CPROTO

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: April 3, 1992
Index Return to Main Contents
 

NAME

cproto - generate C function prototypes and convert function definitions  

SYNOPSIS

cproto [ option ... ] [ file ... ]  

DESCRIPTION

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 any variables defined in the file. 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 (
    int argc;       /* number of arguments */
    char *argv[];   /* arguments */
)
{
 ...
}

Otherwise, the converted function definition will look like

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.  

OPTIONS

-a
Convert function definitions from the old style to the ANSI C style.
-e
Output the keyword extern in front of every declaration having global scope.
-fn
Set the style of generated function prototypes where n is a number from 0 to 4. For example, consider the function definition

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[]);

A value of 4 produces prototypes guarded by a macro:

int main P_((int argc, char *argv[]));

-c
Omit the parameter comments in the prototypes generated by the -f1 and -f2 options. This option also omits the comments naming the source files from which the prototypes were generated.
-mname
Set the name of the macro used to guard prototypes when option -f4 is selected. The default is "P_".
-d
Omit the definition of the prototype macro named by the -m option.
-p
Disable promotion of formal parameters in old style function definitions. By default, parameters of type char or short in old style function definitions are promoted to type int in the function prototype or converted ANSI C function definition. Parameters of type float get promoted to double as well.
-s
By default, cproto only generates declarations for functions and variables having global scope. This option will output static declarations as well.
-t
Convert function definitions from the ANSI C style to the traditional style.
-v
Also output declarations for variables defined in the source.

-Ptemplate
-Ftemplate
-Ctemplate
Set the output format for generated prototypes, function definitions, and function definitions with parameter comments respectively. The format is specified by a template in the form

" int main ( a, b )"

but you may replace each space in this string with any number of whitespace characters. For example, the option

-F"int main(\n\ta,\n\tb\n\t)"

will produce

int main(
        int argc,
        char *argv[]
        )

-Dname[=value]
This option is passed through to the preprocessor and is used to define symbols for use with conditionals such as #ifdef.
-Uname
This option is passed through to the preprocessor and is used to remove any definitions of this symbol.
-Idirectory
This option is passed through to the preprocessor and is used to specify a directory to search for files that are referenced with #include.
-V
Print version information.
 

ENVIRONMENT

The environment variable CPROTO is scanned for a list of options in the same format as the command line options.  

BUGS

If an untagged 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".

Options that take string arguments only interpret the following character escape sequences:

\n      newline
\t      tab

 

AUTHOR

Chin Huang
cthuang@zerosan.UUCP
chin.huang@canrem.com
 

SEE ALSO

cc(1), cpp(1)


 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
ENVIRONMENT
BUGS
AUTHOR
SEE ALSO

This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 06:49:45 GMT, December 12, 2024