1autogen(1) User Commands autogen(1)
2
6 autogen - The Automated Program Generator
7
9 autogen [-flags] [-flag [value]] [--option-name[[=| ]value]] [ <def-
10 file> ]
11 AutoGen creates text files from templates using external definitions.
13
15 AutoGen is designed for generating program files that contain repeti‐
16 tive text with varied substitutions. The goal is to simplify the main‐
17 tenance of programs that contain large amounts of repetitious text.
18 This is especially valuable if there are several blocks of such text
19 that must be kept synchronized.
20 One common example is the problem of maintaining the code required for
22 processing program options. Processing options requires a minimum of
23 four different constructs be kept in proper order in different places
24 in your program. You need at least: The flag character in the flag
25 string, code to process the flag when it is encountered, a global state
26 variable or two, and a line in the usage text. You will need more
27 things besides this if you choose to implement long option names, con‐
28 figuration file processing, environment variables and so on.
29 All of this can be done mechanically; with the proper templates and
31 this program.
32
34 The following options select definitions, templates and scheme functions to
35 use
36 -L dir, --templ-dirs=dir
37 Search for templates in DIR. This option may appear an unlim‐
38 ited number of times.
39 Add a directory to the list of directories autogen searches when
41 opening a template, either as the primary template or an
42 included one. The last entry has the highest priority in the
43 search list. That is to say, they are searched in reverse
44 order.
45 -T tpl-file, --override-tpl=tpl-file
47 Use TPL-FILE for the template. This option may not be preset
48 with environment variables or in initialization (rc) files.
49 Definition files specify the standard template that is to be
51 expanded. This option will override that name and expand a dif‐
52 ferent template.
53 --definitions=file, --no-definitions
55 Read definitions from FILE. The no-definitions form will dis‐
56 able the option. This option is enabled by default. This
57 option may not be preset with environment variables or in ini‐
58 tialization (rc) files.
59 Use this argument to specify the input definitions file with a
61 command line option. If you do not specify this option, then
62 there must be a command line argument that specifies the file,
63 even if only to specify stdin with a hyphen (-). Specify, --no-
64 definitions when you wish to process a template without any
65 active AutoGen definitions.
66 --shell=shell
68 name or path name of shell to use.
69 By default, when AutoGen is built, the configuration is probed
71 for a reasonable Bourne-like shell to use for shell script pro‐
72 cessing. If a particular template needs an alternate shell, it
73 must be specified with this option on the command line, with an
74 environment variable (SHELL) or in the configuration/initializa‐
75 tion file.
76 -m, --no-fmemopen
78 Do not use in-mem streams.
79 If the local C library supports "fopencookie(3GNU)", or
81 "funopen(3BSD)" then AutoGen prefers to use in-memory stream
82 buffer opens instead of anonymous files. This may lead to prob‐
83 lems if there is a shortage of virtual memory. If, for a par‐
84 ticular application, you run out of memory, then specify this
85 option. This is unlikely in a modern 64-bit virtual memory
86 environment.
87 On platforms without these functions, the option is accepted but
89 ignored. fmemopen(POSIX) is not adequate because its string
90 buffer is not reallocatable. open_memstream(POSIX) is also not
91 adequate because the stream is only opened for output. AutoGen
92 needs a reallocatable buffer available for both reading and
93 writing.
94 --equate=char-list
96 characters considered equivalent. The default char-list for
97 this option is:
98 _-^
99 This option will alter the list of characters considered equiva‐
101 lent. The default are the three characters, "_-^". (The last
102 is conventional on a Tandem/HP-NonStop, and I used to do a lot
103 of work on Tandems.)
104 The following options modify how output is handled
106 -b name, --base-name=name
107 Specify NAME as the base name for output. This option may not
108 be preset with environment variables or in initialization (rc)
109 files.
110 A template may specify the exact name of the output file. Nor‐
112 mally, it does not. Instead, the name is composed of the base
113 name of the definitions file with suffixes appended. This
114 option will override the base name derived from the definitions
115 file name. This is required if there is no definitions file and
116 advisable if definitions are being read from stdin. If the def‐
117 initions are being read from standard in, the base name defaults
118 to stdin. Any leading directory components in the name will be
119 silently removed. If you wish the output file to appear in a
120 particular directory, it is recommended that you "cd" into that
121 directory first, or use directory names in the format specifica‐
122 tion for the output suffix lists, see: pseudo macro.
123 --source-time, --no-source-time
125 set mod times to latest source. The no-source-time form will
126 disable the option.
