tOptDesc* pOptDesc )
{
<flag_code>
}
Only certain fields within the tOptions and tOptDesc
structures may be accessed. See section Data for Option Processing.
flag_code, except that the
source is kept in the output file instead of the definitions file.
A long comment is used to demarcate the code. You must not modify
that marker. Before regenerating the option code file,
the old file is renamed from MUMBLE.c to MUMBLE.c.save. The template
will be looking there for the text to copy into the new output file.
doOpt<name>. It has the same restrictions
regarding the fields within the structures passed in as arguments.
See section Data for Option Processing.
flag_code can be executed
when this option is encountered.
STACKCT_OPT(NAME)) and to obtain a
pointer to a list of pointers to the argument values
(STACKLST_OPT(NAME)).
AutoOpts includes AutoGen templates for producing abbreviated man pages and for producing the invoking section of an info document. To take advantage of these templates, you must add several attributes to your option definitions.
flag definition must have a doc attribute
defined and many will need an arg-name attribute as well. The
doc text should be in plain sentences with minimal formatting. The
Texinfo commands @code, and @var will have its enclosed
text made into \fB entries in the man page, and the @file
text will be made into \fI entries. The arg-name attribute
is used to display the option's argument in the man page.
arg-type, but
it will likely be clearer with something else like, file-name
instead of string (the type).
detail definition, this may be sufficient.
If not, or if you need special formatting for one of the manual formats,
then you will need either a definition for prog-man-descrip or
prog-info-descrip or both. These will be inserted verbatim
in the man page document and the info document, respectively.
SEE ALSO or
USAGE or other, put that text in a man-doc definition. This
text will be inserted verbatim in the man page after the OPTIONS
section and before the AUTHOR section.
AutoOpts provides automated support for five options. help and
more-help are always provided. version is provided if
version is defined in the option definitions. save-opts
and load-opts are provided if at least one homerc is
defined.
Below are the option names and flag values. The flags are activated if
and only if at least one user-defined option also uses a flag value.
These flags may be deleted or changed to characters of your choosing by
specifying xxx-value = "y";, where xxx
is one of the five names below and y is either empty or the
character of your choice. For example, to change the help flag from
? to h, specify help-value = "h";; and to require
that save-opts be specified only with its long option name,
specify save-opts-value = "";.
USAGE() procedure
and display the usage line, a description of each option with
its description and option usage information. This is followed
by the contents of the definition of the detail text macro.
help option, except that
it also includes the contents of the detail-file file
(if provided and found), plus the output is passed through
a pager program. (more by default, or the program identified
by the PAGER environment variable.)
c and
a value for copyright and owner have been provided,
then the copyright will be printed, too.
If it is followed by the letter n, then the full
copyright notice (if available) will be printed.
rcfile) in the last directory named in a homerc
definition
no-load-opts will suppress the processing of rc/ini files and
environment variables. To do this, AutoOpts must first implement
pre-scanning of the options, environment and rc files.
AutoOpts has developed a set of standardized options.
You may incorporate these options in your program simply by adding
a #define for the options you want, and the line,
#include stdoptions.def
in your option definitions. The supported options are specified thus:
#define DEBUG #define DIRECTORY #define DRY_RUN #define INPUT #define INTERACTIVE #define OUTPUT #define WARN #define SILENT #define QUIET #define BRIEF #define VERBOSE
By default, only the long form of the option will be available.
To specify the short (flag) form, suffix these names with _FLAG.
e.g.,
#define DEBUG_FLAG
--silent, --quiet, --brief and --verbose are
related in that they all indicate some level of diagnostic output.
These options are all designed to conflict with each other.
Instead of four different options, however, several levels can be
incorporated by #define-ing VERBOSE_ENUM. In conjunction
with VERBOSE, it incorporates the notion of 5 levels in an
enumeration: silent, quiet, brief,
informative and verbose; with the default being
brief.
The user interface for access to the argument information is completely defined in the generated header file and in the portions of the distributed file "options.h" that are marked "public".
In the following macros, text marked <OPT_NAME> or optname
is the name of the option in upper case and segmented
with underscores _. The macros and enumerations defined in the
options header (interface) file are used as follows:
To see how these #define macros are used in a program,
the reader is referred to the several `opts.h' files
included with the AutoGen sources.
