NAME

       shtool - The GNU Portable Shell Tool

VERSION

       GNU shtool 2.0.8 (18-Jul-2008)

SYNOPSIS

       shtool [ global_options ] command [ command_options ] [ command_args ]

DESCRIPTION

       GNU shtool is a compilation of small but very stable and portable shell scripts into a
       single shell tool. All ingredients were in successful use over many years in various free
       software projects. The compiled shtool script is intended to be used inside the source
       tree of those free software packages.  There it can take over various (usually non-
       portable) tasks related to the building and installation of such packages.

GLOBAL OPTIONS

       The following global options are available for shtool. Any commands are ignored if one of
       them is present on the shtool command line.

       -h, --help
           Displays a short help page describing the usage of shtool and it's ingredient commands
           in a compact way.

       -v, --version
           Displays the version number of shtool.

       -d, --debug
           Displays shell trace messages for debugging purposes.

       -r, --recreate
           Recreate the shtool script with its own individual shtoolize(1) call.

COMMANDS

       The following commands are provided by shtool. They are all called via ""shtool" command".
       Any command options command_opts and arguments command_args are specific to the particular
       command and are described in the corresponding manual page shtool_command(1).  The
       commands are listed here sorted by topic, i.e., related commands are listed side-by-side.

       echo            echo(1) style print command providing special expansion constructs
                       (terminal bold mode, environment details, date) and newline control.

       mdate           Pretty-printing of the last modification time of a file or directory.

       table           Pretty-printing a field-separated list as a two-dimensional table.

       prop            Displaying of a processing indication though a running terminal character
                       propeller.

       move            mv(1) style command for renaming/moving multiple files at once and
                       allowing source files just to be deleted if contents did not change.

       install         install(1) style command for installing a program, script or data file in
                       a portable way.

       mkdir           mkdir(1) style command providing support for automatical parent directory
                       creation, directory permission control and smart skipping if directory
                       already exists.

       mkln            ln(1) style command providing automatic calculation and usage of relative
                       links if possible.

       mkshadow        Creation of a shadow filesystem tree by the help of symbolic links.

       fixperm         Fixing of file permissions in a source tree by cleaning up the permission
                       bits.

       rotate          Rotate a logfile.

       tarball         Roll standardized distribution tarballs.

       subst           Apply sed(1) substitution operations.

       platform        Determines platform identification information.

       arx             Extended archive command which can even put existing archives into an
                       archive.

       slo             Separate linker options by library class.

       scpp            An additional C source file pre-processor for sharing cpp(1) code,
                       internal variables and internal functions.

       version         Maintain a version information file in either Text, C/C++, Perl or Python.
                       format.

       path            Deal with shell path variables.

SEE ALSO

       shtoolize(1), shtool-arx(1), shtool-echo(1), shtool-fixperm(1), shtool-install(1),
       shtool-mdate(1), shtool-mkdir(1), shtool-mkln(1), shtool-mkshadow(1), shtool-move(1),
       shtool-path(1), shtool-platform(1), shtool-prop(1), shtool-rotate(1), shtool-scpp(1),
       shtool-slo(1), shtool-subst(1), shtool-table(1), shtool-tarball(1), shtool-version(1).

HISTORY

       Some scripts contained in GNU shtool were already written in 1994 by Ralf S. Engelschall
       for use inside some private source trees. Then they evolved into more elaborated versions
       over the years and were used in various free software projects like ePerl, WML, iSelect,
       gFONT, etc.  They were complemented with other scripts from the author which he wrote in
       March 1998 for the ``Apache Autoconf-style Interface'' (APACI) for Apache 1.3. In April
       1999 the shtool package was created out of the accumulated master versions of the scripts
       and in June 1999 it entered the status of an official GNU program and this way finally
       joined the group of GNU autoconf, GNU automake and GNU libtool.

AUTHOR

        Ralf S. Engelschall
        rse@engelschall.com
        www.engelschall.com