interpreter files Post: 302573972

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Operating Systems Linux interpreter files Post 302573972 by m.d.ludwig on Wednesday 16th of November 2011 07:42:46 AM

11-16-2011

Registered User

Interpreter files are text files that are read in (interpreted) by the program specified on the first line. Gory details can be found here in wikipedia. Shell scripts, perl scripts, awk scripts, and so forth are all examples of interpreter files. Compare that to programs that are compiled from source code files into a 'proper' executable.

Note that the file extension serves no functional purpose in UNIX - their use is a legacy of people's time on the dark side :-).

Why and how are they used has caused more debates than I care to think about. I can say "it depends". When should you write a script v. write a program - it depends. Which scripting language should you use - it depends (just not csh). The one bit of advice I have is become familiar with numerous interpreters - perl, python, bash, ksh, awk to name a few. I am sure people can name a few more.

m.d.ludwig

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LEARN ABOUT DEBIAN

binfmtc-interpreter

binfmtc(1)							     binfmt_C								binfmtc(1)

NAME

       binfmtc-interpreter - binfmt_misc C handler

SYNOPSIS

       binfmtc-interpreter C-source-file-name [command-line opions ...]

DESCRIPTION

       binfmtc-interpreter compiles a C source file specified on the command-line using C compiler, and executes the resulting file.

       It  is  designed  to be used as a handler for binfmt_misc handler, which is a system used in Linux for handling arbitrary files as executa-
       bles.

       The command-line options are passed on to the compiled binary.

FILE MAGIC

       There is a requirement for C source files to have the magic characters /*BINFMTC: at the beginning of the file.

       That line also is used to specify the additional command-line options for C compiler.

ENVIRONMENT

       GCC    The compiler used.  The default is to use gcc

       CC     The compiler used, if GCC variable is not set.

       BINFMTCTMPDIR

	      Temporary directory used for binary and execution.

	      Falls back to $TMPDIR $TEMPDIR or /tmp

       BINFMTC_DEBUG
	      enables debug output if set.

       BINFMTC_GCC_OPTS
	      Additional GCC options.  Use BINFMTC_DEBUG to verify the options being passed on to gcc.

	      The default is  -O2 -Wall -g

AUTHOR

       Junichi Uekawa (dancer@debian.org)

       Upstream page is available at http://www.netfort.gr.jp/~dancer/software/

SEE ALSO

       binfmtasm-interpreter(1), binfmtcxx-interpreter(1), binfmtf-interpreter(1), binfmtf95-interpreter(1), binfmtgcj-interpreter(1)

binfmt_misc Dancer						    2009 Feb 8								binfmtc(1)