This section describes the data that may be accessed from within the
option processing callback routines. The following fields may be used
in the following ways and may be used for read only. The first set is
addressed from the tOptDesc* pointer:
OPTST_, e.g. OPTST_INIT):
SET_OPT() macro.
optionLoadLine() routine.
disabled.)
set-writable (see section `set-writable' - Make the output file be writable).
Also, I provide for command options --writable and
--not-writable. I give precedence to command line and RC
file options, thus:
switch (STATE_OPT( WRITABLE )) {
case OPTST_DEFINED:
case OPTST_PRESET:
fprintf( stderr, zOverrideWarn, pCurTemplate->pzFileName,
pCurMacro->lineNo );
break;
default:
if (gh_boolean_p( set ) && (set == SCM_BOOL_F))
CLEAR_OPT( WRITABLE );
else
SET_OPT_WRITABLE;
}
The following two fields are addressed from the tOptions* pointer:
Note these fields get filled in during the first call to
optionProcess(). All other fields are private, for the exclusive
use of AutoOpts code and is subject to change.
Make as if the option had never been specified.
HAVE_OPT(<NAME>) will yield FALSE
after invoking this macro.
This macro will tell you how many times the option was specified on the command line. It does not include counts of preset options.
if (COUNT_OPT( NAME ) != desired-count) {
make-an-undesirable-message.
}
This macro is used internally by other AutoOpt macros. It is not for general use. It is used to obtain the option description corresponding to its UPPER CASED option name argument. This is primarily used in other macro definitions.
This macro is emitted if it is both settable and it can be disabled. If it cannot be disabled, it may always be CLEAR-ed (see above).
The form of the macro will actually depend on whether the
option is equivalenced to another, and/or has an assigned
handler procedure. Unlike the SET_OPT macro,
this macro does not allow an option argument.
DISABLE_OPT_NAME;
Yields true if the option defaults to disabled and
ISUNUSED_OPT() would yield true. It also yields true if
the option has been specified with a disablement prefix,
disablement value or the DISABLE_OPT_NAME macro was invoked.
When it is necessary to continue (return to caller) on option errors, invoke this option. It is reversible. See section ERRSTOP_OPTERR - Stop on Errors.
After invoking this macro, if optionProcess()
encounters an error, it will call exit(1) rather than return.
This is the default processing mode. It can be overridden by
specifying allow-errors in the definitions file,
or invoking the macro See section ERRSKIP_OPTERR - Ignore Option Errors.
This macro yields true if the option has been specified in any fashion at all. It is used thus:
if (HAVE_OPT( NAME )) {
<do-things-associated-with-opt-name>;
}
This macro yields true if the option has been specified either on the command line or via a SET/DISABLE macro.
This macro yields true if the option has
never been specified, or has been cleared via the
CLEAR_OPT() macro.
The full count of all options, both those defined and those generated automatically by AutoOpts. This is primarily used to initialize the program option descriptor structure.
The option argument value as a pointer to string. Note that argument
values that have been specified as numbers are stored as numbers or
keywords. For such options, use instead the OPT_VALUE_name
define. It is used thus:
if (HAVE_OPT( NAME )) {
char* p = OPT_ARG( NAME );
<do-things-with-opt-name-argument-string>;
}
This macro gets emitted only for options that take numeric or keyword arguments. The macro yields a word-sized integer containing the enumeration or numeric value of the option argument.
int opt_val = OPT_VALUE_NAME;
If option processing has stopped (either because of an error
or something was encountered that looked like a program argument),
it can be resumed by providing this macro with the index n
of the next option to process and calling optionProcess() again.
This macro gets emitted only when the given
option has the settable attribute specified.
The form of the macro will actually depend on whether the option is equivalenced to another, has an option argument and/or has an assigned handler procedure. If the option has an argument, then this macro will too. Beware that the argument is not reallocated, so the value must not be on the stack or deallocated in any other way for as long as the value might get referenced.
SET_OPT_NAME( "string-value" );
When the option handling attribute is specified
as stack_arg, this macro may be used to determine how
many of them actually got stacked.
