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Annotation of 43BSDTahoe/man/man1/error.1, revision 1.1

1.1     ! root        1: .\" Copyright (c) 1980 Regents of the University of California.
        !             2: .\" All rights reserved.  The Berkeley software License Agreement
        !             3: .\" specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
        !             4: .\"
        !             5: .\"    @(#)error.1     6.2 (Berkeley) 5/5/86
        !             6: .\"
        !             7: .TH ERROR 1 "May 5, 1986"
        !             8: .UC 4
        !             9: .SH NAME
        !            10: error \- analyze and disperse compiler error messages
        !            11: .SH SYNOPSIS
        !            12: .B error
        !            13: [
        !            14: .B \-n
        !            15: ] [
        !            16: .B \-s
        !            17: ] [
        !            18: .B \-q
        !            19: ] [
        !            20: .B \-v
        !            21: ] [
        !            22: .B \-t
        !            23: suffixlist
        !            24: ] [
        !            25: .B \-I
        !            26: ignorefile
        !            27: ] [ name ]
        !            28: .SH DESCRIPTION
        !            29: .I Error
        !            30: analyzes and optionally disperses the diagnostic error messages
        !            31: produced by a number of compilers and language processors to the source
        !            32: file and line where the errors occurred.  It can replace the painful,
        !            33: traditional methods of scribbling abbreviations of errors on paper, and
        !            34: permits error messages and source code to be viewed simultaneously
        !            35: without machinations of multiple windows in a screen editor.
        !            36: .PP
        !            37: .I Error
        !            38: looks at the error messages,
        !            39: either from the specified file \fIname\fR
        !            40: or from the standard input,
        !            41: and attempts to determine which
        !            42: language processor produced each error message,
        !            43: determines the source file and line number to which the error message refers,
        !            44: determines if the error message is to be ignored or not,
        !            45: and inserts the (possibly slightly modified) error message into
        !            46: the source file as a comment on the line preceding to which the
        !            47: line the error message refers.
        !            48: Error messages which can't be categorized by language processor
        !            49: or content are not inserted into any file,
        !            50: but are sent to the standard output.
        !            51: .I Error
        !            52: touches source files only after all input has been read.
        !            53: By specifying the
        !            54: .B \-q
        !            55: query option,
        !            56: the user is asked to confirm any potentially
        !            57: dangerous (such as touching a file) or verbose action.
        !            58: Otherwise
        !            59: .I error
        !            60: proceeds on its merry business.
        !            61: If the
        !            62: .B \-t
        !            63: touch option and associated suffix list is given, 
        !            64: .I error
        !            65: will restrict itself to touch only those files with suffices
        !            66: in the suffix list.
        !            67: Error also can be asked (by specifying
        !            68: .B \-v)
        !            69: to invoke
        !            70: .IR vi (1)
        !            71: on the files in which error messages were inserted; this obviates
        !            72: the need to remember the names of the files with errors.
        !            73: .PP
        !            74: .I Error
        !            75: is intended to be run
        !            76: with its standard input
        !            77: connected via a pipe to the error message source.
        !            78: Some language processors put error messages on their standard error file;
        !            79: others put their messages on the standard output.
        !            80: Hence, both error sources should be piped together into
        !            81: .I error.
        !            82: For example, when using the \fIcsh\fP syntax,
        !            83: .IP
        !            84: make \-s lint |\|& error \-q \-v
        !            85: .LP
        !            86: will analyze all the error messages produced
        !            87: by whatever programs
        !            88: .I make
        !            89: runs when making lint.
        !            90: .PP
        !            91: .I Error
        !            92: knows about the error messages produced by:
        !            93: .I make,
        !            94: .I cc,
        !            95: .I cpp,
        !            96: .I ccom,
        !            97: .I as,
        !            98: .I ld,
        !            99: .I lint,
        !           100: .I pi,
        !           101: .I pc,
        !           102: .I f77,
        !           103: and
        !           104: .I DEC Western Research Modula-2.
        !           105: .I Error
        !           106: knows a standard format for error messages produced by
        !           107: the language processors,
        !           108: so is sensitive to changes in these formats.
        !           109: For all languages except 
        !           110: .I Pascal,
        !           111: error messages are restricted to be on one line.
        !           112: Some error messages refer to more than one line in more than
        !           113: one files;
        !           114: .I error
        !           115: will duplicate the error message and insert it at
        !           116: all of the places referenced.
        !           117: .PP
        !           118: .I Error
        !           119: will do one of six things with error messages.
        !           120: .TP 10
        !           121: .I synchronize
        !           122: Some language processors produce short errors describing
        !           123: which file it is processing.
        !           124: .I Error 
        !           125: uses these to determine the file name for languages that
        !           126: don't include the file name in each error message.
        !           127: These synchronization messages are consumed entirely by
        !           128: .I error.
        !           129: .TP 10
        !           130: .I discard
        !           131: Error messages from
        !           132: .I lint
        !           133: that refer to one of the two
        !           134: .I lint
        !           135: libraries,
        !           136: .I /usr/lib/llib-lc
        !           137: and
        !           138: .I /usr/lib/llib-port
        !           139: are discarded,
        !           140: to prevent accidently touching these libraries.
        !           141: Again, these error messages are consumed entirely by
        !           142: .I error.
        !           143: .TP 10
        !           144: .I nullify
        !           145: Error messages from
        !           146: .I lint
        !           147: can be nullified if they refer to a specific function,
        !           148: which is known to generate diagnostics which are not interesting.
