mkstr(1)

NAME

mkstr - create an error message file by massaging C source

SYNOPSIS

mkstr [-] messagefile prefix file ...

DESCRIPTION

The mkstr utility creates files containing error messages

extracted from
C source, and restructures the same C source, to utilize the

created
error message file. The intent of mkstr was to reduce the

size of large
programs and reduce swapping (see BUGS section below).

The mkstr utility processes each of the specified files,

placing a
restructured version of the input in a file whose name con

sists of the
specified prefix and the original name. A typical usage of

mkstr is

mkstr pistrings xx *.c

This command causes all the error messages from the C source

files in the
current directory to be placed in the file pistrings and re

structured
copies of the sources to be placed in files whose names are

prefixed with
xx.

Options:

- Error messages are placed at the end of the speci

fied message

file for recompiling part of a large mkstred pro

gram.

The mkstr utility finds error messages in the source by

searching for the
string `error("' in the input stream. Each time it occurs,

the C string
starting at the `"' is stored in the message file followed

by a null
character and a new-line character; The new source is re

structured with
lseek(2) pointers into the error message file for retrieval.

char efilname = "/usr/lib/pi_strings";
int efil = -1;

error(a1, a2, a3, a4)
{

char buf[256];

if (efil < 0) {

efil = open(efilname, 0);
if (efil < 0)

err(1, "%s", efilname);

}
if (lseek(efil, (off_t)a1, SEEK_SET) < 0

read(efil, buf, 256) <= 0)

err(1, "%s", efilname);

printf(buf, a2, a3, a4);

}

SEE ALSO

gencat(1), xstr(1), lseek(2)

HISTORY

A mkstr utility appeared in 3.0BSD.

BUGS

The mkstr utility was intended for the limited architecture

of the PDP 11
family. Very few programs actually use it. The memory sav

ings are negligible in modern computers.

BSD November 1, 2002

BSD