Do not use this on options that have not been stacked or has not been
specified (the stack_arg attribute must have been specified,
and HAVE_OPT(<NAME>) must yield TRUE).
Otherwise, you will likely page fault.
if (HAVE_OPT( NAME )) {
int ct = STACKCT_OPT( NAME );
char** pp = STACKLST_OPT( NAME );
do {
char* p = *pp++;
do-things-with-p;
} while (--ct > 0);
}
The address of the list of pointers to the option arguments. The pointers are ordered by the order in which they were encountered in the option presets and command line processing.
Do not use this on options that have not been stacked or has not been
specified (the stack_arg attribute must have been specified,
and HAVE_OPT(<OPTION>) must yield TRUE).
Otherwise, you will likely page fault.
if (HAVE_OPT( NAME )) {
int ct = STACKCT_OPT( NAME );
char** pp = STACKLST_OPT( NAME );
do {
char* p = *pp++;
do-things-with-p;
} while (--ct > 0);
}
This is just a shortcut for RESTART_OPT(1) (See section RESTART_OPT( n ) - Resume Option Processing.)
If you need to know if an option was set because of
presetting actions (RC/INI processing or environment variables),
versus a command line entry versus one of the SET/DISABLE macros,
then use this macro. It will yield one of four values:
OPTST_INIT, OPTST_SET, OPTST_PRESET
or OPTST_DEFINED. It is used thus:
switch (STATE_OPT( NAME )) {
case OPTST_INIT:
not-preset, set or on the command line. (unless CLEAR-ed)
case OPTST_SET:
option set via the SET_OPT_NAME() macro.
case OPTST_PRESET:
option set via an RC/INI file or environment variable
case OPTST_DEFINED:
option set via a command line option.
default:
cannot happen :)
}
This macro invokes the procedure registered to display
the usage text. Normally, this will be optionUsage from the
AutoOpts library, but you may select another procedure by specifying
usage = "proc_name" program attribute. This procedure must
take two arguments first, a pointer to the option descriptor, and
second the exit code. The macro supplies the option descriptor
automatically. This routine is expected to call exit(3) with
the provided exit code.
The optionUsage routine also behaves differently depending
on the exit code. If the exit code is zero, it is assumed that
assistance has been requested. Consequently, a little more
information is provided than when displaying usage and exiting
with a non-zero exit code.
This is a #define for the flag character used to
specify an option on the command line. If value was not
specified for the option, then it is a unique number associated
with the option. option value refers to this value,
option argument refers to the (optional) argument to the
option.
switch (WHICH_OPT_OTHER_OPT) {
case VALUE_OPT_NAME:
this-option-was-really-opt-name;
case VALUE_OPT_OTHER_OPT:
this-option-was-really-other-opt;
}
If the version attribute is defined for the program,
then a stringified version will be #defined as PROGRAM_VERSION and
PROGRAM_FULL_VERSION. PROGRAM_FULL_VERSION is used for printing
the program version in response to the version option. The version
option is automatically supplied in response to this attribute, too.
You may access PROGRAM_VERSION via programOptions.pzFullVersion.
This macro gets emitted only for equivalenced-to options. It is used to obtain the index for the one of the several equivalence class members set the equivalenced-to option.
switch (WHICH_IDX_OTHER_OPT) {
case INDEX_OPT_NAME:
this-option-was-really-opt-name;
case INDEX_OPT_OTHER_OPT:
this-option-was-really-other-opt;
}
This macro gets emitted only for equivalenced-to options. It is used to obtain the value code for the one of the several equivalence class members set the equivalenced-to option.
switch (WHICH_OPT_OTHER_OPT) {
case VALUE_OPT_NAME:
this-option-was-really-opt-name;
case VALUE_OPT_OTHER_OPT:
this-option-was-really-other-opt;
}
This enum defines the complete set of options, both user specified and automatically provided. This can be used, for example, to distinguish which of the equivalenced options was actually used.
switch (pOptDesc->optActualIndex) {
case INDEX_OPT_FIRST:
stuff;
case INDEX_OPT_DIFFERENT:
different-stuff;
default:
unknown-things;
}
You will not actually need to reference this value, but you need to be
aware that it is there. It is the first value in the option descriptor
that you pass to optionProcess. It contains a magic number and
version information. Normally, you should be able to work with a more
recent option library than the one you compiled with. However, if the
library is changed incompatibly, then the library will detect the out of
date magic marker, explain the difficulty and exit. You will then need
to rebuild and recompile your option definitions. This has rarely been
necessary.