127 If you stamp your output files with the DNE macro output, then
129 your output files will always be different, even if the content
130 has not really changed. If you use this option, then the modi‐
131 fication time of the output files will change only if the input
132 files change. This will help reduce unneeded builds.
133 --writable, --not-writable
135 Allow output files to be writable. The not-writable form will
136 disable the option.
137 This option will leave output files writable. Normally, output
139 files are read-only.
140 The following options are often useful while debugging new templates
142 They specify limits that prevent the template from taking overly long
143 or producing more output than expected.
144 --loop-limit=lim
146 Limit on increment loops. This option takes an integer number
147 as its argument. The value of lim is constrained to being:
148 exactly -1, or
149 in the range 1 through 0x1000000
150 The default lim for this option is:
151 256
152 This option prevents runaway loops. For example, if you acci‐
154 dentally specify, "FOR x (for-from 1) (for-to -1) (for-by 1)",
155 it will take a long time to finish. If you do have more than
156 256 entries in tables, you will need to specify a new limit with
157 this option.
158 -t seconds, --timeout=seconds
160 Limit server shell operations to SECONDS. This option takes an
161 integer number as its argument. The value of seconds is con‐
162 strained to being:
163 in the range 0 through 3600
164 AutoGen works with a shell server process. Most normal commands
166 will complete in less than 10 seconds. If, however, your com‐
167 mands need more time than this, use this option.
168 The valid range is 0 to 3600 seconds (1 hour). Zero will dis‐
170 able the server time limit.
171 --trace=level
173 tracing level of detail. This option takes a keyword as its
174 argument. The argument sets an enumeration value that can be
175 tested by comparing them against the option value macro. The
176 available keywords are:
177 nothing debug-message server-shell
178 templates block-macros expressions
179 everything
180 or their numeric equivalent.
181 The default level for this option is:
183 nothing
184 This option will cause AutoGen to display a trace of its tem‐
186 plate processing. There are six levels, each level including
187 messages from the previous levels:
188 nothing Does no tracing at all (default)
191 debug-message Print messages from the "DEBUG" AutoGen macro
194 (see: DEBUG).
195 server-shell Traces all input and output to the server shell.
198 This includes a shell "independent" initialization script about
199 30 lines long. Its output is discarded and not inserted into
200 any template.
201 templates Traces the invocation of DEFINEd macros and INCLUDEs
204 block-macros Traces all block macros. The above, plus IF, FOR,
207 CASE and WHILE.
208 expressions Displays the results of expression evaluations.
211 everything Displays the invocation of every AutoGen macro, even
214 TEXT macros (i.e. the text outside of macro quotes). Addition‐
215 ally, if you rebuild the ``expr.ini'' file with debugging
216 enabled, then all calls to AutoGen defined scheme functions will
217 also get logged:
218 cd ${top_builddir}/agen5
219 DEBUG_ENABLED=true bash bootstrap.dir expr.ini
220 make CFLAGS='-g -DDEBUG_ENABLED=1'
221 Be aware that you cannot rebuild this source in this way without
223 first having installed the autogen executable in your search
224 path. Because of this, "expr.ini" is in the distributed source
225 list, and not in the dependencies.
226 --trace-out=file
228 tracing output file or filter.
229 The output specified may be a file name, a file that is appended
231 to, or, if the option argument begins with the pipe operator
232 (|), a command that will receive the tracing output as standard
233 in. For example, --traceout='| less' will run the trace output
234 through the less program. Appending to a file is specified by
235 preceding the file name with two greater-than characters (>>).
236 --show-defs
238 Show the definition tree. This option may not be preset with
239 environment variables or in initialization (rc) files.
240 This will print out the complete definition tree before process‐
242 ing the template.
243 --used-defines
245 Show the definitions used. This option may not be preset with
246 environment variables or in initialization (rc) files.
247 This will print out the names of definition values searched for
249 during the processing of the template, whether actually found or
250 not. There may be other referenced definitions in a template in
251 portions of the template not evaluated. Some of the names
252 listed may be computed names and others AutoGen macro arguments.
253 This is not a means for producing a definitive, all-encompassing
254 list of all and only the values used from a definition file.
255 This is intended as an aid to template documentation only.
256 -C, --core
258 Leave a core dump on a failure exit.
259 Many systems default to a zero sized core limit. If the system
261 has the sys/resource.h header and if this option is supplied,
262 then in the failure exit path, autogen will attempt to set the
263 soft core limit to whatever the hard core limit is. If that
264 does not work, then an administrator must raise the hard core
265 size limit. in the definitions files and template files" They
266 specify which outputs and parts of outputs to produce.
