NAME
m4 - macro processor
SYNOPSIS
m4 [OPTION]... [FILE]...
DESCRIPTION
Process macros in FILEs. If no FILE or if FILE is -, standard input is read.
Mandatory or optional arguments to long options are mandatory or optional for short options too.
Operation modes:
--help | display this help and exit |
--version | |
output version information and exit | |
-E, --fatal-warnings | |
once: warnings become errors, twice: stop execution at first error | |
-i, --interactive | |
unbuffer output, ignore interrupts | |
-P, --prefix-builtins | |
force a m4_ prefix to all builtins | |
-Q, --quiet, --silent | |
suppress some warnings for builtins | |
--warn-macro-sequence[=REGEXP] | |
warn if macro definition matches REGEXP, | |
default \$\({[^}]*}\|[0-9][0-9]+\) | |
Preprocessor features:
-D, --define=NAME[=VALUE] | |
define NAME as having VALUE, or empty | |
-I, --include=DIRECTORY | |
append DIRECTORY to include path | |
-s, --synclines | |
generate #line NUM "FILE" lines | |
-U, --undefine=NAME | |
undefine NAME | |
Limits control:
-g, --gnu | override -G to re-enable GNU extensions |
-G, --traditional | |
suppress all GNU extensions | |
-H, --hashsize=PRIME | |
set symbol lookup hash table size [509] | |
-L, --nesting-limit=NUMBER | |
change nesting limit, 0 for unlimited [0] | |
Frozen state files:
-F, --freeze-state=FILE | |
produce a frozen state on FILE at end | |
-R, --reload-state=FILE | |
reload a frozen state from FILE at start | |
Debugging:
-d, --debug[=FLAGS] | |
set debug level (no FLAGS implies aeq) | |
--debugfile[=FILE] | |
redirect debug and trace output to FILE (default stderr, discard if empty string) | |
-l, --arglength=NUM | |
restrict macro tracing size | |
-t, --trace=NAME | |
trace NAME when it is defined | |
FLAGS is any of:
a | show actual arguments |
c | show before collect, after collect and after call |
e | show expansion |
f | say current input file name |
i | show changes in input files |
l | say current input line number |
p | show results of path searches |
q | quote values as necessary, with a or e flag |
t | trace for all macro calls, not only traceoned |
x | add a unique macro call id, useful with c flag |
V | shorthand for all of the above flags |
Exit status is 0 for success, 1 for failure, 63 for frozen file version mismatch, or whatever value was passed to the m4exit macro.
AUTHOR
Written by Rene Seindal.
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to <bug-m4@gnu.org>. GNU M4 home page: <http://www.gnu.org/software/m4/>. General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>. This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
SEE ALSO
The full documentation for m4 is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and m4 programs are properly installed at your site, the command
info m4 | |