These are the publicly exported procedures from the libopts library.
eval "`handle-prog-opts ${1+\"$@\"}`"
[ -z "$OPTION_CT" ] && exit 1
shift $OPTION_CT
This routine is normally specified by specifying
test-main = yes; in the option definitions file.
test-main = putShellParse; and the result
is compiled with -DTEST_xxx_OPTS defined. This is the
only way it should ever be invoked.
This is the module that is to be compiled and linked with your program.
It contains internal data and procedures subject to change. Basically,
it contains a single global data structure containing all the
information provided in the option definitions, plus a number of static
strings and any callout procedures that are specified or required. You
should never have need for looking at this, except, perhaps, to examine
the code generated for implementing the flag_code construct.
To use AutoOpts in your application:
myopts.h)
and the option descriptor code (myopts.c):
autogen -L $prefix/share/autogen myopts.def
#include "myopts.h".
main( int argc, char** argv )
{
{
int arg_ct = optionProcess( &myprogOptions, argc, argv );
argc -= arg_ct;
if ((argc < ARGC_MIN) || (argc > ARGC_MAX)) {
fprintf( stderr, "%s ERROR: remaining args (%d) "
"out of range\n", myprogOptions.pzProgName,
argc );
USAGE( EXIT_FAILURE );
}
argv += arg_ct;
}
if (HAVE_OPT(OPT_NAME))
respond_to_opt_name();
...
}
myopts.o -L $prefix/lib -lopts
AutoOpts may be used with shell scripts by automatically creating a complete program that will process command line options and pass back the results to the invoking shell by issuing shell variable assignment commands. It may also be used to generate portable shell code that can be inserted into your script.
The functionality of these features, of course, is somewhat constrained compared with the normal program facilities. Specifically, you cannot invoke callout procedures with either of these methods. Additionally, if you generate a shell script:
Both of these methods are enabled by running AutoGen on the definitions file with the additional global attribute:
test-main [ = proc-to-call ] ;
If you do not supply a proc-to-call, it will default
to putBourneShell. That will produce a program that
will process the options and generate shell text for the
invoking shell to interpret. If you supply the name,
putShellParse, then you will have a program that
will generate a shell script that can parse the options.
If you supply a different procedure name, you will have to
provide that routine and it may do whatever you like.
In summary, you will need to issue approximately the following two commands to have a working program:
autogen -L <opt-template-dir> program.def
cc -o progopts -L <opt-lib-dir> -I <opt-include-dir> \
-DTEST_program_OPTS program.c -lopts
The resulting program can be used within your shell script as follows:
eval `./progopts $@`
if [ -z "${OPTION_CT}" ] ; then exit 1 ; fi
shift ${OPTION_CT}
If you had used "test-main = putShellParse" instead, then you can,
at this point, merely run the program and it will write the parsing
script to standard out. You may also provide this program with command
line options to specify the shell script file to create or edit, and you
may specify the shell program to use on the first shell script line.
That program's usage text would look something like this:
genshellopt - Generate Shell Option Processing Script - Ver. 1
USAGE: genshellopt [ -<flag> [<val>] | --<name>[{=| }<val>] ]...
Flg Arg Option-Name Description
-o YES script Output Script File
-s YES shell Shell name (follows "#!" magic)
- disabled as --no-shell
- enabled by default
-v opt version Output version information and exit
-? no help Display usage information and exit
-! no more-help Extended usage information passed thru pager
Options may be specified by doubled hyphens and their name
or by a single hyphen and the flag character (option value).
Note that `shell' is only useful if the output file does not already
exist. If it does, then the shell name and optional first argument
will be extracted from the script file.
If the script file already exists and contains Automated Option Processing
text, the second line of the file through the ending tag will be replaced
by the newly generated text. The first `#!' line will be regenerated.