267 -s suffix, --skip-suffix=suffix
269 Skip the file with this SUFFIX. This option may appear an
270 unlimited number of times. This option may not be preset with
271 environment variables or in initialization (rc) files. This
272 option must not appear in combination with any of the following
273 options: select-suffix.
274 Occasionally, it may not be desirable to produce all of the out‐
276 put files specified in the template. (For example, only the .h
277 header file, but not the .c program text.) To do this specify
278 --skip-suffix=c on the command line.
279 -o suffix, --select-suffix=suffix
281 specify this output suffix. This option may appear an unlimited
282 number of times. This option may not be preset with environment
283 variables or in initialization (rc) files.
284 If you wish to override the suffix specifications in the tem‐
286 plate, you can use one or more copies of this option. See the
287 suffix specification in the @ref{pseudo macro} section of the
288 info doc.
289 -D value, --define=value
291 name to add to definition list. This option may appear an
292 unlimited number of times.
293 The AutoGen define names are used for the following purposes:
295 Sections of the AutoGen definitions may be enabled or disabled
298 by using C-style #ifdef and #ifndef directives.
299 When defining a value for a name, you may specify the index for
301 a particular value. That index may be a literal value, a define
302 option or a value #define-d in the definitions themselves.
303 The name of a file may be prefixed with $NAME/. The $NAME part
305 of the name string will be replaced with the define-d value for
306 NAME.
307 When AutoGen is finished loading the definitions, the defined
309 values are exported to the environment with, putenv(3). These
310 values can then be used in shell scripts with ${NAME@} refer‐
311 ences and in templates with (getenv "NAME").
312 While processing a template, you may specify an index to
314 retrieve a specific value. That index may also be a define-d
315 value.
316 It is entirely equivalent to place this name in the exported
318 environment. Internally, that is what AutoGen actually does
319 with this option.
320 -U name-pat, --undefine=name-pat
322 definition list removal pattern. This option may appear an
323 unlimited number of times. This option may not be preset with
324 environment variables or in initialization (rc) files.
325 Similar to 'C', AutoGen uses #ifdef/#ifndef preprocessing direc‐
327 tives. This option will cause the matching names to be removed
328 from the list of defined values.
329 This option is used to automate dependency tracking
331 -M type, --make-dep [type]
332 emit make dependency file. This option may appear an unlimited
333 number of times. This option may not be preset with environment
334 variables or in initialization (rc) files.
335 This option behaves fairly closely to the way the -M series of
337 options work with the gcc compiler, except that instead of just
338 emitting the predecessor dependencies, this also emits the suc‐
339 cessor dependencies (output target files). By default, the out‐
340 put dependency information will be placed in <base-name>.d, but
341 may also be specified with -MF<file>. The time stamp on this
342 file will be manipulated so that it will be one second older
343 than the oldest primary output file.
344 The target in this dependency file will normally be the depen‐
346 dency file name, but may also be overridden with -MT<targ-name>.
347 AutoGen will not alter the contents of that file, but it may
348 create it and it will adjust the modification time to match the
349 start time.
350 NB: these second letters are part of the option argument, so -MF
352 <file> must have the space character quoted or omitted, and -M
353 "F <file>" is acceptable because the F is part of the option
354 argument.
355 -M may be followed by any of the letters M, F, P, T, Q, D, or G.
357 However, only F, Q, T and P are meaningful. All but F have
358 somewhat different meanings. -MT<name> is interpreted as mean‐
359 ing <name> is a sentinel file that will depend on all inputs
360 (templates and definition files) and all the output files will
361 depend on this sentinel file. It is suitable for use as a real
362 make target. Q is treated identically to T, except dollar char‐
363 acters ('$') are doubled. P causes a special clean (clobber)
364 phoney rule to be inserted into the make file fragment. An
365 empty rule is always created for building the list of targets.
366 This is the recommended usage:
368 -MFwhatever-you-like.dep -MTyour-sentinel-file -MP
369 and then in your Makefile, make the autogen rule:
370 -include whatever-you-like.dep
371 clean_targets += clean-your-sentinel-file
372 .sp
373 your-sentinel-file:
374 autogen -MT$@@ -MF$*.d .....
375 .sp
376 local-clean :
377 rm -f $(clean_targets)
378 The modification time on the dependency file is adjusted to be
380 one second before the earliest time stamp of any other output
381 file. Consequently, it is suitable for use as the sentinel file
382 testifying to the fact the program was successfully run.
383 (-include is the GNU make way of specifying "include it if it
384 exists". Your make must support that feature or your bootstrap
385 process must create the file.)
