mkstr(1)						      General Commands Manual							  mkstr(1)

NAME

       mkstr - Creates an error message file

SYNOPSIS

       mkstr [-] message_file prefix file...

       The mkstr command is used to create files of error messages that can be removed from a single C source file, or from multiple source files.

OPTIONS

       Causes messages to be appended to the specified message file, instead of creating a new file.

DESCRIPTION

       The use of mkstr can reduce the size of programs that contain many error diagnostics and reduce system overhead in running such programs.

       The  mkstr command processes each of the specified files, placing an altered version of the input file in a file whose name consists of the
       specified prefix and the original name.

       To process the error messages in the source to the message file, mkstr keys on the string 'error(' in  the  input  stream.   Each  time	it
       occurs,	the  C	string	starting at the '' is placed in the message file and is followed by a null character and a newline character.  The
       null character terminates the message so it can be easily used when retrieved; the newline character makes it possible to catalog the error
       message file neatly to see its contents.

       The  altered copy of the input file then contains a lseek() pointer into the file that can be used to retrieve the message to its appropri-
       ate source file, as shown in the following example of a program that mkstr produces.

       char efilname[] =  "/usr/lib/pi_strings"; int  efil = -1;

       error(int a1, int a2, int a3, int a4) {
	  char buf[256];

	  if (efil < 0) {
	  efil = open(efilname, 0);
	  if (efil < 0) { oops:
	  perror(efilname);
		 exit(1);
		 }
	  }
	  if ((lseek(efil, (long) a1, 0)) == (long)-1 ) ||
		 read(efil, buf, 256) <= 0)
	  goto oops;
	  printf(buf, a2, a3, a4); }

EXAMPLES

       To put the error messages from the current directory C source files into a file called pi_strings, and  to  put	processed  copies  of  the
       source for these files into filenames prefixed by xx, enter: mkstr pi_strings xx *.c To append the error messages from an additional source
       file to pi_strings, enter: mkstr - pi_strings xx newfile.c

SEE ALSO

       Commands:  xstr(1)

       Functions:  lseek(2)

																	  mkstr(1)