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M4(P) POSIX Programmer's Manual M4(P)
NAME
m4 - macro processor (DEVELOPMENT)
SYNOPSIS
m4 [-s][-D name[=val]]...[-U name]... file...
DESCRIPTION
The m4 utility is a macro processor that shall read one
or more text files, process them according to their
included macro statements, and write the results to
standard output.
OPTIONS
The m4 utility shall conform to the Base Definitions
volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility
Syntax Guidelines, except that the order of the -D and
-U options shall be significant.
The following options shall be supported:
-s Enable line synchronization output for the c99
preprocessor phase (that is, #line directives).
-D name[=val]
Define name to val or to null if = val is omit-
ted.
-U name
Undefine name.
OPERANDS
The following operand shall be supported:
file A pathname of a text file to be processed. If no
file is given, or if it is '-' , the standard
input shall be read.
STDIN
The standard input shall be a text file that is used if
no file operand is given, or if it is '-' .
INPUT FILES
The input file named by the file operand shall be a text
file.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the
execution of m4:
LANG Provide a default value for the internationaliza-
tion variables that are unset or null. (See the
Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,
Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for
the precedence of internationalization variables
used to determine the values of locale cate-
gories.)
LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the
values of all the other internationalization
variables.
LC_CTYPE
Determine the locale for the interpretation of
sequences of bytes of text data as characters
(for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-
byte characters in arguments and input files).
LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale that should be used to
affect the format and contents of diagnostic mes-
sages written to standard error.
NLSPATH
Determine the location of message catalogs for
the processing of LC_MESSAGES .
ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.
STDOUT
The standard output shall be the same as the input
files, after being processed for macro expansion.
STDERR
The standard error shall be used to display strings with
the errprint macro, macro tracing enabled by the traceon
macro, the defined text for macros written by the
dumpdef macro, or for diagnostic messages.
OUTPUT FILES
None.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
The m4 utility shall compare each token from the input
against the set of built-in and user-defined macros. If
the token matches the name of a macro, then the token
shall be replaced by the macro's defining text, if any,
and rescanned for matching macro names. Once no portion
of the token matches the name of a macro, it shall be
written to standard output. Macros may have arguments,
in which case the arguments shall be substituted into
the defining text before it is rescanned.
Macro calls have the form:
name(arg1, arg2, ..., argn)
Macro names shall consist of letters, digits, and under-
scores, where the first character is not a digit. Tokens
not of this form shall not be treated as macros.
The application shall ensure that the left parenthesis
immediately follows the name of the macro. If a token
matching the name of a macro is not followed by a left
parenthesis, it is handled as a use of that macro with-
out arguments.
If a macro name is followed by a left parenthesis, its
arguments are the comma-separated tokens between the
left parenthesis and the matching right parenthesis.
Unquoted <blank>s and <newline>s preceding each argument
shall be ignored. All other characters, including trail-
ing <blank>s and <newline>s, are retained. Commas
enclosed between left and right parenthesis characters
do not delimit arguments.
Arguments are positionally defined and referenced. The
string "$1" in the defining text shall be replaced by
the first argument. Systems shall support at least nine
arguments; only the first nine can be referenced, using
the strings "$1" to "$9" , inclusive. The string "$0" is
replaced with the name of the macro. The string "$#" is
replaced by the number of arguments as a string. The
string "$*" is replaced by a list of all of the argu-
ments, separated by commas. The string "$@" is replaced
by a list of all of the arguments separated by commas,
and each argument is quoted using the current left and
right quoting strings.
If fewer arguments are supplied than are in the macro
definition, the omitted arguments are taken to be null.
It is not an error if more arguments are supplied than
are in the macro definition.
No special meaning is given to any characters enclosed
between matching left and right quoting strings, but the
quoting strings are themselves discarded. By default,
the left quoting string consists of a grave accent ( '`'
) and the right quoting string consists of an acute
accent ( '" ); see also the changequote macro.
Comments are written but not scanned for matching macro
names; by default, the begin-comment string consists of
the number sign character and the end-comment string
consists of a <newline>. See also the changecom and dnl
macros.
