Arquivotheca.SunOS-4.1.4/man/man1/error.1

.\" @(#)error.1 1.1 94/10/31 SMI; from UCB 4.1
.TH ERROR 1 "9 September 1987"
.SH NAME
error \- categorize compiler error messages, insert at responsible source file lines
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B error
[
.B \-n
] 
[
.B \-s
] 
[
.B \-q
] 
[
.B \-v
] 
[
.B \-t
.I suffixlist
] 
.if n .ti 0.5i
[
.B \-I
.I ignorefile
] 
[
.I filename
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.IX "error command"  ""  " \fLerror\fP \(em analyze error messages"
.IX "programming languages"  "analyze and disperse compiler error messages"
.B 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.
.LP
.B error
looks at error messages, either from the specified file 
.I filename
or from the standard input, and:
.IP \(bu 2
Determines which language processor produced each error message.
.IP \(bu 2
Determines the file name and line number of the erroneous line.
.IP \(bu 2
Inserts the error message into the
source file immediately preceding the
erroneous line.
.LP
Error messages that can't be
categorized by language processor or content
are not inserted into any file,
but are sent to the standard output.
.B error
touches source files only after all input has been read.
.LP
.B 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
.B error.
For example, when using the 
.B csh
syntax,
.IP
.B tutorial% make \-s lint |\|& error \-q \-v
.LP
will analyze all the error messages produced by whatever programs
.BR make (1)
runs when making lint.
.LP
.B error
knows about the error messages produced by:
.BR make (1),
.BR cc (1V),
.BR cpp (1),
.BR as (1),
.BR ld (1),
.BR lint (1V),
and other compilers.
For all languages except Pascal,
error messages are restricted to one
line.  Some error messages refer to
more than one line in more than one file, in which case
.B error
duplicates the error message and inserts
it in all the appropriate places.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP 5
.B \-n
Do
.I not
touch any files; all error messages are sent to the standard
output.
.TP 5
.B \-q
.B error
asks whether the file should be touched.  A
.RB ` y '
or
.RB ` n '
to the question
is necessary to continue.  Absence of the
.B \-q
option implies that all referenced files
(except those referring to discarded
error messages) are to be touched.
.TP 5
.B \-v
After all files have been touched, overlay the visual editor
.B vi
with it set up to edit all files touched,
and positioned in the first touched file at the first error.
If
.BR vi (1)
can't be found, try
.BR ex (1)
or
.BR ed (1)
from standard places.
.TP 5
.BI \-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
.RB ` * '
wildcards work.  Thus the suffix list:
.RS
.IP 
.B .c.y.f*.h
.RE
.IP
allows
.B error
to touch files ending with
.RB ` .c ',
.RB ` .y' ,
.RB ` .f* '
and
.RB ` .h '.
.TP 5
.B \-s
Print out statistics
regarding the error categorization.
.LP
.B error
catches interrupt and terminate signals, and
terminates in an orderly fashion.
.SH USAGE
.SS Action Statements
.LP
.B error
does one of six things with error messages.
.TP 1i
.B synchronize
Some language processors produce short errors describing
which file they are processing.
.B Error 
uses these to determine the file name for languages that
don't include the file name in each error message.
These synchronization messages are consumed entirely by
.B error.
.TP
.B discard
Error messages from
.B lint
that refer to one of the two
.B lint
libraries,
.B /usr/lib/lint/llib-lc
and
.B /usr/lib/lint/llib-port
are discarded, to prevent accidentaly touching these libraries.
Again, these error messages are consumed entirely by
.B error.
.TP
.B nullify
Error messages from
.B lint
can be nullified if they refer to a
specific function, which is known to
generate diagnostics 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
.B .errorrc
in the user's home directory, or from the file named by the
.B \-I
option.  If the file does not exist, no error messages are nullified.
If the file does exist, there must be one function name per line.
.TP
.B 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.
.TP
.B 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.
.TP
.B true errors
Error messages that can be intuited are candidates for
insertion into the file to which they refer.
.LP
Only true error messages are inserted into source files.
Other error messages are consumed entirely by
.B error
or are written to the standard output.
.B error
inserts the error messages into
the source file on the line preceding the
line number in the error message.
Each error message is turned into a one
line comment for the language, and is
internally flagged with the string
.B ###
at the beginning of the error, and
.B %%%
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
formatted 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.
.SH FILES
.PD 0
.TP 20
.B ~/.errorrc
function names to ignore for 
.B lint
error messages
.TP
.B /dev/tty
user's teletype
.PD
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR as (1),
.BR cc (1V),
.BR cpp (1),
.BR csh (1),
.BR ed (1),
.BR ex (1),
.BR ld (1),
.BR lint (1V),
.BR make (1),
.BR vi (1)
.SH BUGS
.LP
Opens the tty-device directly for user input.
.LP
Source files with links make a new copy of the file with
only one link to it.
.LP
Changing a language processor's error message format
may cause 
.B error
to not understand the error message.
.LP
.B 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.
.LP
Pascal error messages belong after the lines affected,
error puts them before.  The alignment of the
.B \||\|
marking
the point of error is also disturbed by
.B error.
.LP
.B error
was designed for work on
.SM CRT 's
at reasonably high speed.
It is less pleasant on slow speed terminals, and has never been
used on hardcopy terminals.