NAME
error —
analyze and disperse compiler
error messages
SYNOPSIS
error |
[-nqSsTv]
[-I
ignorefile]
[-p
filelevel]
[-t
suffixlist]
[name] |
DESCRIPTION
error analyzes and optionally disperses the diagnostic error
messages produced by a number of compilers and language processors to the
source file and line where the errors occurred. It can replace the painful,
traditional methods of scribbling abbreviations of errors on paper, and
permits error messages and source code to be viewed simultaneously without
machinations of multiple windows in a screen editor.
Options are:
-
-
- -n
- Do not touch any files; all error
messages are sent to the standard output.
-
-
- -p
filelevel
- Interpret filenumber as a level of path component names to
skip, similar to
patch(1).
-
-
- -q
- The user is queried whether s/he
wants to touch the file. A ``y'' or ``n'' to the question is necessary to
continue. Absence of the -q option implies that all
referenced files (except those referring to discarded error messages) are
to be touched.
-
-
- -S
- Show the errors in unsorted order (as they come from the
error file).
-
-
- -s
- Print out statistics regarding the error
categorization. Not too useful.
-
-
- -T
- Terse output.
-
-
- -t
- Take the following argument as a suffix list. Files whose
suffixes do not appear in the suffix list are not touched. The suffix list
is dot separated, and ``*'' wildcards work. Thus the suffix list:
.c.y.foo*.h
allows error to touch files ending with ``.c'', ``.y'',
``.foo*'' and ``.h''.
-
-
- -v
- After all files have been touched, overlay the visual
editor vi(1) with it set up to
edit all files touched, and positioned in the first touched file at the
first error. If vi(1) can't be
found, try ex(1) or
ed(1) from standard places.
error looks at the error messages, either from the specified
file
name or from the standard input, and attempts to
determine which language processor produced each error message, determines the
source file and line number to which the error message refers, determines if
the error message is to be ignored or not, and inserts the (possibly slightly
modified) error message into the source file as a comment on the line
preceding to which the line the error message refers. Error messages which
can't be categorized by language processor or content are not inserted into
any file, but are sent to the standard output.
error touches
source files only after all input has been read.
error is intended to be run with its standard input connected
via 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
error.
For example, when using the
sh(1)
syntax
make -s lint 2>&1 | error -q
-v
or the
csh(1) syntax
make -s lint |& error -q -v
error will analyze all the error messages produced by whatever
programs
make(1) runs when making
lint.
error knows about the error messages produced by:
make(1),
cc(1),
cpp(1),
ccom,
as(1),
ld(1),
lint(1),
pi,
pc,
f77, and
DEC Western
Research Modula-2.
error knows a standard format for
error messages produced by the language processors, so is sensitive to changes
in these formats. For all languages except
Pascal, error
messages are restricted to be on one line. Some error messages refer to more
than one line in more than one files;
error will duplicate
the error message and insert it at all of the places referenced.
error will do one of six things with error messages.
-
-
- synchronize
- Some language processors produce short errors describing
which file it is processing. 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 error.
-
-
- discard
- Error messages from
lint(1) that refer to one of
the two lint(1) libraries,
/usr/libdata/lint/llib-lc and
/usr/libdata/lint/llib-port are discarded, to prevent
accidentally touching these libraries. Again, these error messages are
consumed entirely by error.
-
-
- nullify
- Error messages from
lint(1) 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
.errorrc in the user's home directory, or from the file
named by the -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.
-
-
- 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 will
not be inserted into any source file.
-
-
- file
specific
- Error message that refer to a specific file, but to no
specific line, are written to the standard output when that file is
touched.
-
-
- true
errors
- Error messages that can be intuited are candidates for
insertion into the file to which they refer.
Only true error messages are candidates for inserting into the file they refer
to. Other error messages are consumed entirely by
error or
are written to the standard output.
error inserts the error
messages into the source file on the line preceding the line the language
processor found in error. Each error message is turned into a one line comment
for the language, and is internally flagged with the string ``###'' at the
beginning of the error, and ``%%%'' 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, programs with comments and source on the same line
should be formatted so that language statements appear before comments.
error catches interrupt and terminate signals, and if in the
insertion phase, will orderly terminate what it is doing.
FILES
- ~/.errorrc
- function names to ignore for
lint(1) error messages
- /dev/tty
- user's teletype
HISTORY
The
error command appeared in
4.0BSD.
AUTHORS
Robert Henry
BUGS
Opens the teletype directly to do user querying.
Source files with links make a new copy of the file with only one link to it.
Changing a language processor's format of error messages may cause
error to not understand the error message.
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.
Pascal error messages belong after the lines affected (error puts them before).
The alignment of the `\' marking the point of error is also disturbed by
error.
error was designed for work on CRT's at reasonably high speed.
It is less pleasant on slow speed terminals, and has never been used on
hardcopy terminals.