= = = = = = = =
This incarnation of genshell will produce
a shell script to parse the options for getdefs:
getdefs - AutoGen Definition Extraction Tool - Ver. 1.2
USAGE: getdefs { <option-name>[{=| }<val>] }...
Arg Option-Name Req? Description
YES defs-to-get opt Regexp to look for after the "/*="
opt ordering opt Alphabetize or use named file
Num first-index opt The first index to apply to groups
YES input YES Input file to search for defs
YES subblock opt subblock definition names
opt filelist opt Insert source file names into defs
YES assign opt Global assignments
YES common-assign opt Assignments common to all blocks
YES copy opt File(s) to copy into definitions
opt srcfile opt Insert source file name into each def
opt linenum opt Insert source line number into each def
YES output opt Output file to open
opt autogen opt Invoke AutoGen with defs
YES template opt Template Name
YES agarg opt AutoGen Argument
YES base-name opt Base name for output file(s)
opt version opt Output version information and exit
no help opt Display usage information and exit
no more-help opt Extended usage information passed thru pager
All arguments are named options.
Using the option definitions for an AutoOpt client program, the `aginfo.tpl' template will produce texinfo text that documents the invocation of your program. The text emitted is designed to be included in the full texinfo document for your product. It is not a stand-alone document. The usage text for the section autogen usage help (-?), section getdefs usage help and section columns usage help (-?) programs, are included in this document and are all generated using this template.
Two files will be produced, a `.texi' file and a `.menu' file. You should include the `.menu' file in your document where you wish to reference the `invoking' chapter, section or subsection. The documentation level is selected by passing a `-DLEVEL=<level-name>' argument to AutoGen when you build the document. (See the example invocation below.)
The `.texi' file will contain an introductory paragraph, a menu and a subordinate section for the invocation usage and for each documented option. The introductory paragraph is normally the boiler plate text:
This chapter documents the @file{AutoOpts} generated usage text
and option meanings for the @file{your-program} program.
However, if your program's option definitions include a `prog-info-descrip' section, then that is what will be used instead.
These files are produced by invoking the following command:
AutoGen -L ${prefix}/share/autogen -T aginfo.tpl \
-DLEVEL=section your-opts.def
Where `${prefix}' is the AutoGen installation prefix and `your-opts.def' is the name of your product's option definition file.
Using the option definitions for an AutoOpt client program, the `agman1.tpl' template will produce an nroff document suitable for use as a `man(1)' page document for a command line command. The description section of the document is either the `prog-man-descrip' text, if present, or the `detail' text.
Each option in the option definitions file is fully documented
in its usage. This includes all the information documented
above for each option (see section Option Attributes), plus
the `doc' attribute is appended. Since the `doc'
text is presumed to be designed for texinfo documentation,
sed is used to convert some constructs from texi
to nroff-for-man-pages. Specifically,
convert @code, @var and @samp into \fB...\fP phrases convert @file into \fI...\fP phrases Remove the '@' prefix from curly braces Indent example regions Delete the example commands Replace `end example' command with ".br" Replace the `@*' command with ".br"
This document is produced by invoking the following command:
AutoGen -L ${prefix}/share/autogen -T agman1.tpl options.def
Where `${prefix}' is the AutoGen installation prefix and `options.def' is the name of your product's option definition file. I do not use this very much, so any feedback or improvements would be greatly appreciated.
This chapter includes several programs that either work closely
with AutoGen (extracting definitions or providing special formatting
functions), or else it is mkmerge. I want to promote the
latter as an alternative to the builddir/srcdir schizophrenia.
I hate it. :(
AutoOpts ought to appear in this list also, but since it is the primary reason why many people would even look into AutoGen at all, I decided to leave it in the list of chapters.
The templates to generate a finite state machine in C or C++ is included with AutoGen. The documentation is not. The documentation is in HTML format for viewing, or you can download FSM.
The templates and NFSv4 definitions are not included with AutoGen in any way.
The folks that designed NFSv4 noticed that much time and bandwidth was
wasted sending queries and responses when many of them could be bundled.
The protocol bundles the data, but there is no support for it in rpcgen.