386 All of this may also be specified using the DEPENDENCIES_OUTPUT
388 or AUTOGEN_MAKE_DEP environment variables. If defined, depen‐
389 dency information will be output. If defined with white space
390 free text that is something other than true, false, yes, no, 0
391 or 1, then the string is taken to be an output file name. If it
392 contains a string of white space characters, the first token is
393 as above and the second token is taken to be the target (sen‐
394 tinel) file as -MT in the paragraphs above. DEPENDENCIES_OUTPUT
395 will be ignored if there are multiple sequences of white space
396 characters or if its contents are, specifically, false, no or 0.
397 help, version, option and error handling
399 --no-abort
400 Do not abort on errors.
401 By default, AutoGen will abort on an error leaving behind a core
403 image. That is sometimes inconvenient. If present on the com‐
404 mand line or in the environment, AutoGen will call exit(1)
405 instead of abort().
406 -?, --help
408 Display usage information and exit.
409 -!, --more-help
411 Pass the extended usage information through a pager.
412 -> [cfgfile], --save-opts [=cfgfile]
414 Save the option state to cfgfile. The default is the last con‐
415 figuration file listed in the OPTION PRESETS section, below.
416 The command will exit after updating the config file.
417 -< cfgfile, --load-opts=cfgfile, --no-load-opts
419 Load options from cfgfile. The no-load-opts form will disable
420 the loading of earlier config/rc/ini files. --no-load-opts is
421 handled early, out of order.
422 -v [{v|c|n --version [{v|c|n}]}]
424 Output version of program and exit. The default mode is `v', a
425 simple version. The `c' mode will print copyright information
426 and `n' will print the full copyright notice.
427
429 Any option that is not marked as not presettable may be preset by load‐
430 ing values from configuration ("RC" or ".INI") file(s) and values from
431 environment variables named:
432 AUTOGEN_<option-name> or AUTOGEN
433 The environmental presets take precedence (are processed later than)
434 the configuration files. The homerc files are "$HOME", and ".". If
435 any of these are directories, then the file .autogenrc is searched for
436 within those directories.
437
439 See OPTION PRESETS for configuration environment variables.
440
442 See OPTION PRESETS for configuration files.
443
445 Here is how the man page is produced:
446 autogen -Tagman-cmd.tpl -MFman-dep -MTstamp-man opts.def
447 This command produced this man page from the AutoGen option definition
449 file. It overrides the template specified in opts.def (normally
450 options.tpl) and uses agman-cmd.tpl. It also sets the make file depen‐
451 dency output to man-dep and the sentinel file (time stamp file) to
452 man-stamp. The base of the file name is derived from the defined
453 prog-name.
454 The texi invocation document is produced via:
456 autogen -Tagtexi-cmd.tpl -MFtexi-dep -MTtexi-stamp opts.def
457
459 One of the following exit values will be returned:
460 0 (EXIT_SUCCESS)
462 Successful program execution.
463 1 (EXIT_OPTION_ERROR)
465 The command options were misconfigured.
466 2 (EXIT_BAD_TEMPLATE)
468 An error was encountered processing the template.
469 3 (EXIT_BAD_DEFINITIONS)
471 The definitions could not be deciphered.
472 4 (EXIT_LOAD_ERROR)
474 An error was encountered during the load phase.
475 5 (EXIT_FS_ERROR)
477 a file system error stopped the program.
478 6 (EXIT_NO_MEM)
480 Insufficient memory to operate.
481 128 (EXIT_SIGNAL)
483 autogen exited due to catching a signal. If your template
484 includes string formatting, a number argument to a "%s" format‐
485 ting element will trigger a segmentation fault. Autogen will
486 catch the seg fault signal and exit with AUTOGEN_EXIT_SIGNAL(5).
487 Alternatively, AutoGen may have been interrupted with a kill(2)
488 signal. Subtract 128 from the actual exit code to detect the
489 signal number.
490 66 (EX_NOINPUT)
492 A specified configuration file could not be loaded.
493 70 (EX_SOFTWARE)
495 libopts had an internal operational error. Please report it to
496 autogen-users@lists.sourceforge.net. Thank you.
497
499 Bruce Korb
500
502 Copyright (C) 1992-2018 Bruce Korb all rights reserved. This program
503 is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version
504 3 or later.
505
507 Please send bug reports to: autogen-users@lists.sourceforge.net
508
510 This manual page was AutoGen-erated from the autogen option defini‐
511 tions.
512GNU AutoGen (5.18.16) 26 Aug 2018 autogen(1)