M4(1)                     User Commands                     M4(1)



NAME
       m4 - macro processor

SYNOPSIS
       m4 [OPTION]... [FILE]...

DESCRIPTION
       Process  macros  in  FILEs.  If no FILE or if FILE is `-',
       standard input is read.

       Mandatory or optional arguments to long options are manda-
       tory or optional for short options too.

   Operation modes:
       --help display this help and exit

       --version
              output version information and exit

       -E, --fatal-warnings
              once: warnings become errors, twice: stop execution
              at first error

       -i, --interactive
              unbuffer output, ignore interrupts

       -P, --prefix-builtins
              force a `m4_' prefix to all builtins

       -Q, --quiet, --silent
              suppress some warnings for builtins

       --warn-macro-sequence[=REGEXP]
              warn if macro definition  matches  REGEXP,  default
              \$\({[^}]*}\|[0-9][0-9]+\)

       -W, --word-regexp=REGEXP
              use REGEXP for macro name syntax

   Preprocessor features:
       -D, --define=NAME[=VALUE]
              define NAME as having VALUE, or empty

       -I, --include=DIRECTORY
              append DIRECTORY to include path

       -s, --synclines
              generate `#line NUM "FILE"' lines

       -U, --undefine=NAME
              undefine NAME

   Limits control:
       -G, --traditional
              suppress all GNU extensions

       -H, --hashsize=PRIME
              set symbol lookup hash table size [509]

       -L, --nesting-limit=NUMBER
              change artificial nesting limit [1024]

   Frozen state files:
       -F, --freeze-state=FILE
              produce a frozen state on FILE at end

       -R, --reload-state=FILE
              reload a frozen state from FILE at start

   Debugging:
       -d, --debug[=FLAGS]
              set debug level (no FLAGS implies `aeq')

       --debugfile=FILE
              redirect debug and trace output

       -l, --arglength=NUM
              restrict macro tracing size

       -t, --trace=NAME
              trace NAME when it is defined

   FLAGS is any of:
       a      show actual arguments

       c      show before collect, after collect and after call

       e      show expansion

       f      say current input file name

       i      show changes in input files

       l      say current input line number

       p      show results of path searches

       q      quote values as necessary, with a or e flag

       t      trace for all macro calls, not only traceon'ed

       x      add a unique macro call id, useful with c flag

       V      shorthand for all of the above flags

       If   defined,  the  environment  variable  `M4PATH'  is  a
       colon-separated list of  directories  included  after  any
       specified by `-I'.

       Exit status is 0 for success, 1 for failure, 63 for frozen
       file version mismatch, or whatever value was passed to the
       m4exit macro.

AUTHOR
       Written by Rene' Seindal.

REPORTING BUGS
       Report bugs to .

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  License
       GPLv3+:     GNU     GPL     version     3     or     later
       
       This  is  free software: you are free to change and redis-
       tribute it.  There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted
       by law.

SEE ALSO
       The  full  documentation for m4 is maintained as a Texinfo
       manual.   If  the  info  and  m4  programs  are   properly
       installed at your site, the command

              info m4

       should give you access to the complete manual.



GNU M4 1.4.11               April 2008                      M4(1)