MKSTR(1)						      General Commands Manual							  MKSTR(1)

NAME

       mkstr - create an error message file by massaging C source

SYNOPSIS

       mkstr [ - ] messagefile prefix file ...

DESCRIPTION

       Mkstr  is  used	to  create  files  of error messages.  Its use can make programs with large numbers of error diagnostics much smaller, and
       reduce system overhead in running the program as the error messages do not have to be constantly swapped in and out.

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

	    mkstr pistrings xx *.c

       This  command  would  cause  all the error messages from the C source files in the current directory to be placed in the file pistrings and
       processed copies of the source for these files to be placed in files whose names are prefixed with xx.

       To process the error messages in the source to the message file mkstr 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 followed by a null character and a new-line character; the null
       character terminates the message so it can be easily used when retrieved, the new-line character makes it  possible  to	sensibly  cat  the
       error  message file to see its contents.  The massaged copy of the input file then contains a lseek pointer into the file which can be used
       to retrieve the message, i.e.:

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

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

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

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

SEE ALSO

       lseek(2), xstr(1)

3rd Berkeley Distribution					 October 22, 1996							  MKSTR(1)