| CPROTO(1) | General Commands Manual | CPROTO(1) |
cproto - generate C function prototypes and convert function definitions
cproto [ option ... ] [ file ... ]
Cproto generates function prototypes for functions defined in the specified C source files to the standard output. The function definitions may be in the old style or ANSI C style. Optionally, cproto also outputs declarations for variables defined in the files. If no file argument is given, cproto reads its input from the standard input.
By giving a command line option, cproto will also convert function definitions in the specified files from the old style to the ANSI C style. The original source files along with files specified by
#include "file"directives appearing in the source code will be overwritten with the converted code. If no file names are given on the command line, then the program reads the source code from the standard input and outputs the converted source to the standard output.
If any comments appear in the parameter declarations for a function definition, such as in the example,
main (argc, argv)
int argc; /* number of arguments */
char *argv[]; /* arguments */
{
}
then the converted function definition will have the form
int main (Otherwise, the converted function definition will look like
int argc, /* number of arguments */
char *argv[] /* arguments */ ) { }
int
main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
}
Cproto can optionally convert function definitions from the ANSI style to the old style. In this mode, the program also converts function declarators and prototypes that appear outside function bodies. This is not a complete ANSI C to old C conversion. The program does not change anything within function bodies.
Cproto can optionally generate source in lint-library format. This is useful in environments where the lint utility is used to supplement prototype checking of your program.
main (argc, argv)
int argc;
char *argv[];
{
}
If the value is 0, then no prototypes are generated. When set to 1, the
output is:
int main(/*int argc, char *argv[]*/);
For a value of 2, the output has the form:
int main(int /*argc*/, char */*argv*/[]);
The default value is 3. It produces the full function prototype:
int main(int argc, char *argv[]);
/* LINTLIBRARY */
Special comments LINT_EXTERN and LINT_PREPRO (a la "VARARGS")
respectively turn on the "-x" option and copy comment-text to
the output (for preprocessing in lint). Use the comment
/* LINT_EXTERN2 */
to include externs defined in the first level of include-files. Use the
comment
/* LINT_SHADOWED */
to cause cproto to put "#undef" directives before each lint
library declaration (i.e., to avoid conflicts with macros that happen to
have to have the same name as the functions, thus causing syntax
errors).Note that these special comments are not supported under VAX/VMS, since there is no equivalent for the "-C" option of cpp with VAX-C.
int main P_((int argc, char *argv[]));
#ifdef ANSI_FUNC
int
main (int argc, char *argv[])
#else
int
main (argc, argv)
int argc;
char *argv[]
#endif
{
}
#ifdef ANSI_FUNC
-P template -F template -C template
" int f ( a, b )"but you may replace each space in this string with any number of whitespace characters. For example, the option
-F"int f(\n\ta,\n\tb\n\t)"will produce
int main(
int argc,
char *argv[]
)
The environment variable CPROTO is scanned for a list of options in the same format as the command line options. Options given on the command line override any corresponding environment option.
If an un-tagged struct, union or enum declaration appears in a generated function prototype or converted function definition, the content of the declaration between the braces is empty.
The program does not pipe the source files through the C preprocessor when it is converting function definitions. Instead, it tries to handle preprocessor directives and macros itself and can be confused by tricky macro expansions. The conversion also discards some comments in the function definition head.
The -v option does not generate declarations for variables defined with the extern specifier. This doesn't strictly conform to the C language standard but this rule was implemented because include files commonly declare variables this way.
When the program encounters an error, it usually outputs the not very descriptive message "syntax error". (Your configuration may allow the extended error reporting in yyerror.c).
Options that take string arguments only interpret the following character escape sequences:
\n newline \s space \t tab
VARARGS comments don't get passed through on systems whose C preprocessors don't support this (e.g., VAX/VMS, MS-DOS).
Chin Huang cthuang@vex.net cthuang@interlog.com Thomas Dickey dickey@invisible-island.net modifications to support lint library, type-copying, and port to VAX/VMS.
| July 2010 |