Provided by: erlang-base_16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.2_amd64 bug

NAME

       escript - Erlang scripting support

DESCRIPTION

       escript  provides support for running short Erlang programs without having to compile them
       first and an easy way to retrieve the command line arguments.

EXPORTS

       script-name script-arg1 script-arg2...
       escript escript-flags script-name script-arg1 script-arg2...

              escript runs a script written in Erlang.

              Here follows an example.

              $ cat factorial
              #!/usr/bin/env escript
              %% -*- erlang -*-
              %%! -smp enable -sname factorial -mnesia debug verbose
              main([String]) ->
                  try
                      N = list_to_integer(String),
                      F = fac(N),
                      io:format("factorial ~w = ~w\n", [N,F])
                  catch
                      _:_ ->
                          usage()
                  end;
              main(_) ->
                  usage().

              usage() ->
                  io:format("usage: factorial integer\n"),
                  halt(1).

              fac(0) -> 1;
              fac(N) -> N * fac(N-1).
              $ factorial 5
              factorial 5 = 120
              $ factorial
              usage: factorial integer
              $ factorial five
              usage: factorial integer

              The header of the Erlang script in the example differs from a normal Erlang module.
              The  first  line  is  intended  to  be the interpreter line, which invokes escript.
              However if you invoke the escript like this

              $ escript factorial 5

              the contents of the first line does not matter, but it cannot contain  Erlang  code
              as it will be ignored.

              The  second line in the example, contains an optional directive to the Emacs editor
              which causes it to enter the major mode for editing Erlang  source  files.  If  the
              directive is present it must be located on the second line.

              If there is a comment selecting the encoding it can be located on the second line.

              On  the  third  line  (or  second  line  depending  on  the  presence  of the Emacs
              directive), it is possible to give arguments to the emulator, such as

              %%! -smp enable -sname factorial -mnesia debug verbose

              Such an argument line must start with %%! and the rest of the line will interpreted
              as arguments to the emulator.

              If  you  know  the  location of the escript executable, the first line can directly
              give the path to escript. For instance:

              #!/usr/local/bin/escript

              As any other kind of scripts, Erlang scripts will not work on Unix platforms if the
              execution  bit for the script file is not set. (Use chmod +x script-name to turn on
              the execution bit.)

              The rest of the Erlang script file  may  either  contain  Erlang  source  code,  an
              inlined beam file or an inlined archive file.

              An  Erlang  script file must always contain the function main/1. When the script is
              run, the main/1 function will be called with a list  of  strings  representing  the
              arguments given to the script (not changed or interpreted in any way).

              If  the main/1 function in the script returns successfully, the exit status for the
              script will be 0. If an exception is generated during execution,  a  short  message
              will be printed and the script terminated with exit status 127.

              To return your own non-zero exit code, call halt(ExitCode); for instance:

              halt(1).

              Call  escript:script_name()  from  your  to  script to retrieve the pathname of the
              script (the pathname is usually, but not always, absolute).

              If the file contains source code (as in the example above), it will be processed by
              the  preprocessor  epp.  This means that you for example may use pre-defined macros
              (such as ?MODULE) as well as include directives like  the  -include_lib  directive.
              For instance, use

              -include_lib("kernel/include/file.hrl").

              to include the record definitions for the records used by the file:read_link_info/1
              function. You can also select encoding here, but  if  there  is  a  valid  encoding
              comment on the second line it takes precedence.

              The script will be checked for syntactic and semantic correctness before being run.
              If there are warnings (such as unused variables), they  will  be  printed  and  the
              script  will still be run. If there are errors, they will be printed and the script
              will not be run and its exit status will be 127.

              Both the module declaration and the export declaration of the main/1  function  are
              optional.

              By  default,  the  script  will  be interpreted. You can force it to be compiled by
              including the following line somewhere in the script file:

              -mode(compile).

              Execution of interpreted code  is  slower  than  compiled  code.  If  much  of  the
              execution  takes place in interpreted code it may be worthwhile to compile it, even
              though the compilation itself will take a little while.  It  is  also  possible  to
              supply  native  instead  of  compile, this will compile the script using the native
              flag, again depending on the characteristics of the escript this could or could not
              be worth while.

              As  mentioned  earlier,  it is possible to have a script which contains precompiled
              beam code. In a precompiled script, the interpretation  of  the  script  header  is
              exactly  the  same  as  in a script containing source code. That means that you can
              make a beam file executable by prepending the file with the lines starting with  #!
              and  %%!  mentioned  above.  In  a  precompiled script, the function main/1 must be
              exported.

