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Annotation of cci/usr/src/man/man1/error.1, revision 1.1

1.1     ! root        1: .TH ERROR 1 "18 January 1983"
        !             2: .UC 4
        !             3: .SH NAME
        !             4: error \- analyze and disperse compiler error messages
        !             5: .SH SYNOPSIS
        !             6: .B error
        !             7: [
        !             8: .B \-n
        !             9: ] [
        !            10: .B \-s
        !            11: ] [
        !            12: .B \-q
        !            13: ] [
        !            14: .B \-v
        !            15: ] [
        !            16: .B \-t
        !            17: suffixlist
        !            18: ] [
        !            19: .B \-I
        !            20: ignorefile
        !            21: ] [ name ]
        !            22: .SH DESCRIPTION
        !            23: .I Error
        !            24: analyzes and optionally disperses the diagnostic error messages
        !            25: produced by a number of compilers and language processors to the source
        !            26: file and line where the errors occurred.  It can replace the painful,
        !            27: traditional methods of scribbling abbreviations of errors on paper, and
        !            28: permits error messages and source code to be viewed simultaneously
        !            29: without machinations of multiple windows in a screen editor.
        !            30: .PP
        !            31: .I Error
        !            32: looks at the error messages,
        !            33: either from the specified file \fIname\fR
        !            34: or from the standard input,
        !            35: and attempts to determine which
        !            36: language processor produced each error message,
        !            37: determines the source file and line number to which the error message refers,
        !            38: determines if the error message is to be ignored or not,
        !            39: and inserts the (possibly slightly modified) error message into
        !            40: the source file as a comment on the line preceding to which the
        !            41: line the error message refers.
        !            42: Error messages which can't be categorized by language processor
        !            43: or content are not inserted into any file,
        !            44: but are sent to the standard output.
        !            45: .I Error
        !            46: touches source files only after all input has been read.
        !            47: By specifying the
        !            48: .B \-q
        !            49: query option,
        !            50: the user is asked to confirm any potentially
        !            51: dangerous (such as touching a file) or verbose action.
        !            52: Otherwise
        !            53: .I error
        !            54: proceeds on its merry business.
        !            55: If the
        !            56: .B \-t
        !            57: touch option and associated suffix list is given, 
        !            58: .I error
        !            59: will restrict itself to touch only those files with suffices
        !            60: in the suffix list.
        !            61: Error also can be asked (by specifying
        !            62: .B \-v)
        !            63: to invoke
        !            64: .IR vi (1)
        !            65: on the files in which error messages were inserted; this obviates
        !            66: the need to remember the names of the files with errors.
        !            67: .PP
        !            68: .I Error
        !            69: is intended to be run
        !            70: with its standard input
        !            71: connected via a pipe to the error message source.
        !            72: Some language processors put error messages on their standard error file;
        !            73: others put their messages on the standard output.
        !            74: Hence, both error sources should be piped together into
        !            75: .I error.
        !            76: For example, when using the \fIcsh\fP syntax,
        !            77: .IP
        !            78: make \-s lint |\|& error \-q \-v
        !            79: .LP
        !            80: will analyze all the error messages produced
        !            81: by whatever programs
        !            82: .I make
        !            83: runs when making lint.
        !            84: .PP
        !            85: .I Error
        !            86: knows about the error messages produced by:
        !            87: .I make,
        !            88: .I cc,
        !            89: .I cpp,
        !            90: .I ccom,
        !            91: .I as,
        !            92: .I ld,
        !            93: .I lint,
        !            94: .I pi,
        !            95: .I pc
        !            96: and
        !            97: .I f77.
        !            98: .I Error
        !            99: knows a standard format for error messages produced by
        !           100: the language processors,
        !           101: so is sensitive to changes in these formats.
        !           102: For all languages except 
        !           103: .I Pascal,
        !           104: error messages are restricted to be on one line.
        !           105: Some error messages refer to more than one line in more than
        !           106: one files;
        !           107: .I error
        !           108: will duplicate the error message and insert it at
        !           109: all of the places referenced.
        !           110: .PP
        !           111: .I Error
        !           112: will do one of six things with error messages.
        !           113: .TP 10
        !           114: .I synchronize
        !           115: Some language processors produce short errors describing
        !           116: which file it is processing.
        !           117: .I Error 
        !           118: uses these to determine the file name for languages that
        !           119: don't include the file name in each error message.
        !           120: These synchronization messages are consumed entirely by
        !           121: .I error.
        !           122: .TP 10
        !           123: .I discard
        !           124: Error messages from
        !           125: .I lint
        !           126: that refer to one of the two
        !           127: .I lint
        !           128: libraries,
        !           129: .I /usr/lib/llib-lc
        !           130: and
        !           131: .I /usr/lib/llib-port
        !           132: are discarded,
        !           133: to prevent accidently touching these libraries.
        !           134: Again, these error messages are consumed entirely by
        !           135: .I error.
        !           136: .TP 10
        !           137: .I nullify
        !           138: Error messages from
        !           139: .I lint
        !           140: can be nullified if they refer to a specific function,
        !           141: which is known to generate diagnostics which are not interesting.
        !           142: Nullified error messages are not inserted into the source file,
        !           143: but are written to the standard output.
        !           144: The names of functions to ignore are taken from
        !           145: either the file named
        !           146: .I .errorrc
        !           147: in the users's home directory, 
        !           148: or from the file named by the
        !           149: .B \-I
        !           150: option.
