Info Catalog m4: Preliminaries m4: Top m4: Syntax

m4: Invoking m4

 
 2 Invoking 'm4'
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 The format of the 'm4' command is:
 
      m4 [OPTION...] [FILE...]
 
    All options begin with '-', or if long option names are used, with
 '--'.  A long option name need not be written completely, any
 unambiguous prefix is sufficient.  POSIX requires 'm4' to recognize
 arguments intermixed with files, even when 'POSIXLY_CORRECT' is set in
 the environment.  Most options take effect at startup regardless of
 their position, but some are documented below as taking effect after any
 files that occurred earlier in the command line.  The argument '--' is a
 marker to denote the end of options.
 
    With short options, options that do not take arguments may be
 combined into a single command line argument with subsequent options,
 options with mandatory arguments may be provided either as a single
 command line argument or as two arguments, and options with optional
 arguments must be provided as a single argument.  In other words, 'm4
 -QPDfoo -d a -df' is equivalent to 'm4 -Q -P -D foo -d -df -- ./a',
 although the latter form is considered canonical.
 
    With long options, options with mandatory arguments may be provided
 with an equal sign ('=') in a single argument, or as two arguments, and
 options with optional arguments must be provided as a single argument.
 In other words, 'm4 --def foo --debug a' is equivalent to 'm4
 --define=foo --debug= -- ./a', although the latter form is considered
 canonical (not to mention more robust, in case a future version of 'm4'
 introduces an option named '--default').
 
    'm4' understands the following options, grouped by functionality.
 

Menu

 
· Operation modes             Command line options for operation modes
· Preprocessor features       Command line options for preprocessor features
· Limits control              Command line options for limits control
· Frozen state                Command line options for frozen state
· Debugging options           Command line options for debugging
· Command line files          Specifying input files on the command line
 

Info Catalog m4: Preliminaries m4: Top m4: Syntax