mkstr(1B)

NAME

     mkstr - create an error message file by massaging  C  source
     files

SYNOPSIS

     /usr/ucb/mkstr [-] messagefile prefix filename...

DESCRIPTION

     The mkstr utility creates files of error messages.  You  can
     use mkstr to make programs with large numbers of error diag-
     nostics much smaller, and to reduce system overhead in  run-
     ning  the  program - as the error messages do not have to be
     constantly swapped in and out.

     mkstr processes each of the specified filenames,  placing  a
     massaged  version  of  the  input file in a file with a name
     consisting of the specified prefix and the  original  source
     file name. A typical example of using mkstr would be:

     mkstr pistrings processed *.c

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

     To process the error messages in the source to  the  message
     file,  mkstr  keys  on  the  string  `error("'  in the input
     stream. Each time it occurs, the C string  starting  at  the
     `"' is placed in the message file followed by a null charac-
     ter and a NEWLINE character; the null  character  terminates
     the  message  so  it  can be easily used when retrieved, the
     NEWLINE character makes it  possible  to  sensibly  cat  the
     error message file to see its contents. The massaged copy of
     the input file then contains a lseek pointer into  the  file
     which can be used to retrieve the message, that is:

          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) {

     oops:
                            perror (efilname);
                            exit (1);
               }
          }
          if (lseek(efil, (long) a1, 0) || read(efil, buf, 256) <= 0)
               goto oops;
          printf(buf, a2, a3, a4);
     }

OPTIONS

     -     Place error messages at the end of the specified  mes-
           sage file for recompiling part of a large mkstred pro-
           gram.

ATTRIBUTES

     See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
     butes:

     ____________________________________________________________
    |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Availability                | SUNWscpu                    |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|

SEE ALSO

     xstr(1), attributes(5)