              As yet another option it is possible to  have  an  entire  Erlang  archive  in  the
              script. In a archive script, the interpretation of the script header is exactly the
              same as in a script containing source code. That means that you can make an archive
              file  executable  by  prepending  the  file with the lines starting with #! and %%!
              mentioned above. In an archive script, the function main/1  must  be  exported.  By
              default the main/1 function in the module with the same name as the basename of the
              escript file will be invoked. This behavior can be overridden by setting  the  flag
              -escript main Module as one of the emulator flags. The Module must be the name of a
              module which has an exported main/1 function. See code(3erl) for  more  information
              about archives and code loading.

              In  many cases it is very convenient to have a header in the escript, especially on
              Unix platforms. But the header is in fact optional. This means  that  you  directly
              can "execute" an Erlang module, beam file or archive file without adding any header
              to them. But then you have to invoke the script like this:

              $ escript factorial.erl 5
              factorial 5 = 120
              $ escript factorial.beam 5
              factorial 5 = 120
              $ escript factorial.zip 5
              factorial 5 = 120

       escript:create(FileOrBin, Sections) -> ok | {ok, binary()} | {error, term()}

              Types:

                 FileOrBin = filename() | 'binary'
                 Sections = [Header] Body | Body
                 Header =  shebang  |  {shebang,  Shebang}  |  comment  |  {comment,  Comment}  |
                 {emu_args, EmuArgs}
                 Shebang = string() | 'default' | 'undefined'
                 Comment = string() | 'default' | 'undefined'
                 EmuArgs = string() | 'undefined'
                 Body = {source, SourceCode} | {beam, BeamCode} | {archive, ZipArchive}
                 SourceCode = BeamCode = ZipArchive = binary()

              The  create/2 function creates an escript from a list of sections. The sections can
              be given in any order. An escript begins with an  optional  Header  followed  by  a
              mandatory  Body.  If  the  header  is present, it does always begin with a shebang,
              possibly followed by a comment and emu_args. The shebang defaults to  "/usr/bin/env
              escript".  The  comment  defaults  to "This is an -*- erlang -*- file". The created
              escript can either be returned as a binary or written to file.

              As an example of how the function can be used, we  create  an  interpreted  escript
              which  uses  emu_args to set some emulator flag. In this case it happens to disable
              the smp_support. We do also extract the different sections from the  newly  created
              script:

              > Source = "%% Demo\nmain(_Args) ->\n io:format(erlang:system_info(smp_support)).\n".
              "%% Demo\nmain(_Args) ->\n    io:format(erlang:system_info(smp_support)).\n"
              > io:format("~s\n", [Source]).
              %% Demo
              main(_Args) ->
                  io:format(erlang:system_info(smp_support)).

              ok
              > {ok, Bin} = escript:create(binary, [shebang, comment, {emu_args, "-smp disable"}, {source, list_to_binary(Source)}]).
              {ok,<<"#!/usr/bin/env escript\n%% This is an -*- erlang -*- file\n%%!-smp disabl"...>>}
              > file:write_file("demo.escript", Bin).
              ok
              > os:cmd("escript demo.escript").
              "false"
              > escript:extract("demo.escript", []).
              {ok,[{shebang,default}, {comment,default}, {emu_args,"-smp disable"},
                   {source,<<"%% Demo\nmain(_Args) ->\n    io:format(erlang:system_info(smp_su"...>>}]}

              An escript without header can be created like this:

              > file:write_file("demo.erl", ["%% demo.erl\n-module(demo).\n-export([main/1]).\n\n", Source]).
              ok
              > {ok, _, BeamCode} = compile:file("demo.erl", [binary, debug_info]).
              {ok,demo,
                  <<70,79,82,49,0,0,2,208,66,69,65,77,65,116,111,109,0,0,0,
                    79,0,0,0,9,4,100,...>>}
              > escript:create("demo.beam", [{beam, BeamCode}]).
              ok
              > escript:extract("demo.beam", []).
              {ok,[{shebang,undefined}, {comment,undefined}, {emu_args,undefined},
                   {beam,<<70,79,82,49,0,0,3,68,66,69,65,77,65,116,
                           111,109,0,0,0,83,0,0,0,9,...>>}]}
              > os:cmd("escript demo.beam").
              "true"

              Here  we create an archive script containing both Erlang code as well as beam code.
              Then we iterate over all files in the archive and collect their contents  and  some
              info about them.