That means you have to write your own code to do that. Until now.
Download this and you will have a large, complex example of how to use
AutoXDR for generating the marshalling and unmarshalling of combined
RPC calls. There is a brief example
on the web, but
you should download AutoXDR.
Large software development projects invariably have a need to manage the distribution and display of state information and state changes. In other words, they need to manage their software events. Generally, each such project invents its own way of accomplishing this and then struggles to get all of its components to play the same way. It is a difficult process and not always completely successful. This project helps with that.
AutoEvents completely separates the tasks of supplying the data needed for a particular event from the methods used to manage the distribution and display of that event. Consequently, the programmer writing the code no longer has to worry about that part of the problem. Likewise the persons responsible for designing the event management and distribution no longer have to worry about getting programmers to write conforming code.
This is a work in progress. See my web page on the subject, if you are interested. I have some useful things put together, but it is not ready to call a product.
This program was designed for the purpose of generating compact, columnized tables. It will read a list of text items from standard in or a specified input file and produce a columnized listing of all the non-blank lines. Leading white space on each line is preserved, but trailing white space is stripped. Methods of applying per-entry and per-line embellishments are provided. See the formatting and separation arguments below.
This program is used by AutoGen to help clean up and organize its output.
See `autogen/agen5/fsm.tpl' and the generated output `pseudo-fsm.h'.
This function was not implemented as an expression function because either it would have to be many expression functions, or a provision would have to be added to provide options to expression functions. Maybe not a bad idea, but it is not being implemented at the moment.
A side benefit is that you can use it outside of AutoGen to columnize
input, a la the ls command.
This section was generated by AutoGen, the aginfo template and the option descriptions for the columns program. It documents the columns usage text and option meanings.
This software is released under the GNU General Public License.
This is the automatically generated usage text for columns:
@exampleindent 0
columns - Columnize Input Text - Ver. 1.1
USAGE: columns [ -<flag> [<val>] | --<name>[{=| }<val>] ]...
Flg Arg Option-Name Description
-W Num width Maximum Line Width
-c Num columns Desired number of columns
-w Num col-width Set width of each column
Num spread maximum spread added to column width
-I YES indent Line prefix or indentation
YES first-indent First line prefix
- requires these options:
indent
Num tab-width tab width
-s opt sort Sort input text
-f YES format Formatting string for each input
-S YES separation Separation string - follows all but last
YES line-separation string at end of all lines but last
no by-columns Print entries in column order
-i YES input Input file (if not stdin)
-v opt version Output version information and exit
-? no help Display usage information and exit
-! no more-help Extended usage information passed thru pager
Options may be specified by doubled hyphens and their name
or by a single hyphen and the flag character (option value).
This program was designed for the purpose of generating compact,
columnized tables. It will read a list of text items from standard
in or a specified input file and produce a columnized listing of
all the non-blank lines. Leading white space on each line is
preserved, but trailing white space is stripped. Methods of
applying per-entry and per-line embellishments are provided.
See the formatting and separation arguments below.
This program is used by AutoGen to help clean up and organize
its output.
@exampleindent 4
This is the "maximum line width" option. This option specifies the full width of the output line, including any start-of-line indentation. The output will fill each line as completely as possible, unless the column width has been explicitly specified. If the maximum width is less than the length of the widest input, you will get a single column of output.
This is the "desired number of columns" option. Use this option to specify exactly how many columns to produce. If that many columns will not fit within line_width, then the count will be reduced to the number that fit.
This is the "set width of each column" option. Use this option to specify exactly how many characters are to be allocated for each column. If it is narrower than the widest entry, it will be over-ridden with the required width.
This is the "maximum spread added to column width" option. Use this option to specify exactly how many characters may be added to each column. It allows you to prevent columns from becoming too far apart.
This is the "line prefix or indentation" option. If a number, then this many spaces will be inserted at the start of every line. Otherwise, it is a line prefix that will be inserted at the start of every line.
This is the "first line prefix" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
If a number, then this many spaces will be inserted at the start of the first line. Otherwise, it is a line prefix that will be inserted at the start of that line.
This is the "tab width" option. If an indentation string contains tabs, then this value is used to compute the ending column of the prefix string.
