1 .\" DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE! It was generated by help2man 1.36.
2 .TH M4 "1" "March 2009" "GNU M4 1.4.13" "User Commands"
7 [\fIOPTION\fR]... [\fIFILE\fR]...
9 Process macros in FILEs. If no FILE or if FILE is `\-', standard input
12 Mandatory or optional arguments to long options are mandatory or optional
13 for short options too.
14 .SS "Operation modes:"
17 display this help and exit
20 output version information and exit
22 \fB\-E\fR, \fB\-\-fatal\-warnings\fR
23 once: warnings become errors, twice: stop
24 execution at first error
26 \fB\-i\fR, \fB\-\-interactive\fR
27 unbuffer output, ignore interrupts
29 \fB\-P\fR, \fB\-\-prefix\-builtins\fR
30 force a `m4_' prefix to all builtins
32 \fB\-Q\fR, \fB\-\-quiet\fR, \fB\-\-silent\fR
33 suppress some warnings for builtins
35 \fB\-\-warn\-macro\-sequence\fR[=\fIREGEXP\fR]
36 warn if macro definition matches REGEXP,
38 default \e$\e({[^}]*}\e|[0\-9][0\-9]+\e)
39 .SS "Preprocessor features:"
41 \fB\-D\fR, \fB\-\-define=NAME\fR[=\fIVALUE\fR]
42 define NAME as having VALUE, or empty
44 \fB\-I\fR, \fB\-\-include\fR=\fIDIRECTORY\fR
45 append DIRECTORY to include path
47 \fB\-s\fR, \fB\-\-synclines\fR
48 generate `#line NUM "FILE"' lines
50 \fB\-U\fR, \fB\-\-undefine\fR=\fINAME\fR
54 \fB\-g\fR, \fB\-\-gnu\fR
55 override \fB\-G\fR to re\-enable GNU extensions
57 \fB\-G\fR, \fB\-\-traditional\fR
58 suppress all GNU extensions
60 \fB\-H\fR, \fB\-\-hashsize\fR=\fIPRIME\fR
61 set symbol lookup hash table size [509]
63 \fB\-L\fR, \fB\-\-nesting\-limit\fR=\fINUMBER\fR
64 change nesting limit, 0 for unlimited [0]
65 .SS "Frozen state files:"
67 \fB\-F\fR, \fB\-\-freeze\-state\fR=\fIFILE\fR
68 produce a frozen state on FILE at end
70 \fB\-R\fR, \fB\-\-reload\-state\fR=\fIFILE\fR
71 reload a frozen state from FILE at start
74 \fB\-d\fR, \fB\-\-debug\fR[=\fIFLAGS\fR]
75 set debug level (no FLAGS implies `aeq')
77 \fB\-\-debugfile\fR[=\fIFILE\fR]
78 redirect debug and trace output to FILE
79 (default stderr, discard if empty string)
81 \fB\-l\fR, \fB\-\-arglength\fR=\fINUM\fR
82 restrict macro tracing size
84 \fB\-t\fR, \fB\-\-trace\fR=\fINAME\fR
85 trace NAME when it is defined
86 .SS "FLAGS is any of:"
92 show before collect, after collect and after call
98 say current input file name
101 show changes in input files
104 say current input line number
107 show results of path searches
110 quote values as necessary, with a or e flag
113 trace for all macro calls, not only traceon'ed
116 add a unique macro call id, useful with c flag
119 shorthand for all of the above flags
121 If defined, the environment variable `M4PATH' is a colon\-separated list
122 of directories included after any specified by `\-I'.
124 Exit status is 0 for success, 1 for failure, 63 for frozen file version
125 mismatch, or whatever value was passed to the m4exit macro.
127 Written by Rene' Seindal.
129 Report bugs to <bug\-m4@gnu.org>.
130 GNU M4 home page: <http://www.gnu.org/software/m4/>.
131 General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>.
133 Copyright \(co 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
134 License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
136 This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
137 There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
139 The full documentation for
141 is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the
145 programs are properly installed at your site, the command
149 should give you access to the complete manual.