Content-type: text/html Manpage of FILEPP

FILEPP

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: Dec 12 2000
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NAME

filepp - A generic file preprocessor

SYNOPSIS

filepp [options] filename(s)

DESCRIPTION

filepp is a generic file preprocessor designed to allow the functionality provided by the C preprocessor cpp(1) to be used with any file type.

OPTIONS

filepp accepts the following command line options:

-o name: Write output to name instead of STDOUT. If there is only one input file and it has the same name as the output file, the original input file will be backed-up as name~.
-c: Read input from STDIN instead of a file.
-h: Show summary of options.
-v: Show version of program.
-d: Output debugging information.
-Idir: Append directory dir to the list of directories searched for include files.
-Dmacro: Define macro macro with the string `1' as its definition.
-Dmacro=defn: Define macro macro as defn.
-k: Turn off parsing of all keywords. This is useful if you just want to use the macro expansion facilities of filepp. With this option all keywords found will be ignored, filepp will just replace any macros specified with the -Dmacro=defn option.

KEYWORDS

filepp supports the following keywords:

#include <FILE>

Include a file in the file being processed. This variant is used for "system" include files. It searches for a file named FILE in a list of directories specified by you. You specify directories to search for include files with the command option `-I'. filepp does not predefine any system directories in which to search for files.

#include FILE

Include a file in the file being processed. This variant is used for include files of your own project. It searches for a file named FILE first in the current directory, then in the list of directories specified with the command option `-I'. The current directory is the directory filepp is running in.

#define macro

Define the macro macro to have a value of `1'. macro can then be used with the keywords #ifdef and #ifndef.

#define macro defn

Define the macro macro to have the value defn. macro can then be used with the keywords #ifdef and #ifndef. Also, all instances of macro following the #define statement will be replaced with the string defn. The string defn is taken to be all the charcters on the line following macro.

#define macro(arg1, arg2, ...) defn

Define the macro macro to have the value defn with arguments (arg1, arg2, ...). macro can be used as follows:

#define macro(foo) defn with foo in

Now when replacing occurs:

macro(bar)

will become:

defn with bar in

Macros can have any number of comma separated arguments.

#if expr

A conditional statement, expr will be evaluated to true (1) or false (0). If expr evaluates to true, the text between the #if and the next #else or #endif will be included. If expr evaluates to false, the text between the #if and the next #else or #endif will be ignored. expr can use all the usual cpp style comparisons (==, !=, <, >, etc.). Multiple comaprisons can be combined with and (&&) and or (||). The defined keyword can also be used to check if macros are defined. For example:

#if defined macro && macro == defn

(Note to filepp experts: #if works by first parsing expr for the defined keyword and checking if the macro it refers to is defined, replacing it with 1 if it is and 0 if it isn't. It then checks the expr for any other macros and replaces them with their definition. Finially it passes expr through Perl's eval function, which returns true or false.)

#elif expr

#elif stands for "else if". Like #else, it goes in the middle of a #if[n][def]-#endif pair and subdivides it; it does not require a matching #endif of its own. Like #if, the #elif directive includes an expression to be tested.

#ifdef macro

A conditional statement, if macro has been defined the text between the #ifdef and the next #else or #endif will be included. If macro has not been defined the text between the #ifdef and the next #else or #endif will be ignored.

#ifndef macro

The reverse case of the #ifdef conditional.

#else

The #else directive can be added to a conditional to provide alternative text to be used if the condition is false.

#endif

Used to terminate a conditional statement. Normal processing resumes following the #endif.

#undef macro

Undefine a previously defined macro.

#error mesg

Causes filepp to exit with the error message mesg.

#warning mesg

Causes filepp to issue the warning message mesg.

#comment mesg

As filepp is supposed to be a generic file preprocessor, it cannot support any known comment styles, therefore it defines its own with this keyword. All lines starting with #comment are treated as comments and removed by filepp.

PREDEFINED MACROS

filepp supports a set of predefined macros. All the predefined macros are of the form __MACRO__, where MACRO is:

FILE: This macro expands to the name of the current input file.
LINE: This macro expands to the current input line number.
DATE: This macro expands to a string that describes the date on which the preprocessor is being run. The string contains eleven characters and looks like "Dec 12 2000".
ISO_DATE: This macro expands to a string that describes the date on which the preprocessor is being run. The string is in format specified by ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD) and looks like "2000-12-12".
TIME: This macro expands to a string that describes the time at which the preprocessor is being run. The string contains eight characters and looks like "22:45:31".
BASE_FILE: This macro expands to the name of the main input file.
INCLUDE_LEVEL: This macro expands to a decimal integer constant that represents the depth of nesting in include files. The value of this macro is incremented on every #include directive and decremented at every end of file.
NULL: This macro expands to nothing. It is useful if you want to define something to be nothing.
VERSION: This macro expands to a string constant which describes the version number of filepp. The string is a sequence of decimal numbers separated by periods and looks like "1.1.1".
FILEPP_INPUT: This macro expands to a string constant which says the file was generated automatically from the current BASE_FILE and looks like "Generated automatically from filepp.1.in by filepp".

BUGS

filepp has no known bugs, only "features". If you find any "features", please report them to the author.

COPYING

filepp is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

AUTHOR

Darren Miller <darren@cabaret.demon.co.uk>.

This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 22:45:40 GMT, December 12, 2000