NAME

       ecs - eC Symbol Loader Generator

SYNOPSIS

       ecs [-t target-platform]
           [-name]
           [-console]
           [-dynamiclib|-staticlib]
           input [input]* -o output
           [-symbols intermediate-dir]

DESCRIPTION

       ecs generates a symbol loader for an eC module (shared/static library or executable).

OVERVIEW

       The  symbol  loader is what allow for eC runtime module importing and ejection, as well as its reflection
       capabilities.  It is an eC source file with a .main.ec suffix, which must itself be compiled  and  linked
       into the target.

       ecs  also  takes  care of the eC Distributed Objects binding mechanism and will include the client and/or
       server bindings as appropriate within the symbol loader source file.

       Additionally, ecs takes care of assembling the individual  internationalizable  string  catalogs  (.bowl)
       into  translation  templates  (.pot).   The  generated  translation templates are compatible with the GNU
       gettext format.  Translations however are handled internally by the Ecere runtime  library,  and  can  be
       embedded  within  eC  libraries and executables under the locale/ module resources folder using the Ecere
       Archiver (ear).

       For an executable, the symbol loader implements  the  program's  entry  point  at  the  C  level  (main()
       function).  For shared libraries, the symbol loader implements an exported __ecereDll_Load function.  For
       static libraries, the symbol loader implements a __ecereDll_Load_[module-name] function.

       The input list of files specified should include all symbol files (.sym), import files (.imp) and partial
       translation string catalogs (.bowl) produced by ecp and ecc for every eC source file within the project.

   Output file
       -o output

       The location and name for the symbol loader generated.
       The name is normally module-name.main.ec

OPTIONS

   Platform
       -t target-platform

       Where target-platform is one of: win32 linux apple
       (Defaults to the host platform if not specified)

   Module Options
       -console Specifies that this application is a console application (Windows only)

       -dynamiclib Specifies that this module is a dynamic (shared) library

       -staticlib Specifies that this module is a static library

   Module Name
       -name module-name

       Name  to  be  used  for static library entry point, internally by the eC Distributed Objects bindings, as
       well as for the generated translation template (locale/module-name.pot).  (Defaults to  the  output  file
       name stripped of the main.ec suffix)

   Miscellaneous Options
       -symbols intermediate-dir

       Specifies  the  location  of  the intermediate directory.  Note: Currently this is only used to check the
       currently built config, and only generate translation template (.pot) if we are building Release.   Since
       the  output  file name could be checked instead, this option should probably be phased out entirely as it
       is otherwise not required for ecs.