error(1)                                                           User Commands                                                          error(1)

NAME

       error - insert compiler error messages at right source lines

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

       error  analyzes  error messages produced by a number of compilers and language processors.  It replaces the painful, traditional methods of
       scribbling abbreviations of errors on paper, and permits error messages and source code to be viewed simultaneously.

       error looks at error messages, either from the specified file filename or from the standard input, and:

         o  Determines which language processor produced each error message.

         o  Determines the file name and line number of the erroneous line.

         o  Inserts the error message into the source file immediately preceding the erroneous line.

       Error messages that can't be categorized by language processor or content are not inserted into any file, but are sent to the standard out-
       put. error touches source files only after all input has been read.

       error  is intended to be run with its standard input connected with 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  error.  For  example,  when using the csh syntax, the following command analyzes all the error messages produced by whatever programs
       make(1S) runs when making lint:

              example% make -s lint |& error -q -v

       error knows about the error messages produced by: as(1), cpp(1), ld(1), cc(1B), make(1S) and other compilers. For all languages except Pas-
       cal,  error messages are restricted to one line. Some error messages refer to more than one line in more than one file, in which case error
       duplicates the error message and inserts it in all the appropriate places.

OPTIONS

       -n              Do not touch any files; all error messages are sent to the standard output.

       -q              error asks whether the file should be touched.  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              Print out statistics regarding the error categorization.

       -v              After all files have been touched, overlay the visual editor vi with it set up to edit all files touched, and positioned in
                       the first touched file at the first error. If vi(1) can't be found, try ex(1) or ed(1) from standard places.

       -t suffixlist   Take the following argument as a suffix list. Files whose suffices do not appear in the suffix list are  not  touched.  The
                       suffix list is dot separated, and `*' wildcards work.  Thus the suffix list:

                       .c.y.f*.h

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

       error catches interrupt and terminate signals, and terminates in an orderly fashion.

EXAMPLES

       Example 1: Examples of the error command.

       In the following C shell  (/usr/bin/csh) example,  error takes its input from the FORTRAN compiler:

       example% f77 -c any.f |& error options

       Here is the same example using the Korn shell (/usr/bin/ksh):

       example% f77 -c any.f 2>&1 | error options

USAGE

       error does one of six things with error messages.

       synchronize             Some language processors produce short errors describing which file they are processing. error uses these to deter-
                               mine the file name for languages that do not include the file name in each  error  message.  These  synchronization
                               messages are consumed entirely by error.

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

       nullify                 Error messages from lint can be nullified if they refer to a specific function, which is known to generate diagnos-
                               tics 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 .errorrc in the user's
                               home directory, or from the file named by the -I option. If the file does not exist, no error messages  are  nulli-
                               fied. If the file does exist, there must be one function name per line.

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

       file specific           Error messages 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 inserted into source files. Other error messages are consumed entirely by error or are written to the standard
       output. error inserts the error messages into the source file on the line preceding the line number in the error message. Each  error  mes-
       sage  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 the message refers to.  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  for-
       matted  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, format the source program so there are no language statements on the  same  line  as
       the end of a comment.

FILES

       ~/.errorrc      function names to ignore for lint error messages

       /dev/tty        user's teletype

ATTRIBUTES

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

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE         |      ATTRIBUTE VALUE        |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability                 |SUNWbtool                    |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       as(1), cc(1B), cpp(1), csh(1), ed(1), ex(1),  make(1S), ld(1), vi(1), attributes(5)

BUGS

       Opens the tty-device directly for user input.

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

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

       error,  since it is purely mechanical, will not filter out subsequent errors caused by "floodgating" initiated by one syntactically trivial
       error. Humans are still much better at discarding these related errors.

       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 error.

       error  was  designed for work on CRT 's at reasonably high speed. It is less pleasant on slow speed terminals, and was not designed for use
       on hardcopy terminals.

SunOS 5.10                                                          5 Mar 1992                                                            error(1)