        !           149: Nullified error messages are not inserted into the source file,
        !           150: but are written to the standard output.
        !           151: The names of functions to ignore are taken from
        !           152: either the file named
        !           153: .I .errorrc
        !           154: in the users's home directory, 
        !           155: or from the file named by the
        !           156: .B \-I
        !           157: option.
        !           158: If the file does not exist,
        !           159: no error messages are nullified.
        !           160: If the file does exist, there must be one function
        !           161: name per line.
        !           162: .TP 10
        !           163: .I not file specific
        !           164: Error messages that can't be intuited are grouped together,
        !           165: and written to the standard output before any files are touched.
        !           166: They will not be inserted into any source file.
        !           167: .TP 10
        !           168: .I file specific
        !           169: Error message that refer to a specific file,
        !           170: but to no specific line,
        !           171: are written to the standard output when
        !           172: that file is touched.
        !           173: .TP 10
        !           174: .I true errors
        !           175: Error messages that can be intuited are candidates for
        !           176: insertion into the file to which they refer.
        !           177: .PP
        !           178: Only true error messages are candidates for inserting into
        !           179: the file they refer to.
        !           180: Other error messages are consumed entirely by
        !           181: .I error
        !           182: or are written to the standard output.
        !           183: .I Error
        !           184: inserts the error messages into the source file on the line
        !           185: preceding the line the language processor found in error.
        !           186: Each error message is turned into a one line comment for the
        !           187: language,
        !           188: and is internally flagged
        !           189: with the string ``###'' at
        !           190: the beginning of the error,
        !           191: and ``%%%'' at the end of the error.
        !           192: This makes pattern searching for errors easier with an editor,
        !           193: and allows the messages to be easily removed.
        !           194: In addition, each error message contains the source line number
        !           195: for the line the message refers to.
        !           196: A reasonably formatted source program can be recompiled
        !           197: with the error messages still in it,
        !           198: without having the error messages themselves cause future errors.
        !           199: For poorly formatted source programs in free format languages,
        !           200: such as C or Pascal,
        !           201: it is possible to insert a comment into another comment,
        !           202: which can wreak havoc with a future compilation.
        !           203: To avoid this, programs with comments and source
        !           204: on the same line should be formatted
        !           205: so that language statements appear before comments.
        !           206: .PP
        !           207: Options available with
        !           208: .I error
        !           209: are:
        !           210: .TP 5
        !           211: .B \-n
        !           212: Do
        !           213: .I not
        !           214: touch any files; all error messages are sent to the
        !           215: standard output.
        !           216: .TP 5
        !           217: .B \-q
        !           218: The user is
        !           219: .I queried
        !           220: whether s/he wants to touch the file.
        !           221: A ``y'' or ``n'' to the question is necessary to continue.
        !           222: Absence of the
        !           223: .B \-q
        !           224: option implies that all referenced files
        !           225: (except those referring to discarded error messages)
        !           226: are to be touched.
        !           227: .TP 5
        !           228: .B \-v
        !           229: After all files have been touched,
        !           230: overlay the visual editor
        !           231: .I vi
        !           232: with it set up to edit all files touched,
        !           233: and positioned in the first touched file at the first error.
        !           234: If
        !           235: .I vi 
        !           236: can't be found, try
        !           237: .I ex
        !           238: or
        !           239: .I ed
        !           240: from standard places.
        !           241: .TP 5
        !           242: .B \-t
        !           243: Take the following argument as a suffix list.
        !           244: Files whose suffixes do not appear in the suffix list are not touched.
        !           245: The suffix list is dot separated, and ``*'' wildcards work.
        !           246: Thus the suffix list:
        !           247: .IP
        !           248: \&     ".c.y.foo*.h"
        !           249: .IP
        !           250: allows
        !           251: .I error
        !           252: to touch files ending with ``.c'', ``.y'', ``.foo*'' and ``.y''.
        !           253: .TP 5
        !           254: .B \-s
        !           255: Print out 
        !           256: .I statistics
        !           257: regarding the error categorization.
        !           258: Not too useful.
        !           259: .PP
        !           260: .I Error
        !           261: catches interrupt and terminate signals,
        !           262: and if in the insertion phase,
        !           263: will orderly terminate what it is doing.
        !           264: .SH AUTHOR
        !           265: Robert Henry
        !           266: .SH FILES
        !           267: .ta 2i
        !           268: ~/.errorrc     function names to ignore for \fIlint\fP error messages
        !           269: .br
        !           270: /dev/tty       user's teletype
        !           271: .SH BUGS
        !           272: .PP
        !           273: Opens the teletype directly to do user querying.
        !           274: .PP
        !           275: Source files with links make a new copy of the file with
        !           276: only one link to it.
        !           277: .PP
        !           278: Changing a language processor's format of error messages
        !           279: may cause 
        !           280: .I error
        !           281: to not understand the error message.
        !           282: .PP
        !           283: .I Error,
        !           284: since it is purely mechanical,
        !           285: will not filter out subsequent errors caused by `floodgating'
        !           286: initiated by one syntactically trivial error.
        !           287: Humans are still much better at discarding these related errors.
        !           288: .PP
        !           289: Pascal error messages belong after the lines affected
        !           290: (error puts them before).  The alignment of the `\||\|' marking
        !           291: the point of error is also disturbed by
        !           292: .I error.
        !           293: .PP
        !           294: .I Error
        !           295: was designed for work on CRT's at reasonably high speed.
        !           296: It is less pleasant on slow speed terminals, and has never been
        !           297: used on hardcopy terminals.

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