The m4 utility shall make available the following built-
in macros. They can be redefined, but once this is done
the original meaning is lost. Their values shall be null
unless otherwise stated. In the descriptions below, the
term defining text refers to the value of the macro: the
second argument to the define macro, among other things.
Except for the first argument to the eval macro, all
numeric arguments to built-in macros shall be inter-
preted as decimal values. The string values produced as
the defining text of the decr, divnum, incr, index, len,
and sysval built-in macros shall be in the form of a
decimal-constant as defined in the C language.
changecom
The changecom macro shall set the begin-comment
and end-comment strings. With no arguments, the
comment mechanism shall be disabled. With a sin-
gle argument, that argument shall become the
begin-comment string and the <newline> shall
become the end-comment string. With two argu-
ments, the first argument shall become the begin-
comment string and the second argument shall
become the end-comment string. Systems shall sup-
port comment strings of at least five characters.
changequote
The changequote macro shall set the begin-quote
and end-quote strings. With no arguments, the
quote strings shall be set to the default values
(that is, `'). With a single argument, that argu-
ment shall become the begin-quote string and the
<newline> shall become the end-quote string. With
two arguments, the first argument shall become
the begin-quote string and the second argument
shall become the end-quote string. Systems shall
support quote strings of at least five charac-
ters.
decr The defining text of the decr macro shall be its
first argument decremented by 1. It shall be an
error to specify an argument containing any non-
numeric characters.
define The second argument shall become the defining
text of the macro whose name is the first argu-
ment.
defn The defining text of the defn macro shall be the
quoted definition (using the current quoting
strings) of its arguments.
divert The m4 utility maintains nine temporary buffers,
numbered 1 to 9, inclusive. When the last of the
input has been processed, any output that has
been placed in these buffers shall be written to
standard output in buffer-numerical order. The
divert macro shall divert future output to the
buffer specified by its argument. Specifying no
argument or an argument of 0 shall resume the
normal output process. Output diverted to a
stream other than 0 to 9 shall be discarded. It
shall be an error to specify an argument contain-
ing any non-numeric characters.
divnum The defining text of the divnum macro shall be
the number of the current output stream as a
string.
dnl The dnl macro shall cause m4 to discard all input
characters up to and including the next <new-
line>.
dumpdef
The dumpdef macro shall write the defined text to
standard error for each of the macros specified
as arguments, or, if no arguments are specified,
for all macros.
errprint
The errprint macro shall write its arguments to
standard error.
eval The eval macro shall evaluate its first argument
as an arithmetic expression, using 32-bit signed
integer arithmetic. All of the C-language opera-
tors shall be supported, except for:
[]
->
++
--
(type)
unary *
sizeof,
.
?:
unary &
and all assignment operators. It shall be an error to
specify any of these operators. Precedence and associa-
tivity shall be as in the ISO C standard. Systems shall
support octal and hexadecimal numbers as in the ISO C
standard. The second argument, if specified, shall set
the radix for the result; the default is 10. The third
argument, if specified, sets the minimum number of dig-
its in the result. It shall be an error to specify the
second or third argument containing any non-numeric
characters.
ifdef If the first argument to the ifdef macro is
defined, the defining text shall be the second
argument. Otherwise, the defining text shall be
the third argument, if specified, or the null
string, if not.
ifelse The ifelse macro takes three or more arguments.
If the first two arguments compare as equal
strings (after macro expansion of both argu-
ments), the defining text shall be the third
argument. If the first two arguments do not com-
pare as equal strings and there are three argu-
ments, the defining text shall be null. If the
first two arguments do not compare as equal
strings and there are four or five arguments, the
defining text shall be the fourth argument. If
the first two arguments do not compare as equal
strings and there are six or more arguments, the
first three arguments shall be discarded and pro-
cessing shall restart with the remaining argu-
ments.
include
The defining text for the include macro shall be
the contents of the file named by the first argu-
ment. It shall be an error if the file cannot be
read.
incr The defining text of the incr macro shall be its
first argument incremented by 1. It shall be an
error to specify an argument containing any non-
numeric characters.
