| ERROR(1) | General Commands Manual | ERROR(1) | 
error —
| error | [ -nqSsTv] [-Iignorefile] [-pfilelevel] [-tsuffixlist] [name] | 
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-p
    filelevel-q-q option implies that all referenced files
      (except those referring to discarded error messages) are to be
    touched.-S-s-T-t.c.y.foo*.hallows error to touch files ending
        with ``.c'', ``.y'', ``.foo*'' and ``.h''.
-verror 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
  -vor the csh(1) syntax
make -s lint |& error -q
  -verror 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.
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.error.-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.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.
error command appeared in
  4.0BSD.
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.
| June 6, 2016 | NetBSD 10.0 |