error(1) User Commands error(1)NAMEerror - insert compiler error messages at right source lines
SYNOPSISerror [-n] [-q] [-s] [-v] [-t suffixlist] [-I ignorefile] [filename]
DESCRIPTIONerror analyzes error messages produced by a number of compilers and
language processors. It replaces the painful, traditional methods of
scribbling abbreviations of errors on paper, and permits error messages
and source code to be viewed simultaneously.
error looks at error messages, either from the specified file filename
or from the standard input, and:
· Determines which language processor produced each error message.
· Determines the file name and line number of the erroneous line.
· Inserts the error message into the source file immediately preced‐
ing the erroneous line.
Error messages that can't be categorized by language processor or con‐
tent are not inserted into any file, but are sent to the standard out‐
put. error touches source files only after all input has been read.
error is intended to be run with its standard input connected with 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 csh syntax, the following com‐
mand analyzes all the error messages produced by whatever programs
make(1S) runs when making lint:
example% make -s lint |& error-q -v
error knows about the error messages produced by: as(1), cpp(1), ld(1),
cc(1B), make(1S) and other compilers. For all languages except Pascal,
error messages are restricted to one line. Some error messages refer to
more than one line in more than one file, in which case error dupli‐
cates the error message and inserts it in all the appropriate places.
OPTIONS-n Do not touch any files; all error messages are sent to
the standard output.
-qerror asks whether the file should be touched. 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 mes‐
sages) are to be touched.
-s Print out statistics regarding the error categoriza‐
tion.
-v After all files have been touched, overlay the visual
editor vi 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.
-t suffixlist Take the following argument as a suffix list. Files
whose suffices 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.f*.h
allows error to touch files ending with `.c', `.y',
`.f*' and `.h'.
error catches interrupt and terminate signals, and terminates in an
orderly fashion.
EXAMPLES
Example 1: Examples of the error command.
In the following C shell (/usr/bin/csh) example, error takes its
input from the FORTRAN compiler:
example% f77 -c any.f |& error options
Here is the same example using the Korn shell (/usr/bin/ksh):
example% f77 -c any.f 2>&1 | error options
USAGEerror does one of six things with error messages.
synchronize Some language processors produce short errors
describing which file they are processing.
error uses these to determine the file name for
languages that do not include the file name in
each error message. These synchronization mes‐
sages are consumed entirely by error.
discard Error messages from lint that refer to one of
the two lint libraries, /usr/lib/lint/llib-lc
and /usr/lib/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 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 nulli‐
fied. 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 are
not inserted into any source file.
file specific Error messages 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 candi‐
dates for insertion into the file to which they
refer.
Only true error messages are inserted into source files. 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 number in the error message. 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 addi‐
tion, 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, format the source pro‐
gram so there are no language statements on the same line as the end of
a comment.
FILES
~/.errorrc function names to ignore for lint error messages
/dev/tty user's teletype
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Availability │SUNWbtool │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
SEE ALSOas(1), cc(1B), cpp(1), csh(1), ed(1), ex(1), make(1S), ld(1), vi(1),
attributes(5)BUGS
Opens the tty-device directly for user input.
Source files with links make a new copy of the file with only one link
to it.
Changing a language processor's error message format 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 was not designed for use on
hardcopy terminals.
SunOS 5.10 5 Mar 1992 error(1)