        !           151: If the file does not exist,
        !           152: no error messages are nullified.
        !           153: If the file does exist, there must be one function
        !           154: name per line.
        !           155: .TP 10
        !           156: .I not file specific
        !           157: Error messages that can't be intuited are grouped together,
        !           158: and written to the standard output before any files are touched.
        !           159: They will not be inserted into any source file.
        !           160: .TP 10
        !           161: .I file specific
        !           162: Error message that refer to a specific file,
        !           163: but to no specific line,
        !           164: are written to the standard output when
        !           165: that file is touched.
        !           166: .TP 10
        !           167: .I true errors
        !           168: Error messages that can be intuited are candidates for
        !           169: insertion into the file to which they refer.
        !           170: .PP
        !           171: Only true error messages are candidates for inserting into
        !           172: the file they refer to.
        !           173: Other error messages are consumed entirely by
        !           174: .I error
        !           175: or are written to the standard output.
        !           176: .I Error
        !           177: inserts the error messages into the source file on the line
        !           178: preceding the line the language processor found in error.
        !           179: Each error message is turned into a one line comment for the
        !           180: language,
        !           181: and is internally flagged
        !           182: with the string ``###'' at
        !           183: the beginning of the error,
        !           184: and ``%%%'' at the end of the error.
        !           185: This makes pattern searching for errors easier with an editor,
        !           186: and allows the messages to be easily removed.
        !           187: In addition, each error message contains the source line number
        !           188: for the line the message refers to.
        !           189: A reasonably formatted source program can be recompiled
        !           190: with the error messages still in it,
        !           191: without having the error messages themselves cause future errors.
        !           192: For poorly formatted source programs in free format languages,
        !           193: such as C or Pascal,
        !           194: it is possible to insert a comment into another comment,
        !           195: which can wreak havoc with a future compilation.
        !           196: To avoid this, programs with comments and source
        !           197: on the same line should be formatted
        !           198: so that language statements appear before comments.
        !           199: .PP
        !           200: Options available with
        !           201: .I error
        !           202: are:
        !           203: .TP 5
        !           204: .B \-n
        !           205: Do
        !           206: .I not
        !           207: touch any files; all error messages are sent to the
        !           208: standard output.
        !           209: .TP 5
        !           210: .B \-q
        !           211: The user is
        !           212: .I queried
        !           213: whether s/he wants to touch the file.
        !           214: A ``y'' or ``n'' to the question is necessary to continue.
        !           215: Absence of the
        !           216: .B \-q
        !           217: option implies that all referenced files
        !           218: (except those referring to discarded error messages)
        !           219: are to be touched.
        !           220: .TP 5
        !           221: .B \-v
        !           222: After all files have been touched,
        !           223: overlay the visual editor
        !           224: .I vi
        !           225: with it set up to edit all files touched,
        !           226: and positioned in the first touched file at the first error.
        !           227: If
        !           228: .I vi 
        !           229: can't be found, try
        !           230: .I ex
        !           231: or
        !           232: .I ed
        !           233: from standard places.
        !           234: .TP 5
        !           235: .B \-t
        !           236: Take the following argument as a suffix list.
        !           237: Files whose suffixes do not appear in the suffix list are not touched.
        !           238: The suffix list is dot separated, and ``*'' wildcards work.
        !           239: Thus the suffix list:
        !           240: .IP
        !           241: \&     ".c.y.foo*.h"
        !           242: .IP
        !           243: allows
        !           244: .I error
        !           245: to touch files ending with ``.c'', ``.y'', ``.foo*'' and ``.y''.
        !           246: .TP 5
        !           247: .B \-s
        !           248: Print out 
        !           249: .I statistics
        !           250: regarding the error categorization.
        !           251: Not too useful.
        !           252: .PP
        !           253: .I Error
        !           254: catches interrupt and terminate signals,
        !           255: and if in the insertion phase,
        !           256: will orderly terminate what it is doing.
        !           257: .SH AUTHOR
        !           258: Robert Henry
        !           259: .SH FILES
        !           260: .ta 2i
        !           261: ~/.errorrc     function names to ignore for \fIlint\fP error messages
        !           262: .br
        !           263: /dev/tty       user's teletype
        !           264: .SH BUGS
        !           265: .PP
        !           266: Opens the teletype directly to do user querying.
        !           267: .PP
        !           268: Source files with links make a new copy of the file with
        !           269: only one link to it.
        !           270: .PP
        !           271: Changing a language processor's format of error messages
        !           272: may cause 
        !           273: .I error
        !           274: to not understand the error message.
        !           275: .PP
        !           276: .I Error,
        !           277: since it is purely mechanical,
        !           278: will not filter out subsequent errors caused by `floodgating'
        !           279: initiated by one syntactically trivial error.
        !           280: Humans are still much better at discarding these related errors.
        !           281: .PP
        !           282: Pascal error messages belong after the lines affected
        !           283: (error puts them before).  The alignment of the `\||\|' marking
        !           284: the point of error is also disturbed by
        !           285: .I error.
        !           286: .PP
        !           287: .I Error
        !           288: was designed for work on CRT's at reasonably high speed.
        !           289: It is less pleasant on slow speed terminals, and has never been
        !           290: used on hardcopy terminals.

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