M4(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual M4(1P)
PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the correspond-
ing Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
m4 - macro processor (DEVELOPMENT)
SYNOPSIS
m4 [-s][-D name[=val]]...[-U name]... file...
DESCRIPTION
The m4 utility is a macro processor that shall read one or more text files, process them according to their included macro statements, and
write the results to standard output.
OPTIONS
The m4 utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines, except that
the order of the -D and -U options shall be significant.
The following options shall be supported:
-s Enable line synchronization output for the c99 preprocessor phase (that is, #line directives).
-D name[=val]
Define name to val or to null if = val is omitted.
-U name
Undefine name.
OPERANDS
The following operand shall be supported:
file A pathname of a text file to be processed. If no file is given, or if it is '-', the standard input shall be read.
STDIN
The standard input shall be a text file that is used if no file operand is given, or if it is '-' .
INPUT FILES
The input file named by the file operand shall be a text file.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of m4:
LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of
IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the precedence of internationalization variables used to
determine the values of locale categories.)
LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables.
LC_CTYPE
Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to
multi-byte characters in arguments and input files).
LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.
NLSPATH
Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES .
ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.
STDOUT
The standard output shall be the same as the input files, after being processed for macro expansion.
STDERR
The standard error shall be used to display strings with the errprint macro, macro tracing enabled by the traceon macro, the defined text
for macros written by the dumpdef macro, or for diagnostic messages.
OUTPUT FILES
None.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
The m4 utility shall compare each token from the input against the set of built-in and user-defined macros. If the token matches the name
of a macro, then the token shall be replaced by the macro's defining text, if any, and rescanned for matching macro names. Once no portion
of the token matches the name of a macro, it shall be written to standard output. Macros may have arguments, in which case the arguments
shall be substituted into the defining text before it is rescanned.
Macro calls have the form:
name(arg1, arg2, ..., argn)
Macro names shall consist of letters, digits, and underscores, where the first character is not a digit. Tokens not of this form shall not
be treated as macros.
The application shall ensure that the left parenthesis immediately follows the name of the macro. If a token matching the name of a macro
is not followed by a left parenthesis, it is handled as a use of that macro without arguments.
If a macro name is followed by a left parenthesis, its arguments are the comma-separated tokens between the left parenthesis and the match-
ing right parenthesis. Unquoted <blank>s and <newline>s preceding each argument shall be ignored. All other characters, including trailing
<blank>s and <newline>s, are retained. Commas enclosed between left and right parenthesis characters do not delimit arguments.
Arguments are positionally defined and referenced. The string "$1" in the defining text shall be replaced by the first argument. Systems
shall support at least nine arguments; only the first nine can be referenced, using the strings "$1" to "$9", inclusive. The string "$0" is
replaced with the name of the macro. The string "$#" is replaced by the number of arguments as a string. The string "$*" is replaced by a
list of all of the arguments, separated by commas. The string "$@" is replaced by a list of all of the arguments separated by commas, and
each argument is quoted using the current left and right quoting strings.
If fewer arguments are supplied than are in the macro definition, the omitted arguments are taken to be null. It is not an error if more
arguments are supplied than are in the macro definition.
No special meaning is given to any characters enclosed between matching left and right quoting strings, but the quoting strings are them-
selves discarded. By default, the left quoting string consists of a grave accent ( '`' ) and the right quoting string consists of an acute
accent ( '" ); see also the changequote macro.
Comments are written but not scanned for matching macro names; by default, the begin-comment string consists of the number sign character
and the end-comment string consists of a <newline>. See also the changecom and dnl macros.
The m4 utility shall make available the following built-in macros. They can be redefined, but once this is done the original meaning is
lost. Their values shall be null unless otherwise stated. In the descriptions below, the term defining text refers to the value of the
macro: the second argument to the define macro, among other things. Except for the first argument to the eval macro, all numeric arguments
to built-in macros shall be interpreted as decimal values. The string values produced as the defining text of the decr, divnum, incr,
index, len, and sysval built-in macros shall be in the form of a decimal-constant as defined in the C language.
changecom
The changecom macro shall set the begin-comment and end-comment strings. With no arguments, the comment mechanism shall be disabled.
With a single argument, that argument shall become the begin-comment string and the <newline> shall become the end-comment string.
With two arguments, the first argument shall become the begin-comment string and the second argument shall become the end-comment
string. Systems shall support comment strings of at least five characters.
changequote
The changequote macro shall set the begin-quote and end-quote strings. With no arguments, the quote strings shall be set to the
default values (that is, `'). With a single argument, that argument shall become the begin-quote string and the <newline> shall
become the end-quote string. With two arguments, the first argument shall become the begin-quote string and the second argument
shall become the end-quote string. Systems shall support quote strings of at least five characters.
decr The defining text of the decr macro shall be its first argument decremented by 1. It shall be an error to specify an argument con-
taining any non-numeric characters.
define The second argument shall become the defining text of the macro whose name is the first argument.
defn The defining text of the defn macro shall be the quoted definition (using the current quoting strings) of its arguments.
divert The m4 utility maintains nine temporary buffers, numbered 1 to 9, inclusive. When the last of the input has been processed, any out-
put that has been placed in these buffers shall be written to standard output in buffer-numerical order. The divert macro shall
divert future output to the buffer specified by its argument. Specifying no argument or an argument of 0 shall resume the normal
output process. Output diverted to a stream other than 0 to 9 shall be discarded. It shall be an error to specify an argument con-
taining any non-numeric characters.
divnum The defining text of the divnum macro shall be the number of the current output stream as a string.
dnl The dnl macro shall cause m4 to discard all input characters up to and including the next <newline>.
dumpdef
The dumpdef macro shall write the defined text to standard error for each of the macros specified as arguments, or, if no arguments
are specified, for all macros.
errprint
The errprint macro shall write its arguments to standard error.
eval The eval macro shall evaluate its first argument as an arithmetic expression, using 32-bit signed integer arithmetic. All of the C-
language operators shall be supported, except for:
[]
->
++
--
(type)
unary *
sizeof,
.