index The defining text of the index macro shall be the
first character position (as a string) in the
first argument where a string matching the second
argument begins (zero origin), or -1 if the sec-
ond argument does not occur.
len The defining text of the len macro shall be the
length (as a string) of the first argument.
m4exit Exit from the m4 utility. If the first argument
is specified, it is the exit code. The default is
zero. It shall be an error to specify an argument
containing any non-numeric characters.
m4wrap The first argument shall be processed when EOF is
reached. If the m4wrap macro is used multiple
times, the arguments specified shall be processed
in the order in which the m4wrap macros were pro-
cessed.
maketemp
The defining text shall be the first argument,
with any trailing 'X' characters replaced with
the current process ID as a string.
popdef The popdef macro shall delete the current defini-
tion of its arguments, replacing that definition
with the previous one. If there is no previous
definition, the macro is undefined.
pushdef
The pushdef macro shall be equivalent to the
define macro with the exception that it shall
preserve any current definition for future
retrieval using the popdef macro.
shift The defining text for the shift macro shall be
all of its arguments except for the first one.
sinclude
The sinclude macro shall be equivalent to the
include macro, except that it shall not be an
error if the file is inaccessible.
substr The defining text for the substr macro shall be
the substring of the first argument beginning at
the zero-offset character position specified by
the second argument. The third argument, if spec-
ified, shall be the number of characters to
select; if not specified, the characters from the
starting point to the end of the first argument
shall become the defining text. It shall not be
an error to specify a starting point beyond the
end of the first argument and the defining text
shall be null. It shall be an error to specify an
argument containing any non-numeric characters.
syscmd The syscmd macro shall interpret its first argu-
ment as a shell command line. The defining text
shall be the string result of that command. No
output redirection shall be performed by the m4
utility. The exit status value from the command
can be retrieved using the sysval macro.
sysval The defining text of the sysval macro shall be
the exit value of the utility last invoked by the
syscmd macro (as a string).
traceon
The traceon macro shall enable tracing for the
macros specified as arguments, or, if no argu-
ments are specified, for all macros. The trace
output shall be written to standard error in an
unspecified format.
traceoff
The traceoff macro shall disable tracing for the
macros specified as arguments, or, if no argu-
ments are specified, for all macros.
translit
The defining text of the translit macro shall be
the first argument with every character that
occurs in the second argument replaced with the
corresponding character from the third argument.
undefine
The undefine macro shall delete all definitions
(including those preserved using the pushdef
macro) of the macros named by its arguments.
undivert
The undivert macro shall cause immediate output
of any text in temporary buffers named as argu-
ments, or all temporary buffers if no arguments
are specified. Buffers can be undiverted into
other temporary buffers. Undiverting shall dis-
card the contents of the temporary buffer. It
shall be an error to specify an argument contain-
ing any non-numeric characters.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned:
0 Successful completion.
>0 An error occurred
If the m4exit macro is used, the exit value can be spec-
ified by the input file.
CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
Default.
The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
The defn macro is useful for renaming macros, especially
built-ins.
EXAMPLES
If the file m4src contains the lines:
The value of `VER' is "VER".
ifdef(`VER', "VER" is defined to be VER., VER is not defined.)
ifelse(VER, 1, "VER" is `VER'.)
ifelse(VER, 2, "VER" is `VER'., "VER" is not 2.)
end
then the command
m4 m4src
or the command:
m4 -U VER m4src
produces the output:
The value of VER is "VER".
VER is not defined.
VER is not 2.
end
The command:
m4 -D VER m4src
produces the output:
The value of VER is "".
VER is defined to be .
VER is not 2.
end
The command:
m4 -D VER=1 m4src
produces the output:
The value of VER is "1".
VER is defined to be 1.
VER is 1.
VER is not 2.
end
The command:
m4 -D VER=2 m4src
produces the output:
The value of VER is "2".
VER is defined to be 2.
VER is 2.
end
RATIONALE
None.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
c99
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in
electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition,
Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operat-
ing System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Speci-
fications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Insti-
tute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and
The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between
this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group
Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be
obtained online at http://www.open-
group.org/unix/online.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2003 M4(P)