error(1)						      General Commands Manual							  error(1)

Name
       error - analyze and disperse compiler error messages

Syntax
       error [-n] [-s] [-q] [-v] [-t suffixlist] [-I ignorefile] [name]

Description
       The  command  analyzes  and optionally disperses the diagnostic error messages produced by a number of compilers and language processors to
       the source file and line where the errors occurred.  It permits error messages and source code to be viewed  simultaneously  without  using
       multiple windows in a screen editor.

       The command looks at the error messages, either from the specified file name or from the standard input.  It attempts to determine the fol-
       lowing:	which language processor produced each error message, to which source file and line number the error message refers,  and  if  the
       error  message  is to be ignored or not.  It also inserts the error message into the source file as a comment on the line preceding the one
       where the error occurred.

       Error messages that cannot be categorized by language processor or content are not inserted into any file, but are  sent  to  the  standard
       output.	The command touches source files only after all input has been read.  By specifying the -q query option, the user is asked to con-
       firm any potentially dangerous (such as touching a file) or verbose action.

       If the -t touch option and associated suffix list is given, restricts itself to touching only those files with suffixes in the suffix list.
       Error also can be asked (by specifying -v) to invoke on the files in which error messages were inserted; this prevents the need to remember
       the names of the files with errors.

       The command is intended to be run with its standard input connected via a pipe to the error message source.  Some language  processors  put
       error  messages	on their standard error file; others put their messages on the standard output.  Hence, both error sources should be piped
       together into For example, when using the csh syntax,
       make -s lint |& error -q -v

       analyzes all the error messages produced by whatever programs runs when making lint.

       The command knows about the error messages produced by the following: and The command knows a standard format for error	messages  produced
       by the language processors, so it is sensitive to changes in these formats.  For all languages except Pascal, error messages are restricted
       to be on one line.  Some error messages refer to more than one line in more than one file.  The command duplicates the  error  message  and
       inserts it at all of the places referenced.

       The command does one of six things with error messages.

       synchronize	   Some language processors produce short errors describing which file it is processing.  The command uses these to deter-
			   mine the file name for languages that don't include the file name in each error message.   These  synchronization  mes-
			   sages are consumed entirely by

       discard		   Error  messages  from that refer to one of the two libraries, /usr/lib/llib-lc and /usr/lib/llib-port are discarded, to
			   prevent accidently touching these libraries.  Again, these error messages are consumed entirely by

       nullify		   Error messages from can be nullified if they refer to a specific function, which is known to generate diagnostics which
			   are	not  interesting.  Nullified error messages are not inserted into the source file, but are written to the standard
			   output.  The names of functions to ignore are taken from either the file named in the users's home directory,  or  from
			   the file named by the -I option.  If the file does not exist, no error messages are nullified.  If the file does exist,
			   there must be one function name per line.

       not file specific   Error messages that can't be discerned are grouped together, and written to the standard output before  any	files  are
			   touched.  They will not be inserted into any source file.

       file specific	   Error message that refer to a specific file, but to no specific line, are written to the standard output when that file
			   is touched.

       true errors	   Error messages that can be intuited are candidates for insertion into the file to which they refer.

       Only true error messages are candidates for inserting into the file they refer to.  Other error messages are consumed entirely  by  or  are
       written	to  the  standard output.  The command inserts the error messages into the source file on the line preceding the line the language
       processor found in error.  Each error message is turned into a one line comment for the language, and is internally flagged with the string
       ``###'' at the beginning of the error, and ``%%%'' at the end of the error.  This makes pattern searching for errors easier with an editor,
       and allows the messages to be easily removed.

       In addition, each error message contains the source line number for the line to which the message refers.  A  reasonably  formatted  source
       program	can  be  recompiled  with  the	error messages still in it, without having the error messages themselves cause future errors.  For
       poorly formatted source programs in free format languages, such as C or Pascal, it is possible to insert a comment  into  another  comment,
       which  can wreak havoc with a future compilation.  To avoid this, programs with comments and source on the same line should be formatted so
       that language statements appear before comments.

       The command catches interrupt and terminate signals, and if in the insertion phase, terminates what it is doing.

Options
       Options available with are the following:

       -I ignorefile	   Ignore the functions listed in the specified file (next argument).

       -n		   Does not touch files and sends error messages to the standard output.

       -q		   Prompts before touching the source file.  A ``y'' or ``n'' to the question is necessary to continue.  Absence of the -q
			   option implies that all referenced files (except those referring to discarded error messages) are to be touched.

       -S		   Shows error in unsorted order from the error file.

       -s		   Displays statistics for each error type.

       -T		   Terse output.

       -t suffixlist	   Does  not  touch  those  files  that match the specified suffix.  The suffix list is dot separated, and ``*'' wildcards
			   work.  Thus the suffix list:

				".c.y.foo*.h"

			   allows error to touch files ending with ``.c'', ``.y'', ``.foo*'' and ``.h''.

       -v		   Invokes the editor on each file that had been touched.

Restrictions
       Opens the teletype directly to do user querying.

       Source files with links make a new copy of the file with only one link to it.

       Changing a language processor's format of error messages may cause to not understand the error message.

       The command, since it is purely mechanical, does not filter out subsequent errors caused by `floodgating' initiated  by	one  syntactically
       trivial error.

       Pascal  error  messages	belong	after the lines affected (error puts them before).  The alignment of the `|' marking the point of error is
       also disturbed by

       The command was designed for work on CRT's at reasonably high speed.  It does not work as well on slow speed terminals, and has never  been
       used on hard-copy terminals.

Files
       function names to ignore for lint error messages

       user's teletype

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