This is the "sort input text" option.
Causes the input text to be sorted. If an argument is supplied,
it is presumed to be a pattern and the sort is based upon the
matched text. If the pattern starts with or consists of
an asterisk (*), then the sort is case insensitive.
This is the "formatting string for each input" option.
If you need to reformat each input text, the argument to this
option is interpreted as an sprintf(3) format that is used
to produce each output entry.
This is the "separation string - follows all but last" option. Use this option if, for example, you wish a comma to appear after each entry except the last.
This is the "string at end of all lines but last" option. Use this option if, for example, you wish a backslash to appear at the end of every line, except the last.
This is the "print entries in column order" option. Normally, the entries are printed out in order by rows and then columns. This option will cause the entries to be ordered within columns. The final column, instead of the final row, may be shorter than the others.
This is the "input file (if not stdin)" option.
This program normally runs as a filter, reading from standard
input, columnizing and writing to standard out. This option redirects
input to a file.
This program extracts AutoGen definitions from a list of source files. Definitions are delimited by `/*=<entry-type> <entry-name>\n' and `=*/\n'. From that, this program creates a definition of the following form:
#line nnn "source-file-name"
entry_type = {
name = entry_name;
...
};
The ellipsis `...' is filled in by text found between the two delimiters, using the following rules:
* mumble: * " this is some\n" * " indented text."
#ifdef if_name
#line nnn "source-file-name"
entry_type = {
name = entry_name;
...
};
#endif
subblock option, you can specify a nested
value, See section subblock option. That is, this text:
* arg: int, this, what-it-iswith the `--subblock=arg=type,name,doc' option would yield:
arg = { type = int; name = this; doc = what-it-is; };
This section was generated by AutoGen, the aginfo template and the option descriptions for the getdefs program. It documents the getdefs usage text and option meanings.
This software is released under the GNU General Public License.
This is the automatically generated usage text for getdefs:
@exampleindent 0
getdefs - AutoGen Definition Extraction Tool - Ver. 1.2
USAGE: getdefs { <option-name>[{=| }<val>] }...
Arg Option-Name Req? Description
YES defs-to-get opt Regexp to look for after the "/*="
opt ordering opt Alphabetize or use named file
- disabled as --no-ordering
- enabled by default
Num first-index opt The first index to apply to groups
YES input YES Input file to search for defs
- may appear multiple times
- default option for unnamed options
YES subblock opt subblock definition names
- may appear multiple times
opt filelist opt Insert source file names into defs
Definition insertion options
Arg Option-Name Req? Description
YES assign opt Global assignments
- may appear multiple times
YES common-assign opt Assignments common to all blocks
- may appear multiple times
YES copy opt File(s) to copy into definitions
- may appear multiple times
opt srcfile opt Insert source file name into each def
opt linenum opt Insert source line number into each def
Definition output disposition options:
Arg Option-Name Req? Description
YES output opt Output file to open
- an alternate for autogen
opt autogen opt Invoke AutoGen with defs
- disabled as --no-autogen
- enabled by default
YES template opt Template Name
YES agarg opt AutoGen Argument
- prohibits these options:
output
- may appear multiple times
YES base-name opt Base name for output file(s)
- prohibits these options:
output
Auto-supported Options:
Arg Option-Name Req? Description
opt version opt Output version information and exit
no help opt Display usage information and exit
no more-help opt Extended usage information passed thru pager
All arguments are named options.
This program extracts AutoGen definitions from a list of source files.
Definitions are delimited by `/*=<entry-type> <entry-name>\n' and
`=*/\n'. From that, this program creates a definition of the
following form:
#line nnn "source-file-name"
entry_type = {
name = entry_name;
...
};
The ellipsis '...' is filled in by text found between the two
delimiters, with everything up through the first sequence of
asterisks deleted on every line.
Also, if "<entry-type>" is an asterisk ("*"), then the entry_type
enclosure and the name entry will be omitted and the ellipsis will
become top-level definitions.
@exampleindent 4
This is the "regexp to look for after the "/*="" option.
If you want definitions only from a particular category, or even
with names matching particular patterns, then specify this regular
expression for the text that must follow the /*=.
