mkstr(1)						      General Commands Manual							  mkstr(1)

NAME

       mkstr - extract error messages from C source into a file

SYNOPSIS

       messagefile prefix file...

DESCRIPTION

       examines  a C program and creates a file containing error message strings used by the program.  Programs with many error diagnostics can be
       made much smaller by referring to places in the file, and reduce system overhead in running the program.

       processes each of the specified files, placing a revised version of each in a file whose name consists of the specified prefix concatenated
       in front of the original name.  A typical usage of would be

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

       When processing the error messages in the source for transfer to the message file, searches for the string in the input file.  Each time it
       is  encountered,  the  C  string starting after the leading quote is placed in the message file, followed by a null character and a newline
       character.  The null character terminates the message so that it can be easily used when retrieved, and the newline character makes it pos-
       sible to conveniently list the error message file (using etc.; see cat(1) and more(1)) to review its contents.

       The  modified  copy  of	the input file is identical to the original, except that each occurrence of any string that was moved to the error
       message file is replaced by an offset pointer usable by to retrieve the message.

       If the command line includes the optional extracted error messages are placed at the end of the specified message file (append) instead	of
       overwriting it.	This enables you to process individual files that are part of larger programs that have been previously processed by with-
       out reprocessing all the files.

       All functions used by the original program whose names end in that also can take a constant  string  as	their  first  argument	should	be
       rewritten so that they search for the string in the error message file.

       For example, a program based on the previous example usage would resemble the following:

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

   Environment Variables
       determines the interpretation of comments and string literals as single- and/or multibyte characters.

       If is not specified in the environment or is set to the empty string, the value of is used as a default for each unspecified or empty vari-
       able.  If is not specified or is set to the empty string, a default of "C" (see lang(5)) is used instead  of  If  any  internationalization
       variable contains an invalid setting, behaves as if all internationalization variables are set to "C".  See environ(5).

   International Code Set Support
       Single- and multibyte character code sets are supported within file names, comments, and string literals.

WARNINGS

       Strings in calls to functions whose names end in notably may be replaced with offsets by

       Calls to error functions whose first argument is not a string constant are left unmodified without warning.

SEE ALSO

       xstr(1), lseek(2), perror(3C).

																	  mkstr(1)