?:
unary &
and all assignment operators. It shall be an error to specify any of these operators. Precedence and associativity shall be as in the ISO C
standard. Systems shall support octal and hexadecimal numbers as in the ISO C standard. The second argument, if specified, shall set the
radix for the result; the default is 10. The third argument, if specified, sets the minimum number of digits in the result. It shall be an
error to specify the second or third argument containing any non-numeric characters.
ifdef If the first argument to the ifdef macro is defined, the defining text shall be the second argument. Otherwise, the defining text
shall be the third argument, if specified, or the null string, if not.
ifelse The ifelse macro takes three or more arguments. If the first two arguments compare as equal strings (after macro expansion of both
arguments), the defining text shall be the third argument. If the first two arguments do not compare as equal strings and there are
three arguments, the defining text shall be null. If the first two arguments do not compare as equal strings and there are four or
five arguments, the defining text shall be the fourth argument. If the first two arguments do not compare as equal strings and there
are six or more arguments, the first three arguments shall be discarded and processing shall restart with the remaining arguments.
include
The defining text for the include macro shall be the contents of the file named by the first argument. It shall be an error if the
file cannot be read.
incr The defining text of the incr macro shall be its first argument incremented by 1. It shall be an error to specify an argument con-
taining any non-numeric characters.
index The defining text of the index macro shall be the first character position (as a string) in the first argument where a string match-
ing the second argument begins (zero origin), or -1 if the second argument does not occur.
len The defining text of the len macro shall be the length (as a string) of the first argument.
m4exit Exit from the m4 utility. If the first argument is specified, it is the exit code. The default is zero. It shall be an error to
specify an argument containing any non-numeric characters.
m4wrap The first argument shall be processed when EOF is reached. If the m4wrap macro is used multiple times, the arguments specified shall
be processed in the order in which the m4wrap macros were processed.
maketemp
The defining text shall be the first argument, with any trailing 'X' characters replaced with the current process ID as a string.
popdef The popdef macro shall delete the current definition of its arguments, replacing that definition with the previous one. If there is
no previous definition, the macro is undefined.
pushdef
The pushdef macro shall be equivalent to the define macro with the exception that it shall preserve any current definition for
future retrieval using the popdef macro.
shift The defining text for the shift macro shall be all of its arguments except for the first one.
sinclude
The sinclude macro shall be equivalent to the include macro, except that it shall not be an error if the file is inaccessible.
substr The defining text for the substr macro shall be the substring of the first argument beginning at the zero-offset character position
specified by the second argument. The third argument, if specified, shall be the number of characters to select; if not specified,
the characters from the starting point to the end of the first argument shall become the defining text. It shall not be an error to
specify a starting point beyond the end of the first argument and the defining text shall be null. It shall be an error to specify
an argument containing any non-numeric characters.
syscmd The syscmd macro shall interpret its first argument as a shell command line. The defining text shall be the string result of that
command. No output redirection shall be performed by the m4 utility. The exit status value from the command can be retrieved using
the sysval macro.
sysval The defining text of the sysval macro shall be the exit value of the utility last invoked by the syscmd macro (as a string).
traceon
The traceon macro shall enable tracing for the macros specified as arguments, or, if no arguments are specified, for all macros. The
trace output shall be written to standard error in an unspecified format.
traceoff
The traceoff macro shall disable tracing for the macros specified as arguments, or, if no arguments are specified, for all macros.
translit
The defining text of the translit macro shall be the first argument with every character that occurs in the second argument replaced
with the corresponding character from the third argument.
undefine
The undefine macro shall delete all definitions (including those preserved using the pushdef macro) of the macros named by its argu-
ments.
undivert
The undivert macro shall cause immediate output of any text in temporary buffers named as arguments, or all temporary buffers if no
arguments are specified. Buffers can be undiverted into other temporary buffers. Undiverting shall discard the contents of the tem-
porary buffer. It shall be an error to specify an argument containing any non-numeric characters.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned:
0 Successful completion.
>0 An error occurred
If the m4exit macro is used, the exit value can be specified by the input file.
CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
Default.
The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
The defn macro is useful for renaming macros, especially built-ins.
EXAMPLES
If the file m4src contains the lines:
The value of `VER' is "VER".
ifdef(`VER', "VER" is defined to be VER., VER is not defined.)
ifelse(VER, 1, "VER" is `VER'.)
ifelse(VER, 2, "VER" is `VER'., "VER" is not 2.)
end
then the command
m4 m4src
or the command:
m4 -U VER m4src
produces the output:
The value of VER is "VER".
VER is not defined.
VER is not 2.
end
The command:
m4 -D VER m4src
produces the output:
The value of VER is "".
VER is defined to be .
VER is not 2.
end
The command:
m4 -D VER=1 m4src
produces the output:
The value of VER is "1".
VER is defined to be 1.
VER is 1.
VER is not 2.
end
The command:
m4 -D VER=2 m4src
produces the output:
The value of VER is "2".
VER is defined to be 2.
VER is 2.
end
RATIONALE
None.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
c99
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technol-
ogy -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE
and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained
online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
IEEE
/The Open Group 2003 M4(1P)