mkstr(1B)					     SunOS/BSD Compatibility Package Commands						 mkstr(1B)

NAME

       mkstr - create an error message file by massaging C source files

SYNOPSIS

       /usr/ucb/mkstr [-] messagefile prefix filename...

DESCRIPTION

       The mkstr utility creates files of error messages. You can use mkstr to make programs with large numbers of error diagnostics much smaller,
       and to reduce system overhead in running the program -- as the error messages do not have to be constantly swapped in and out.

       mkstr processes each of the specified filenames, placing a massaged version of the input file in a file with a name consisting of the spec-
       ified prefix and the original source file name. A typical example of using mkstr would be:

       mkstr pistrings processed *.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 processed.

       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 NEWLINE character; the null char-
       acter terminates the message so it can be easily used when retrieved, the NEWLINE 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, that is:

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

	    error(a1, a2, a3, a4)
	    {

		 char
		 buf[256];
		 if (efil < 0) {

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

OPTIONS

       -	       Place error messages at the end of the specified message file for recompiling part of a large mkstred program.

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWscpu			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       xstr(1), attributes(5)

SunOS 5.10							    14 Sep 1992 							 mkstr(1B)