              > {ok, SourceCode} = file:read_file("demo.erl").
              {ok,<<"%% demo.erl\n-module(demo).\n-export([main/1]).\n\n%% Demo\nmain(_Arg"...>>}
              > escript:create("demo.escript", [shebang, {archive, [{"demo.erl", SourceCode}, {"demo.beam", BeamCode}], []}]).
              ok
              > {ok, [{shebang,default}, {comment,undefined}, {emu_args,undefined}, {archive, ArchiveBin}]} = escript:extract("demo.escript", []).
              {ok,[{shebang,default}, {comment,undefined}, {emu_args,undefined},
                   {{archive,<<80,75,3,4,20,0,0,0,8,0,118,7,98,60,105,
                              152,61,93,107,0,0,0,118,0,...>>}]}
              > file:write_file("demo.zip", ArchiveBin).
              ok
              > zip:foldl(fun(N, I, B, A) -> [{N, I(), B()} | A] end, [], "demo.zip").
              {ok,[{"demo.beam",
                    {file_info,748,regular,read_write,
                               {{2010,3,2},{0,59,22}},
                               {{2010,3,2},{0,59,22}},
                               {{2010,3,2},{0,59,22}},
                               54,1,0,0,0,0,0},
                    <<70,79,82,49,0,0,2,228,66,69,65,77,65,116,111,109,0,0,0,
                      83,0,0,...>>},
                   {"demo.erl",
                    {file_info,118,regular,read_write,
                               {{2010,3,2},{0,59,22}},
                               {{2010,3,2},{0,59,22}},
                               {{2010,3,2},{0,59,22}},
                               54,1,0,0,0,0,0},
                    <<"%% demo.erl\n-module(demo).\n-export([main/1]).\n\n%% Demo\nmain(_Arg"...>>}]}

       escript:extract(File, Options) -> {ok, Sections} | {error, term()}

              Types:

                 File = filename()
                 Options = [] | [compile_source]
                 Sections = Headers Body
                 Headers = {shebang, Shebang} {comment, Comment} {emu_args, EmuArgs}
                 Shebang = string() | 'default' | 'undefined'
                 Comment = string() | 'default' | 'undefined'
                 EmuArgs = string() | 'undefined'
                 Body  = {source, SourceCode} | {source, BeamCode} | {beam, BeamCode} | {archive,
                 ZipArchive}
                 SourceCode = BeamCode = ZipArchive = binary()

              The extract/2 function parses an escript and extracts its  sections.  This  is  the
              reverse of create/2.

              All sections are returned even if they do not exist in the escript. If a particular
              section happens to have the same value as the default value, the extracted value is
              set to the atom default. If a section is missing, the extracted value is set to the
              atom undefined.

              The compile_source option only affects the result if the  escript  contains  source
              code. In that case the Erlang code is automatically compiled and {source, BeamCode}
              is returned instead of {source, SourceCode}.

              > escript:create("demo.escript", [shebang, {archive, [{"demo.erl", SourceCode}, {"demo.beam", BeamCode}], []}]).
              ok
              > {ok, [{shebang,default}, {comment,undefined}, {emu_args,undefined}, {archive, ArchiveBin}]} = escript:extract("demo.escript", []).
              {ok,[{{archive,<<80,75,3,4,20,0,0,0,8,0,118,7,98,60,105,
                              152,61,93,107,0,0,0,118,0,...>>}
                   {emu_args,undefined}]}

       escript:script_name() -> File

              Types:

                 File = filename()

              The script_name/0 function returns the name of the escript being executed.  If  the
              function is invoked outside the context of an escript, the behavior is undefined.

OPTIONS ACCEPTED BY ESCRIPT

         -c:
           Compile the escript regardless of the value of the mode attribute.

         -d:
           Debug  the  escript.  Starts  the  debugger,  loads  the  module containing the main/1
           function into the debugger, sets a breakpoint in main/1 and  invokes  main/1.  If  the
           module is precompiled, it must be explicitly compiled with the debug_info option.

         -i:
           Interpret the escript regardless of the value of the mode attribute.

         -s:
           Only  perform  a  syntactic and semantic check of the script file. Warnings and errors
           (if any) are written to the standard output, but the script will not be run. The  exit
           status will be 0 if there were no errors, and 127 otherwise.

         -n:
           Compile the escript using the +native flag.