This is the "alphabetize or use named file" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
By default, ordering is alphabetical by the entry name. Use,
no-ordering if order is unimportant. Use ordering
with no argument to order without case sensitivity. Use
ordering=<file-name> if chronological order is important.
getdefs will maintain the text content of file-name.
file-name need not exist.
This is the "the first index to apply to groups" option. By default, the first occurrance of a named definition will have an index of zero. Sometimes, that needs to be a reserved value. Provide this option to specify a different starting point.
This is the "input file to search for defs" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
All files that are to be searched for definitions must be named on
the command line or read from stdin. If there is only one
input option and it is the string, "-", then the input file
list is read from stdin. If a command line argument is not
an option name and does not contain an assignment operator
(=), then it defaults to being an input file name.
At least one input file must be specified.
This is the "subblock definition names" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
This option is used to create shorthand entries for nested definitions.
For example, with:
subblock=arg=argname,type,null defined, the text:
arg: this, char * will then expand to:
arg = { argname = this; type = "char *"; };.
The "this, char *" string is separated at the commas, with the
white space removed. You may use characters other than commas by
starting the value string with a punctuation character other than
a single or double quote character. You may also omit intermediate
values by placing the commas next to each other with no intervening
white space. For example, "+mumble++yes+" will expand to:
arg = { argname = mumble; null = "yes"; };.
This is the "insert source file names into defs" option. Inserts the name of each input file into the output definitions. If no argument is supplied, the format will be:
infile = '%s';
If an argument is supplied, that string will be used for the entry name instead of infile.
This is the "global assignments" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
The argument to each copy of this option will be inserted into the output definitions, with only a semicolon attached.
This is the "assignments common to all blocks" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
The argument to each copy of this option will be inserted into each output definition, with only a semicolon attached.
This is the "file(s) to copy into definitions" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
The content of each file named by these options will be inserted into the output definitions.
This is the "insert source file name into each def" option. Inserts the name of the input file where a definition was found into the output definition. If no argument is supplied, the format will be:
srcfile = '%s';
If an argument is supplied, that string will be used for the entry name instead of srcfile.
This is the "insert source line number into each def" option. Inserts the line number in the input file where a definition was found into the output definition. If no argument is supplied, the format will be:
linenum = '%s';
If an argument is supplied, that string will be used for the entry name instead of linenum.
This is the "output file to open" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
If you are not sending the output to an AutoGen process, you may name an output file instead.
This is the "invoke autogen with defs" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
This is the default output mode. Specifying no-autogen is
equivalent to output=-. If you supply an argument to this
option, that program will be started as if it were AutoGen and
its standard in will be set to the output definitions of this program.
This is the "template name" option. Specifies the template name to be used for generating the final output.
This is the "autogen argument" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
This is a pass-through argument. It allows you to specify any arbitrary argument to be passed to AutoGen.
This is the "base name for output file(s)" option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
When output is going to AutoGen, a base name must either be supplied
or derived. If this option is not supplied, then it is taken from
the template option. If that is not provided either, then
it is set to the base name of the current directory.
Using the `printf' formatting routines in a portable fashion has always been a pain, and this package has been way more pain than anyone ever imagined. Hopefully, with this release of snprintfv, the pain is now over for all time.
The issues with portable usage are these:
These four issues made it impossible for AutoGen to ship without its own implementation of the `printf' formatting routines. Since we were forced to do this, we decided to make the formatting routines both better and more complete :-). We addressed these issues and added the following features to the common printf API:
"%{struct stat}\n"
might be used with '{' registered to a procedure that would look
up "struct stat" in a symbol table and do appropriate things,
consuming the format string through the '}' character.
Gary V. Vaughan was generous enough to supply this implementation. Many thanks!!
For further details, the reader is referred to the snprintfv documentation. These functions are also available in the template processing as `sprintf' (see section `sprintf' - format a string), `printf' (see section `printf' - format to stdout), `fprintf' (see section `fprintf' - format to a file), and `shellf' (see section `shellf' - format a string, run shell).
Here are some things that might happen in the distant future.
This document was generated on 27 October 2001 using the texi2html translator version 1.54.